We enter feudal Japan for a spot of demon bashing
There’s something about a side scrolling 2D beat ‘em up that takes you back to a more simple time in gaming. To make a decent 2D scroller, though, you need a concept that will grab the attention of the gamer. It needs to have a story that you actually care about, it needs to be fast and energetic enough to be competitive but not impossible and it needs a certain sense of style to lure in those playing.
Onikira: Demon Killer ticks off every item on that list. The game has you as a lone samurai warrior, fighting his way through feudal Japan in order to stop evil forces from entering our world. There’s more of a back story involved, with an ancient enemy absorbing the spirit of a dragon and becoming near unstoppable, but for the sake of space we’ll let you dig deeper in the eastern legend that this game follows.
Essentially Onikira: Demon Killer is a classic 2D scroller through and through. You move to the right form the left, occasionally stopping to take out a group of evil demons that arrive via a portal from the underworld. Think Streets Of Rage, but with demons and flashing samurai swords.
You have various attack abilities at your disposal, and by mashing a variety of keys you’ll soon get to grips with scooping up the enemies, and dicing them up while in mid-air. Eventually you’ll have a number of combos at your command and can apply them to devastating effect, sweeping up handfuls of demon types and sending back to whence they came. However, the game in its current state assumes you’re using a controller so be prepared for a spot of remapping for keyboard and mouse use.
Accompanying you through the levels is a heavy soundtrack that adds to the fast paced slice-ndice action as you perform unbelievable manoeuvres on increasingly difficult foes. Health regeneration is nonexistent in the first level, but after defeating a giant undead samurai, with an eyeball in his stomach, you eventually gain the power to consume health from the enemies you kill; giving you a far better chance of survival.
Visually, the game is stunning. The character animations are wonderful, and look very impressive indeed. Equally the backdrops, and the walkways in which you’ll dart and leap across vary somewhat leading you to a slightly different path and the odd secret power boost and so on, are just as well drawn; full credit to the visual artistry here, the ancient Japanese themed legendary samurai look is perfectly pitched.
There are a couple of issues with the game at present. With this being a Steam Early Access build there are some bugs, most notable being a tendency to suddenly switch back to the desktop mid-game. This can be quite frequent, and as a result extremely annoying. Thankfully the game auto-pauses and a quick switch back followed by clicking resume will bring you back to the action. Another bug we’ve encountered manifests itself as the occasional enemy who gets stuck to one end of the screen and refuses to die, stopping you from progressing. We did find that by scooping him up and dealing him a little more damage (despite him already being dead) did cause him to vanish, allowing you to continue. These are minor annoyances, and we’re sure they’ll be fixed by the time the game is released proper.
Onikira: Demon Killer is a decent indie title, and one we really enjoyed playing. It looks great, plays well and has that often sought-after element: it makes you want to come back for more. David Hayward
A beautifully presented 2D scrolling beat ‘em up, fast-paced and wellpitched.