Many games have had the opportunity to shine by trying to go back to basics with rather retro graphics and gameplay, and adding a touch of current know-how. Sometimes it works, sometimes it gives unplayable titles to more... than one title! Today, answer for Narita Boy!
Graphics & atmosphere
First of all, it should be noted that this game contains many light effects that can harm people with epilepsy, be careful.
Good graphics as you could find a few years ago. Properly mastered pixel art, a very dark atmosphere, technology dating from a few years ago bring out the nostalgic side of this game. Everything is punctuated by rather nice music and clean and well-made sound effects, although, in my opinion, some themes are not consistent enough with the assigned areas.
The very many references such as the bosses: Lord VHS (hello young people, to find out what a VHS is, please follow this link), or Glaucoma, Noirc-en-ciel etc... to name only those -there, provide real moments of joy, like those moments when you have to surf on a floppy disk (young people, it's here).
History
You are Narita Boy, a creation come to save this world from HIM's corrupting clutches. To do this, you will have to restore the memory of the creator by surveying the Trichrome and definitively banishing the standard programs leading this digital world to its ruin. But in doing this, you are also going through the memory of the creator, his creation of this world, and the secrets behind it all. How could HE affect the creator? who is he? and what happens in the Trichrome? you're going to have to find out.
Gameplay
Your character has many hits that you will get as you go through your adventure. But even more exciting, the zones will each offer very interesting and different gameplay. Whether it's surfing, giant robot fights, or rushes on horseback, you'll have to pay attention to all the subtleties that entails. Of course, when you die, you return to the previous waypoint. By dint of effort, everything will nevertheless go quickly enough to find the solutions and advance until the end of the game.
However, one point is quite recurrent and breaks the rhythm a bit: the incessant and sometimes dispensable back and forth through the level to retrieve a key from an NPC a few screens before and then return to where you were. But we can argue that it adds to the sometimes labyrinthine aspect of the thing which has a myriad of small details such as symbols which will be used for teleporters and which are embedded in the decor. It is highly possible to miss it once or twice without realizing it.
To help you, you will have interesting ups allowing you to regain life, to summon legendary "dudes" for a super powerful attack, or to use their power from the associated radius. The latter will put you in a state of fire, which will inflict heavily increased damage to enemies in the same state (azure, purple, yellow fire) and in return, they will inflict more damage as well.
Between very well exploited verticality, classic but effective platform phase and sometimes devious environmental traps, we feel the work done to put us in the mood for games that we could have found many years ago.
Summary
Narita Boy is therefore not a bad game, it also has quite interesting characteristics for us to embark on the adventure. However, the ease of the game, coupled with a feeling of back and forth that is sometimes a little heavy, is likely to weigh heavily in the final appreciation of the players, despite an atmosphere that really mixes this Matrixian atmosphere with a touch of groovy. . The history, very rich, will make you want to go further and know the end of the story.
A real ode to an old generation of gamers, stuffed with references, which is not perfect, sometimes even frustrating, but will undoubtedly give you a good time if you ignore the flaws that will prevent impatient players from enjoying it fully.
Available on...
- Playstation Store
- Microsoft Store
- Nintendo eShop
- Steam
