ANALYSIS OF ANOMALITY AGENTS. YOU AGAINST THE LOOP.

The anomaly agent is a beat them Cyberpunk from the 80s, with all the action and music of the era.

Phew Phew Games is a Turkish developer created by two brothers who are passionate about video games, and it shows. Anomaly Agent is his first job. Breathe 16 Bit in its design although the mechanics are updated and well implemented.

When the 80s were the future.

The idea of cyberpunk is both vintage and futuristic. It’s a rooftop of 80s New York with more neon lights (if possible), flying cars and some mechanical arms. Anomaly Agent has all that and a story that could have featured it Stallone o Bruce Willis.

The player plays an agent of TDAY, the office in charge of space-time anomalies. One last mission and you will be promoted and can relax in your chair eating donuts and reading reports. But this mission becomes complicated (who would have thought) and finds himself trapped in a time loop attacked by a group of bad guys and their army of clones. The story has its merits but it does not leave aside the humor and the inconsistency of what it tells for the sake of pleasure.

It has a pixel art aesthetic that fits wonderfully and a character design drawn from several recognized references, from Cowboy Bebop until Matrix. A detail that I loved: for the presentation of the main characters, another type of design is also recorded that perfectly matches the game, giving it more definition. Ultimately, we don’t see faces and we need a bigger boost of imagination, the typical artistry that was reserved for instruction books.

An environment like this looks like synthesizers and increscendo music. It looks like a nightclub full of neo-tobacco smoke and sweaty biomechanical bodies. All mixed with action. And so Anomaly Agent crushes your ears. It has the best soundtrack an old cyberpunk action game can have. In this section it is worth mentioning. We are all ready to return to the past.

16-bit arcade in 2024.

It’s not just the pixel that takes you to another era. The agent is still moving in scroll lateral (or vertical) jump on different platforms to blast the hordes of enemies that appear from the portals. In this sense, it hardly mixes the two concepts: screens (yes, screens) which serve to escape through agility and others which serve only to destroy the clones with punches and weapons that they leave on the way. Of course, then it gets complicated, the same way a cartridge or an arcade gets complicated: incredibly.

But here we are in 2024 and what worked then now seems artificially difficult and the consumer has played more. This is where Anomaly Agent takes it for a spin. Everything is more difficult, it’s measured so that it makes you feel impossible but in some attempts the game clicks and you see the matrix. In fact, the combat at the beginning is frustrating because it does not happen at the speed we are used to, the parry is difficult to manage and in my case the button configuration did not favor me. This can be changed and by the end of the trip I was enjoying every piece like a Kung Fu master.

It adds some combos and skills that make the very fluid combat (in its tempo) and a skill tree to spend money and increase your damage. Here I find a flaw and that is that the skills you buy are mainly aimed at improving guns. This is not well compensated by the rest of the skills that in my case I used more.

I already said screens and yes, there are screens. Each phase ends with its final boss, as it should. But these phases are in turn divided into screens or rooms which, when you overcome them, give you back your life. This also happens during different boss stages. It gets a lot of attention, but the game is really demanding. The number of attempts per room is high since Sometimes you need to stop and think about where you start distributing. Because, like before, the enemy does not wait for his turn and two launch their super attack on you at the same time.

Conclusions.

In case you didn’t know, we have a Telegram Group in which we talk about what we play. The comment about finishing a dense game then starting another long game has been repeated before. Anomaly Agent can be the perfect bridge between time sinks. But not because it’s simple, but because it’s both fun and challenging, without wanting you to immerse yourself in a complicated story. Even with his New Game + he can stay for a while. It’s a very enjoyable game in all its sections, especially once you get back into the tempo of combat. Finding yourself in a hallway full of enemies is a familiar feeling. With Anomaly Agent it’s very pleasant. A challenge that is only suitable for you. The music rises. It’s time to share.