Doused with full voice acting–a feat we wouldn’t have seen back in the day–Easy Trigger knows when to deliver silly one-liners and ridiculous scenarios that a player can’t help but laugh at. Huntdown‘s comedic, tongue-in-cheek approach to humor and story straddles the line between absurd and darkly comic. Players fight in gang-ravaged streets, an underground world infested with hockey-obsessed villains, motorcyclist-controlled industrial complexes, and skyscrapers covered with wannabe ninjas. Those who played a licensed game on a SNES or died hundreds of times in an 8-bit shooter will feel at home in Huntdown. Unlike Hotline Miami, which successfully painted the 80s as a hyper-violent Jackson Pollock with hot pinks and red, Huntdown aims its sights at a large swath of movies and games that stretched further into the next decade. Players may even stumble onto a secret area that hides a furry mogwai in a box or glance at a dangling Deckard near a shirtless Replicant. Four-armed mutants, graffiti-covered concrete, hockey mask enthusiasts, and gaudy ninjas are only a sampling of evidence that developer Easy Trigger Games is creating an 80s-themed patchwork of references. This is the same future where Snake Plisken wears an eyepatch to look badass or Kyle Reese hides a shotgun underneath a massive trenchcoat. The action takes place in a 21st century metropolis where street gangs and corporations wrestle for control over the populace. Players choose between three bounty hunters–human Anna Conda, cyborg John Sawyer, and droid Mow Man–on hire by the Shimamoto Corporation and directed by “Wolfmother”, an elderly woman with a penchant for crocheting during her briefings. Hundown is a side-scrolling 2D shooter with platforming elements. Today it should be recognized as an eccentric symphony of creativity, a powerful homage that never ceases to deliver on brilliant design choices and razor sharp fun. There is no doubt that 25 years ago, Huntdown would have been one of the most acclaimed games of its generation.
But Huntdown is also elevated by its surprising length, voice work, cover shooting, and over-the-top action.
The game is drenched in the 80s overtones of the best dystopian, neon-saturated worlds where roving gangs lined the streets. Its 16-bit shooting style mimics what a player might find in Contra or an odd gem like Blizzard’s Blackthorne. Huntdown‘s near-impeccable distillation of classic arcade shooting is a thunderous endorsement of a seemingly bygone era, one where raw skill was often only matched with the amount of quarters lining your pocket.