Indie retro tributes are a dime a dozen, but the truly bully ones are rarer than you think. Blazing Chrome, a 2019 tally ‘n’ weapon channeling Contra III, is 1 of them. And contiguous its developers astatine JoyMasher announced they’ve got a caller 1 successful the works called Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. It’s fundamentally 16-Bit Ninja Gaiden, and it looks rad.

You play arsenic a ninja cyborg who rises up against its masters and takes connected an service of ace soldiers to dismantle the totalitarian authorities ruling implicit a dystopic future. Along the mode you’ll cod caller upgrades and abilities, and slash done immoderate elaborate bosses. It besides looks similar you’ll get to spell afloat Akira motorcycle descent astatine immoderate point. Think Contra with a sword.

Here’s the trailer:

Over astatine the PlayStation Blog, creation manager Danilo Dias listed a fig of inspirations for the look and consciousness of Vengeful Guardian. One evident notation constituent is H.R. Giger of Alien fame whose fusion of integrated curves and metallic surfaces is connected wide show successful the game’s sci-fi aesthetic. But Dias besides lists Keita Amemiya, the manager of 1991 Japanese sci-fi movie Zeiram, and Japanese TV bid similar Genocyber and Cybernetic Guardians as inspirations arsenic well.

Dias besides admits that there’s a batch of contention successful the retro ninja side-scroller category. There’s The Messenger, Katana Zero, and Cyber Shadow to sanction conscionable a few. I’d adjacent propulsion mini-arcade nostalgia deed Steel Assault into the mix. Of course, each of those were great, successful portion due to the fact that they each excelled astatine thing different.

Hopefully, Vengeful Guardian is capable to carve retired a akin niche. Blazing Chrome was a refreshingly choky and focused arcade deed astatine a clip erstwhile Metroidvanias and roguelites were dominating Steam. JoyMasher’s latest is presently slated to get connected PlayStation, Switch, and PC this fall.