Back in my day, each motion film price its salt spawned a licensed 8-bit platformer. Granted, most have been garbage, nevertheless it’s a little bit of a misplaced artwork. What would John Wick’s appear to be? Rather a lot like the image above. You might need seen pixel Keanu doing the rounds again in May due to a mockup video by the builders of Blazing Chrome, however now you possibly can play it for real, free, here on Itch. This model makes use of the freely-released sprites and music from the sooner mockup, which have been assembled by “Murilo”, who’s at present engaged on their very own platform brawler, Overplasma.
Unlike the unique idea video, this game bends the NES guidelines a bit, utilizing sprite rotation and scaling in a number of locations. Beyond that? Surprisingly genuine, principally as a result of the Blazing Chrome developer is a good sprite artist and completely captured the NES aesthetic. It’s clearly not a whole or comprehensively tuned game, nevertheless it’s spectacular what a 3rd celebration can do with a very good sprite sheet and some 8-bit tracks. There’s not a lot subtlety to it, with easy two-button NES model controls, however there’s a pleasant rhythm to dodging sniper fireplace and crouching behind parked automobiles.
For reference’s sake, right here’s the unique mockup video by Blazing Chrome developer Danilo Dias with soundtrack by Dominic Ninmark.
While a cute piece of labor, it may nonetheless do with a little bit extra tuning. On Normal issue, enemies do brutal quantities of injury. While generously checkpointed, it does really feel like leaping straight into the deep finish of the NES-era pool. The gamepad controls are additionally a bit bizarre, seemingly not rebinding correctly and mapping motion to the left analogue stick. I’d counsel unplugging any controller first and utilizing the extra configurable keyboard controls. Not very best, however nonetheless higher.
Of course, this isn’t John Wick’s first look in games. While not a lot resembling Keanu Reeves there, he’s been a playable character in Payday 2, and later got his own VR shooting gallery spinoff. He’s even been in Fortnite. Twice (thanks, Polygon). Still, the one to be careful for is the upcoming John Wick Hex, a daring semi-turn-based tactical tackle the unstoppable murderer’s adventures, courtesy of Thomas Was Alone and Volume dev Mike Bithell.
You can play this pseudo-8-bit John Wick game free and here on Itch, and take a look at a trailer for the developer’s upcoming Overplasma here.
