Indie developers are the last bastion for common decency in gaming. While there are some AA studios out there still keeping their outings wholesome and free from being pozzed, it’s as tricky as having to thumb through an inner-city public school to find a kid with a father who’s still in the home. A rarity, indeed. Well, Zenovia is working on a hard-hitting, side-scrolling action game called Steel Assault, not to be confused with the hard-hitting, MMO side-scroller from GNISoft called Metal Assault.

Zenovia’s title is currently without a publisher, but the animation-heavy action title is a masculine throwback to some of Treasure’s side-scrolling classics from the 1990s.

I’m not going to waste your time with a lot of words, I’ll just let the trailer do most of the talking, which you can check out below.

Gamers take on the role of Taro Takahashi, a resistance fighter in a movement aimed at destabilizing a regime operated by a dictator.

For Taro, however, the mission is personal. He’s on a quest for revenge, and he will need the help of gamers to navigate through a post-apocalyptic society using grappling hooks, slide attacks, electric whips, and zipline dodge maneuvers to overcome the forces of evil.

The game reminds me a lot of Gunstar Heroes meets Bionic Commando.

You can tell that there’s a lot of love and care applied to the design of Steel Assault, as it hearkens back readily to the days of 16-bit action platformers, complete with a synthetic soundtrack.

Zenovia also proudly boasts that the game does not contain procedurally generated levels, but instead relies on finely tuned, and specially hewn hand-crafted levels.

If Steel Assault seems like the sort of game that fits up your alley, be sure to wishlist it or follow it over on the Steam store page. You can expect the game to release at some point in 2020.

(Thanks for the news tip Guardian EvaUnit02)