Infernax

Infernax is everything I want from a retro-inspired 8-bit platformer. It looks fantastic, offers challenging gameplay, glorious bosses, and banging tunes. If that’s your bag, don’t waste any time diving in here. It’s a beauty.

As sure as the sun rises and sets (and wait until you see that in game), the Switch eShop will receive more and more titles hoping to cash in on NES-fueled nostalgia; don’t let that stop you from picking up the immensely satisfying throwback that is Infernax. Even though my mace and armor are dripping with demonic ichor, I’m still ready to charge back in.

If you love NES games and can handle a LOT of gore (seriously, it's rated M for a reason), Infernax is an unforgettable nostalgic experience. [Issue #59 – May/June 2022, p. 20]

There's some very good old school gameplay in Infernax, something that doesn't want to just pander us with nostalgia, but to entertain and engage with challenges and simple yet well-thought game design.

Infernax is a fantastic throwback to 8-bit gaming, and while it may not be fully faithful to the era thanks to its color palette, number of sprites on screen, and unbroken English, it gets the rest right where it counts. The grim-dark story of Alcedor’s fight against the invading darkness is broken up with moments of humor, several of which pay direct tribute to Castlevania in ways that Alcedor will immediately regret. Not to mention entering the Konami cheat code on the title screen starting up a new save in straight-up Contra mode. The story also comes with several choices along the way, allowing you to have Alcedor try to walk the righteous path or turn evil, and sometimes the law of unintended consequences makes what seems like the right choice lead to the bad outcome. It’s a dark, violent, bloody world that feels great to smash your way through, and while it might take some repetition to clear the harder areas Infernax is always worth the payoff.

Even if it doesn't revolutionize the metroidvania formula, Infernax leaves a wonderful sensation. It doesn't invent nothing new, but the elements it adds (decisions, NPC missions, RPG touches...) makes it a little and joyful surprise among the myriad metroidvanias out there. And it makes full of humor and high replay value.

Infernax is a great mix of pixel-art nostalgia and modern narrative design that never fails to entertain.

Awesome Castelvania! Much better then most cases. Really awesome. Really fun

Not bad this little game. I just deplore some platforming sections are harder than boss battles.

Pixel art and music is tops. Humorous gore and Easter eggs. One complaint: Parkour fails should result in life loss and resetting at point of failure. My patience is gone for all the easy parkour fails/traps in this game because the consequence is a full restart of the castle (unless you want to switch to casual mode, which requires you to lose all of your hard earned lives before enabling). If a parkour fail resulted in a loss of life and resetting at the point of failure to retry, this would be A+. As it is, parkour fails just feel needlessly frustrating and punitive. The enemy difficulty is great with some fun boss patterns and design, but the parkour fails hurt my enjoyment of this game. Not sure I’ll finish it. I’m fully leveled up and on my 4th castle. It’s enough.

Very average game. Some very bad designed levels makes it frustrating to play.

I just wish the casual mode was actually a casual mode instead of giving you one useless **** extra life. It's just like playing an old nes game with no save states, 4 hits and you're done, it's like they ruined their own game on purpose