Retro City Rampage (wiiware)

[AppleQueso]

When I learned it was full of references I lost interest immediately. Perhaps Hotline Miami might do the trick instead.

What's wrong with references? I will pick it up because it seems great and references are icing on the cake.

Some people feel like it's just pandering.

[Pulsar_t]

The occasional reference is fine by me, but when the whole game revolves around that it becomes too much to bear.

[Gamerforlife]

I put some more time into the game today, and it's pretty impressive. There seems to be a ton of content and the game is pretty damn funny. Killing people is so much fun in this game. The fact that they are little 8-bit people actually makes it easier. I would sometimes have pangs of conscience killing people in the GTA games because you're hurting real looking, real sounding people. The cartoony look of Retro City Rampage lends itself better to the kind of rampant violence GTA games became known for. It's less disturbing, and thus, more fun.

Plus, there's some funny jokes as the expense of the poor civilians you'll be murdering throughout the game. You can hit someone and send them flying into other people in a straight line and get a "strike!" bonus, like a bowling game. You can also stomp on people Mario style, or pick them up over your head and throw them into the water. I especially love when you're on fire and you have to run around setting other people on fire. Killing people is actually like a sort of mini-game. You kill people in quick succession and get multipliers and chain bonuses to build up your score

I'm amazed at all the GTA III staples in the game. Pay and sprays, police awareness levels, lots of weapons, various side missions, it's all here. Story missions have checkpoints too. Awesome! You can even leave a mission and come back to it and your checkpoint will still be active. You can replay missions too. The references are awesome. I don't mind this type of humor. You'll see lots of funny cameos(although the game is careful not to make any of them too accurate so as not to infringe upon copyrights). I actually hijacked a green van from a ninja turtle and stole a talking car from a certain Baywatch star LOL

I also had to power up a recognizable time travelling car to jump through time, and had to build up power in the only way that made sense - running over ever civilian in sight!

Here's one of the first reviews of the game. I don't much disagree with it.

http://gamerlimit.com/2012/10/review-re ... y-rampage/

[J T]

Keep in mind that, aside from the chiptunes and a little bit of the pixel art, it's my understanding that this game is all created by just one guy (Brian Provinciano). It was originally supposed to be an NES demake of Grand Theft Auto III called Grand Theftendo. That was in 2002, so this game has taken almost a decade to make.

I'm interested to try the game given the positive reviews and the fact that it is clearly a labor of love, but I never liked the original GTA very much, so I'm unsure about whether I will like this.

[Gamerforlife]

Given how much I love Dust: An Elysian Tail, I'm starting to think that one man dev teams are a very good thing. It makes for more focused games with a singular, creative vision and you don't get that feeling that you're just playing a corporate product that got some marketing team's stamp of approval. Though I guess you can say that about indie games in general, which is why I've been developing a greater interest in them this year. So many modern games feel soulless, indie games don't.

[Gunstar Green]

So I've been playing this for a while now and while my initial reaction was very positive, my opinion has been sliding on this one the longer I play it.

As a piece of art and a giant homage to NES games and retro-gaming culture it's pretty cool. The amount of references and gameplay elements is staggering.

As a video game it's ultimately mediocre though. I think he really tried to cram too many different things into a simple engine and as a result a lot of the missions are tedious and frustrating (in a bad way, not in a "Nintendo hard" way). It becomes clear that the game pretty much thrives on the references, goes overboard with them, and then doesn't really have much else under the hood once you get past that.

At first I thought the variety in the missions was neat but many of the missions are kind of poorly designed and try harder to be unique than fun.

All that said there's a staggering amount of detail, artwork, music and secrets packed into this thing. It's worth having if you're even a moderate fan of the NES though $15 is a little steep. I think he could have done a better job designing the missions and overall I'm a little disappointed in it though I'd give it a solid 7/10.

[dsheinem]

So I've been playing this for a while now and while my initial reaction was very positive, my opinion has been sliding on this one the longer I play it.

As a piece of art and a giant homage to NES games and retro-gaming culture it's pretty cool. The amount of references and gameplay elements is staggering.

As a video game it's ultimately mediocre though. I think he really tried to cram too many different things into a simple engine and as a result a lot of the missions are tedious and frustrating (in a bad way, not in a "Nintendo hard" way). It becomes clear that the game pretty much thrives on the references, goes overboard with them, and then doesn't really have much else under the hood once you get past that.

At first I thought the variety in the missions was neat but many of the missions are kind of poorly designed and try harder to be unique than fun.

All that said there's a staggering amount of detail, artwork, music and secrets packed into this thing. It's worth having if you're even a moderate fan of the NES though $15 is a little steep. I think he could have done a better job designing the missions and overall I'm a little disappointed in it though I'd give it a solid 7/10.

I've played about a half hour so far and enjoy it - maybe it is best experienced in chunks? How long is it?

[shmuk]

any idea as to when it's coming out for the Wii? I'm really looking forward to this.

[J T]

I still haven't played the game, but if you haven't seen their Retro City Rampage breakfast cereal commercial yet, you should watch it for the laughs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... dEj_HHiQvY

"I can really taste the graphics!"

[darthmunky]

Whoa this game is out?!? Is it not on XBLA or PSN?