Working as a Game Tester, it's my job to test all sorts of games that I've never heard of before. The great thing about this is that sometimes I'll discover new games that are simply loads of fun. Such is the case for Demon Front.

I grew up on SNK games, quickly becoming a huge fan of their titles. One series in particularly was a Side-scrolling Shooter by the name of Metal Slug. One of the things I noticed first when testing out Demon Front is how reminiscent it looked of a Metal Slug game. It too was a side-scrolling shooter with platforming elements and really had an overall similar feel. However, this game manages to take an already fun game like Metal Slug and improve upon it.

Demon Front features a cast of four different playable characters. Each character has a special helper spirit thingy that lends them unique abilities. These can be special charge shots, shields, or even altering movement. Due to this, each character plays differently and isn't just a carbon copy of the others like most similar games tend to do. It's a lot of fun to strategically make use of these special powers in addition to your regular shots to enhance gameplay.

Graphics: 9 - While not as polished as the Metal Slug series, I still found the graphics to be very good. They're very clear and vibrant with lots of colorful sprites and animations. The explosions and shot graphics are very well done. I also appreciate that fact that each character has their own discernibly unique design rather than just being a custom head planted on the same generic body.

Sound: 6 - This may be a bit unfair since the emulator reports the sound emulation isn't 100% so it's possible the sound quality of the real game is a lot higher than what the RGR represents... still it didn't have terrible sound. The shot and explosion SFX seemed appropriate and there were even voice effects. The background music felt a bit bland though and wasn't especially memorable for me.

Addictiveness: 10 - This game is super addictive to me. I really like Metal Slug, as I said before and this is like that but better. It's really fun to play with these characters and their special powers. It also seems like it would be even more fun in multiplayer.

Story: n/a - I don't actually know the story yet because I haven't completed the game. I'll update this once I get to the end, but I don't feel it's fair to attempt to rate it at this time.

Depth: 7 - I feel there's a fair amount of depth to this game. You can replay it to experience it as other characters and try out all their abilities and whatnot. There's also a stage select so you can kinda go in different orders through different playthroughs to create different experiences. The actual game itself isn't super long, though.

Difficulty: 5 - If you're used to this genre, this game isn't very hard. I find it to be a fair deal easier than other similar games due to the special abilities you have. When you have a magical bunny that can turn into a magical shield for you to protect you from all attacks, it's not that hard to get through the more intense parts. If you've never played games like this; however, it could be rather difficult for you.

Overall, I give this a preliminary rating of 8.2, which is considered "Very Good". Do note that this rating is subject to change once I've fully assessed its story and factored that in. Story is very important to me in games and a bad on will bring a game's score drastically, while a great one can lift it up a lot. Just assessing the game for its gameplay value, it's definitely a very good game. I really did enjoy what I've played of it so far and recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Metal Slug or Contra.