Growing up as a gamer in the 1980s was magic, even if it took fifteen minutes for a game to load in on my Spectrum 48k. Of course, a huge part of gaming back then was visiting arcades in the city to experience games that were, at that time, not available on home consoles or PC. I can still smell the sweat infused joysticks and aroma of cheap snacks; it’s funny what morsels of our past become cherished memories. Like needing ten floppy discs for a full run of Monkey Island or the click of my Atari St mouse sounding like a gun going off. These were the wonder years of gaming when we didn’t really think about where games came from or what was coming next.
Two years ago I took my son to the National Videogame Museum (Sheffield) in the UK and we had an absolute blast. Some of my favourite systems were there such as the Simpsons Arcade machine and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. At our house we are superfluous in modern games with all their fancy graphics, yet here was my son and me having the best time ever on a game I played as a kid.
With the internet now seeping into every facet of our lives it is difficult to justify having physical media cluttering up our limited space, so arcade machines are now sadly on the endangered species list. While I’m all for progress, I also love the fact there are people out there working to protect these systems that helped fashion the very fabric of modern gaming.
Well it just so happens the game I am reviewing this week is all about this very special era of gaming and is even helping preserve our legacy arcade machines. The fine folks at Studio Koba and Team 17 have been working with three gaming museums to help raise awareness of saving arcade machines. A donation from each copy of Narita Boy will be made to these three museums as well as other fundraising events and the soundtrack being available for purchase on various platforms. I don’t normally plug merchandise in this way, but this is a very special case that is near and dear to my heart. Ok, let us take a gander at the game itself.
Retro Revelry
In this title you must take control of Narita Boy, a young chap who is summoned from our world and transferred into a digital avatar on the other side of his computer screen. This digital landscape is seemingly a whole other world that was fashioned by the Creator, the person who you now race to save from HIM. In the introduction we see HIM reach out from the digital world, attack the Creator and leave him devoid of his core memories. Without these the Creator cannot vanquish HIM from this digital plane and so he is now spreading through this vast computer world unchecked.
I would say Narita boy reminds me of a cross between Dead Cells, Another World and Tron. Dead Cells is a fantastic pixel-art action game from two years back, excelling in fast paced action and beautiful pixel animation. Another World (1991) was a game that was way ahead of its time and involved a partial physicist being teleported to a strange Alien world: the opening of Narita Boy really had me thinking about that old classic. Of course Tron was a classic film that exudes 80’s charm and told the story of Kevin Flynn who was digitised into his own computer world. It is this reference that bears the strongest resemblance to the goings on in Narita Boy.
The Name of the Game
In the simplest terms, Narita Boy is a sideways scrolling game which is part action combat and part platform puzzle solving with an emphasis on the former. There is a story for you to unfold and as you unlock new skills more areas become accessible to you. Early on you unlock the Techno-sword and must use it to defeat the generals of HIM known as the Stallions. New moves are nothing too outside the box with a wall smashing charge here and height gaining uppercut there. The more interesting skills are the way you can use a floppy disc as a mount or transform into a digital animal to pass certain landscapes. I loved these ideas, even if they were a little under used.
While there is a degree of backtracking, it is nowhere near as much as games like Hollow Knight or Castlevania. Indeed, this is a smaller offering than both of those games and my first complete run clocked in at just over twelve hours. In terms of variation there are no real plot or path choices through the game so one run will suffice for most players but the game is so damn cool I see myself having another play through very soon.
As I've already mentioned, the Creator has had his memories corrupted and so you must fight to restore them. At the end of each stage you gain access to one of said memories in which you can walk through and observe how this event altered the Creator's world and life path. While I don’t think pixel-art games are known for their emotionally heavy storylines, I was impressed with how touching these small story segments were.
Electric Avenue
The very first time I saw Narita Boy it grabbed my attention with its gorgeous pixel art aesthetic. There has clearly been a lot of time poured into both the overall world design and also the pixel animations which are as good as I've ever seen. Each area of the game has its own feel and look, which helps keep things fresh as you progress. Just seeing the many locations and beings brought to life with stunning animation and creative charm is by far my favourite part of this title.
The humanoids that occupy this digital world look like a mixture of old tech like old fashioned monitors that have been spliced with wires and neon rainbow fuel. As you defeat the many enemies there are hints of liquid innards being sent in all directions, which adds an organic gore element to the combat. As you face off against bigger enemies will start to see an even more bizarre boss design that just blew me away with how well it all works. Every boss I fought felt both challenging and different enough to not use the same solution as the prior fights.
As for sounds effects and music, this game also scores highly with me. There is no speech as such so all the dialogue is delivered through text and the 8-bit muttering sound we hear in most pixel-art games. The sound effects are all spot on and have that ‘sampled’ quality but of course this all fits perfectly within the aesthetic of the game. The music is where Narita boy really hits a home run because it is a synth-wave triumph. I will also say that I still can’t stop humming the title screen song, so beware of the earworm that awaits.
Techno Waffle
Considering the relatively short playtime Narita Boy throws a lot of exposition at you but also uses a great deal of unfamiliar phrases which can leave you scratching your head as to what to do next. The game world is made up of two-dimensional layers which are linked via doorways. With no map and an often confusing objective this often left me at a loss as to which direction to head. Thankfully the levels are quite compact so this wasn’t a huge problem, but I do think a map or more consistent guiding arrow would have been a good feature.
My only real complaint about the way the game is structured is the section in the middle which puts you on a mount and has you jumping over obstacles while charging groups of enemies. This section almost ruined the entire experience for me because it was a nightmare to get past. As you are on rails there is no way to slow the section down and it took me hours to best it, I was on the verge of just giving up. If I had one request for the devs I would ask them to make this section a little slower or remove it entirely.
Conclusion
In a year that has been somewhat muted due to the ongoing global pandemic, some smaller games have been given a chance to shine that little bit brighter. I really hope that people give this gem a look and send some well deserved support in the direction of Team Koba. I say this because smaller indie games rarely get the traction they deserve which is ironic considering they are the studios who take the biggest risks. In addition, when you pick it up you are supporting a very good cause so what is there to lose? I absolutely adore Narita Boy and cannot recommend it enough.
