If you’ve played classic titles such as Techno Cop, Splatterhouse or Narc, you’ve probably learned to appreciate a sidescroller with some blood and guts in its formula. With Hotline Miami and Mother Russia Bleeds going a long way towards recreating that style, it seems like only indie developers are willing to take the plunge and go full throttle with the gore.

Enter Slain!, a new Kickstarter project being pitched by Florida developer Wolf Brew Games, where the sword swings are lightning fast and the blood flows freely.

Meant as an homage to the classic 80s and 90s sidescrolling games the developer grew up on, Slain! takes place in a crimson-covered, gothic-styled world that seems to be a Castlevania clone with a side order of John Carpenter. The developer spells out his plan on the game’s Kickstarter page.

The game is split up into seven areas, each of which has two distinct and very different sections. The first (horizontal) section is your progression towards the tower and has larger focus on your combat skills, with many interesting and satisfying ways to die… If you complete this part and defeat that section’s mini-boss, then you can begin to ascend the Tower. These Towers have a larger emphasis on platforming and timing with puzzles and a whole range of wonderfully creative (and deadly) traps.

Reminiscent of classics like Altered Beast, Shadow of The Beast, and Ghosts ‘n Goblins, the difficulty of the combat and platforming can best be described as… brutal. Save points help but they’re rare. So it’s down to you and your ability with a sword.

The game is only two days into its month long funding drive, so it has plenty of time to hit its relatively low $12,000 goal.

You can also find more info on the game at its Steam greenlight page.