Retro City Rampage DX (3DS) Review

Retro City Rampage DX was recently released on the 3DS e-shop, so I revisited this throwback to NES era goodness to see how this newest version held up to the others.  For the most part, the DX is the same as the other versions.  The graphics are still 8-bit and awesome and the soundtrack is still retro and well done.  They did add some new screen filters, which is great because I really liked those in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

Mostly, I'll talk about the changes and how this version stacks up to the others.  If you are interested in more of the game systems, story and things, start with my reviews of the PS3/Vita and Xbox 360 versions.

First up, the lower screen now houses a mini map.  This is very, very useful.  Previously, I would frequently pause to make sure I was taking the right roads while getting to my destinations.  This new function makes it easier to get around the map, even if I frequently crash while looking at it (thankfully I don't do that in real life).  Another awesome use of the bottom screen is weapon selection.  Tapping the weapon will bring up the list of available weapons so you can quickly switch to the one you want.

Second, the arcade challenges have been reworked to be more "concise".  Basically, the time limit was cut in half and the scores changed accordingly.  This change is ok, it doesn't really make them easier but makes it easier to replay them.  I still found several challenges hard, but at least my failures took less of my time.  Plus, there were also a few tweaks to some of the missions, to make them a little more streamlined, and the arcade games were also reworked.

A third change is to the shooting.  Now you can jump while shooting, effectively skipping part of the animation.  This is essential for saving your health.  Before, you had to wait a bit after shooting before you could jump, but not anymore.  Unfortunately, because of the lack of a second analog stick, shooting must be done with the lock-on (Y Button).  I always found this inferior to the second stick, as it makes the game harder.  Sadly, there is no support for the Circle Pad Pro accessory, but I wouldn't be able to use one even if there was (since I don't have one).

The last major change was to the game's camera.  While driving, it will shift toward the direction you are going so you can see more of the screen.  Since the DS screen is smaller than consoles or the Vita, this is very helpful so you don't crash.  I didn't have any problems with the view while playing the game on the 3DS, so this change was good, even if not immediately obvious.

The mini map and weapon selection on the bottom screen is very useful and a great advantage this version has over its predecessors.  However, the easy way to shoot is now gone, making the 3DS version harder and more frustrating.  Overall, is the game still good?  Yes.  Is it better than the previous ones?  Not really.  I'd recommend Retro City Rampage DX if you don't have access to the other systems.  As much as I like the game, I feel the console versions are better, or the Vita version if you want to take the game on the go.

Retro City Rampage (XBLA) Review

The XBLA release of Retro City Rampage is the post-patch PSN and Steam release, and since there were quite a few changes, I think it warrants a new review.  If you are just interested in how this version stacks up to the other release, I'll put that toward the end of the review.

I actually still like sprites, so the 8-bit look of Retro City Rampage is great.  There's lots of nostalgia packed into the game, from the look to the music.  Despite being retro and blocky looking, you can actually tell things apart, so it won't interfere in the game.  The in-game "cut scenes" look just as awesome as ones from the NES era.  There's also tons of detail crammed into just about every inch of the game.  Numerous references to games, TV shows and movies are all over the place, and I love it.  I'm a sucker for things like that, so I had fun just driving around looking at all the in-jokes and references.  The old school soundtrack that easily fits the theme of the game and sounded great as I drove around staring at all the billboards like a camera-happy tourist.  One more note about the look is the ability to change the filter on the screen to make it look more like an NES game, Atari game, or even a Gameboy!  Such a small touch shows lots of care, and I think it's really neat.

Controlling the character works really well.  Running, jumping and shooting all work fine.  Personally, I find shooting with the right analog stick to be much better, but the lock on function is really helpful in some circumstances.  I sometimes have problems lining up the stomp on people, but that's just because of the view and my lack of practice.  Switching the driving to automatic made it so much better and easier for me.  The other way was too disorienting to me and made it harder than it had to be.

There are 62 missions, which includes story missions, side missions and lots of collectibles (my favorite being the invisible walls).  The missions are sometimes short, but with lots of them, you will be kept busy.  In case you just want to mess around in the game, there is a Free Roaming Mode.  This is really something I would like in the Grand Theft Auto games.  You are given max money and can just run around and do whatever with no real repercussions.  You could do that in story mode, but would end up losing lots of money in the process.  Plus, you can play as different characters in Free Roaming Mode, including Steve from Minecraft, which makes all the citizens have big block heads.  It's two, two, two references in one!

Story missions start off easy, but can get pretty challenging.  Thankfully, there are checkpoints to ease most frustrations.  The side missions tend to be harder than some of the story missions.  Being that there are so many references, there are several missions that will make fun of annoying mission types in other games by...making you do them here.  It's a slippery slope making people do it in an attempt to say "this is annoying, huh?", and it has mixed results in Retro City Rampage.  Some people are going to hate them, and the rest will tolerate it.  Honestly, I'm not sure any game can pull off that kind of reference, since there is a reason people dislike doing missions like escorts, tailing and fetch quests.  A lot of the humor in this game will be hit or miss, but I, for one, am a fan.

Hey, I wonder if the Konami Code works, too?

Each weapon you wield in Retro City Rampage has a challenge mission associated with it.  These can be found on the map and also done from the main menu (once you have found the weapon).  Depending on the weapon, I found them moderately to very challenging.  I am pretty good with the rocket launcher and uzi, but I am absolutely terrible with thrown weapons like grenades and dynamite, and most of the melee weapons (because of the range).  There is an achievement for getting a gold medal in all of these and the secondary sprees, which will require lots of skill or a fair share of luck.  Secondary sprees range from using the power ups for kills to getting air time with the rocket launcher, and are more varied than the primary ones.  The best part while doing these sprees is the progress bar at the top of the screen.  It allows you to see how close (or far) you are from getting the gold.  A small touch, but very helpful to me.

As mentioned before, there is an achievement for getting all golds in the sprees, which can take awhile.  You get one for beating story mode and one for getting all the collectibles.  There are several luck/skill ones, like hitting 4 people with 1 shotgun shot, running over 25 people in a row, and knocking one poor chump off his/her bike into another person on a bike.  One that I found fun was avoiding the cops for one minute, on foot and maximum threat without taking damage.  It involved lots of jumping, that's for sure, but the hardest part was surviving to max threat.  A good mix of completion achievements and extraneous ones.

So, what all changed from the previous release?  For one, some of the more annoying/ difficult parts of the game were made slightly easier or more forgiving.  One that I noticed was the dreaded "throw dynamite at cars mission", which stopped me in the PS3 release.  The number of cars to destroy was lowered, making it much less painful to do.  To keep the balance, the side missions were made slightly more difficult.  This I also noticed rather quickly, since I actually died on one of the early ones.  I still beat it, but it was harder than it was previously.  Whether or not the creator liked changing up the difficulties, I ultimately think it was for the better.  It made it easier to complete the story (but not too easy) and harder to do the optional stuff, which I think makes sense.

All in all, I had fun playing Retro City Rampage.  If you played games or grew up in the 80s and 90s, at least give the demo a shot.  This game is so chock full of references, you have to try hard to not find one.  I find most of its humor spot on, and I love all the nods to pop culture from my childhood.  It really does feel like someone took VH1's "I love the 80s", put it in a blender, and poured it into this game.  It's crazy to know that one guy made this game by himself (except for the music).  Give it a try, you might be surprised how much fun it is!

Retro City Rampage Update?

I just got an email that there is an update to Retro City Rampage.  I'm sure to check that out soon and see what it improved (or un-improved ).  Also the upcoming 360 and WiiWare versions are going to have that update day 1, but still no release date for those.

Other than that, I tried out the Epic Mickey 2 demo.  It was kind of fun.  However, my son really took an interest in it and kept hassling me to play the demo.  I let him play it yesterday, and he absolutely loves it.  I'm not even sure he got anywhere, but he played it for over an hour and a half.  I'm going to try and get a review copy so I can try it out with him (there is 2 player), as long as he does his homework.  Don't look at me like that, I'm have some responsibility.

It's also kind of cool that I have some fans of my Monster Hunter videos, and got a lot of hits (to me) for my post about MHU3.  I must redouble my efforts to get  a WiiU and a copy of the game so I can continue my videos of playing it online.  Oh, I'll also want a better capture unit, the old Gamebridge doesn't do HD, but it does get the job done.

Retro City Rampage- SAHD Review

Thanks to VBlank, I got my hands on a copy of Retro City Rampage to review, so let's dive right in!

Easily the first thing you notice is the super retro graphics.  If you don't like that style, then A. you didn't play games in the 80s and B. this isn't your game.  For the rest of us, this is a faithful throwback to the games of yesteryear.  I like the 8 bit style, but my favorite by far is the Nintendo-looking cut-scenes (see the next picture below for an example).  I loved those on the NES, and they look just as good here.  Another great thing included in the game are several filters.  It can change the arcade cabinet frame (if you have it), and slightly change the graphics to emulate the old systems. My personal favorite is the gameboy filter.  The playable screen is smaller, but it looks exactly like an old Gameboy game, and the music and sounds even change!  I'm a fan of small details, and the attention to detail in the filters gets my approval.

As is the case with the graphics, the music is also very retro.  They sound just like they came right out of an old NES game, which is a perfect fit.  Another cool touch is the different radio stations in the game when in a vehicle.  There's actually a fair bit of music in this game, which I did not expect.

The controls are pretty good.  The only issues I have is the auto targeting (hold attack) sometimes picks a seemingly random target.  Also, at first I had the vehicle controls on manual, which was very awkward.  You turn the car based on it's orientation, which works when not in top down, non rotating view.  After switching it to automatic, the vehicles controlled exactly how I wanted, so that problem was solved fairly quickly.

Da da da duuuun!

Another issue I have with the game is the difficulty spikes.  A few missions were completed with no difficulty, but a few had me swearing at the screen.  Occasionally, this was because the mission objective was not clear.  An example:  the mission said "Use dynamite to clear traffic".  I have a timer, but what it wants is for me to blow up 20 cars.  This counter is up at the top of the screen and didn't stand out until I looked around trying to figure out why I failed the mission the first time.  This problem also occurs in the arcade challenges.  Most start out with some objective that may or may not help you understand what you have to do to score/get medals.  It's frustrating to be sure, and there's no extra help in the game.  Very retro to a fault.  Getting the trophy for getting all golds will involve a lot of retrying, that's for sure.

After doing the first few missions, I saw my completion percentage was in the teens.  That was a bit misleading, since there are over 60 missions to do and many "arcade challenges".  Usually these involve using a certain weapon to get x kills or y points or other various timed challenges.  I like that these can be done on the map, or from the main menu, if you are just looking to get those gold medals without tracking down its location after unlocking it.  While some of them are frustratingly difficult, there's lots of other stuff to do to blow off steam (read: run over tons of people).  There's even an arcade that has 3 parody minigames and several collectibles (my favorite is the invisible walls).  Just like the GTA games, there is a huge chunk of things to do, or even just spend time screwing around.

If you buy the game on the PSN, you get the PS3 and Vita versions, which is amazing if you happen to be one of the 10 people who has a Vita.  A great touch is the Free Roam mode gives you max money to start, which means you can buy weapons and other crap to your hearts content.  That's great for pick up and play.  The trophies have several "get them for doing next to nothing", but several involve skill.  I'm not likely to get the gold medals on all challenges or a 99x multiplier, but the rest should be obtainable for most gamers.

Yes, paper boy.  Yes, they still try to kill you.

If you enjoy parodies (which I very much do), I think every screen of this game has some sort of reference to something else.  Some are far more direct than others, but I didn't feel they were forced, since the point of the game is to make reference to tons of stuff from the 80s and 90s (also a few current things).  You can purchase lots of custumization options for Player (yes, that's his name), including hairstyles and hats.  You can even play as unlockable characters in the Free Roam.  One last small touch (since I like those so much) that I loved was equipping the "Biffman" suit and using "Biffarangs".  When you attack with them, it bothers to write out the Adam West Batman sound effects.  Yes, it is as awesome as it sounds.

So, last and not least: is it fun?  Yes.  Even though there is lots of frustration with the challenges and some missions, the GTA-like structure of the game means you can just run people over until you feel better.  Or just wander around finding parodies.  Getting the PSN version is what I'd recommend if you ever think you will get a Vita, since you get a "twofer".  In closing, what I really want to say to everybody is:  If you grew up  in the 80s and 90s, you need to at least try this game!  There's so much content and so many references crammed into the game, this really is a love letter to 80s gaming, so go ahead and read it.