As Mountain describes, the main story of Romeo is a Dead Man will revolve around FBI special agent Romeo Stargazer, who is also known by his codename, DeadMan, and is part of the special FBI division known only as the Space-Time Police. Through this setup, Romeo will conduct investigations throughout space and time, and will take on strange enemies in weird locales.

One of the boss fights described in the post takes place against a boss known as Everyday Is Like Monday. Along with the boss, Romeo will also face off against more standard enemies known as Rotters, as well as “all kinds of other ultra-creepy, unique enemies waiting to bite your face off!” To take on these challenges, Romeo will have an arsenal of weapons, both katana-styled melee ones as well as gun-styled ranged ones, which players can freely switch between.

Romeo has access to melee, ranged, heavy, and light attacks, which will work in tandem with a “gratuitous amount of of blood splatter” to provide players with high levels of catharsis as they mow down enemies. Each location in the game has also been described as unique, with the action-heavy parts being done in “almost photorealistic 3D”, while the story-based parts will feature different art styles depending on the story beats. Mountain goes as far as describing the overall art direction of Romeo is a Dead Man as being “all over the place – but like, in a good way.”

While Romeo is a Dead Man will feature plenty of action as part of its core gameplay, the title will also have puzzles that players will need to solve in order to progress. The puzzles have been humoursly described as offering plenty of challenge for most players, while still maintaining a level of accessibility so that those drawn to just the action gameplay don’t get stuck on the puzzles for too long. The title will feature a range of puzzles and gimmicks “strategically or possibly just randomly strewn throughout the game.”

The announcement trailer for Romeo is a Dead Man had revealed that the game will be kicked off with the death of Romeo, who is only able to get back up and keep fighting thanks to a life saving device that has been jammed into his head. The trailer also confirmed that the title will feature the signature brand of humour and general insanity that the works of Suda51 is known for, as well as the fact that Ren Yamazaki is also involved in the development of the title.

Along with this, Suda51 is also working with SWERY on Hotel Barcelona, which got a new trailer earlier this month.

Suda51’s Grasshopper Manufacture’s Let It Die, the roguelike action game that they launched for the PS4 at the end of 2016 to great player reception and acclaim, has now apparently hit a major milestone- it has been downloaded 4 million times since its release.

The game is, of course, a free to play title, which means that the number of downloads in and of itself isn’t a very representative stat; but with that said, 4 million downloads is impressive, no matter how you slice it. The previous major milestone the game hit was 3 million downloads, which was back in May 2017, so it looks like the pace has sort of slowed down a bit since then.

If you haven’t already tried the game, feel free to download it and check it out for yourself- the monetization in the game is unintrusive, and the actual action gameplay is hugely satisfying, and should speak to a generation of gamers brought up on a diet of Dark Souls, and other games following in its vein.

In case you’re just joining us, and want a quick lowdown of the game, Sine More is a 2D sidescrolling shoot em up, in the vein of classic NES and SNES games in the same genre. It is visually rendered in three dimensions, however, although gameplay is only restricted to two axes, leading to a rather striking effect- something that is only accentuated by the gorgeous art style of the game, designed by Akira Yamaoka, the man behind Silent Hill’s brilliant graphics. The graphics come together with the great soundtrack to create a stellar experience as far as the storytelling goes. Really, for an Arcade game, Sine Mora’s production values really are top notch. The graphics and the sound come together to create a treat for the senses, and one of the best looking games of the year from a purely artistic and aesthetic standpoint.

Sine Mora isn’t just about the flash and the panache, though. There’s more to it than just that, some real substance behind those gorgeous graphics. As mentioned several times, Sine More plays like the old 2D sidescrolling SHMUPs from the 16 bit era. It emulates those old games well, which means it was already a great game to begin with. It’s new mechanics, all of them well thought out and all of them excellently implemented, are just icing on the cake.

Take, for example, the health system, which is nothing like anything you have seen in a game before, and might send you for a spin at first. Sine Mora uses time as a central mechanic, both in its gameplay, and in its storytelling, and it dispenses with health entirely. Instead, you have a time bar, which continues to tick down to zero at all times. Taking damage speeds the process up, and if and when the meter ticks down to zero, you’re done for. The time bar can be refilled using the pickups that enemies drop, and it also adds to your overall score. It all plays a bit differently from traditional SHMUPs, and it leaves Sine Mora the better game for it.

This, in addition to powers that manipulate time, slowing everything else down while you speed up, add up to the appeal of the game greatly. Sine Mora is, in general, a game made to appeal even to modern gamers in spite of its genre, and its Normal difficulty should be breezy for most veterans of the genre, while newcomers will find it challenging enough. If, however, you are aching for the unforgiving difficulty of SHMUPs of old, then you can always switch to Insane difficulty, where things really start getting hectic. There’s a lot going on on screen, and essentially, your survival relies on your twitch reflex response, because a single hit might be enough to kill you.

Sine Mora has three modes, the main Story mode (which tries to give context to the action via a story that is absolutely incomprehensible), a Score Attack mode, and an Arcade mode. The titles are pretty self explanatory, and each mode adds something unique to the mix, and lends the game with a lot of replay value.

Ultimately, how good is the game? It’s as good now as it ever was. Roughly half a year wasn’t enough to remove its sheen, and it still remains a fun and gorgeous game. Sine Mora is equally recommended now as it was back then, and if you haven’t played it on a PS3 or Xbox 360 already, now’s the time to change that. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what system you play it on, the core game remains as good as ever and is highly and fully recommended.

This game was reviewed on the PC.