Box art traditionally isn’t one-to-one with the videogames inside. Early Atari-era games used lavish paintings to depict what became, in-game, 6×6 pixel models. NeuroVoider though isn’t hiding. The neon pink and green font imprints itself in front of laser-spitting robots, all backed by pitch black. It’s potent, much like the game itself.

Endearing itself to retro stylings (down to a faux CRT curvature), the twin-stick effort looks on with hopelessness. The there-for-the-sake-of-it narrative barely chimes in. Humanity died. Robots rule. Kill the robots. NeuroVoider feels rotten though, thematically dark with glowing sewage and civilization’s remnants strewn about. The tech side glitches and artifacts (purposefully), glazing NeuroVoider with a touch of ambient robotics. Occasionally, a bright hue pokes from the darkness, as if overloading the robotic sensors.

It’s all clever, charming, and a bit kitschy. Twin-sticks exist by the dozens; NeuroVoider’s standout quality is to add a personal development signature to the whole thing. NeuroVoider is not large in scale or ambition, but the trade-off then brings to life a well-sharpened, bullet laced explosion party with a grim setting. For once, the overused “rogue-like” designation fits a true throwback aesthetic, all playable in a single sitting.

4/5