// Kill Knight

From the moment I heard the title, I knew we had something special: Kill Knight.

There’s a lot to love here. Kill Knight is an isometric twin-stick bullet-hell shooter. Your objective is to fight your way through five levels – or layers – while demolishing everything in your way.

// Bullet Heck

This game rips. It’s tight as hell. The controls are so smooth and snappy. The official Kill Knight website describes it as “ultra-responsive,” which is as insane as it is true.

The handling is very arcade-ey and twitchy. This is key to make the bullet dodging feel satisfying. The arenas will be absolutely cluttered with bombs and bullets flying every which way, so it’s key to keep moving and utilize your dash ability.

The game finds ways to keep you active at all times. When you aren’t shooting, you’re hitting a timed button press for an active reload with additional effects. You can press the melee button to unleash a stronger melee attack while reloading. You can press the suck-in-items button to instantly harvest all the drops on the ground while you reload. Or simply time the reload button perfectly to enhance your regular attack for the next clip.

The dash also carries additional effects and deals damage.

This all cumulates to a style of combat that is fast and frantic and has killing built into every function of your kit. You need to master maximizing your damage output via all means available to you to succeed.

In addition to this you will need to manage your health. This is done by collecting healing items, only dropped when enemies are killed with your speical attack. This, in turn, is only charged when you collect enough energy from killing demons. You’ll need to be aggressive to stay alive, taking a page from Bloodborne’s combat language.

No wonder I like it!

//  Lo-fi Brutalism

To take PlaySide’s own phrasing, “Lo-fi brutalism,” is the vibe here.

The game has a distinctly retro feeling to it. Kill Knight is full of low-res bitmapped illustrations that ooze with character. The menus have a slight warp to them that mimics the curvature of a CRT screen.

Models also have a vague ps1-esq quality to them. 

Chromatic aberration on the health bars and the flickering of text gives the player the feeling that they are ripping through this world while interfacing with antique, chunky tech. 

The environments feel oppressive and imposing. Large vertical block structures adorned with spikes surround you. The shifting blocks below you make you feel like you’re battling your way through the bowels of a concrete behemoth. 

A little bonus that I love: the logo for the game features the horn of the Kill Knight’s helmet as a feature in the typography.

// Replayability

As these style of games usually are, Kill Knight is painfully replayable. One run through a layer will only take a few minutes. The gameplay is so satisfying that it’s all too easy to have many, “just one more run,” runs.

On top of that, the game gives you many incentives to do so.

As you build up Tokkens (the in game currency) you can unlock entries in the Kodex (Kill Knight leans into the K theme much like a certain fighting franchise tends to). This gives you details and lore about all the different Demons. It’s satisfying to try and unlock them all in a Catch ‘Em All kinda way.

The game also throws different challenges at you as you play. Things like: kill 75 enemies by dashing, build up your kill streak to a certain amount, etc. These challenges unlock additional gear when completed.

Additional gear comes in the form of new weapons, dash abilities, swords, and abilities.

To keep things fresh, the devs have also added a Weekly Descent mode. Each week, this mode gives players a random selection of gear and layers, and lets you play through for a high score.

It’s relatively simple but extremely effective at keeping you playing.

Did I mention it’s a perfect portable game? I play on Steam Deck, but it’s also available for Switch. Perfect if you have a few minutes to kill (knight) while on the go.

// It’s cheap!

This son of a gun regularly goes on sale for like ten bucks. Canadian! There’s no excuse. The McMeal you bought last week cost more than that.

Get to it, the eldritch arena awaits.

Side note: If tight controls and mastery through repetition sounds up your alley, I encourage you to check out my review of SIFU which employs a very similar ideology.