Our hybrid side-scroller and gallery-shooter Neon Inferno launches on PS5 & PS4 this Thursday, November 20. Rendered in beautiful pixel art and backed by an evocative soundtrack, Neon Inferno is a stylish, modern 2D action experience with cyberpunk flair. As you play either as Angelo Morano or Mariana Vitti, you’ll battle through the streets, blasting, deflecting, and slicing your way through your enemies, using multiple upgrades and weapon options to shift a city-wide conflict in your favor.
Today, we’re giving you a taste of the action with a first look at three mini-bosses that’ll put your skills to the test as you ride a jet-ski through a flooded city scene.
In this dystopian New York City, the yearly flash-floods have transformed the streets of Inner Manhattan into canals, and, after receiving orders from your superiors to eliminate an important informant, you’ll find yourself coming face-to-face with three challenging mini-bosses as you enter its West Village district on jet-ski, heedlessly rushing into the storm.
Immediately you encounter several hyper-militarized NYPD officers in hot pursuit, coming at you from all sides in both foreground and background. Luckily, they can each be taken out in just one shot.
The NYPD will also send in autonomous drones of two varieties. The first model of drone fires glowing green bullets, which you can easily deflect back to destroy their source machine. But the second model drops deadly missiles on top of you, and these must be avoided entirely.
During and between all of this, obstacles might appear in the background, and you must contend with these as well. You’ll see a warning icon right before an obstacle comes onscreen, so react in time and switch lanes on your jet-ski to avoid crashing.
The Leviathan
Their standard protocols having failed, the NYPD sends in the first of our three menaces: the “Leviathan”, a highly-armored submarine outfitted with two heavy cannons! The smaller of the two typically fires pulsing rounds which can’t be deflected, but it can also shoot green ones if and when its barrel starts to, well, glow green. Get your timing right and deflect back any green bullets to deal even more damage!
Like with most other enemies, you can shoot at the Leviathan while it’s in the background, but its cannons still track you even from a distance! The larger cannon can fire orange spherical projectiles which explode onto the water, breaking into two smaller orbs that you must jump off your jet-ski to avoid. Alternatively it may fire another type of projectile, a blue one, which breaks into three smaller projectiles in three different directions. So pay attention to the color of each projectile, and above all, pay attention to whenever the Leviathan dives underwater and where it resurfaces. You don’t want to get caught off-guard if this behemoth reappears from right under you!
Dreadnought
The second menace is the flying “Dreadnought”, an airship constructed by the corporate mercenary group Pangaea. The Dreadnought features many different types of cannons right along its hull. Dodge its larger cannons’ pulsing red-and-blue projectiles, while deflecting its smaller cannons’ green bullets right back at their mothership. On top of this bullet ballet, you’ll also have to avoid the laser beams which the machine fires downwards from time to time!
While this particular miniboss could seem trivial, since all you really have to do is shoot up, your positioning is also key, and this makes things quite tricky. Pay attention whenever the Dreadnought’s laser beams are about to fire, and be careful not to get caught in a bullet volley while avoiding said lasers. And if you think you can just hang out on the left side of the screen and cruise through this fight, you’ll find plenty of grenades dropped right on top of you from the airship’s sliding hatch.
The Hydrosnake
As the Dreadnought goes through its destruction sequence, that aforementioned hatch opens one last time to release our third and last menace: the “Hydrosnake”, an unmanned yet highly-lethal killing machine that will stop at nothing to annihilate you. It dives in and out of the water with all the skill of an Olympian, launching itself into the air as it pummels you with projectile fire. Like with the Leviathan, pay attention whenever the Hydrosnake dives into the water, and closely track where it comes up. The Hydrosnake might even launch itself completely offscreen and dive back directly onto your position, so make sure to watch out for any warning icons: They might save your life!
You’ll also want to keep an eye on the Hydrosnake’s primary laser, whose status is indicated by a pulsing light at the snake’s red “eye”. This laser beam drags across your entire lane, whether you’re in the foreground or the background, so you’ll want to dodge to the opposite lane before it fires. Thankfully, the entire body of the Hydrosnake is susceptible to your blaster-fire, so keep on shooting and you’ll prevail.
But what’s the best part about defeating these three minibosses? This entire flooded city scene is only the start of this epic mission. You’ll have plenty to look forward to even after your victory – provided you are indeed victorious – with more new, unique, and hand-crafted challenges to come.
Think you have what it takes to defeat these three mechanical monsters? Battle the Leviathan, the Dreadnought, and the Hydrosnake in Neon Inferno – available for PlayStation 4 and 5 on November 20, 2025. And if you can’t wait? Wishlist Neon Inferno now!
