Spine is a Sifu-Meets shooting action game with a technical coffee-style style
Blog Andrew Joseph 24 Jun , 2025 0
The spine is hidden in the corner of the Summer Olympics event, and it is definitely the kind of game designed to turn and get attention. The late 90s of the third-person action title definitely had an arcade style that forced players to grab the controller and see what was going on on their own. Although it was early, in my hands-on demonstration with the spine, I can say with certainty that I was so excited to see it evolve as it evolved.
Aesthetically, the spine fits the Cyberpunk-Blade Runner mold for a crowded dystopian city, with neon lights everywhere to sub-zero corners. Players play the role of a street artist named Redline, who is accused of committing crimes she did not commit and quickly finds himself surrounded by a thug from the bar. Redline fights enemies with deadly power and moves forward in everything about punching and shooting her.
Players familiar with SIFU will immediately notice the game in the form of quick pokes, special attacks, and parry-driven finishing action, but the developers get rid of the special comparison. Instead, they insisted that it was more like Rocksteady’s Arkham series Batman champion, focusing on reading, more sport than predicting enemies.
Regardless of inspiration, the true carnival feel of the spine comes from the glitz and excessive terminator won by the relief enemy attack. The red line is not for a harsh or gentle heart, which usually forces the enemy to push a gun between teeth or spin the gun like John Wick and spin behind the skull. The camera zooms in, rotates and plates around the organizer to showcase her Gunkata's most dramatic and cinematic angles, and then Redline quickly moves to the next Goon.
The parry can also throw things at the enemy or shoot at her, allowing her to quickly tilt or turn the projectiles that will be found incoming, regardless of the ease of starting up, will be very satisfying.
Sometimes, Redline picks up another weapon with limited ammunition (such as shotgun) and hits the enemy. These parts are more like Miami’s hotline than anything Batman does, sometimes even taking a countertop camera angle to complete allusions, intentional or otherwise.
I can't wear the Sega Genesis vibe of my spine completely, but it definitely evokes an alternative reality that Beat-'Em-Ups became the largest type in the world in the 90s and iterated on that formula for decades. Although there is a lot to see before determining the location on the spine of that legendary level, I am very interested in watching it get there.