Two women, Tanya and Olga, share a bond that gives them magical powers, but an evil queen separates them so their powers are weaker.  Now it’s up to the one woman who didn’t get captured to rescue the other one and overthrow the tyrannical queen and her vast army in this 2-D retro styled hack and slash platformer.  It’s available on all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

In the game you choose to play as Tanya or Olga, but both play pretty much the same.  I just picked the one with pink hair and white dress because she looked funny fighting all those military dudes in that getup.  You can jump and run, double jump, hop up walls like Mega Man X, dodge roll, and use a slash attack to defeat nearby enemies.  Play control is solid and responsive.  Sometimes you can climb into turrets and mow down waves of enemies, and in some areas you can fly a vehicle and the game turns into a side scrolling shooter.  You’ll tromp through over a dozen two-part stages with a boss at the end of each one.  Sometimes after a level, you’ll learn a new skill, too.  Find health pickups and other hidden items to give you an edge as well.  There is also a two player co-op mode where you play as both of the heroines!

The 16-bit style pixel graphics are very detailed and nice to look at, and the chiptune soundtrack is really energetic and driving.  You can choose three difficulty selections, but it’s pretty tough even on Easy.  My main problem with the game is that once you get to a certain point, it’s not waves of enemies that’ll do you in, but instant death pits and lava and bosses that like to knock you into them.  It’s just hard for me to get into a game that artificially makes the game more difficult with cheap tricks like that.  But if you are up to the challenge and crave to play something that looks like a souped up version of Rush’N Attack/Green Beret, then you may want to check this one out. It certainly plays like something I would’ve rented back as a kid anyway.

Kid Factor:

Infinite: Beyond the Mind is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.  You slash all sorts of military dudes and vehicles, but they just fall back or explode when defeated.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, and younger gamers may find it too difficult.

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