If you miss that retro feeling, Panzer Paladin is a game you must play. The controls are tight, the level design is solid and it is a lot of fun. It might look too much NES-ish, but some will find that charming.

Panzer Paladin adopts a bit of every NES platformer you played as a kid, and the result is a little chaotic, but a lot of fun. Panzer Paladin's degradable-weapon mechanic adds a unique element of strategy to the mix, and playing as Flame outside of her Panzer suit lets you discover some cool secrets. However, there are times when the instructions are vague and the lives system doesn't need to exist in this day and age, but it's hard to stay mad when you're surrounded by this much 8-bit beauty.

Panzer Paladin's pleasing retro-aesthetics and slick use of 80s anime tropes compliment its new ideas wonderfully.

Panzer Paladin also has a variety of extras, including a second run at the story mode with redesigned levels, speedrun and boss rush-style tournament modes, and even an option to design your own weapons. As throwback retro adventures go, it hits a lot of the right marks, even if some of those targets are ideas that might have been best left in the past.

Seeing the same level pattern repeat from start to finish of the title quickly makes the gaming experience monotonous and loses much of its flavor.

Even if it was all-action/no-brain, Panzer Paladin‘s retro-look is bursting with style in a way that other NES-throwbacks frequently miss. There’s a lot to love here, including harder remixed versions of the levels and a speed-run mode, but its mean-spirited death penalties mean you have to work for it.

Panzer Paladin unfortunately fails to provide anything memorable in its effort to recreate an 8-bit experience. It is certainly playable and maybe enjoyable to some extent, but there is no distinguishing feature or any part in which it excels in order to compete with much more accomplished indie productions.