One thing that has been interesting to see in this generation is not only the rise of retro-styled games, but seeing just how diverse they have managed to be. While you have the more obvious types that range from straight-up ports to re-imaginings, there are others that go to great lengths to honor the games of yesterday by making new creations that could be mistaken as having been contemporaries within an earlier era. That’s where Byte the Bullet starts, and then spends quite a bit of its time, rocking a core graphically simplistic look and relatively basic core controls… but what helps set it apart are some of the surprises and clever beats you’ll run into along the way.

Being reductive, this feels like an 8-bit era platform shooter, but pretty quickly you’ll find that there’s more depth to it than that. Rather than simply being able to hold down the fire button you’ll need to keep an eye on your gun overheating when used too much. You have a boosted jump, but you’ll need to mind the cooldown between uses. While perhaps this could add to some aggravation for some players, I think it’s also part of what helps set the game apart. Moving through multiple zones of an infected computer the nature of the challenges you’ll face, and how you’ll need to play, will change a bit as well to reflect the area you’re in. While not everything may always work, again I appreciate the care put into trying to make the most of the experience.

But where the game really takes a leap to do something more interesting and fun comes into play with its many secret areas and levels based on a surprising variety of classic games. While some feel like safe bets considering their revered statuses, I was happy to see some older-school representation as well. What can be a challenge is the fact that typically the game’s own control style and systems are what you’ll need to work with, so rather than simply being a clone of classic titles these work out as remixes. Now, I will admit that in some cases it felt like some of these retro tours overstayed their welcome, but in general it was hard to be mad at the respect and love being thrown to some classics, delivered with some care with a slightly different spin.

What started out feeling like it could be more of the same really turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This is one of those titles where you can clearly see where the developer has gone the extra mile. Whether adding more nuance and challenge to what’s otherwise pretty straight retro-style gameplay, or taking you down memory road to revisit iconic titles from yesteryear that are changed just enough to feel fresh. Obviously made with some love by someone who knows their classic games, it's a retro title that stands out quite nicely from many of its peers.