Ivan Valeryevic Suvorov and Screenwave Media’s Iron Meat is a true throwback to classic side-scrolling action from the NES and SNES era of gaming. The golden age of console gaming when the little plastic buggers weren’t trying to poorly imitate PCs. The game has a brand new playable demo available that you can download right now from over on the itch.io page.

The developer describes the game as a “grindhouse gunner”, but it’s obviously a gorier successor to Konami’s Contra games. The gameplay is very similar and the weapon upgrades will be very familiar to anyone who played the older games on the classic consoles.

The debut trailer for Iron Meat is also rock solid, filled with badass music and awesome gunplay. You can check it out below.

Sadly, the awesome metal soundtrack from the trailer is not featured in the game.

Major missed opportunity for the game to capture the testosterone-laden music experience of DOOM: Eternal but in 2D side-scrolling format.

Instead the game has some chip-music tunes, as featured in the gameplay demonstration below courtesy of AlphaBetaGamer.

The game will feature a variety of missions as you battle through outdoor jungle stages, indoor facilities, labs, elevators, and across trains.

The story reminds me a lot of A Robot Named Fight, which had a similar premise but was designed as a rogue-like Metroidvania rather than a linear side-scroller.

They don’t exactly say how many levels will be included, and even though the cover art features two soldiers doing battle the listing says that it’s only a single-player outing.

The feedback has been extremely positive based on the little that some have played of the demo, so it looks like there are good things to come for Iron Meat. The best part about it is that it’s not woke!

Iron Meat is scheduled to launch soon on PC. You can wishlist the game or follow it by visiting the Steam store page.

(Thanks for the news tip Isthai)