Do you love twin-stick shooters but hate nightmares? Because then you just might love and hate NeverAwake, a nightmarish twin-stick shooter “set in a world of a little girl’s fears and horrors”, and honestly, it looks like a blast. Quite literally. Death to those pesky monsters!
I wonder, do nightmares become tolerable once you actually get the opportunity to beat the ever-loving crap out of them in a game like this, 360-degree blasting and all? Hard to say, but at least souls collected can be spent on better dream weaponry, improving your odds of survival significantly. I have a feeling that’ll absolutely be necessary to survive some of the abominations depicted in the trailer below, too. This game does not look easy. At all.
Oh, and if you can imagine something that might terrify a little girl, chances are NeverAwake will pitch you against it: vegetables, dentists, and even… her classmates! How those are even a match for her demonic, dragon-shaped gun is a bit of a puzzle, yet here we are, each seemingly needing to eat a fair amount of bullets before they disappear. For good. Or until she wakes up. Nah, pretty sure they don’t come back, ever.
“I wanted to make a shooter that would not only be accessible to those who already enjoy fast-paced shooters, but those who are less skilled and just want to enjoy the art and atmosphere,” said Hiroshi Sawatari, founder, Neotro Inc.
Probably a good thing, given the fact that NeverAwake spans well over eighty levels, and if you don’t collect every last soul, the next loop will be even more dangerous (wait, what?). That’s not all either. How about branching paths, multiple endings, and of course, leaderboards? Quite the interesting nightmare, this one.
NeverAwake is available on Steam for $19.99. Switch, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5? Januar 19, 2023.
