Furyball: Rogue Revenge turns pinball into a 1970s retro-futurist street fight

Rebound launches Furyball: Rogue Revenge into Steam Early Access, mashing ricocheting pinball mechanics with top-down brawler combat and a gritty 1970s sci-fi aesthetic.

Somebody apparently looked at pinball and decided the traditional problem was that it did not contain enough urban violence. Furyball: Rogue Revenge enters Steam Early Access today from French indie developer Rebound, combining a bouncing ball with action-roguelite combat inside a wonderfully grubby 1970s-flavoured vision of the future.

The setting is Neo Arcadia, a neon-soaked city overrun by sport-themed gangs, and the player's main weapon is a ball that becomes faster and nastier as it ricochets through enemies and scenery. The result sits somewhere between pinball, a top-down brawler and the sort of VHS action film whose cover once promised considerably more explosions than the budget could actually provide. Runs are built around upgrades and modules as players attempt to survive one night and reach the Furydome. The soundtrack is being handled by The Toxic Avenger, which feels appropriately subtle for a game called Furyball.

Rebound describes the world as 70s retro-futuristic rather than simply retro, and that distinction matters: this is not imitating a specific old console so much as borrowing the colours, typography, grime and imagined futures of another era. For retro-game fans who enjoy modern designers remixing old arcade instincts rather than reproducing them pixel for pixel, it is one of today's more interesting new releases.