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By Al  Players: 1 Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Steam Retro Revengers is a retro-inspired action platformer that released on Steam and the Nintendo Switch earlier this year. It takes a more comedic approach to the genre and sees five distinct characters who are tasked to save the very video game they were originally attempting to play. Nice and meta right? Well, we'll get more into the hows and whys of their journey in a bit, but we're here to let you know if this quirky little indie title is one that you're going to want to add to your end of year play roster, or if you're better off skipping it altogether. Let's get ourselves isekai'd into the review to find out!
Retro Revengers opens with five friends, Ossan, Mao, Taicho, Matchan, and Notchi, hanging out in Ludens Castle playing video games. I'm a little confused if this is meant to be an arcade or what, but I can say that this Castle is located somewhere in Central Japan. Their usual gaming session is cut short when they're sucked into the world of the video game (or isekai'd if you will), and are met by the Retro Goddess who bestows upon them the task of taking down the Demon Overlord of Triple-A, or "DOTA". Each of the heroes are sent on their own separate journeys that start with them coming face to face with various characters that they've created in their pasts. These beginning level NPCs teach the heroes how to use their newly acquired powers, and hint about some of the dangers that lie ahead. The five friends, or the Retro Revengers as it were, must clear each of their levels, defeat any and all bosses along the way, and face the big, bad DOTA himself. There's some surprises along the way, but the wackiness of the world bleeds into the story throughout. If you're a fan of retro video games you're sure to come across more than a few references in each of the game's cutscenes, but that's something that is probably best experienced for oneself. I'll talk a bit more about the story here and there as we go, but I have to say that I was impressed how well put together it was for a game that could've easily passed with a far more simple one. Not to say that this is an overly complex one, but the game's cutscenes take up a decent amount of time within any playthrough.
At its heart, Retro Revengers is an action platformer, but with five characters/levels that play differently enough from each other that there are some points where it almost feels like five individual shorter games collected into one package. Each of the five characters have different attacks, jumping mechanics, and level obstacles. The old man Ossan is the most standard of the bunch. His jump takes him a bit higher if you hold the button, he throws knives straight ahead, and has a powered up attack that either creates a shield around him, or launches it at enemies. His level features destructible blocks and switches that raise and lower platforms when hit. Helmeted dinosaur Mao throws Molotov cocktail-looking projectiles in an arc, has a jump that holds you in place if you hold down the button, and a powered up attack that unleashes a flame that zeroes in on targets. His level is a desert level that has the always enjoyed sinking quicksand peppered throughout. The odd-looking kid Taicho has a yo-yo attack, a triple jump powered by farts that can also damage enemies, and a powered up attack that can see his yo-yo be used as a sort of hookshot. His level mainly takes place in a slightly vertical space that takes advantage of the hookshot mechanic. Matchan... who I can't really describe has a rapid fire attack that goes in several directions, a jump that is extremely floaty and doesn't have much distance, and a powered up attack that goes in both directions and closes up any open pits of lava. Since his attack deals with lava, it makes sense that his level is the fire-themed one that you'd expect to find in just about any retro game. Last up is the cat Notchi who has a very close range attack, a standard jump, and a powered-up attack that not only acts as a super jump of sorts, but also allows you to stick and climb onto the level's ceiling. His level makes use of the ceiling climbing mechanic, but since it's far more vertical than even Taicho's level, it also requires that his special attack simply be used simply to move upwards in general. Now that we have all that out the way, let's move on to the gameplay proper.
The goal of each of the five main levels is to clear each of the stage's individual rooms, take out its boss, and collecting the chest of coins that appears afterwards. Coins are used for continues, and are one of the few item pick-ups outside of life-restoring meat and various items that increase your score. If you're playing on Normal difficulty, you are given five lives and a standard life bar that lets you take about five to six hits before dying. You can refill your life bar with the aforementioned meat power-ups, but these seem to be few and far between, and often come from defeating enemies that can just as easily kill you if you're not careful. If you lose all your lives you can continue using 100 coins, but must start at the beginning of the current level. Since each level is separated into about 5-8 rooms, this could really wipe out any progress you've made so far. Also, just to note, death in a normal setting restarts you from the beginning of the current room you're in. This means that you'll be redoing a lot of sections over and over again, hoping that you aren't forced to see the Game Over screen over and over again. This entire lives/level/continue system bothered me the most as there are some insane difficulty spikes from room to room. Some you can clear on your first try without taking a single bit of damage, then you'll be knocked back into instant death pits over and over in the next one. Lives don't reset on each new level either. This means if you start a new level, but only have one or two lives left, it's probably better just to kill yourself, use a continue, and start the level with a full life count. Nothing is more frustrating than getting to a boss with just one life, and having to basically waste said single life figuring out how you're expected to kill it. I'll talk a lot more about the enemies and stage hazards in a bit, but this felt like the game's biggest weakness. Each of the five levels are fairly short all things considered. You can beat each of them in maybe 5 minutes, so it makes sense that they'd have to pad things out by adding in things like level resets on continues, but I'm sure most will admit that this is just cheap and lazy. I should also mention that there is an in-game timer that ticks down in each room, but it never once was anywhere near reaching even under a minute, let alone close to running out entirely.
Enemies in the levels come mostly in the form of constant respawns. There were many times when I'd sit waiting for a platform to get into just the right position, only to have to stop everything and deal with an enemy mob that had just reappeared. Just as common was trying to ignore the constantly spawning enemies only to find that a literal army of a couple dozen had followed me all the way to the end of the current area. Also this game has knockback, so while you can most definitely die from the enemies themselves, you probably have more to fear from bottomless pits and instant death spikes. That said, enemies do go down pretty easily, but their sheer number, and often unfair placement, make getting past them more difficult than it should've been. What's funny is that there were many times when it felt like levels were designed with other characters in mind. Like they'd take advantage of the character's unique abilities at first, but then they'd also have jumping puzzles that would've been better suited for another character, or enemy placement that would be easier to clear if you had access to another character's attack. This will come into play again later, but the first five levels can only ever be played with the character that they were intended for. The game's ever-shifting difficulty was so annoying that I sometimes had to switch it to Easy so I could actually see what else the game had to offer. Then I learned that as far as the developers for Retro Revengers are concerned, Easy is a difficulty that's meant for babies. In Easy Mode your life bar will refill itself if you stop taking attacks, bottomless pits will no longer kill you (though spikes still do), bosses have half their normal life bar, enemies are less numerous and easier to kill, and you have more lives than in Normal. This makes playing the game on Easy practically trivial since it's near impossible to die on this difficulty. I get having a difficulty like this, I really do, but only having this or Normal feels like the developers really didn't want players having much control over how hard the challenges would be. Retro Revengers really needs a difficulty between Easy and Normal, and the fact that they have three versions of "Hard" make me feel that this was an intentional slight on people who are forced to lower the difficulty.
There's actually an entire second part to Retro Revengers that I haven't even touched on: the repeat playthrough. Once you beat the first five levels, you face DOTA himself. The thing is you're not able to actually defeat DOTA in your current state, and you're actually sent back to replay the entire game again. This second playthrough is noticeably harder, but you have the ability to switch between all five of the characters at will, and an even more powered-up attack. Also, each of the characters have their own lives, and you only die if any single one loses their entire life bar. This does mean it's harder to die against enemies, but this does nothing to help stave off the countless deaths by way of bottomless pits. Slight annoyances aside, this does add a lot of cool gameplay quirks as some of the problems with the levels I mentioned earlier are wiped out by the character-changing mechanic. All this doesn't exactly make the game better though, as the new level layouts seem just mean spirited at times. There are several jumps that require you to land within a thin area. Think something like landing within a narrow pipe and you'll probably understand what I mean. Some characters have better jumps than others, but even changing can make some of these sections super annoying as failing them means instant death. Switching characters isn't exactly the easiest process either as it leaves you open to enemy attacks whenever you do it. It was here actually that I had to constantly shift back to Easy Mode so I could actually get through sections without having to continue constantly. I say continuing, but as I mentioned before that takes you to the start of the stage each time. This meant that there were several second run stages where I never was able to get to the boss on the Normal difficulty setting. I'm not exactly a noob when it comes to gaming, but I have to say that this level of difficulty and jumping BS has more in common with hastily thrown together C-list 16-bit licensed action platformers over true classics of retro gaming. You might be asking what kept me playing Retro Revengers if I was finding it such a frustrating experience at times. Well, that's simple, it was the story. The cutscenes that come in-between each of the levels were so charming and silly that I couldn't help but power through everything I didn't care much for to see the next one. I also had hopes that the second run would be much better than the first, and I really had to see what this DOTA actually looked like. This is by no means a bad game, just not a very balanced one that seems to value padding out its short length over offering a balanced gaming experience. If it weren't for the level select options, the Easy difficulty making falling into pits a non-issue, and the wonky dialogue and characters actually coming off as endearing instead of annoying, I probably wouldn't have finished this game. Oh, and there was this review driving me on too of course.
Retro Revengers looks very much like 16-bit games of old, but with some visual flair that wouldn't be possible on older hardware. It's a beautiful game that runs smoothly on the Switch, and rarely stuttered even when there was a lot going on screen at once. There were some room transitions where it felt like things might be experiencing a slight bit of slowdown, but this never was an issue since it doesn't happen during action sequences. The enemy and boss designs all look great, with even some of the generic ones having enough pizzazz to them that one would be excused for running out to buy their never-to-be-released action figure versions. I am less in love with the main character designs as they look somewhat too silly to really care about. I find little fault with Ossan, Mao, and Notchi, but Taicho and Matchan look a bit too wacky for me. They seem like they'd be at home in a Ren & Stimpy-like cartoon more than any classic retro game that I've ever played. Designs aside, everything is colorful and vibrant, and there's a lot of attention to detail within the levels themselves. The supporting cast of characters all look great too, and it made me really wish I got to see them more; maybe even play as them in a third run. DOTA himself not only looks impressive, but has one of the best designs this side of a Mega Man game. Besides some of the too-silly-for-me characters, I must admit that the visual style is one of the better aspects of Retro Revengers.
Besides the quirky story, Retro Revengers probably shines best when it comes to music. Manami Matsumae, the composer for the original Mega Man game and Shovel Knight, provides the music here and it all has that retro awesomeness one would expect from someone of that caliber. Since the game is fairly short, there isn't a whole lot of music to take in, but what you do get most certainly rocks. It's probably something outside the scope of this review to attempt to describe, but I have heard many retro-inspired soundtracks that come off sounding more like an imitation rather than new music created with retro sensibilities. Retro Revengers avoids this trap entirely, and there wasn't a single song that I didn't find myself enjoying. The level themes all fit their settings, the boss themes get your blood boiling, and the ending and opening themes leave you hoping for more. I particularly loved the theme to Ossan's level. While the music is all but perfect, the sound effects don't fare quite as well. They do their job, but I couldn't help but feel that they sounded downright crispy due to how lo-fi they appear. I'm sure this isn't the case, but they almost felt like they were ripped from another game using a handheld tape recorder, then just dropped in here. Also, and I guess this is a complaint I have with other modern retro-inspired games, is that there are some things that I felt should have a sound but didn't. Mainly this is in terms of certain enemy actions, but it's honestly not the biggest complaint in the world, and I'm sure a complaint unique only to myself. I probably wouldn't even have noticed it if it weren't for the fact that the excellent music had me paying more attention to the sound design than I normally would've. Lastly, there's no voice acting, which isn't exactly surprising, but it's worth a mention anyway. We move from one of the best aspects of the game to one of the worst, the controls. I already mentioned how the random difficulty spikes made some sections near unplayable, but these were always made worse by way of the controls themselves. People like to say that it's hard to describe bad controls, and that has never been truer than in Retro Revengers. Jumping works so weird, and the fact that everyone has a different one makes shuffling between them even more troublesome. What's more, if you complete a charged attack while jumping, which you'll often have to do to avoid death by knockback, your jump arc will immediately end and you'll drop straight down. This almost always leads to death, so it's often a matter of how you want to meet your end as opposed to how you'll avoid it. Jumping never really feels as accurate as you want it to be, and this makes completing the second set of levels an exercise in patience. Shifting between characters is also not as smooth as you'd expect it to be as you have to be standing completely still, not in the middle of any action, for it to work. This is often easier said than done, especially since you're probably changing characters to get past a dicey jumping situation. I can go on like this, but I want to pick on Notchi's skill in particular. His super jump never does what you want it to it seems, and you'll alternate between trying to super jump, but grabbing the ceiling, or trying to grab the ceiling but instead super jumping to your death. It's rare that a game can create a new version of making blind leaps of faith, but Notchi's level adds making blind jumps upward in hopes that you're not leaping into the waiting hands of a Game Over. You can probably find a way to "get used to" the control quirks in this game, but that doesn't mean that they're not there.
Retro Revengers is a fairly short game. You technically have ten levels, a boss fake out, and a boss rush. Each level is pretty long, and the second run of the game does offer enough differences in gameplay that the levels do feel distinct from the first set. There's no save system, but you can restart the game from any level you've beaten. If you do this you won't be able to set a "Speedrun" score which tallies the time it took you to beat all the levels. Since I couldn't be bothered to play the game in a single setting (since I had to keep switching to Easy to get past some parts) I never was able to set a time, but that could be a challenge for some players. It may sound like I'm leaning towards saying that this means that there is very little replayability here, but I don't really think that's the case at all. I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's just the game's overall charm, but I found myself going back to it over and over again even after I had finished it. I plan to try to get good enough at it so I can complete the game on Normal, if for no other reason than Easy feels far too cheap to complete the game on. The game even tracks how many of the hidden items you've collected, number of times you died, etc. So you can create your own challenge runs too. Seeing as the game comes with a very reasonable $9.99 price tag, it's fair to say that you get a lot of game for your buck here. I do wish there was some way to add multiplayer, or perhaps offer yet another game mode after you fully beat the game, but there's enough here for the kind of game this is. I guess one could try for the several Hard difficulty settings, but seeing as Normal feels all but impossible at times, I doubt I'll be trying that any time soon, if ever.
Even though I found the gameplay in Retro Revengers to be a bit lacking, I didn't regret a single minute with the game. I loved the characters, loved the cutscenes, chuckled more than a few times here and there, and managed to get through sections that nearly made me give up in frustration. This is a retro-inspired action platformer that gets the ins and outs of the genre right, even down to the poorly aged controls too I guess. Seeing as it's only out on the Switch and PC as of now, that might limit its market a bit, but I'd definitely say that it's worth picking up on either platform if you can. The real question though is if this game will get a sequel, I for sure hope it does. I guess we'll just have to see how well this one sells... Check Out Retro Revengers on The Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/retro-revengers-switch/ Story: A+ Gameplay: B- Graphics: A Music/Sound: A Value: A Overall: A- Pros: + A love letter to classic 16-bit action platformers that contains lots of retro references for the hardcore. + Five characters that play very differently from each other, complete with their own unique levels, keep Retro Revengers from ever feeling stale. + Great graphics and music faithfully emulate the classics in a way that still manages to feel original and modern. + The characters, story, and overall quirkiness will keep players engaged throughout the entire game. + While the game can be very difficult, an Easy Mode, a generous continue system, and level select, make this very accessible to casual players. +/- A very challenging game for those looking for exactly that. Cons: - Difficulty spikes make this hard to complete even on the standard Normal difficulty setting. - Some platforming sections, enemy placement, and general level layout make Retro Revengers feel extremely cheap and unfair. - Though the second playthrough is pretty cool for what it adds, it still is the same game repeated. - Is generally a short game that pads its runtime by way of its difficulty. A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way. #RetroRevengers
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