Recent times have seen an abundance of games heavily inspired by past retro titles which graced consoles such as the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, or PS1. Some simply take inspiration while others fully embrace those games to make something that would fit the time when those were in their heyday.
Machine Gun Fury sits solely in the latter with its rocking chiptunes, challenging gameplay, and 16-bit pixel art style all mixed in a game that’s unabashedly inspired by the classics. But is it something that deserves to stand besides the greats, or is it just wearing their skin to cash in on the nostalgia of gamers? Find out in our review down below.
Machine Gun Fury
Developer: Reset Games
Publisher: Reset Games
Platforms: Windows PC (Reviewed)
Release Date: October 28, 2022,
Players: 1
Price: $11.99 USD
As with any game recreating the simple, yet raw style of games from the NES era. Machine Gun Fury’s plot imitates past stories to a tee. That is to say that it practically barely exists with a villain who is evil for the sake of it, a hero who’ll stand up to them, all the way down to the cheesy ending.
While having a barebones plot is usually a negative, Machine Gun Fury makes no attempts to hide its influences, and rather chooses to heavily embrace them for what they were rather than trying to make any sort of commentary or comedy from those tropes of the past.
Reset Games set out to make a game that wouldn’t stand out if it were launched back during the 80s and they greatly succeeded with their effort. From the menu to simple plot all the way to the gameplay, Machine Gun Fury definitely reminded me of past greats such as the Contra series, Commando, or Rush N’ Attack.
Unfortunately they also took after some of the more lessor parts as well when crafting a game based around older titles. Machine Gun Fury is really short game with only 8 stages, most of which can be beaten in a few minutes. Though they do have a fair bit of variety with most stages having a solid difference in gameplay from the others.
To make up for the short runtime, they also employ classic old school difficulty where you’ll find yourself dying often to the plethora of gunfire surrounding you with minimal health. Where getting killed means having to restart the entire level from the beginning.
Those looking for a challenge will find it here, however even casuals needn’t worry if they’ll be able to beat the game. Machine Gun Fury offers an easy mode which is a little forgiving when it comes to the number of hits you can take, while hard is for those who really want to push their skills to recapture a bit of that NES hard challenge.
Beyond this, there isn’t much else the game has to offer when it comes to content. There are a few reasons to go back through the stages after beating the game, such as the aforementioned challenge along with a leaderboard where you can compare yourself against others who has played the game.
This is all the game has to offer though and it only took me less than two hours to have done everything except for a couple extra achievements which is likely done in another hour of playing. It’s a bit unfortunate how lacking in content it is for the price, which isn’t high, but could be more than one would be spending for something so little.
Machine Gun Fury is still a real fun title and anyone who’s big on old school shooters on the NES would have a blast with this even at regular price. There’s variety, but the lack of total content is disappointing especially if you’re experienced with games such as this and can breeze through even the harder levels.
Machine Gun Fury was reviewed on PC using a code provided by Reset Games. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Machine Gun Fury is available now on PC (via Steam).
