I’m not sure if “cute pixel-art girls” is a set genre, but my visit to the Playism booth at Tokyo Game Show 2024 shows that there’s a ton of upcoming games with that in mind. For this short feature, I’ll be focusing on the one that left the biggest impression on me: Nitro Express.

Published by Playism and made by Grayfax Software, Nitro Express is a 2D side-view gun action game where you play as a pink-haired and yellow jacket-wearing one-girl police force army who has guns, grenades, and a trigger-happy disposition. The battleground of gunplay takes place in Nitro City, Tokyo Special Administrative Region, where robots and automatic vehicles are running wild and need to be put down to keep the citizens safe. Your main character is part of the Atypical Vehicle Disposal Squad (AVDS) and need to deal with tons of rogue vehicles from moving turrets to giant APCs as bosses. And so far, this indie title looks like it deserves its shiny badge of honour.

Express Yourself

The 10-minute demo started us off with a tutorial for the controls, followed by a street level stage filled with rogue machinery. Before every mission, you can choose what guns to buy from the police allowance you’re given. The high-powered guns are clearly off-limits due to their exorbitant price tags, but we had access to sniper rifles, assault rifles, and shotguns. My choices for the demo are the auto shotgun for up-close damage and the assault rifle for mid-to-long range attacks.

Controls are methodical and purposefully made slow; your police girl isn’t the fastest person to command, but she can dodge roll out of trouble and has a pretty high jump. Both are perfect for avoiding enemy fire while you kinda-run-and-gun. Your guns are more accurate if you stay still and shoot, much like any Counter-Strike title you’ve touched, so a bit of balance between hit-and-run tactics and finding the best vantage points for aiming is required from the player. And then there’s the aiming: the feature that sets this 2D shooter apart from other 2D run-and-gun titles.

You aim your gun using the right analog stick and it’s highlighted by the red line of sights from your character. Depending on your gun, you’ll either fire in a straight line or scatter from the general direction you’re aiming. Nitro Express’ shooting takes cues from other older titles like Abuse and Shadow Complex, but adds its own 2D 80s anime girl-focused spin to it.

My playthrough consists of me mowing down automated drones with guns, jumping over barricades, and dealing with a giant APC for the level’s boss. The boss tries to ram me while firing loads of projectiles, but luckily there was a platform I can leap onto to avoid the charge. I still have to be careful of the lighting bombs the APC fires that litter electricity fields onto the platform, but it’s nothing a timely jump or two cannot fix.

If you need a Metal Slug fix but with brighter aesthetics and a more “aiming friendly” kind of experience coupled with quality-of-life features like a dodge button, Nitro Express may be that hit you need to sate your methodical 2D run-and-gun bloodlust. Nitro Express is slated for a 2025 release for PC (Steam).