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This throws homage and reference at a lightspeed pace at you. Still, maybe the 2D nature and retro homages will appeal to you versus that standard Rockstar humor.īut if you don’t enjoy retro homages, well, you’re not going to like this. But on iOS, not only can you go and play the games that obviously inspired this, but you can do so for about the same price. You could maybe play the Stories franchise of games on Vita, for example. Granted, the context and more compact nature of Retro City Rampage is unique compared to those games, and there’s some platforms that RCR is on that don’t have those Grand Theft Auto games easily available. One is that that thanks to the warped mobile economy, you can go and play a real, 3D Grand Theft Auto game from 3 to San Andreas for about the same price, if not a couple bucks more. I have two key issues with Retro City Rampage, though. Getting the gold medals is hard enough on a real controller. At least you can play with an MFi controller if that’s your speed, and if you just want to run around and play some of the challenges like blowing up stuff with a rocket launcher around the city, then that’s totally fine with the touchscreen. Ever try to jump over pits in a beat ’em up? It’s about as hard here, as you really have to pay attention to shadows to see where you’re jumping, and it never quite feels natural. The jumping is an iffy enough proposition as it is.
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Virtual controls were always going to be an issue with this game, and some of the more hectic later-game missions can be quite difficult with just virtual controls. It’s an impressive undertaking, no matter what. But it still has that feeling like it could have existed in the NES days if it was made by some crazy visionary. Like, the game isn’t afraid to have dual-stick controls or use a bunch of different buttons when necessary. And the whole thing is made by one guy, to mostly retro specifications, while not going too far in that direction. Plus, it’s got fantastic pixel art in spades, with all sorts of different color filters for your favorite retro system. The game might not be as lengthy as your average Grand Theft Auto, but I mean, I’ve never actually beaten a GTA game, so do they need to be so dense with missions? RCR has no shortage of content, especially for the price. The city is smaller, but there’s no shortage of things to do or places to explore, and there are even secret cheat codes to find and enter. What makes Retro City Rampage so impressive is the way that it really nails the whole Grand Theft Auto experience while being more compact. There’s a lot to do here, and the game revels in its goofiness. Play a minig-ame that’s like Test Your Strength from Mortal Kombat but with the Epic Meal Time dudes. Get a crazy haircut, or a Master Chef helmet. Ride a motorcycle that looks suspiciously like Yoshi. Want to thrash pedestrians around with a bionic arm? That’s possible! Get some super-fast running shoes and run over everyone. There’s a lot to do, and because the game has this parodic tone, it means you get to do some things you can’t do in Grand Theft Auto. You can advance the story with him, complete missions for others, or just run around town and blow stuff up for fun, or in one of the many mini-games that appears.
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The setup is very similar to Grand Theft Auto, as you either go on missions for various shady characters, with the main guy you’re working for being a very obvious Doc Brown pastiche from Back to the Future. Yet, one night it unexpectedly showed up! And while I have some issues with the game, I’m quite glad it showed up.
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It was on desktop (PC, Mac, and Linux!), the Vita (on cartridge too!), 3DS, Wii U (not the Wii), Xbox One, PS3 and PS4, even a demo for NES! But the new platform releases started to dry up over time, even after the DX update to the original game that brought some new features and tweaks was released. Took it long enough, eh? Brian Provinciano’s “what if Grand Theft Auto was an 8-bit game that paid homage to every classic game and notable 1980s cultural phenomenon" title had landed everywhere but mobile. Retro City Rampage DX ($4.99) finally hits iOS.
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