A cocaine-fueled ascention into madness and depravity....
...or in layman's terms, a simple, but brutally difficult arcade beat-'em-up that's fun for the whole family (not really). Seriously though, while this is a game that harkens back to the full-throttle action arcade classics like Contra with a difficulty spike that rivals Super Meat Boy, Hotline Miami is soaked with so much blood and guts it'd make movies like Scarface and Drive vomit (or aroused, depending on your point of view). In fact, that's exactly what HM feels like; a videogame adaptation of the aforementioned classic gangster films, granted without all the GTA crap thrown in. No, this is a straight, balls-to-the-wall shooter/stealth/fisticuffs arcade game that also took a massive hit of acid.
There isn't much to say about the plot, probably because there isn't one. All you are is a hitman taking on various jobs to make a living in the heat-soaked streets of Miami. As to how it plays, imagine a dualstick shooter on XBLA, and you'd get a pretty vivid picture of how great this game really plays. But the best part? Killing dudes of course. Whether it's smashing a dudes head with your foot (while wearing a chicken mask, obviously) or slicing a perp in half with a samurai sword, HM delivers a visceral feel that you rarely get in games today, much less an arcade title.
For 10 bucks, what you get is a blood-boiling, heart-pumping experience that's worth every penny. Plus, you can wear a tiger mask. How could you go wrong with that?
