Narita Boy is a game I have been excited to play since I first heard about it. The game was created by a small Spanish studio called Studio Koba, it was a Kickstarter backed project and published by Team 17. The game has a very Tron-esque feel which I love as a fan myself. So, when I saw the game appear on the PlayStation Store I could not download it quick enough.
I really love good ol' steak sandwich and over the last two weeks I have had three of them (sounds like a lot when I type it). One of those steak sandwich's was served on a ciabatta roll, bit of salad, mixed peppers, garlic butter, my own little gravy boat filled with peppercorn sauce. It was a near perfect sandwich cooked to perfection. The only downside was that after a couple of bites the roll fell apart, not the end of the world but with something near perfect I think you judge it more harshly. Damn, I want some steak now. Playing Narita Boy I found myself asking was this a near perfect game?
Story
The game opens with a man behind a desk working on his computer, a red figure appears on the screen, it reaches out and knocks him unconscious. This man is The Creator of a Digital Kingdom and has lost some of his memories due to being attacked by a being called HIM. A protocol called Narita Boy is activated and you are teleported from the safety of your computer screen into this Digital Kingdom, your role; get back The Creators Memories and save the Kingdom.
The game has an amazing story and develops way beyond the meager paragraph I typed above. Every memory of The Creator you unlock, every being you meet all add to the amazing world Studio Koba has created. I fear revealing any more of the story would ruin the experience for anyone who has not yet played it. In a nutshell the story is amazing and well worth playing just for that alone.
Visuals
I cannot say this enough, the visuals in Narita Boy blew me away! It is pixelated, looks retro and at the same time extremely sophisticated, there is so much detail that every part is like a work of art. The thermal baths and water areas were some of my favorite visually speaking, apart from being visually impressive they also feel alive as there are always beings go about their day, relaxing or thinking. The visuals not only create an amazing world but feel so good you really feel it is actually a real digital world.
Overall the visuals are wild and really cool, for any fans of pixel and retro art this is a must play.
Music
The game soundtrack has an old school video game sound, this should be no surprise as the music is comprised of synthwave and electronic music which works perfectly for a game set in the eighties. The sound moves between peaceful, contemplative, and urgency. The soundtrack is composed by Spanish composer, producer and sound designer Slavinsky. He has a large musical repertoire and this comes out the longer I listed to the soundtrack. He is also the co-founder of Rimsky Music based in Barcelona.
The soundtrack is jam packed with two and half hours of music. For me the whole soundtrack is gold, but there are some tracks that really stuck with me:
Narita Boy Theme
Narita One
Techno-Fathers Castle
Techno Sword
Memory #1
Creator Tears
Black Rainbow
Synth-Sensei
Yellow City
Dragon
White Noise
The Glove
Trichroma Sunset
Saving The World
Overall the soundtrack like the story and visuals are top notch and the soundtrack is easily in my top ten video games soundtrack played this year and of those games actually released this year top three.
Gameplay
The base line gameplay is side scrolling hack and slash, beyond this there are going to be a few puzzles to solve, secrets to reveal and a quite a bit of back and forth.
The game really starts when you collect your one weapon in the game the Techno Sword. As the game progresses you will unlock new moves, while some of them are really good for the most part I stuck to the same few as they always got the job done. Combat initially can feel a little clunky until you unlock shoulder basher and dodge. While the enemies do get tougher as the game unfolds it never felt unfair or impossible. The boss fights knock up the difficulty for sure but with the exception of the second last boss I did not struggle too much.
There are three houses in the game; yellow, red and blue. Each one has it's own Legendary Buddy for you to unlock. Similar to other games you will take on enemies that are marked yellow, red or blue and you can switch your power ability to the appropriate one to make it easier to defeat them. Outside of this you can can unlock super moves that are handy later in the game when you have waves and waves of enemies to deal with.
The game will have you running back and forth across areas, each are relatively small so never felt monotonous to me. Every door needs a code or a floppy disk and you just need to speak with the right person or kill a particular enemy.
There are two secret types of missions you can embark on, one is collecting fragments of floppy disk to unlock a hidden memory of The Creator. The other type of mission is to unlock additional abilities for your Legendary Buddies. The massive draw back for me was that I only paid full attention to this when I was onto the second house, sadly the game does not allow you to replay areas which is strange and there is no plus game either. It is not the end of the world but could have increased the enjoyment for many players, myself included.
Overall, the gameplay is pretty solid, a few tweaks here and there would have made it as impressive as the other elements of the game.
Final Thoughts
So, after around ten hours how did I feel? Pretty good. The story is solid, very interesting and really made me eager for more. The visuals blew me away, each area feel different from the last, each being extremely detailed but managing to maintain a retro pixelated feel. The music was sublime and is a great example of how important video game music is to a game. The gameplay was pretty solid, the only thing that really let it down was in the inability to replay areas meaning you have one chance to get everything. This one was pretty close to perfect and gets a well earned 4 out of 5
