Review

We've seen lots of retro infused games in recent years, all tweaking at our nostalgia glands to try and make us love them. The excellent Resogun brought back fond memories of Defender and last year's Shovel Knight made us go all misty eyed about Mega Man. So what about the amusingly titled Iron Fisticle? Well let's just say someone at Confused Pelican has definitely played a lot of Smash TV!

This is a medieval themed, twin stick shooter that's clearly been inspired by the Williams arcade classic. The looks may be different, but the structure cannot be mistaken - you kill all the enemies in a room, which unlocks a choice of exits allowing you to pick your own route across the map until you reach a boss fight. The basics are simple (you can only shoot in eight directions) but there is a fantastically deep score system that rewards players who take risks. If you can persuade your friends to buy it too, then this is ideal for online leaderboards.

The game gets better, the more you play it too. Each time you level up, you'll unlock new power-ups that randomly appear inside chests as you play. You could argue that this also makes the game easier, allowing someone who has put more hours into it to rack up more impressive scores, but even with these extra powers unlocked it's still far from an easy game. The balance between power and difficulty seems just about right as I got a little bit further with each game I played. It also helps that once you reach a new floor you can select to start from there on your next go.

This is a game that has that all important “just one more go” feeling, aided by the fact that the floor layouts generate randomly each time you start. Controls work just as well whether you opt for joypad or keyboard and there's an excellent two-player co-op mode as well. If you like playing games such as Robotron then there's a lot to enjoy here and is easy to recommend but even if you're not familiar with the games that inspired it, Iron Fisticle is well worth your time.

About the Review

Platform

PC

Developer

Confused Pelican

Publisher

Curve Digital

Released

16th September 2014