Ormanauta gameplay preview: a new horizontal shooter built for Neo Geo

Ormanauta is still some way from release, but its latest Gamescom 2026 build gives us a much better idea of what Tigerskunk Games is actually making. The horizontal shoot ’em up is being built for Neo Geo hardware, and this extended look at its opening stage shows plenty of enemies, large mechanical targets, busy backgrounds and the sort of screen-filling action you’d expect from the format. It’s early, certainly, but there’s now enough here to get a proper sense of the game.

The first stage is starting to take shape

Ormanauta is a side-scrolling shooter being developed for Neo Geo AES+, AES and MVS. That’s worth spelling out because this isn’t simply a modern PC game using chunky pixels and an arcade-style interface. It’s being made with Neo Geo hardware in mind. The Gamescom 2026 version focuses on the first stage. And it’s fairly substantial.

The ship moves through a continuously scrolling environment while enemies arrive from different directions, ground targets appear below and larger machines take longer to destroy. Some sections are relatively open, giving the player space to deal with smaller formations. Others become much busier, with several things happening at once. There are six stages planned for the finished game, so this is still only the opening slice.

What it does show is how Tigerskunk Games wants Ormanauta to flow. Enemy waves come and go quickly, then the pace changes when bigger targets appear. Those heavier machines keep you in one area for longer, which naturally gives incoming fire more time to become a problem. It’s a simple idea, but it gives the level some useful variation.

There’s a lot happening on screen

The visuals are probably the first thing that stands out. Most of Ormanauta’s graphics have been drawn by hand at pixel level, while a smaller number of complicated mechanical objects use pre-rendered material. You can see why the developer has taken that approach once the larger machinery starts appearing.

There’s plenty of movement. Backgrounds aren’t just static images sliding past the player. Machinery moves, scenery changes and different layers help give the stage some depth. At the same time, enemy ships and explosions remain clearly separated from what’s happening behind them.

That matters in a shooter like this. A busy screen can look impressive right up until you can’t work out what’s trying to kill you. From what’s shown in this build, Ormanauta generally keeps the player ship and immediate threats readable even when the stage gets crowded.

Smaller enemies arrive quickly, while larger objects are much harder to ignore simply because of how much space they occupy. Later parts of the stage start piling more of these elements together. It gets hectic. That appears to be the point.

It’s keeping the shooting straightforward

Ormanauta doesn’t appear interested in turning its basic action into something complicated. You move. You shoot. You watch what enemies are doing. Then you try not to get hit.

The interesting part comes from how those pieces overlap. Different enemy formations enter from multiple areas of the screen, while fixed targets and environmental objects create additional pressure. You can destroy some threats immediately, but others make positioning more important.

That gives the action a familiar arcade rhythm. Spot the pattern, work out where the safer space is, then decide when you can attack. There’s still a lot we haven’t seen. The full weapon system remains unclear, as does the way difficulty will change across the later stages.

The first level can only tell us so much about balancing across an entire game. Still, it gives a reasonably clear indication of the pace Tigerskunk Games is aiming for. And it isn’t holding back on enemy numbers.

Neo Geo isn’t just part of the look

Perhaps the more interesting part of Ormanauta is what’s happening underneath all those sprites. The Neo Geo isn’t being used simply as inspiration. The game is being developed around the platform, with versions planned across AES+, AES and MVS configurations. That puts the footage in a different context.

Every moving object, scrolling layer, explosion and animated machine has to fit within the hardware environment the game is targeting. When the first stage fills up with enemies and scenery, we’re not just seeing an art choice. We’re also seeing how the developer is using the system during actual play. That’s especially noticeable when several large objects appear alongside smaller enemy formations without the stage becoming visually difficult to follow.

Release details are still taking shape. Physical versions for AES and MVS have been part of the plans, while AES+ has since joined the project. Pricing, final configurations and other release specifics haven’t been nailed down publicly yet.

There are still five stages we haven’t properly seen

This remains an early preview, so there’s no point pretending the first level answers every question. It doesn’t. We still need to see how later stages differ, what the bosses are like, how weapons develop and whether the difficulty curve can stay interesting across all six levels. Final performance and balancing will matter too. But Ormanauta has moved beyond the point where we’re looking at isolated screenshots and trying to guess how it might play.

The Gamescom 2026 build shows a functioning opening stage with a clear structure, plenty of movement and increasingly crowded encounters. It also gives us a better look at how the game is being shaped around Neo Geo hardware rather than simply borrowing its visual language. There’s plenty left to finish. For an early build, though, Ormanauta is starting to show what kind of shooter it wants to be.

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