On paper, Sentry City seems to be a game that’s right up my rain soaked, neon drenched alley.

With a great pixel art aesthetic, some neat pop culture references – almost obligatory Akira bike cameo for one example – and a great sense of cyberpunk style, including an awesome soundtrack, Sentry City really seems to have it all.

Except it falls down in the most important way: its gameplay.

There’s loads of little niggles, with jumps being just a little too precision-based at times and enemy placement, as well as movement patterns, getting ridiculously unfair as you progress.

Level design is poor overall, with lots of reused assets and trial and error gameplay, rather than situations you feel that you have a chance to react properly.

It turns the game into a memory test, rather than a game that feels like it’s giving you the opportunity to advance on skill alone.

Hardcore platformers have their place and their audience, but the central tenet of any tough game is that they still need to provide a player with a fair challenge – and Sentry City absolutely fails in that, unfortunately.

It wasn’t for me, but if tough as nails platformers – that rely on advance knowledge of stages in order to progress – are your bag, maybe you’d enjoy Sentry City.

If you do want to give it a go, good luck. You’ll need it!

Many thanks to Sentry City publisher Flynn’s Arcade for providing me with a code for review purposes.