Tribute Games rolled out a four minute gameplay demonstration for their upcoming side-scroller, Panzer Paladin. It was featured in the summer games festival, and seems to be a mix of classic hack-and-slash side-scrollers with a bit of Shovel Knight tossed in.

The game’s plot is pretty basic. Massive beams from outer space have sent demons to planet Earth, and it’s up to Grit, a heavy mechanized robot fighter manned by an adept pilot, to fight off the demon hordes and kill the bosses spread out over the world.

Visually, the game is very much like an 8-bit style game but with 16-bit quality backgrounds. You can check out the four-minute gameplay video below from GrowTube TV.

Using the power-armor, players will traverse through different regions, fighting the minions of the weapons masters and then eventually facing off against the masters themselves.

The neat part about Panzer Paladin is that every enemy you defeat you have the opportunity to acquire their weapon and use it against them.

You can also stockpile up to three different weapons in your stash, and sacrifice a weapon to acquire or make use of its special magic property.

In the video above we see how the scythe is sacrificed and the magic property was a self-healing feature, restoring the health of Grit.

This gives gamers an incentive to mix and match the weapons they want to stash, as well as tactically make use of the factitious warrior’s ability to absorb or utilize the special power of each weapon.

To help maintain an ebb and flow in the combat balance, each weapon has a durability meter, so the more you use it the quicker it wears down.

Once depleted, the weapon will be expunged from your inventory.

Each of the attacks that Grit can execute are also relevant to the level traversal. You can use the downward bouncing attack to combo enemies in a row similar to Shovel Knight, or you can use an upward attack to fly up in the air like a double-jump, not unlike Guacamelee.

Now the hot chick you see in the main header image above? Her name is Flame, and she’s the pilot of Grit.

If Grit’s power is low she can actually get out and recharge him at power stations, or attempt to access areas that are too small for the power armor to fit through.

She has a laser whip that can be used to both dispatch enemies and to grapple onto strategically placed hooks throughout the level to get around dangerous pits or endless chasms.

While all of that sounds pretty basic, the real hook for Panzer Paladin is being able to defeat enemies and unlock the ability to craft your own special weapons.

Yes, you can use a pixel-art editor to create your very own weapon. You can modify the stats, change its reach, alter the way Grit uses the weapon, and even share your creation with the wider gaming community.

I have to admit, it’s a really inventive feature and that certainly helps it stand a hair above the rest of the competition out there.

You can look for Panzer Paladin to arrive this summer on the Steam store for PC.