A2K: Jet Strikers announced, Soldat's hidden heir arrives in 2027

A solo developer has just stepped out of the shadows with A2K: Jet Strikers, a PvP arena shooter that draws directly from the DNA of Soldat, the cult 2D classic from the 2000s, and Quake (which needs no introduction...). This announcement comes right at a time when the arena shooter genre is desperately seeking a new lease of life after years of drought.

The studio TMS Games (see our dedicated article on the developer) is presenting a third-person game where movement takes priority over everything else: jetpacks, wall-jumps, bunny-hops, slides and a momentum-based system. The announced modes tick all the genre's boxes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, 1v1, Capture the Flag, plus an experimental Rogue mode that blends roguelite elements with mid-match build progression. The game is aimed at PC, with Windows as the priority platform, followed by Linux and macOS later on. Release is planned for the first quarter of 2027 (details in our article on the release date).

It's a risky bet, a solo developer up against a genre that has swallowed entire studios whole, but the promise of deep modding around movement and weapons could be enough to rally a loyal niche community. It remains to be seen whether the gameplay will hold up once controller is in hand.