Blazing Chrome polishes running and gunning to a mirror shine

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Blazing Chrome does not look like the run-and-gun games you played in arcades when you were younger. It looks like how you remember those games looking, and it has flair of its own to boot. Developer JoyMasher is the first to admit Blazing Chrome is a love letter to Contra and Metal Slug, but its polished pixel art is leaps and bounds above anything from the '90s.

Protagonists Mavra and Doyle are over-the-top manly men among manly men, but there's depth and detail to their beefcake physiques. They flinch when they fire and kick up dust when they roll, and their hanging and jumping animations are silky smooth.

Photo modes are popular right now, so we're no stranger to excessive bloom. But that old-school flickering lens flare born of scrolling graphics? That's a thing of rare beauty. Blazing Chrome captures it perfectly here, and with stunning depth for a 2D game. I also like the look of those bike sections. Here's hoping we see more when Blazing Chrome releases in 2018.

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.