Iron Meat [Review]
Retroware’s run-and-gun shooter Iron Meat may as well be Contra 5.
Iron Meat. Credit: Retroware / Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov
I love run-and-gun shooters, and I love Contra. Iron Meat is a nearly perfect Contra game—without the branding—that looks and feels great to play. Though it doesn’t reach the jaw-dropping, larger-than-life heights of Contra 4 with its two stacked screens on the Nintendo DS, its action and the level of detail in its art bring Iron Meat close. Retroware and developer Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov nailed it.
In Iron Meat, a scientist on Earth’s moon base discovered an interdimensional biomass known as The Meat. It escapes containment and quickly travels to Earth, infecting every person and machine into which it can sink its teeth. With Earth overrun, it’s now up to you to fight back with a bloody vengeance.
Iron Meat. Credit: Retroware / Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov
Iron Meat is a run-and-gun shooter that sticks to the basics and does them very well. It eschews some of the mechanics from the Contra series, such as hanging, top-down perspective segments, and 3D hallway levels, in favor of honing down its side and vertical-scrolling action. You run, jump, and shoot. You can have two weapons you can upgrade and swap between; you can hold a button to stand still while you aim. That’s it. This doesn’t sound like much, but that focus resulted in polished gameplay that feels perfect.
Iron Meat. Credit: Retroware / Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov
The other reason the game feels great to play is that Iron Meat is a visual feast of pixel art. Level backgrounds are multilayered and full of life, especially as levels are progressively more Meat-infested. For example, in the first level it seems to be raining blood while tracer bullet fire lights up tree trunks in the background. Throughout the level, the human strongholds you pass are slowly being overrun. Just before the level’s boss battle, there’s an impressive scene where a massive helicopter crashes into the forest just past the chain link fence that separates you from it. During a later level, enemies you kill explode into a fine, bloody mist that gets carried away in the wind as the train you’re riding continues speeding out of control.
Iron Meat. Credit: Retroware / Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov
Enemy sprites pop from the background. The creature designs are fantastic, especially the Meat-infested machine bosses. These and the environments feel alive and reactive as you blow them all up. It’s all wonderfully gross and nightmarish. Iron Meat features a memorable soundtrack. The electric guitar-heavy tracks are great for amping up the energy as you play. The options offer a retro mode in the options, but I didn’t play the game with it active.
The game is nine levels long and has three difficulty modes. I completed the game on Easy, where you’re given 30 lives as you start each level, and enemies are a bit weaker. I beat most levels without losing more than 10 lives on any one of them. Normal mode offers significantly fewer lives and more challenging enemies—certainly tougher bosses. I made it through three levels on Normal, but I think that with practice, it’s doable. Enemies don’t spawn randomly, so learning the patterns is feasible. Iron Meat has multiplayer couch co-op, a great way to take on the challenge.
Iron Meat. Credit: Retroware / Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov
The game has achievements baked into its UI to support the Nintendo Switch. You get 30 unlockable skins in the game by earning enough points to level up; I think that’s the only purpose leveling serves. The skins are fun because what you’re actually unlocking are all the pieces of a skin, so you can either be the character you earned or mix and match the body parts of any character.
Iron Meat is an excellent run-and-gun shooter that you shouldn’t miss if you enjoy the genre, especially if you’re a Contra fan. I had a blast with it and will replay it. Also, don’t skip the animated intro; it’s pretty great.
Iron Meat will be available on September 26, 2024on PC (Steam), PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One / Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Overall Score: 9/10
Played on: PS5
