IRON MEAT - Full Game, No Deaths (Hard Mode)

Iron Meat is an upcoming run-and-gun from Retroware, who has graciously provided me with a pre-release key. This game won't be out until September 26th - a month from now - so they've given me ample time to play the game, and get the word out ahead of its release. It must mean they have confidence in its quality to send it out so early, and after playing it for a while, I can see why! Of course, it's not perfect, but it's a very enjoyable Contra style game, with excellent pixel art, a fitting metal soundtrack, and plenty of unlockable skins that you can mix and match to customize your character. (I'm a fan of the monkey, personally)

I like the game, and I've enjoyed playing it, but of course I have to point out the things I'm not a fan of. For starters, your lives don't carry over between stages. I'm playing on Hard difficulty here, and you start every stage with 7 extra lives, and earn another one every 20,000 points. Even if you play horribly and lose all of your lives in a single stage, you'll be fully stocked up for the next one. I definitely would have preferred a traditional arcade structure, where you start with 3 lives (or however many) and gain more as the game goes on (through score, hidden/risky pickups, etc). Your score and the weapons you're carrying DO carry over between stages, so that just makes the life setup even more strange to me.
Another thing that's different about this when compared to Contra or Metal Slug is how most enemies shoot aimed bullets at you (meaning, they fire directly toward your position). In the classic games, most enemies will only fire in 2, 4, or 8 directions, rather than the full 360 degrees. This has a pretty big affect on how you have to approach each enemy and progress through the stages. Ideally I think you want to mix the fixed-direction and aimed shots together for the best feel, but this game relies on the aimed shots a little too much for me.
This is more of a nitpick, but I feel like the game is a little on the long side as well. The level design is solid overall, with varied obstacles and enemy placements, but there are some repetitive parts in a few of the stages that could have been trimmed down a bit. Maybe that's just me though.
I think that's about it for my nitpicks. I'm not sure if I totally like the game balance either (enemies may have a little too much HP) but ultimately it lead to a pretty fun game, so it works out just fine regardless.

I don't know how much this will cost once it's finally released, but I think it'll be worth whatever price tag they stick on it if you're a Contra fan in particular. It's a great homage to the series. And if you want to try it yourself, there's a demo available on Steam right now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/11...

PS. I might be stating the obvious, but this run wasn't played from start to finish consecutively. I thought it'd be better to use a different skin in each stage, and I wouldn't be able to finish the entire game without dying in one go just yet. It is pretty easy to 1CC due to the life system though, so I thought this would be the best type of video I could make right now.

0:00 Intro
3:00 Stage 1 - Forest
8:35 Stage 2 - Tower
13:13 Stage 3 - Train
19:53 Stage 4 - Base
28:58 Stage 5 - Sky
35:28 Stage 6 - City
42:35 Stage 7 - Skyscraper
47:45 Stage 8 - Moon
53:26 Stage 9 - Moon Base
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