Summary
- Midnight Fight Express blends Hotline Miami chaos with Sifu's hand-to-hand combat in a top-down action game with satisfying gameplay and nonstop action.
- Intravenous offers a mix of stealth and intense gunfights, reminiscent of Hotline Miami's gameplay style but with a focus on challenging mechanics.
- RUINER, a brutal shooter with cyberpunk themes, adds gadgets and upgrades for a leg-up on enemies, distinguishing itself from Hotline Miami's simplicity.
Hotline Miami was one of publisher Devolver Digital's first breakout success stories. The game, developed by Dennaton Games, is a frantic, fast-paced shooter with a vaporwave soundtrack and a 80s psychedelic aesthetic and theme.
Hotline Miami is notorious for its fluid, chaotic gameplay, pounding music, and cryptic narrative. Its gameplay is also particularly deadly and unforgiving, with players frequently having to hit the retry button as they make their way through any of the game's challenging levels. Hotline Miami has gone on to imspire many other game developers, with some adapting elements from their inspiration into these other Hotline Miami- esque games.
8 Midnight Fight Express
Intense, Fast-Paced Combat
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
- Released: 2022
- Developer(s): Jacob Dzwinel
- Genre: Action
This top-down, 3D action game plays like a combination of Hotline Miami and Sifu. The game's beat 'em up style gameplay has an emphasis on hand-to-hand and melee combat that will likely appeal to fans of classic beat 'em ups and the methodical action of Sifu, but the general feel and nonstop action make Midnight Fight Express a great choice for Hotline Miami fans.
SImilarly to Hotline Miami, success in Midnight Fight Express boils down to fast reaction times and quick-thinking. Despite being melee-focused, Midnight Fight Express does feature a variety of powerful guns that can turn the tide of combat in an instant, for better or worse.
7 Intravenous
Fast-Paced Gunplay
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2021
- Developer(s): Explosive Squat Games
- Genre: Stealth, Top-Down Shooter
This combination of hardcore stealth and high-octane firefights takes clear inspiration from old-school stealth games like Splinter Cell and top-down shooters like Hotline Miami. Although Intravenous plays more like the former, the game's gunplay is smooth, fast-paced, and likely to appease fans of Hotline Miami's top-down action.
Intravenous is a brutally challenging and unforgiving game, which fans of Hotline Miami will likely appreciate. Despite having plenty of gun-fighting action, Intravenous often encourages stealth on the part of the player, and so it may not appeal to all Hotline Miami fans.
6 RUINER
Satisfying Top-Down Shooter
Ruiner
This brutal top-down shooter, also published by Devolver Digital, features a pulsing soundtrack and a stark color palette driven by dark colors and bright reds. The game's cyberpunk themes and aesthetic, fast-paced action, and frantic music make for an experience that cuts close to the Hotline Miami bone.
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Unlike Hotline Miami, RUINER features several gadgets that players can use to give themselves a leg-up over their enemies. RUINER also features an upgrade system, which Hotline Miami lacks outside of its various mask unlocks.
5 APE OUT
Breakneck Pace
- Platform(s): PC, Nintendo Switch
- Released: 2019
- Developer(s): Gabe Cuzzillo, Bennett Foddy, Maxi Boch
- Genre: Action
Featuring a uniquely clean-cut, flat-color aesthetic and a simple narrative, APE OUT isn't entirely similar to Hotline Miami, but its gameplay is remarkably close. In APE OUT, players take on the role of an escaped ape, barreling through various environments and taking out anyone in their path.
Among APE OUT's developers is Bennett Foddy, and the game even shares a publisher with Hotline Miami in the form of Devolver Digital. The stylized, flat-color palette and jazz soundtrack make for a truly distinctive experience, but fans of Hotline Miami will likely get a kick out of APE OUT's similarly breakneck pace.
4 Heat Signature
Challenging Combat
Heat Signature
- Released
- September 21, 2017
- Developer(s)
- Suspicious Developments
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure
Developed by Suspicious Developments, a game studio headed up by Tom Francis (whose previous work includes the popular Gunpoint), Heat Signature is a combination of top-down shooters, Roguelikes, and even immersive sims. In the game, players take on the role of a semi-random spacefarer with their own personal mission and traits.
Heat Signature tasks players with taking on and completing missions to earn cash and buy better equipment. Each mission largely revolves around the player boarding and infiltrating a spacecraft using the tools and gadgets available to them, as well as their own ingenuity. However, when a fight inevitably breaks out, the fast-paced gunfights and unforgiving melee combat play similarly to games like Hotline Miami.
3 Post Void
Death Is Always Around The Corner
Post Void
Post Void is a psychedelic first-person shooter with an old-school look and feel that plays at a reckless pace. Despite being a first-person shooter, there's plenty to like here for fans of Hotline Miami's frantic action. Post Void is a Roguelike that tasks players with jetting through tight corridors and claustrophobic rooms, taking down enemies with lightning-fast reactions and making it to the end of the level before their health runs out.
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The challenge, however, is that the player's health is represented by a constantly-draining jar of liquid. Taking hits from enemies makes this liquid drain faster, but if players aren't fast enough, they'll die even without taking direct damage. This forces players to move fast in order to succeed, ensuring the pace never lets up.
2 The Hong Kong Massacre
A Blend Of Insipirations
- Platform(s): PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
- Released: 2019
- Developer(s): VRESKI
- Genre: Top-Down Shooter
The Hong Kong Massacre plays somewhat like a combination of Hotline Miami and the classic third-person shooter, Max Payne. The game features a top-down perspective, fast-paced gunfights, and a bullet-time mechanic that creates some truly cinematic moments.
The Hong Kong Massacre, as its title may suggest, plays almost like a video game adaptation of classic Hong Kong action cinema, such as John Woo's Hard Boiled. Similarly to Max Payne, this title allows players to dodge and dive in slow-motion, turning its Hotline Miami-style action sequences into methodical shootouts.
1 OTXO
Inspired By Hotline Miami But Not A Direct Copy
Otxo
- Released
- April 20, 2023
- Platform(s)
- PC
- Developer
- Lateralis Heavy Industries, Lateralis
- Genre(s)
- Shooter, Simulation
Featuring a black-and-white aesthetic punctuated by bursts of blood-red, OTXO is a heavily stylized top-down shooter that wears its Hotline Miami influences on its sleeve. Similarly to The Hong Kong Massacre, OTXO also features a bullet-time slow-motion mechanic that helps it to stand apart from its influences.
Unlike Hotline Miami, OTXO is an action Roguelike with permanent death and a variety of upgrades to acquire during each run. This, among other intricacies, makes OTXO a distinctive interpretation of Hotline Miami's iconic action, while still being a clear inspiration.
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