Buckle-up space cadets and get ready for a mighty slice of interstellar carnage.

Brutal combat. Deadly enemies. Stunning pixel art. Savage soundtrack. Get ready to rip the galaxy a new wormhole!

After mysteriously vanishing from galactic charts, the fortress of Valfaris has suddenly reappeared in the orbit of a dying sun. Once a self-contained paradise, the grandiose citadel now plays host to an ever-growing darkness.Therion, a fearless and proud son of Valfaris, returns to his home to uncover the truth of its doomed fate and to challenge the arcane evil at its very heart.

Buckle-up space cadets and get ready for a mighty slice of interstellar carnage.

Digital Uppercut has released a limited time demo for Steel Mantis’ upcoming heavy metal 2D action-platformer Valfaris.

Available on Steam now through to December 31st, players can get a taste of the colourful, cathartic run ‘n’ gun chaos Steel Mantis has cooked up for them in 2019.

Once the clock hits midnight PT on New Year’s Eve, the demo will be deleted, and players will have to wait until 2019 to get a full look at Valfaris’ brutal sci-fi combat.

The pre-alpha demo lets players sample the game’s opening stage as Therion crash lands on Valfaris, playable either with keyboard or controller. Confronted by all manner of grisly, monstrous enemies, players must quickly get to grips with Therion’s arsenal of weapons as he shoots, slices, and deflects the many hazards of this ruined bastion. Through this initial stage players will get a feel for Valfaris’ psychedelic pixel-art visuals, vicious combat, and smattering of secrets, not to mention the plethora of amped up mini-bosses and bosses who inhabit the game’s sullied heavy metal space universe.

“Valfaris is everything I wanted from a video game since I was a teenager,” said Digerati Director Nick Alfieri. “It’s got ghastly aliens, gruesome combat, a killer soundtrack, and it’s just a blast to play!”

Key Features 

• Skulls in space! Gore in space! Metal in space! 
• Savagely reduce foes to piles of gibs with an array of brutal weaponry 
• Explore a diverse range of tainted environments as you venture ever deeper into the dark world of Valfaris 
• Dominate ranks of deadly enemies and bosses, from the weird to the grotesque (and some that are just grotesquely weird)
• Gorge your eyes on devastatingly awesome pixel art hand-crafted by Andrew Gilmour 
• Feel the power of a seismic soundtrack by extreme metaller and former Celtic Frost guitarist, Curt Victor Bryant
• Forged from the ground-up by the team behind cult hit Slain: Back From Hell 

Valfaris is in development for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC, scheduled for 2019.