Retro City Rampage is a downloadable action-adventure video game for WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows developed by Vblank Entertainment. It is a parody of retro games and '80s and '90s pop culture, as well as Grand Theft Auto and similar games. It was released on October 9, 2012, for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows; on January 2, 2013, for Xbox Live Arcade; and on February 28, 2013, for WiiWare. Retro City Rampage was the last original game released for the WiiWare service globally until Deer Drive Legends was ported to the service the following November.
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Retro City Rampage mixes retro gaming nostalgia with open-world chaos, but its over-the-top parody and sometimes clunky mechanics can detract from the overall enjoyment.
I've always been pretty interested in this game. A retro-styled GTA-style game full of both GTA and NES-era pop culture parody seemed like something right up my alley. I got it in one of the Humble Nindie Bundles ages ago, and I finally had time to sit down and play through it this weekend. It took me a little over 5 hours to get through, and it's actually pretty good at capturing a lot of the good (and the bad) of GTA titles in MANY ways.
It's a top-down action game that's also a sandbox game. You can get different weapons you can switch between, you can jump and stomp people (which is actually more overpowered than you'd think, for several reasons), and there are mission nodes and activity nodes around the city you can go play to progress the story or just fuck about respectively. I personally found the missions far more entertaining than the activities, and that mostly has to do with how the game controls.
The activities are so hard that they're not very fun largely because of the game's mechanics. Maybe it's just because I'm playing it on a 3DS that has no second joystick (effectively), but the game really feels like it was meant to be played like a twin-stick. The game has this weird auto-targeting system with its gunplay that makes running around and shooting stuff really awkward, as there is no strafe button but instead once you look at an enemy and start firing, you character will automatically start strafing. It's certainly better than nothing, but it's hardly ideal, and makes the already quite difficult challenges FAR less enjoyable just because of how frustrating they are to play. Your character also moves very slow but very fast. Walking across the city can take ages, but the screen is zoomed in so far, that when you do get some speed it is very difficult to actually control where or how you're moving at all. This can make any stage that requires speed to race around (in a car or in the pegasus-boots-inspired power-up shoes) a lot more frustrating than they need to be with how much the police focus on just running you over rather than shooting you.
On that note, like a lot of the GTA games, for all the fun, parody-filled levels, there are a handful of absolutely infuriating ones as well as with ones where the parody is SO on the nose that it becomes grating or irritating. The levels based on old games are really hit or miss. The Jackal-/Metal Gear (the NES one)-inspired level is really good fun and near the start of the game, but the "Sweat Bomber" level near the end is absolutely infuriating and is where I lost most of the lives I lost in the game. I also lost a TON in the Smash TV-inspired section (which goes on WAY too long), but that was mostly due to how annoying the controls are. That level is where I discovered just how good the stomp is (a dedicated ground-pound, not just jumping and landing, even though jumping and landing does do a little damage) just because it uses no ammo but is also very powerful.
The story and parody are silly nonsense, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all. From starting the game as a henchman for a Joker-like character, to stealing a Bill & Ted-style time machine and getting trapped in the future to help a Doc Brown-like character fix your time machine is all silly nonsense. The only thing that really hinders reveling in the parody is, again, just how frustrating so many of the missions can be. The Rad Racer-inspired final stage against the Dr. Robotnick-inspired arch nemesis of Doc Brown absolutely drove me mad.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. There isn't NO fun to be had on this game, but on 3DS, it's a decent enough time-waster. That said, there are so many other really good games that are far less frustrating on the eShop that it's difficult for me to just come out and outright recommend a game that frustrated me so much with how it plays. If you've already got it, you'll probably get some enjoyment out of it, but if you're only just getting into eshop titles and want something with a far more definite fun-factor, I'd recommend BOXBOY! any day of the week.
It's a top-down action game that's also a sandbox game. You can get different weapons you can switch between, you can jump and stomp people (which is actually more overpowered than you'd think, for several reasons), and there are mission nodes and activity nodes around the city you can go play to progress the story or just fuck about respectively. I personally found the missions far more entertaining than the activities, and that mostly has to do with how the game controls.
The activities are so hard that they're not very fun largely because of the game's mechanics. Maybe it's just because I'm playing it on a 3DS that has no second joystick (effectively), but the game really feels like it was meant to be played like a twin-stick. The game has this weird auto-targeting system with its gunplay that makes running around and shooting stuff really awkward, as there is no strafe button but instead once you look at an enemy and start firing, you character will automatically start strafing. It's certainly better than nothing, but it's hardly ideal, and makes the already quite difficult challenges FAR less enjoyable just because of how frustrating they are to play. Your character also moves very slow but very fast. Walking across the city can take ages, but the screen is zoomed in so far, that when you do get some speed it is very difficult to actually control where or how you're moving at all. This can make any stage that requires speed to race around (in a car or in the pegasus-boots-inspired power-up shoes) a lot more frustrating than they need to be with how much the police focus on just running you over rather than shooting you.
On that note, like a lot of the GTA games, for all the fun, parody-filled levels, there are a handful of absolutely infuriating ones as well as with ones where the parody is SO on the nose that it becomes grating or irritating. The levels based on old games are really hit or miss. The Jackal-/Metal Gear (the NES one)-inspired level is really good fun and near the start of the game, but the "Sweat Bomber" level near the end is absolutely infuriating and is where I lost most of the lives I lost in the game. I also lost a TON in the Smash TV-inspired section (which goes on WAY too long), but that was mostly due to how annoying the controls are. That level is where I discovered just how good the stomp is (a dedicated ground-pound, not just jumping and landing, even though jumping and landing does do a little damage) just because it uses no ammo but is also very powerful.
The story and parody are silly nonsense, and it doesn't take itself seriously at all. From starting the game as a henchman for a Joker-like character, to stealing a Bill & Ted-style time machine and getting trapped in the future to help a Doc Brown-like character fix your time machine is all silly nonsense. The only thing that really hinders reveling in the parody is, again, just how frustrating so many of the missions can be. The Rad Racer-inspired final stage against the Dr. Robotnick-inspired arch nemesis of Doc Brown absolutely drove me mad.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. There isn't NO fun to be had on this game, but on 3DS, it's a decent enough time-waster. That said, there are so many other really good games that are far less frustrating on the eShop that it's difficult for me to just come out and outright recommend a game that frustrated me so much with how it plays. If you've already got it, you'll probably get some enjoyment out of it, but if you're only just getting into eshop titles and want something with a far more definite fun-factor, I'd recommend BOXBOY! any day of the week.
This was a fun game to see all the references and I love the updated retro GTA gameplay
played this on like 4 different platforms, only finished it once because the last smash tv segment gets really annoying
I was expecting a GTA 1 / GTA 2 clone and was pleasantly surprised to find something much, much deeper than that. It oozes 80s nostalgia, and mashes up classic characters in unusual and surprising ways. It just gets old fast.
+Every bit as pretty as it looks
+Old school chargered sound and music
+Plenty of checkpoints make for a smoother experience
~Story / Characters is there to set up jokes and gameplay over any actual depth
~Tons of references to pop culture, other video games, and the industry itself
-Tries too many things that make for inconsistent difficultly and gameplay
+Old school chargered sound and music
+Plenty of checkpoints make for a smoother experience
~Story / Characters is there to set up jokes and gameplay over any actual depth
~Tons of references to pop culture, other video games, and the industry itself
-Tries too many things that make for inconsistent difficultly and gameplay