Way Of The Red is developed by a man that goes by the name of Hobbler Toppler. I saw the preview picture and I wasn’t impressed, but the gameplay is what won me over. Way Of The Red is reminiscent of classic platforming games similar to Shadow Of The Beast and the original Strider.

Way Of The Red is a 2D action platform game that brings us back to the good ‘ole golden age of gaming. The developers released a free preview demo, so I downloaded it and took a look at what the game had to offer so far. The controls were a bit wonky in the demo, but it gave me a pretty clear idea about Way Of The Red and how it will play in the final game.

The game plays a lot like the titles I named up above, but it also has elements of Sonic And Knuckles. You play as a rare race called the Birdmen, with the abilities of sword and flight. You have a button to swing your sword, you can jump, and if you jump a second time our hero can soar through the air.

You can also swing your sword to air slash, or do an air spin attack to hit enemies above or below you. If you jump twice and air glide and collide with a wall, he will cling to the wall and allow you to climb up it. If you time it right and use a bit of skill, these abilities allow you to wall jump and soar through the air to reach hard to reach platforms.

Combat has the classic feel to it, three hits and you die. Killing enemies will sometimes grant you with heart drops to refill your life, and you can also collect coins (or possibly seeds?) from defeated enemies. At the moment, I’m not sure what those seed-coins are used for, so we will have to wait and see. Graphically, Way Of The Red goes full pixel-art retro, and it even has 8-bit music and sound effects to complete the retro vibes. You can take a look at the official gameplay trailer that I linked below to see for yourself.

There are a slew of retro platform games on the market, but I have to say, this one is rather fun from what I have played so far. On top of that, it has a unique story that makes me want to see more of it. The world was challenging enough so I had to put effort into it, but not crazy enough where I became frustrated. However, it could really benefit from controller support or button customization.

If you are interested in seeing more of Way Of The Red, you can visit their official website where you can also download and play the free preview demo. Furthermore, you can head on over to Steam Greenlight to cast your vote and help it get onto Steam. Way Of The Red is scheduled for a 2016 release date.