Retroware, the publisher behind the upcoming Toxic Crusaders beat 'em up, recently announced a release date and a new Steam demo for its upcoming run-and-gun shooter Iron Meat over on Twitter. According to the tweet, the finished game will launch on Steam on October 17th later this year.
Iron Meat is a homage to classic run 'n gun games like Contra and pits up to two players in couch co-op against an "iron ravenous mass mutating everything in its path", including trains, trucks, and helicopters. At launch, it will contain a 9-level campaign, a boss rush mode, and various unlockable skins (like shark heads and dinosaur feet) to mix and match while customizing your character.
The description on the Steam page reads:
"Iron Meat is a fast-paced, run-and-gun arcade shooter that immerses players in an apocalyptic future world overrun by The Meat, an iron-ravenous mass consuming Earth. With a mix of classic arcade and console mechanics, players will battle against mutated victims and machines, dodge bullet barrages, and crush bosses in nine levels of meaty brutality. As soldier Vadim you must DEFEAT THE MEAT and unearth cataclysmic horrors behind scientist Yuri’s experiments on the Moon."
The indie developer Ivan Valeryevich Suvorov (or @IvanMeat for short) is the lead programmer on the project, with @MKDouma6 creating the key art and the musician @Darkman007quite being responsible for composing its heavy-metal soundtrack. Retroware, meanwhile, is handling the game's publishing on behalf of the team.
The latest demo lets you play across three locations under attack from the mutant threat — a runaway train, a burning city, and a forest zone — giving players the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the various power-ups, passive abilities, and enemy types ahead of launch.
If this sounds up your street, you can try it out for yourself now on Steam. Let us know what you think!