Perhaps my love for classic arcade titles makes me a bit too critical when modern games try to pick up on aspects of their play, but in my mind if you’re going to clearly emulate a classic you should do it some justice. Unfortunately, the failure to even come close to matching the memorable gameplay of Paperboy, let alone in any way surpass it, started me off with a bad taste in my mouth with Death Noodle Delivery.

The good news, I suppose, is that this isn’t simply meant to be a neon-lit take on that arcade classic, as it moves between its action-oriented side and one that’s more focused on storytelling as you progress. Here you’ll be able to explore your character’s world a bit, seeing some elements of a potential future full of VR addicts and people with more timeless struggles like drugs, intercut with a variety of jokes that range from being more smart and satirical, to base and scatalogical. The thing is, consistent with the arcade-oriented sequences, while there were some thoughtful or amusing hits on this side of the fence I’d say there were just as many misses overall.

The result feels like 2 pretty disparate gameplay styles that have been bolted together with a veneer of neon and cyberpunk sensibilities, but not necessarily much heart or polish. In many ways I wish the focus had either been on one aspect of play or another, polishing up the action to match the personality and fun of Paperboy, or having more compelling story beats and messages to convey without the distraction of the action. If, however, you’d prefer some variety and a decent effort on both sides of the coin, perhaps you could find it compelling over its somewhat modest runtime.