Irena Genesis Metal Fury is 90% finished; new Summer demo released just for Kickstarter backers

*Ahem* Now that we got your attention, it’s time for an update on a promising indie Genesis/Mega-Drive shooter that was kickstarted all the way back in 2021. Perhaps at least a few of you remember this one?

Irena Genesis Metal Fury, henceforth Irena for short, is an all new indie scrolling shooter that’s been in active development for Genesis from White Ninja Studio since before launching their Kickstarter, which succeeded in reaching its goal. They ended up raising €62,240, almost double its goal of €35,000. (About $40,708.96 USD, adjusted for inflation) This was thanks, in part, to an impressive demo they worked on and launched simultaneously with the Kickstarter. Thousands of Genesis shooter fans downloaded and played that demo and were so impressed they couldn’t wait to fund its completion.

Four years later and White Ninja Studio’s fortunes took a drastic turn. They had gained new publishers, Mega Cat Studios for North America and Broke Studio for Europe, only for those publishers to drop the game this year. Last year, they also suffered the passing of the game’s lead artist OHKO. The project lead also took an extended break to preserve their own mental health amidst all these challenges, something we could all use now and then. Even so, the team soldiered on, including OHKO in his last remaining days, and even as the team missed several projected release dates, they’ve announced now that the game is 9/10 of the way to completion and a new, updated demo just for Kickstarter backers is now available. This comes in a recent update to Kickstarter backers on August 23rd, 2025, where news of the loss of their publishers was also shared.

You can check your Kickstarter account or your email if you were a Kickstarter backer, where you’ll hear the news directly from White Ninja Studio. For everyone else, go right past the break to hear more.

Currently, the Kickstarter demo is exclusive to Kickstarter backers, so don’t count on us sharing it with you for reading this. Unlike the original demo, this one is quite hefty and shows most of what will be in the final release. White Ninja Studio encourages backers to send in their feedback and bug reports as they play through the demo, either through their Discord server or through their Itch.io page hosting the new (password protected) demo. This new demo will also be occasionally updated with bugfixes and other improvements.

“Megascore” will also soon be available so that backers can upload their high scores to an online leaderboard, as they had done with earlier demos. For those unaware, Megascore was Irena’s method of reporting high scores to White Ninja Studio’s own online leaderboard by presenting players a unique password at the Options screen to enter on a special Megascore website.

Along with this demo, White Ninja Studios was also pleased to announce the game is finally almost done and have projected it will be ready for release within the next six months, so up until February 2026 as of this writing. They are also still looking for new publishers to help distribute the game in physical form. Any interested publishers can email White Ninja Studio.

Of course, if you are a backer and are unhappy with the longer than expected wait, or even if you’ve just lost interest in the game and moved on, White Ninja Studio is also generously offering refunds to backers who want them. The Kickstarter update includes instructions on how to contact the team to request your money back. If nothing else, this should show that the team is considerate of their backers after missing other promised release dates the past few years, even with all the unforeseen difficulties they tirelessly worked through. Far too many groups who put their project through crowdfunding are more than happy to just keep everyone’s money and disappear into the void without a word.

So now, if all goes well and the team can catch a bit of a break, Genesis fans looking forward to Irena won’t have to wait much longer to finally own the game and play it, and then hopefully mark it down as another success story in the ever-so impressive pantheon of amazing indie Genesis developers today. We at Segabits sincerely wish them the best of luck in this development homestretch. You can check out their latest Kickstarter update here if you were a backer. Otherwise, you’re welcome to try their earlier demo available on their main itch.io page, but remember that it’s a much older demo that won’t accurately reflect the progress that the team has made since then.

How does this news make you feel about Irena Genesis Metal Fury? Did you back the Kickstarter? If so, are you going to request a refund, or do you want to be patient and let your money go so you can keep whatever Kickstarter rewards you invested for? Also, if you’re a backer, what do you think of their new demo? Please let us know in the comments below.

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