Haneda Girl: The Latest Creation from the Narita Boy Team

Back in 2017, Studio Koba stepped into the spotlight with the announcement of Narita Boy, a game intriguingly named after Tokyo’s second-largest airport, and seemingly crafted with Kickstarter in mind. The game dazzled with sleek pixel art characters navigating through a neon-lit side-scrolling world, evoking the nostalgic aura of 1980s anime yet dressed in modern visual effects. It told the story of developer Eduardo Fornieles, once part of the Friend & Foe team, returning to his roots to create the game he’d always envisioned.

At the time, Narita Boy was merely a concept. Yet, its striking visuals captured attention and drove the crowdfunding campaign to triumph.

Fast forward four years, and the game finally hit the shelves, joining the ranks of Kickstarter’s gaming success stories. It resembled a playable cartoon and offered a surreal twist on classic action-adventure mechanics. However, despite its enchanting appearance, the gameplay, hindered by basic combat and text-laden screens, didn’t quite match its visual allure.

The team’s next venture, Haneda Girl, breaks away from those pitfalls.

Unveiled last year and with a demo now available on Steam, Haneda Girl is inspired by Tokyo’s largest airport but isn’t a direct sequel to Narita Boy. As an action-platformer, it boasts faster movement, snappier controls, and requires the precision needed to navigate tricky wall jumps while dodging incoming fire from all sides.

Players step into the shoes of Chichi Wakaba, a character equipped with a sword and capable of dashing across the screen almost instantly. Without ranged attacks, she must rely on stealth tactics like sneaking up on enemies or entering “ghost mode” to dodge lasers, and even creatively collapsing platforms on foes below, reminiscent of classic BurgerTime gameplay. Yet, Wakaba is quite fragile, succumbing to a single hit.

The game introduces a twist with her mech partner, M.O.T.H.E.R., which Wakaba can enter or exit at will. The mech is slower and lacks high jumping capabilities, but compensates with a machine gun turret and the resilience to withstand multiple hits before temporarily going offline.

While playing the demo, I found myself frequently switching between Wakaba and the mech. Whether using the mech to charge up Wakaba’s attacks, absorb enemy fire, or simply unleash a storm of bullets and hope for the best — which surprisingly worked often enough. The levels challenge you to switch between the different styles: narrow passages or lofty walls for Wakaba, and rooms teeming with foes for M.O.T.H.E.R. There’s a sense that you might speedrun the game mostly using Wakaba, but discovering the balance between the two brings the demo to life. The game compels you to rush toward your objective, only to make you reconsider, pause, plan, and then dive back into the chaos.

Or, occasionally, you just throw caution to the wind and face doom. As the trailer cheekily warns, expect to meet your untimely end quite often.