Antonblast is a destructive 2D action platformer with a killer soundtrack and striking visuals, and it’s getting a PC demo today. With crude characters and fast-paced gameplay, developer Summitsphere’s latest looks great up front. More important, however, is the spoofy demo trailer that the developer just released. Never has a video so accurately captured the look and feel of an early-2000s video game commercial, as Dynamite Anton takes the stage, beer in hand, to tell players his sad life story. (There’s also a ’90s “Sega scream” thrown in at the start and end for good measure.) It’s an assault on the senses that aims to sell Antonblast’s overall vibe, and you can witness it for yourself below.
Antonblast tells the story of the stocky, neckless hero, Dynamite Anton. He’s a destruction worker with a score to settle with Satan himself, but his journey won’t be an easy one. Players will blast through 12 unique worlds with a Spirit Detonator mechanic that sees them quickly exiting each area after reaching its end. It’s all animated with hand-drawn graphics and a groove-filled soundtrack.
Although Antonblast shares more than a few things in common with Tour De Pizza’s Pizza Tower, both games are actually influenced by a series that is nearly three decades old. If you couldn’t tell from the Spirit Detonator mechanic, Game Boy Advance-style visuals, bustling music, and the angry protagonist, Antonblast is pretty clearly trying to pick up on where Wario Land left off. However, it’s not quite a copy-and-paste adventure, as Dynamite Anton will also bash through more 2.5D gameplay while using a giant hammer to spiral into obstacles. Still, it’s pretty close to that core Wario Land adventure that fans have been without for far too long.
Antonblast is “coming soon” to PC and Nintendo Switch. Today’s demo seemingly hasn’t gone live on Steam for all people at the time of writing, but it will allow players to control either Anton or his coworker, Annie, to sprint through two of the game’s levels. If the demo is currently unavailable to you, Summitsphere says you can copy and paste “steam://install/2446460” into your browser to directly download the game from Steam.
