In Gonner, you aren't trying to save the world or defeat some ancient evil. Your hero Ikk is on a quest to make his landwhale girlfriend happy. It's that kind of game.

To achieve that goal, you'll have to descend down the worm gullet tubes into dark caverns where hordes of monsters lurk, wielding a vast arsenal of weapons and items to survive their onslaught.

From Death's domain where you choose your gun, head, and backpack, you venture into randomly-generated stages, battling the waves of crimson enemies that roam. Hovering heads that follow or slam into the ground, to turrets and patrolling beasts, to more aggressive bosses, each requires careful evasion and hectic firing to defeat. Your shotgun, lasers, and other weapons can clear the screen effectively, but it's the backpacks and heads that add a hefty amount of variety to your playstyle. Some grant you special offensive abilities like area-of-effect explosion or rapid fire for any weapon, while others evolve your movement to glide or back-flip to fire stylish mid-air shots. Every item unlocked is available permanently in the between-level Death realm, adding an element of persistence between runs.
All this action happens a colorful and weird world, where you dive into worms to move between stages, your heads await on tree limbs, and enemies explode into skull-shaped clouds upon death. The vibrant aesthetic and atmosphere nicely complements Gonner's frenetic gameplay.

Gonner is available for $9.99 on Stea...