Overview

Iron Meat is a side-scrolling run-and-gun shooter inspired by retro classics like Contra. This game gets its bizarre title from its rather simple story: On a futuristic ruined Earth, two soldiers battle against various creatures, humans, and machines that have been infected by an alien parasite know as The Meat. Gameplay takes place over eight levels that can be played either solo or in local co-op mode.

It's boss battle time!

Aesthetics

Graphics

Visually, this game is bound to be polarizing. It's very gory and has some of the most grotesque-looking creatures I've ever seen rendered in pixel art. It's a perfect fit for the 80s/early-90s action movie and arcade game vibes this game is going for, but it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. Personally, I really dig it.

Enemy designs aside, Iron Meat sports a great faux 16-bit look that would look right at home in an arcade next to a Metal Slug machine. The player character starts out looking a bit generic, but the skins you can unlock as you play add a nice level of customization and replay value. In my single play-through, I gained access to fewer than half of the skins.

Unlocking new skins is a nice little bonus on top of the satisfaction of beating a level.

Music

Iron Meat's soundtrack is one face-melting rock track after another. It's awesome! I particularly enjoyed the way the music changes as you progress through a level. Each track has both a modern (real instruments) and a chiptune version; both are great but I tended to opt for the modern soundtrack most of the time. Several of these tracks are destined to find a place in my running playlist.

Story

In classic shmup fashion, the story of Iron Meat is told through a short and wordless cutscene at the start of the game. After the final boss, there's a similar scene to wrap things up. That's it, and that's all this game needs to setup the action and provide a satisfying resolution. Lately, many indie devs feel a need to load games up with chatty dialogue and world-building. In some games, this enriches the experience, but in a game like Iron Meat, it would drag down the otherwise vigorous pacing. I'm glad this game's devs had an “all-killer, no-filler” outlook!

I don't need a lengthy cutscene to tell me to blow this thing up real good.
You can find a clip of me blasting this boss here.

Mechanics

Controls & Systems

Iron Meat is a very straightforward game mechanically. Your character can run, jump, shoot and that's pretty much it. Various power-ups can change the pattern and power levels of your projectiles. Regardless of which power-ups you have, you have infinite ammo. So when you pick up a sweet new rocket launcher or laser rifle, you can leave your finger on the trigger worry-free.

Keeping the mechanics simple yet polished makes it easier to focus on what really matters: blasting grotesque aliens and navigating stages full of traps.

How does the hero aim a rifle while flipping through the air?

Level Design

Iron Meat's levels ask a lot of the player. Not only can enemies pop out of pretty much anywhere, but there are also spike traps, collapsing ceilings, and bottomless pits to avoid. Getting hit by an enemy or a trap results in instant death and drops you down the baseline weapon. However, the game has ways of making that less frustrating (more on that later).

Unlike its retro predecessors, Iron Meat sticks with what it does best, side-scrolling action; no change-ups to pseudo-3D or overhead perspectives here. That being said, the level design still has an interesting level of variety. I particularly liked the stage set on the back of a moving train.

Some of Iron Meat's levels, particularly the early ones, are quite long. This can make it a bit of a bummer when you get a game over on boss and then have to trudge your way back. Thankfully, as the bosses get tougher, the levels get shorter.

Both your shooting *and* platforming skills will be tested.

Combat

You pretty much never go more than a second in Iron Meat without shooting something, being shot at, or both. Standard enemies come at you in a wide variety of forms, attack patterns, and levels of toughness. Thus, it's critical to keep your eyes scanning in front of, above, and below you at all times.

The place where the combat really shines, is when fighting bosses. In addition to looking visually arresting, boss battles will keep you on the edge of your seat. By combining traditional run-and-gun boss attacks with bullet hell-style projectile curtains (“danmaku”), quick reflexes and total focus are needed to survive. I found that these battles made for a thrilling climax to each stage.

Challenge Level

Contra was a game that frustrated the heck out of me as a kid. Knowing that this famously difficult NES game heavily inspired Iron Meat, I was concerned about how approachable this game would be. Unlike Contra, I was able to get through the Iron Meat campaign on the normal difficulty level in about 3 hours. No Konami code required!

In the original Contra, you started out with 3 lives and 3 continues; once those were used up, back to level 1 you went. Iron Meat is far more forgiving with 15 lives per level (on Normal difficulty) and unlimited continues. However, that doesn't mean it's a cakewalk! The action is frenetic and the enemies are relentless, but I never felt that the game was frustrating or unfair.

If the above description sounds either too lenient or too punishing for you, note that Iron Meat has 3 difficulty levels that you can swap between from the level select screen. Changing difficulty affects enemy placement and the number of lives you have per level.

The adjustable difficulty options make getting to this screen much more feasible.

Verdict

Iron Meat is easily one of the best run-and-gun shooters I've ever played. It's a well-crafted homage to the classic action games of old, but leaves much of the frustration of the retro era behind. Also, its soundtrack is something I will be gushing about for quite some time. If you have a craving for action and can handle some gruesome visuals, Iron Meat is a must-play game.