Old Is The New New: ‘Oniken’ To Release Next Week

Testosterone-pumped behemoths built like blocks of flats will be treated to a blast from the past next week with the news that Oniken will be available for purchase from Friday 22nd June.

Created by Brazilian workhorses Danilo Dias and Pedro Paiva, Oniken is an 8-bit action platformer that makes no qualms about its purportedly punishing difficulty. Put in general terms, it’s cut from the same cloth as the original Ninja Gaiden, gratuitously handing out the keys to the 2D hack-and-slash sweet shop to anyone with a quenchable thirst for shoryukens perforated enemy lungs. Blissful Oriental sadism aside, players will be forced to keep a watchful eye on a mind-addlingly enfuriating distribution of insta-death traps and obstacles, ranging from flaming pits to hulking six-foot spikes up the rectal passage.

If you’re skilled or unrelentingly persistent enough to survive the developers’ fiendish level layouts, you’ll be greeted by a veritable Noah’s Ark of mechanised animals itching to literally tear the smug grin from your face. As you’ll have noticed from the gameplay footage above, one such altercation involves the player desperately speeding away from a polar bear whilst riding what appears to be some sort of green snowmobile death device. Ravishing stuff indeed.

A free demo version of the chiptune-tastic Oniken can be downloaded on the game’s official website, where you’ll also find a few more details on both the game and its developers. You can also check out our preview of the game here.