retro city rampage

PC REVIEW:Retro City Rampage / Hotline Miami
Platform - Windows


in the last few months we had 2 "GTA-Likes" come out that i'm familiar with.  the first is Retro City Rampage, and the 2nd is Hotline Miami.  Hotline Miami, for me, was a little short, and i wanted more of something that ...  i don't know, violence, costumes, and psuedo open world style aside ... ...  ...  just wasn't there for me, and it just didn't really ... "click" with me, it was trying too hard to look like..  i don't know, something i guess  i wasn't digging.

Retro City Rampage, on the other hand, I've dug, a bit at least.  The game-play is similar to Vice City, with a "Retro" (8-16bit) appearance , that everybody is doing nowadays.  The writers of the game wrote most of it in Parody and in Honor of the 80's and early 90's, in everything from Film, music, Cartoons, popluar culture, and of course, video games.  You have to kind of take it really lightly, because it can be a real turn off for those not familiar with back then.  If you were a kid in the 80s you'll love the little references, and smile, at some of the (albeit overbearing), humourous overtones and pop-culture jokes.  It also parodies the Grand Theft Auto series heavily, as the "Player",  has to go on "Missions", and complete tasks in timer activated sequences, covering everything from Mowing Down pedestrians, (similar to the GTA games), to playing mini games similar to Tapper (1982 SEGA), and a mission  level that directly parodies the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutrtles first NES game's notorious UNDERWATER stage.


CORE COMPONENT REVIEW:

SOUND:  4.75 / 5
Chip-tunes, Ahoy!!!  Great work on the tunes, no Voice Actors were really needed.  I preferred having bypassable text, and not having the weight of all those WAV and audio files on my hard drive when i just wanted a little fun. The original music is  Spot On and brings back a lot of memories.  Worth checking out for the soundtrack alone, if you're into chip tunes and NES music.

What could have been better?  - I dunno, maybe a selector for multiple audio layouts in a future version, similar to the graphic layout seletion options,  to respect sound architectures like the Atari 2600, Commodore SID chip, etc.

GRAPHICS:  5/5
Perfect for what it needs.  Tight sprites, smooth, quick animation that flowed with the control and my movements.  The enemies movement and bullet drawing are great.  Easy on the eyes, and with multiple layout and video options, No two games are the same, period.

What could have been better? - i don't know.

CONTROL: 4.5 / 5
Took a little getting used to, but after getting used to the Vice City like controls i was hooked, bad.  I've tried to play this game on keyboard + mouse, but it didn't feel good to me..  Tried using a NES style USB joypad..  no dice - period.  tried using a Sega Saturn style USB controller with it, and that didn't really work out that well either.  The only real thing that worked (for me, anyways),  was / is PlayStation style and xbox360 style controllers with analog sticks worked best - for me- anyways..  please comment or message - stokernumberfive@gmail .com for exact controller data. 

STORY / WRITING 5/5
its fun.  it is what it is, and pulls no punches, nor tries to pull any bullshit, younger players will be either A- totally lost, or B, asking about stuff from an older family member, friend, or fellow player or googling the hell outta stuff in order to get all the referrences.  People of a certain age, though, will pick up on some of the over the top parody instantly, and realize ... this should not be taken heavily.

OTHER ?  4/5


Revisions and updates have only removed bugs and helped out playability and ease of gameplay, want a harder game...?   play an earlier version, or Dwarf Fortress.  I hope that a few more palettes become available, (LIKE i dunno...  nightclub to make it all purple and pink and blue, and RAVE...  to make it hell of psychedelic) as well as some new weapons, missions, mini games, music and modes, and some more map space to run around in and destroy stuff.


WRAPUP?

Total Score - an in-betweener of 4.6 out of 5 to Stars

the action is fast, the story is fun, the way it feels is UN-explainable.  Even when you don't win a mission, or fail at a task, it drags me back in, and tells me hints, and gives me that "DON'T GIVE UP", feeling.  I need that feeling right now more than ever. 


4.6  TO 5 stars  -

11/15/2012

-o-


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