Its incredibly varied, although some stages don’t hit the heights they’re aiming for. Amongst these are homages to twin-stick shooters, stealth action, side-scrolling shooters and good old Frogger, complete with their own set of core mechanics. In contrast, the game’s many stages feel like separate entities designed mostly to mimic and make fun of gaming’s 8-bit past. Out in the open, the game plays like a Grand Theft Auto clone with people to maul, weapons to find and mayhem to create. Its suitably daft and the main quest does offer some narrative to a game which mostly resembles a disjointed sketch show. Along the way you’ll encounter a persistent nemesis in a moustachioed robot enthusiast who you will regularly have to thwart. The plot is nonsense but the main thread involves you scouring the town securing car parts for Doc Choc, a non-union equivalent of Back to the Future’s Doc Brown as he attempts to fix his time-travelling Delorean. The gritty, muddied look of an arcade monitor is incredibly well-realised and The whole package is enveloped in this 80s retro charm which all fits very well. There’s some nerdy attention to detail as you scroll through and see how they’ve tried to replicate the look of everything from a Commadore 64 to a Virtual Boy. This extends to the look and sound of the game with a really fitting 8-bit soundtrack and some extensive visual filters that pluck at your nostalgia strings even more.
Pun-laden store fronts and billboards add further colour to a bright world and, whilst it seems overdone at times, you can’t help but admire the effort and love that’s gone into crafting Theftopolis. The world, akin to the original Grand Theft Auto offers a 2D landscape packed with an astounding sense of detail reminiscent of Rockstar’s later work. References and jokes are flung at you with scattered abandon via a sandbox which acts more like a hub world that links the game’s 60+ stages.
Through the game’s numerous stages, playful shots are fired in all directions at targets ranging from Smash TV, Metal Gear and numerous classic ’80s movies. Let it be said, this is not a game confused about its tone or audience. Retro City Rampage: DX arrives on the PlayStation 4 having attempted to do this on numerous platforms since its initial 2012 release and hopes to still resonate on a new generation of consoles. The subjective nature of humour and the subject of your affection can make this a tricky minefield to navigate. Good parody in any medium is a tough act to accomplish.
Decemin PS4 / Reviews tagged 2d shooter / arcade / retro city rampage dx / retro revival / top down by Mike