Retro Revengers Xbox Review 7/10 "Retro Revenge is Sweet" 🕹️ @shinyuden @RatalaikaGames #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev

A short and snappy title that harks back to 8-bit platformers. Retro Revengers has a modern twist mainly through the narrative, and whilst it is a very brief title at around an hour or two, this brevity is what keeps the gameplay and somewhat snarky story fresh up to the end.

The game begins with a bunch of YouTubers that focus entirely on retro games getting sucked into a magic cartridge and being visited by fictional heroes that they once drew as children, these then imbue them with powers – character-specific – and challenge them with reaching the end of their set stage in this game world, resulting in them eventually meeting up as a group and utilising their combined skills to make their way through a variation on the previous stages, in order to beat the ultimate boss.

Retro Revengers features some incredible chiptune gold, and the movement feels suitably chunky and measured to add to the retrotastic experience. Whilst the bright visuals, tongue-in-cheek  dialogue and variation on powers keep things ticking along nicely, it can’t completely cover the re-used enemy sprites, somewhat superficial gameplay, and wobbly difficulty curve that can sway from slightly teeth-grinding to bizarrely easy, often in the space of a level / boss. 

Whilst there is the ability to raise and lower the difficulty level to your liking, it feels like different stages and sections were designed by different people, so there’s no sense of uniformity or flow in the challenge-through-line of the game – the lack of any unlockables also adds to the sense of ‘one and done’ that you get from your first completion.

SUMMARY

A fun, brief title with awesome music that coasts along with quippy narrative beats and colourful characters, Retro Revengers is absolutely worth a playthrough -especially if you like your stories meta -  but not one you’d probably revisit too often down the line.