Dwayne — in his continued effort to make up for not telling me about Lil Guardsman — has placed in front of me a game so oddly familiar but somehow unique that it almost made me forgive him. Gennady is a 2D action-platformer heavy on both the action and heart-printed underwear. Outside of the fact that the game name reminds me of the animation king himself, Genndy Tartakovsky, it also makes me think of Wario Land.

‘gennady’ is why i needed to decompress after work before doing anything

Steam description, take us there. “Imagine your grumpy neighbor blowing up the backside of an alien world with a blaster instead of resting after his shift.” Yes. Because after driving an hour and a half to work, being there for eight hours, and then doing another hour and some change back home? I would be ready to take out whatever came my way. Instead, I’d lose myself in games and my daughter’s repeated attempts to bop me on the head. So, I get where he’s coming from.

Before we get into the gameplay, Gennady looks incredible. The black and white comic book style splattered with color where necessary is amazing. It absolutely jumps off of the screen. It’s even better in motion. The smoothness of the animations is something I didn’t expect from a game that doesn’t even have a release date or a demo yet. I can’t imagine how much better it will look once polished into a playable state.

The gameplay matches the animation; it’s fast, fluid, and chaotic as all hell. And if you were wondering why Dwayne dropped this one in my inbox, it’s got some rogue-lite elements. I would have never thought someone would mix Wario Land with a rogue-lite. But here we are, and I’m very excited to get into it. The fact that the main character is running around in his underwear tells me that this is not a game that takes itself too seriously. So, I expect to run into some comical dialogue at a minimum. But, yes, I’m sold on this and will need to get my hands on it as soon as possible. Shaun has Antonblast; Gennady might be my thing. Hit that wishlist button.