Retro City Rampage DX - Review

 

I have had a hankering to play GTA 2 again for a while. It wasn't available to download on the PS Vita so I opted to download something that reminded me of it, Retro City Rampage DX. The game has the same top down crazy feel and thought why not download it and give it a go.

Anyone that knows me knows that I love crisps, all different varieties. My love of crisps started during my childhood when bags used to cost 10p or 20p (yeah, yeah, I'm old). One of the many crisps I sampled were Wheat Crunchies Crispy Bacon, they taste exactly as the name suggests. I decided to take a trip down memory lane and try them again recently, and I don't know if the flavor has changed but they were not good. Barely tasted of bacon and the textures was like the end of an over cooked garlic baguette. Playing Retro City Rampage I found myself asking should some snacks stay as a buzz of positive nostalgia or are they as strong as ever and the reason retro is so popular?

Story

You are 'player', that's the name of your character, no joke. Let's say he may have fractured a law or two in his time (and continues to do so), so it might be strange finding him helping save the world, universe and time as we know it. You are tasked with helping Doc Brown fix the DeLorean, wait, no, I can't say that and is it not based on 'real character, fictional or otherwise', but that is the story.  The game pays homage to many films, movies, games, and general pop culture. There are lots of side missions to partake in, similar to the first two Grand Theft Auto games they are usually quite silly and fun and take only a couple of minutes to finish.

Overall I have very mixed feelings about the story, in one hand paying homage and parodying can be quite flattering and honoring what came before. That being said, where is the line between that and extensively borrowing or outright copying?

Visuals

The visuals are deliciously retro, with great modern pixel art. It can be easy nowadays going with a retro art style and make people and some objects almost unrecognizable and pass it off as being retro. This is not the case with Retro City Rampage DX, the visuals are detailed, colourful and a lot of fun. Rather than just featuring cityscapes there is also a nice pier area and an army base.

Overall the visuals really spoke to my inner child and managed to keep with retro aesthetics while bringing them to the next level and making them look fresh.

Music

The music used in Retro City Rampage DX is definitively retro and certainly brought back memories of older 8-bit and 16-bit music, which I love. The music is composed by American composers; Leonard J. Paul (Corporation, Beep), Jake Kaufman (Saturday Morning RPG, Mighty Switch Force, Double Dragon Neon), and Matthew Creamer (Shakedown Hawaii and The Arrival).

The soundtrack is just shy of an hour and features some really cool retro tracks including; Side Girl Revenge, Karrage, Politeness and Friendship. Overall it is a fun soundtrack that is great to listen while travelling around the world of Retro City Rampage DX.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to early Grand Theft Auto games, stealing cars, running people down. Now I know what you are saying they are all like that, yes, but the newer ones have a lot more to them then that. The earlier ones were all about stealing cars and mowing people down.

While the games shines when it comes to driving and moving down people a lot of the controls feel a little clunky. The character you control has Mario's jump ability which is a great way to take out enemies when you are not shooting or flattening them. The issue can be control and depth perception, this can mean you easily miss enemies and when it come to shooting it feels limited and the aim could use more movement points than it does. 

The side missions are short and very basic fetch quests for the most part. 

The final boss was pretty fun, and even allows you to view it with the old school red and green 3-D glasses. 

Overall the gameplay is okay but certainly feels like the controls could have used a tune up, and as Retro City Rampage DX is the upgraded version I would not have liked to play it in the original release form.

Final Thoughts

So, after ten hours of playing how did I feel? Meh. The story relies on pop culture way too much and feels less like a parody and more like a cheap copy of other things I have watched or played. The visuals and soundtrack are the strongest elements of the game, and really give a great retro sound and feel. The gameplay has it's moments but some clunky controls stop it from being all it can be. Overall this one gets a 2 out of 5