Summary
- Neon Abyss offers a vibrant cyberpunk aesthetic with addictive combat-focused gameplay and neon pixel art visuals.
- Tales Of The Neon Sea provides a rich, puzzle-filled cyberpunk world for players to explore and engage with as a detective.
- Katana Zero delivers a brutal, fast-paced cyberpunk experience with a neo-noir narrative, challenging combat, and neon pixel art.
It's no secret that cyberpunk has been a popular theme for video game settings over the years. Many games often take inspiration from the cyberpunk dystopian worlds of films such as Blade Runner, providing backdrops filled with corrupt corporations, neon lights, and cybernetics.
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Due to their cyberpunk nature, many of these games are often driven by their dark, futuristic narratives. However, some games lean more toward the cyberpunk aesthetic rather than the themes often associated with the genre, providing vibrant neon visuals and run-down industrial environments. These next games take the latter approach, using pixel art to depict their futuristic sci-fi worlds.
7 Neon Abyss
A Bright, Neon Action Rogue-Lite
Neon Abyss
While Neon Abyss is a Rogue-lite with a focus on combat rather than narrative, its visual style matches the cyberpunk aesthetic perfectly. As its name suggests, Neon Abyss is packed with neon colors that sell its cyberpunk theme remarkably well, all in a crunchy pixel-art style.
Neon Abyss is a Rogue-lite that features heavy meta-progression systems, so players looking for a more hardcore experience will likely be disappointed. However, the game's cyberpunk pixel art and glowing neon lights provide a more than palatable aesthetic for the run-and-gun gameplay.
6 Tales Of The Neon Sea
A Point-And-Click Detective Story In A Cyberpunk Setting
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch
- Released: 2019
- Developer(s): YiTi Games
- Genre: Adventure
This old-school pixel art point-and-click adventure takes place in a rich, well-crafted cyberpunk world. As a classic point-and-click adventure, Tales Of The Neon Sea is packed with puzzles for players to solve, but it's the level of visual detail and well-crafted narrative that make it worth playing.
The world of Tales Of The Neon Sea is packed with rich texture, making the it fun to explore and the NPCs interesting to interact with. Players take on the role of a detective, with much of the narrative and gameplay being based around criminal investigation and deduction.
5 The Red Strings Club
Bartending In A Cyberpunk Future
The Red Strings Club
Published by Devolver Digital, The Red Strings Club is a stylish cyberpunk narrative game driven by its thriller story. The Red Strings Club's characters and cyberpunk environments are depicted in a painterly pixel art style, offering a dense noir atmosphere and mood.
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As a narrative-focused game, The Red Strings Club is somewhat light on gameplay mechanics. However, the gameplay that is there, including the bartending mini-game, is fun and intuitive. This light gameplay serves the game's well-told cyberpunk story well, allowing the narrative and the retro pixel art to shine.
4 HUNTDOWN
Classic Run-And-Gun In A Dark Cyberpunk World
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Switch
- Released: 2021
- Developer(s): Easy Trigger Games
- Genre: Shooter
This fast-paced, side-scrolling arcade action game features visceral gunfights and platforming action in a dystopian cyberpunk future reminiscent of RoboCop. HUNTDOWN features 16-bit pixel art and lovingly-crafted and fluid animations that paint its dark cyberpunk world with brilliant detail.
HUNTDOWN puts players in the shoes of a bounty hunter, carving a way through crime-ridden cyberpunk streets. Backgrounds and environments are packed with giant blimps, neon colors, and industrial structures that depict a world that hearkens to Blade Runner and RoboCop alike.
3 Sanabi
A Dystopian Action-Platformer
Sanabi
Sanabi is a fast-paced action platformer with fluid movement and controls, set in a dystopian cyberpunk future. Sanabi's stylish pixel art is one of its greatest strengths, depicting its cyberpunk world with rich details.
The game's combination of fluid action and intuitive movement make it a title that's consistently fun to play. Sanabi's narrative is also frequently engaging, constantly incentivizing players to keep pushing forward.
2 Whispers Of A Machine
A Point-And-Click Adventure In A Unique Cyberpunk Setting
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: 2019
- Developer(s): Clifftop Games, Faravid Interactive
- Genre: Adventure
Similarly to games such as The Red Strings Club and Tales Of The Neon Sea, Whispers Of A Machine is a story-driven, old-school adventure game. However, Whispers Of A Machine takes place in a particularly unique cyberpunk setting.
The setting of Whispers Of A Machine is a post-AI world, in which developing AI is heavily outlawed and has been for a long time. The game puts players in the shoes of a detective with an array of cybernetic augments, and tasks them with investigating a series of murders. This cyberpunk narrative is bolstered by dramatic voice acting, which helps to sell the game's dystopian world.
1 Katana Zero
A Brutal Action-Platformer With A Neo Noir Narrative
Katana ZERO
This stylized neo noir action platformer puts players in the shoes of a katana-wielding assassin, fighting through visceral encounters in tight corridors. Katana Zero's greatest strengths are its cyberpunk, neo noir narrative, its brutal, fast-paced combat, and its vibrant neon pixel art.
Katana Zero's combat is an unforgiving experience in which the player can die extremely quickly. However, the game gives the player limited use of slow motion to help them deflect bullets and take down enemies. While players can deflect bullets without this skill, they're likely to rely on it early on. Once players have mastered deflecting projectiles, though, Katana Zero's combat becomes a fluid power fantasy.
Special Mention: The Last Night
- Platform(s): PC
- Released: N/A
- Developer(s): Odd Tales
- Genre: Adventure
Though unreleased, The Last Night looks to be one of the most visually impressive pixel-art games ever made, thanks to a handful of modern techniques and effects. The Last Night blends 2D characters and 3D environments, combined with dynamic lighting and post-processing.
The Last Night's lighting, animations, and cinematography show a breathtaking pixel art cyberpunk world with remarkable attention to detail. Whether or not the final product will live up to expectations remains to be seen. However. Revealed all the way back in 2017, The Last Night has been in development for quite some time. However, the developer, Odd Tales, released a detailed presentation on the game's architecture back in February 2024, and it looked very promising.
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