Twin stick shooters have always been kind of a niche market. Sure, Geometry Wars took the world back in the day and all, but by and large, they’re primarily an action genre relegated to the digital back alleys of gaming. Most twin stick games never really get noticed by more than a handful of gamers and there’s not really a lot of depth to them other than chasing high scores. NeverAwake from Neotro Inc. and publisher Phoenixx is set to change that however! Instead of a simple twin stick shooter, there’s depth and storytelling here. Your actions have a purpose and as you blast you way through the game, you’ll slowly find yourself captivated by the surprising amount of emotion injected into this shmup!
In NeverAwake you play a girl. She seems to be asleep at first but there’s more going on than meets the eye. Movement is controlled by the left stick and firing by the right, standard twin stick stuff. On top of that, there are special attacks you can use with the shoulder buttons. You have a limited number of special attacks of course, and the levels are noticeably short overall, often only a minute or two in length. Don’t be deceived though, these are complex levels and there’s a mechanic you might not be expecting!
Each stage in NeverAwake loops. Your goal isn’t to complete the stage but instead to collect as many souls as you can to reach 100%. Once you do, the stage ends. However, if you’re inefficient in taking out enemies, you keep going, starting back over at the beginning! Each loop adds more difficulty, making it harder and harder to succeed. Take a few hits and you’re toast, forcing you to start over from scratch! Of course, you can also use the dash to zip right through an enemy blast or bullet pattern without taking damage. You’ll definitely have to master that.
Fortunately, there’s a secondary mechanic here as well. The developers over at Neotro realized that not everyone has the same skill levels. If you fail repeatedly at a level, you’re slowly provided with more and more optional items to buy! As you progress in the game, you’ll collect souls from your enemies which can be used as currency to buy items to strengthen your attacks and defense. Progressing through the game gets increasingly more difficult, forcing you to shift strategies and weapons as you make your way through the game’s 80+ levels.
That’s right, 80. The main game is a full 70 levels long. Every ten levels shifts to another area with new and unique enemies too. Don’t expect your tactics to work the same each time, because every new area requires a variety of new approaches. Fortunately, you get a ton of weapons and accessories, things like umbrellas that block shots, rear firing guns, soul-absorbing gadgets, shotguns, gravity wells, burst shots, and a ton more. There’s enough variety in NeverAwake that two different players might never play the game the same way and those short levels add up to one particularly long twin stick shooter!
There are more mechanics too. Bosses are strewn throughout the game, several per level. Each presents a unique bullet hell-like experience fundamentally different from the other levels in the game. You can also activate Overpower if you just aren’t managing to make it through the levels. Oerpower supercharges your main weapon, allowing you to defeat enemies or bosses faster. It costs souls to run it but occasionally, you’ll earn enough to trigger it for free, allowing you to save it for when you really can’t get through an area any other way.
At first, the game presents as a normal twin stick shmup. Shoot everything that moves, collect the souls that drop from your enemies, use them to buy weapon and armor upgrades. But that’s just the surface. There’s also a plot here that we haven’t discussed. The game doesn’t really give much away, but as you play through, you’ll notice that the enemies conform to design aesthetics relevant to the storyline. At one point in World 1, you fight a giant piece of wasabi for example. Things get stranger and stranger with cell phones, plushies, and other weird enemies popping out of the woodwork. There’s an overall reason for all of this however.
As you progress, you’ll get the girl’s backstory. All the things she doesn’t like. All the people that give her a hard time. All her secret innermost thoughts and disappointments. The handful of things that bring light to her life. In other words, as you play, you’ll experience the essence of the girl. She’s not awake either. Shocker, right? By the time you finish the first world, you’ll find that the girl is asleep for some reason, bed-ridden and unresponsive. There are reasons too, but any more would give things away and having a surprisingly compelling plot driving NeverAwake is pretty fantastic! The biggest shock is how dark things get here. There’s absolutely no varnish on the girl’s thoughts and if you’ve ever thought something terrible about someone and then felt guilty about it…it’s right there on screen in text. In some ways, the girl is the embodiment of human internal monologues.
Once you start to realize how the game is constructed, it’s fascinating to see the care taken in each level and character design. Everything has a purpose in NeverAwake and there’s a fantastic melding of high-concept artwork and frantic, challenging gameplay. Even broken into the mini-levels that the game consists of, there’s a feel of artistry and cohesion here rarely seen in other games of this style. The messages aren’t subtle either. This isn’t just a game for artsy people, it’s a game for everyone, an interactive experience of the human condition that is both compelling and difficult.
Naturally, the visuals and sound work are exceptional in NeverAwake as well. Character and level designs in particular are highly detailed and with the speed at which levels blur by, you might miss the care that has been taken with each and every enemy design and set piece. Bosses are even more impressive, with complex moving parts that match the complexity of their patterned behavior. Deformed versions of our world are everywhere you look and it becomes clearer and clearer that the girl doesn’t see events in her world the same way those around her do. The polished creations that abound in each level abundantly reinforce this, as does the excellent soundtrack which amps up with each boss fight and finishes off an excellent game with excellent sound work.
On top of all those layers of plot and gameplay there’s still more going on in NeverAwake though. A leaderboard has been handily included which was active at the time of this review. You can choose to submit your scores at the end of each world but you’ll have no idea how you actually did since the game doesn’t show you your end stage scores compared with others. That function was live for this review and it is fascinating to see how you compare to others (mostly reviewers right now). Sixth worldwide isn’t all that bad, even if it’s only on one stage! There’s also more content to explore. After getting far enough in the game, you’re also able to revisit levels with new goals. Now you must collect less souls and survive as enemies get more and more powerful! You’ll still have to reach 100% to move on, but success unlocks a photo gallery with more background information. These bonus levels are strewn throughout the stages of the game so that you can replay a variety of areas and unlock even more story and an additional ending. That’s a heck of a lot of content, plus you can always replay any level you want at any time!
In short, NeverAwake is a unique twin stick experience. Not only is there excellent design work, but the game is both remarkably challenging and easily approachable for more casual players. A successful game design that adapts to play style is difficult to create but NeverAwake somehow pulls it off! This is a fascinating game that will surprise and shock you with some of the pathways it takes. With a ton of content, an interesting concept, and excellent design and gameplay, NeverAwake is definitely one of the first sleepers to look out for in 2023 so don’t hesitate to grab yourself a copy!
This review is based on a digital copy of NeverAwake provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and played equally well on both. Neverawake is also available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on Steam.