Retro City Rampage Has the Recipe for Pure 8-bit Bliss - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 08 June 2012 / 3,273 Views
As I grabbed the controller and began playing the E3 demo of Retro City Rampage, Matt Creamer, the game’s composer and sound designer, assured me that the game “is as close to release as it possibly could be.” But at this point I am only barely listening, not because he was uninteresting (my conversation with him is perhaps the most memorable of my entire time at the show) but because I was already too ensnared by the wonderfully referential and self-aware downloadable game.
For those of you that don’t know, Retro City Rampage is an 8-bit open world game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto if that series had begun its life on the NES. Yet such a description fails to do the game justice because Retro City Rampage features elements from a variety of gameplay types both modern and retro and wraps it up in a world that is a pixilated ode to pop culture from the 1980s to the present.
Specifically, my hands-on demo let me play through the game’s opening moment, which immediately set the tone for the sheer ridiculousness that was about to unfold. The player assumes the role of the game’s protagonist who happens to be called Player as well. One day he responds to an ad seeking henchman for hire. Three years later he receives a call to action that requires his services to help pull off a bank heist led by a super criminal known as The Jester. Such a large operation required multiple henchmen to perform a specific sequence of actions that bore an uncanny resemblance to the opening scene of a certain 2008 superhero movie.
Player’s first task was to drive to the appropriate location, which required commandeering a vehicle much like you would in GTA. I drove by pushing the left analog stick of the Xbox 360 controller in the direction I wanted to go. Once we reached the bank, The Jester handed me a gun and told me to destroy the evidence. I fired several shots at the vehicle until it blew up. We then raided the bank vault and tried to make our escape by taking a school bus. Unfortunately for us, the endless stream of traffic would not let us in, so The Jester told the player to cross the street, Frogger-style, in order to press a button that would halt the traffic. He even gave Player a set of red sneakers he picked up from Greenhill Zone. I managed to cross the street perfectly but the traffic still did not relent, so The Jester got out and began firing rockets.
Subsequently, the cops began full pursuit. It was during a shootout with the cops that I first got the chance to try out the many different combat options available in Retro City Rampage. I could fire my gun while strafing or I could take cover as you would in a modern-day shooter, behind a wall where I could pop out to fight when I saw fit. Another option was simply to jump on their heads or even kick them while in mid-air. I eventually broke free from the police and attempted to make a complete getaway only to be obstructed by mutant ninja turtles emerging from the sewers and a team of mercenaries that hopped out of a van (by now you should have a grasp of what type of game this is). I continued to flee until a time machine dropped out of the sky and Player decided to use it to escape the heat.
Once in the future, a professor came by to pick Player up in a flying car and recognized the protagonist as a hero to be. I took the wheel of this flying car and headed back to the Doc’s place where he explained that I needed to obtain 8 special items in order to repair the time machine and return to the time period where Player is needed. He instructed me to visit the clerk at an ammunition shop who looked like a mix between Snake and the characters from Contra. From here the world was more open as I could choose to tackle this mission or simply screw around in the city. When I did accept the mission my next task was to stealthily steal something of value from a nearby armed installation. When I got there the color palette was green and brown and there were guards to sneak past (that’s right, it was a tribute to the original Metal Gear).
By this point I probably had a huge grin on my face that grew more joyous with each minute of gameplay. You could sneak past the guards or choose to face them head on through gunfire, melee attacks, or grenades. Certain areas required I throw a grenade in order to destroy an obstructing wall. At the mission’s end I commandeered a truck and drove it back to ammo shop to receive my reward.
This is just a small sampling of the retro goodness you can expect to find in Retro City Rampage. Part of the fun was in identifying all the references to videogames and nerd culture. Within a few minutes I recognized dozens that drew upon everything from Duck Hunt to The Departed. E3 is usually dominated by big budget games with cutting edge technology yet the humbly-developed Retro City Rampage was one of the most enjoyable games at the show. There have been numerous setbacks concerning its release but it seems as if those will soon be over. Matt Creamer described Retro City Rampage as “the biggest NES game ever”, but it just so happens to be releasing on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network (both PS3 and Vita), and WiiWare. Be sure to keep an eye out for it so you can play games like its 1985.
