German independent developer Black Forest Games (the Giana Sisters series) has released their love letter to classics like Contra and Metal Slug in both action and difficulty, Rogue Stormers.
The game is described as “Contra on steroids” and “Metal Slug in hyperspeed,” even going as far to say that it’s like “Rogue Legacy with guns.” Yes, that means the game is procedurally generated, meaning no two playthroughs (including offline and online cooperative for up to four players) will be exactly the same.
Featured above, you can view the latest trailer for the game, which showcases its various features:
- I’m So Ronery: Single player mode
- Gun Together for Fun Together: Up to four players local/online co-op
- All You Can Kill Buffet: 5 character classes to decide whether you feel like murdering people with fire or Goop or guns
- Sick Arse Biomes: All generated procedurally with random placement of enemies, traps and upgrades for infinite replayability
- German Humor: ’nuff said
- Farting Angels And Things that Have Teeth But Shouldn’t: Deal with classic orcs, goblins, floating weapon platforms, eldritch horrors and battlegates bristling with weapons
- Set Things on Fire: Trigger environmental chain reactions that will kill both you and your enemies, but idk, it looks cool
- It’s So Shiny: Game world modeled in blistering 3D
- Permanently Perky: Trick yourself out with persistent perks that accumulate through runs
You can find Rogue Stormers here on Steam. If you get the game before April 28th, you’ll nab it at a 20% discount.
Godmars
April 25, 2016 at 6:14 pmHonestly, was coming in to rip on it, but it doesn’t look half bad.
Bob Smith
April 25, 2016 at 6:23 pmI like what I see.
Uncle Slick
April 25, 2016 at 6:37 pmWatch them have to change “I’m So Ronery” because it’s not PC.
Mr0303
April 25, 2016 at 7:08 pmLooks good, but the characters flying reminds me more of a bullet hell. That being said the Contra and Metal Slug inspirations are obvious in the character animations and bosses respectively.
Didney Worl
April 25, 2016 at 7:09 pmBUY ME ROGUE STORMERS OR GO TO HELL!!
Michael Richardson
April 25, 2016 at 7:27 pmThe appeal of Contra is learning the enemy reinforcement patterns and adapting to them. Procedural generation sounds like it’d make each experience too new to really learn anything.
Siveon
April 25, 2016 at 7:35 pmProcedurally generated? Trash.
Dewey Defeats Truman
April 25, 2016 at 8:13 pm“Procedural generation”
Immahnoob
April 25, 2016 at 9:22 pmEnemies don’t change in terms of how they attack or how they act though.
There’s so little procedural generation can do to give you something SO UNIQUE in every instance that you can’t possibly learn, that’s actually pretty stupid to say by itself. Any average human being adapts quite fast.
Hell, BECAUSE the terrain changes and the enemies don’t, that means you’ll have to learn how to act with these enemies in every terrain possible, and you’ll do that extensively, because that’s how these type of games work, they work on replay value.
Immahnoob
April 25, 2016 at 9:23 pmThis game looks good, but something irks me with the models. I think it’s that it reminds me of the 2D arena flash games, which always irked me graphically wise.
Zufield
April 25, 2016 at 9:37 pm>it’s like X, but for [CURRENT YEAR]
>procedural generation
>player classes
>perks
http://i.imgur.com/lpm7kL9.jpg
TylorW
April 26, 2016 at 2:00 amYeah. When I looked at the trailer, I thought, “I’m reminded more of Heli Attack 3 than it does of either Metal Slug or Contra.” Don’t get me wrong, Heli Attack 3 was fun, but this doesn’t feel like it has enough chaos and destruction (with a bit of whimsy) to give it that true Contra and Metal Slug feel.
Madbrainbox
April 26, 2016 at 2:39 amThey have no idea why people loved those games.
Reminds me of “You think you do but you don’t” nonsense.
FREECELL.EXE
April 26, 2016 at 9:04 amIt’s hard to make a proper evaluation given it’s just a trailer, but it just seems like all the enemies are huge bullet sponges and the focus on proper level design and enemy/item placement seems negligent, with only big open arenas or narrow corridors and a bit of variation on the area prefabs (provided it’s procedurally generated, meticulous level design is usually a problem).
It might be a neat new perspective on the roguelite formula, but the Contra and Metal Slug comparison doesn’t seem appropriate.
ShadowLink86
April 26, 2016 at 9:26 amIDK, but to me it looks generic AF and doesn’t really capture the soul of the Metal Slug games, and this is coming from an old-school Metal Slug fan who’s beaten all of the games.
Yabloko Molloco San
April 26, 2016 at 1:00 pmWill buy…when it’s on humble bundle for pennies.
Chocolate ISISCream
April 27, 2016 at 2:22 pm“Contra on steroids” and “Metal Slug in hyperspeed”
Haha, man. Wow. There goes another developer again (and an indie of all people) boasting that they’re game is either similar or a hybrid of two le classic franchises. When developers do stupid fucking shit like this, I want their game to bomb hard and come out as rancid trash. HOW FUCKING INSECURE DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO DESCRIBE YOUR GAME AS A COPY OF CLASSICS INSTEAD OF GIVING IT A UNIQUE DESCRIPTION? FUCK OFF AND STOP DEVELOPING. QUIT YOUR FUCKING JOB AND CONSIDER SUICIDE FAGGOTS.
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 3:52 pmWell, I do like persistent perks and player classes. Contra: Hard Corps introduced player classes, and it is easily the best Contra game ever made- and Hard Corps: Uprising would be my No. 2 pick for a Contra game, and it had classes AND perks. I played the shit out of both of those games.
If a shooter game gives you options on how to play it, that’s never a bad thing- you can always limit yourself to a particular class or mode.
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 3:53 pmIs everything okay?
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 3:56 pmThe “soul” of Metal Slug is very tied to its art, I think. Mercenary Kings reminded me of Metal Slug more than this does.
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 3:56 pmAgreed- it’s not a Contra OR Metal Slug game if normal enemies are bullet sponges. Bosses and minibosses, sure.
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 4:03 pmIf it’s done well, it’s awesome. It is just very rarely done well.
Dark Link
April 27, 2016 at 4:36 pmI liked MK too.
Siveon
April 27, 2016 at 5:33 pmI don’t care much for it, if it’s done well or not. For something like FTL or Terraria, I enjoy greatly, but would much prefer if it had more detail/hand crafted content.
bgrunge
April 27, 2016 at 8:35 pmGood procedural generation is almost indistinguishable from hand crafted content, within a specific style. It’s a matter though of creating a procedural generation engine deep enough to consider the nuance and design decisions that a human creator would use when building a level. And that is easier said than done, of course, and requires more effort than many are willing to put in.
Siveon
April 27, 2016 at 9:21 pmDo you have an example? The only game that really comes to mind is perhaps ADOM, which just so happens to be one of the oldest, but otherwise even the better ‘roguelite’ games tend to fall short and feel same-y.
SiliconNooB
April 29, 2016 at 6:00 amFor real. It doesn’t look anywhere near as good as Metal Slug or Contra.
SiliconNooB
April 29, 2016 at 6:04 amIt pisses me off too. But when their game is so lacking in personality, I guess they have to try and glom it onto something popular.