Haneda Girl | Steam Deck Review

Somehow I missed out on 2021’s Narita Boy from Spanish developer Studio Koba. The trailer reminds me so much of Tron, I’m not sure how I let it pass me by. Fast forward to last year, and I learned about the follow-up, Haneda Girl, and this time I made sure to give this one a shot. I was genuinely shocked by the tight 2D gameplay and pixelated gore. There’s a solid game here, but it’s definitely designed with speedrunners in mind. It has a lot more moving parts than, say, Celeste or Super Meat Boy, but some will appreciate the complexity at play here. This game is worth taking a look.

Fly Along With Me

There’s barely any story present in Haneda Girl. Apparently, the title is also the title of an arcade game. Our hero is granted access inside the game and spends her afternoons after school helping the game’s creator battle through levels. There’s not much explanation as to why (at least early on), but that’s OK. My guess is that most people, like me, will be coming to this one for the gameplay alone.

The game is comprised of 2D platforming levels with some mild verticality as well. Your goal is to wipe out all of the enemies on the screen and make your way to the transporter at the end. That will take you to the next stage for you to tackle.

There are two methods of traversal: on foot or in your mech, which is named “Mother.” When walking, you have a melee attack, in-air dash, and the ability to scale walls. Once inside your mech, you have added protection and the ability to shoot in any direction. Sometimes, you’ll have to get out of your mech to traverse narrow passages, but you can summon your mech on the other side immediately.

All of this makes for fast, frenetic gameplay that is incredibly slick. Seriously, the controls are so tight, it plays like a dream.

I Can’t Quite Make It Alone

Haneda Girl is clearly designed with time trials in mind. At the end of each stage, you’re graded on how well you made it through the level. That means your time, number of deaths, number of kills, and everything you can imagine works towards your score. Getting through each stage isn’t terribly difficult, but when you see how low your score is at the end of each run, you’re immediately inclined to try that stage again for a better score. Inevitably, that first attempt was just giving you an opportunity to learn the layout and plan your next go.

This reminds me of Super Meat Boy, but with more mechanical flourish. That game feels more like you are reacting to bite-sized platforming sections that require quick reflexes. In contrast, Haneda Girl is more about memorizing the correct path through a level in order to pull off what, at first, seems impossible. In addition, you’re managing much more complex gameplay mechanics than merely running and jumping. Dive through a door, take out an unsuspecting enemy, dash up to a platform, knock out a sentry gun, hop out of your mech, slide through an open corridor, summon your mech back, jump the gap, etc. You’re more or less conducting a symphony of organized chaos.

Keep in mind, this is all done with heavily pixelated graphics. Think even larger pixels than Super Meat Boy, but just as much over-the-top gore and controls that are just as tight. It all works rather smoothly, and will be a delight for speedrunners. Personally, I felt very little desire to go back and redo stages. I’m more interested in the satisfaction of passing a difficult stage than being my personal best. But that’s just me.

Haneda Girl Final Verdict

Haneda Girl is a well-made platformer with a lot of moving parts to give it some interesting flourish. If you’re like me and have very little interest in competing with your personal top scores, you might give up on this one before the devs would have liked you to. Still, there’s a solid sense of satisfaction blasting through each of the stages, especially when they start to get really hairy.

Try as I might, I couldn’t find a way for the game to let me use the D-pad instead of the joystick. This is kind of a game-changer for me personally, as I feel like I have much more control using the former. I’d love to see this change made in the future.

The bottom line is that I appreciated this game much more than I enjoyed it. But I chalk this up more to personal preference than quality. This is an impressive title, and I’m impressed with the results. I just hope others have a good time with it, because it deserves positive attention.

To hear me talk more about Haneda Girl, be sure to listen to the May 28th, 2025 episode of The Gaming Outsider Podcast around the 59:29 time stamp.

This review is based on a Steam copy of Haneda Girl provided by Studio Koba for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.