DaRmaZat Imperfect, raucous, stubborn, but undeniably thrilling when it locks into stride.
New York City, 2055. A place long past redemption, carved up by factions fighting for scraps of control. Neon Inferno, a cyberpunk side-scrolling shooter from Zenovia Interactive and published by Retroware, drops straight into that urban warzone with a hybrid structure that swings between 2D run-and-gun chaos and sudden gallery-shooter bursts where foreground and background melt into one high-pressure arena.
Neon Inferno‘s premise is simple enough — step in as an assassin for the Family, follow orders from the Don, and carve the scum off the streets — yet the mix of pixel art bravado and relentless pacing gives this dystopian battlefield a distinct rhythm.
Streets Owned by No One
Angelo Morano and Mariana Vitti serve as the heroes of this compact campaign and its two additional modes — Arcade Mode and Replay Mode for climbing the leaderboards — each sent through familiar neighborhoods now rebuilt as neon-lit combat corridors. Nothing about the story truly evolves; missions mostly chain together as directives from the Family, each escalating the tension with new gangs, mechs, and the occasional unhinged boss who treats the city like a personal playground. Yet there’s something pleasing about how straightforward this framing is — no overlong cutscenes, just crisp pixelated story beats that evoke Streets of Rage without drowning in homage.
More interesting is how the city is staged as a dual layer. Enemies appear both in the foreground and the background, forcing you to constantly swap planes. Reading those layers becomes a kind of visual-parsing challenge — especially in the heat of battle. Hostages and civilians show up at the worst possible moments as well, sometimes even in the background during boss fights, where a single misplaced shot punishes you hard.
Combat That Never Lets Go
Neon Inferno‘s frantic action hits hard from the start. Foreground attacks, background attacks, and that constant mental switch between the two create the foundation of the game’s identity. Naturally this duality sounds clever on paper, yet in practice it often turns into a counterintuitive rhythm where your eyes dart between planes while your hands try to remember which button actually matters. Munitie flies straight at enemies in the distance yet doesn’t connect unless the game categorizes them as “background”, which feels oddly artificial given how grounded everything else looks.
Melee overshadows gunplay by sheer power, so runs tend to drift toward close-range brawling unless a special weapon steps in. Those purchasable upgrades — including the plasma shield that requires a button-combo activation in the middle of complete bedlam — inject some personality and variation, though they add even more speed into an already breakneck pace. There’s also some real Robocop energy in the enemy roster with drones, robo-dogs, and tanks that stain the asphalt red in seconds. It’s cyberpunk-hectic, messy, and somehow still charming.
But Neon Inferno’s near-absurd difficulty ramps up in a way that feels engineered more to stretch out the runtime than to build genuine satisfaction. Even on Novice, the challenge hits harder than expected, and certain late-game bosses cross into outright ridiculous territory. Too much happens on the screen at once to truly feel in control, especially when switching dimensions in the middle of bullet storms. This is no game for anyone who likes to be in control or struggles to temper their aggression.
So, it soon becomes clear that Neon Inferno plays best as co-op chaos, not a solo gauntlet, because that second character fills the mechanical gaps the system creates. Luckily, the vehicular missions — motorcycles recalling Streets of Rage, waterscooters nodding to classic Turtles stages — provide brief but welcome relief before the game snaps back into its unforgiving rhythm.
A City Stained in Pixels and Noise
Obvious from the first mission, Neon Inferno’s pixel art steals the show. Every explosion, every collapsing robot, every cutscene brims with style, and that stylization gives the world a surprisingly atmospheric feel. Blood sprays dramatically, lighting pops with neon contrasts, and the transitional scenes are simply gorgeous. The performance holds up as well; nothing in this review build suggests major technical issues, and the action keeps its momentum even when dozens of enemies crowd the screen.
Neon Inferno’s soundtrack, however, becomes something else entirely — and that’s meant in the most positive way possible. A phenomenal score — easily one of the strongest of the year — shifts between uptempo electronic drive and heavy, emotional rock-metal, always hitting the right tone at the right moment. Unfortunately, the sound effects don’t live up to that standard; they repeat frequently, which flattens some of the encounters. When it comes to precision, keyboard-and-mouse controls also fall short, especially during background targeting, where the mouse should logically shine yet feels clumsy compared to a right stick that is, oddly enough, less accurate.
Final Thoughts
Neon Inferno burns bright with its pixel art, pulsating soundtrack, and unapologetically kinetic action. The city, the Family, and the endless stream of metallic enemies evoke those timeless touchstones. Yet the difficulty ramps sharply, visual layering demands more precision than human reflexes alone can handle, boss encounters occasionally disrupt momentum, and the foreground-background split never fully settles into an intuitive rhythm.
Still, on the right evening, when chaos leans in your favor, the campaign races by in a few intense hours, honoring its arcade roots. Just keep in mind: Neon Inferno is already thrilling on your own — play co-op, and that thrill multiplies.
Additional Information
Release Date: Nov 20, 2025
Reviewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Zenovia Interactive
Publisher: Retroware
Website: Neon Inferno
Relevant links: Neon Inferno on STEAM
