Retro City Rampage: DX Review

   Pixelated Rampage

Have you ever wondered what Grand Theft Auto would’ve looked like if it was released on the NES? Well, Canadian developer, Vblank, managed to pull off a cleverly designed, 8-Bit open-world Action title inspired by Rockstar’s juggernaut franchise with Retro City Rampage. Though it was originally released back in 2012, RCR has been re-released with the DX edition, along with multiple new features, on the PlayStation platforms (also available on PC and 3DS). As surprising as this may sound, despite it being an outright retro parody of the entire video game industry and culture around it, Retro City Rampage delivers an over-the-top experience that takes your favorite classic video games and mashes them into one ridiculously engaging title. Retro City Rampage is more than just a retro-inspired video game, it’s a celebration of what started it all, and one you should definitely not miss out on.

From the moment you boot up Retro City Rampage, nostalgia will take over as you admire the brightly-covered and detailed 8-Bit visuals that look like they were taken straight out of a 1980’s NES game. It may not look like much, but Retro City Rampage is incredibly detailed for a game made entirely with pixel art and sprites. It’s amazing to see an art style like this stand on its own, despite the impressive-looking games we can now have on our systems. I cannot forget to mention the game’s masterfully crafted soundtrack, composed by many industry veterans such as the legendary Jake Kaufman, which is of absolute chiptune glory by perfectly capturing the soul and essence of the 8-Bit GTA-like concept. Unfortunately, you’ll be better off admiring the game’s graphics and sound design on your PS Vita (which supports Cross-Buy and Cross-Save with the PS4 and PS3 versions) as the blown up pixels can be off-putting on a big TV screen and the sound is a lot more poignant on the handheld. Despite the fact, RCR: DX proves that, even if it has an outdated visual style, all that matters is the core gameplay, and it absolutely nails that aspect as well.

With its highly varied missions, all of which that have been inspired in some capacity by well-known classic games, Retro City Rampage is more than just a simple top-down, run-and-gun, open-world type of game. Sure, most of the time, all you do is kill as many enemies and run over as many pedestrians as you can, all while running away from the cops, but there are so many different types of objectives within each story mission and side activity that it never gets boring in any way. One minute you could play a gruesome knockoff version of Paperboy and the next you could be infiltrating a base Metal Gear-style. It just throws stuff to do within its opening minutes and, although it is overwhelming at first, it’s just a blast to play once you’ve figured out how everything works, which Vblank did a solid job with its many tips and tutorial pop-ups that appear every so often.

Not only is RCR incredibly diversified with its mission design, but this also applies for the way you approach each of them. As I mentioned previously, you cannot go into Retro City Rampage and expect to easily wreak havoc by shooting your way through everything with the vast array of weapons at your disposal; you’ll get blown up into pixel pieces in a matter of seconds. Since you have additional abilities such as stomping enemies and going into cover to hide from enemy fire, there is a small, but balanced sense of experimentation with the combat. The only downside is that the shooting mechanics are very finicky and difficult to master for the major part of the game. Though there is a lock-on system to shoot your foes with precision, my inputs never translated well to the game, resulting in my constantly switching back and forth from the buttons based shooting controls to the twin-stick Hotline Miami-style ones and dying on multiple occasions. Shooting wasn’t the only problem I had with the controls, driving has also a huge pain because, with the top-down perspective, it becomes a brand new learning experience as the slightest push of the control stick will send your vehicle flying off the wrong direction. It was only after completing my initial playthrough of the game (which lasted about 5 hours) that I had fully mastered the game’s driving mechanic, and that’s a very long learning process for a game that has a lot of 2D driving in it.

Fortunately, all of these complaints are easily forgotten thanks to the genuinely entertaining and ridiculous story set around the city of Theftropolis, which is where your character (whose name is simply Player) goes on a murderous rampage to go back to his present time. Other than the fact that it is extremely wacky and makes absolutely no sense, the game is filled with the most references and cameos I have ever seen in a video game. Ranging from Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Duke Nukem, and even Phil Fish, Retro City Rampage is an all-in-one retro video game parody that celebrates classic gaming and the culture surrounding it. It is incredibly self-aware, without taking itself too seriously, and is exactly why it accomplishes what it sets out on doing: Simply deliver an entertaining gaming experience inspired by everything that defined the medium during the pixelated era.

Just like any other open-world game, Retro City Rampage offers tons of additional content once you have gone through the main experience. There are tons of additional side missions that you can take on as well as various minigames that have also been inspired by something video game-related. Most notably, the arcade is where most of that fun will be had as it offers byte-sized experiences, and even the original Retro City Rampage formerly known as Grand Theftendo. The most fun I had outside of RCR’s main story, was by simply free roaming around the city as the new unlockable characters and explore what it had to offer. You can also tackle the brand new Arcade Challenges, which are short objective-based sequences that completely change up the way you play the game, once again, to earn high scores and medals. Although these missions are very hard and you’ll most likely give up on getting the Gold status on all of them, it’s a fun and challenging distraction to the main game. Another one of the many post-game highlights is with the Turbo Mode, which cranks up movement speed, so that it becomes insanely fast, similar to one of Player’s abilities he can obtain over the course of Retro City Rampage. It adds an extra layer of difficulty and makes for some pretty hilarious moments when replaying the game.       

VERDICT

Retro City Rampage: DX is a trip down memory lane if you are someone who has grown up alongside the retro era of gaming. However, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t experience it if retro games aren’t your thing, even if you probably won’t get half of the game’s humoristic references to that time period. It’s a well thought-out experience that will captivate and keep you hooked with its varied objectives, incredible presentation and nostalgic charm. For players who have already experienced RCR when it was first released, this Director’s Cut edition has enough new content – not to mention entire missions that have been tweaked to make players have a better experience – that it is absolutely worth revisiting. It’s a blast to play, despite the occasional control issues, and results in one of the most unique, yet familiar experiences you’ll ever play.