I find it quite difficult to start writing this review for a very specific reason: What can I say about retroomania that hasn't already been said?
What panegyric can I put up on the fact that pixels are back in vogue that hasn't already been used and carefully examined over the course of the last few years?
Pixels have been back with us strong and decisive for a long time and indeed, they have never really abandoned us.
narita boy therefore it is a video game that rides what is a long wave, forty years old and already particularly busy. The product of the Spanish Studio Koba, however, does it with a certain taste and with the class of those who have studied them well, with suggestions that are not found in all products with beautiful pixel art and with the style of someone who has a little 'of video game magic really breathed it.
narita boy is a product that comes mainly from the mind of Eduardo Fornieles, a Spanish game designer and pixel artist known for having worked with Friend & Foe on Vane. Narita Boy is a bit like Eduardo's personal diary which within the title condensed the suggestions and experiences he had during a lifetime. There is the Japan where Eduardo lived for three years, there is his Spanish childhood passed in front of the computer to experiment with video games, there is theeighties aesthetics on which we will gloss over in order to emphasize the goodness of the construction of the world.
Now, one step at a time, let's dive into the pixelated pool.
Narita Boy's retrofuturism done right
Okay, we're working hard to avoid talking about eighties aesthetics but we don't know how long it can really last. narita boy it is a protuberance of neon lights and cultural references to a whole imaginary that has been traveling under the skin of the gamer for well over five years.
But retrofuturism it is not only declined within the realistic side but is also moved and translated onto higher levels of consciousness, with spiritual drifts that draw a multiverse made of pixels and trichromatic rays, capable of pigeonholing with wise taste all a possible imaginary that however in video games had not been seen long before Narita boy.
The high resolution pixel art is incredible and is subjected to a cheering art direction. If we were to isolate the twenty most artistically incredible video games of the last ten years we would not hesitate a second to slip in Narita boy too to understand each other.
The over three hundred screens that make up the game are one more beautiful than the other, with glimpses able to open both the eyes and the heart thanks to a wise use of colors and thanks to shapes that come from a fervent imagination.
In fact, Narita Boy's imagery plays effectively in that funny gray area that exists between the high fantasy of Tolkenian memory and the retrofuturistic aesthetic, translating stranger things into valleys where stones become heaps of hard drives and sunsets become imposing. color cycles that are then printed in the long-term memory.
If we store screenshots and sensations in the cerebral cortex, Narita Boy's protagonist does so in bulky and expensive magnetic tapes.
We underline, almost going off topic, how beautiful the artistic direction is and the choice to bring the game world not on a purely quotation level but on a more spiritual dimension. The places that we will cross as the protagonist have their own cosmogony and their own breath, however the latter is as broad as a sacred text and the same non-player characters who inhabit the game world could easily group themselves into a swarm of prophets destined to sing. the stories of the techworld.
Between technospades (which we will see in detail shortly), trichrome rays and floppy disks to use as a surfboard, Narita Boy's alchemy is powerful and terribly evocative. He reminded us, in some ways, of the intelligence with which the Christian imaginary was declined for the creation of a soulslike metroidvania within the always Spanish Blasphemous.
narita boy can also boast of one narrative all in all interesting, which follows the suggestions of Ready Player One and then squeezes into an unlimited jumble of quotes and references. The title collects the stories of a half-Japanese child destined to follow in the unattainable footsteps of his father Lionel PearL. The latter, in fact, is none other than the creator of Narita One, a legendary video game console that has generated a real cult around the figure of its creator (as you can see the parallels with Ready Player One are not invisible). During the evolution of the game, the narrative sector is presented in a fairly intelligent way, with interactive flashbacks and more or less playable sections.
The adventure of our character is accompanied by a high quality sound sector, made by Salvinsky (lol) aka Salvador Fornieles Rodero. Clearly, we do not move very far from the stylistic features of the genre, strongly recalling all the imaginary and communicative power of synthwave, retrowave, some too nostalgic chip music and related musical genres.
Melodically we are faced with a lot of high quality works, which could very well accompany smart working sessions from now to the near future.
We tried the game on Nintendo Switch, mostly in the portable version and we didn't notice any frame drops or anything else. The small screen of the Switch maybe not the best for taking good screenshots for our next wallpaper but let's say we play narita boy sitting on the ceramic throne is a joy.
Tecnospade and artisanal jumps
If you have come this far with the reading (thanks guys) you will have more or less understood that Narita Boy is a very interesting video game from a technical / artistic point of view, skilfully mixing a lot of different elements for a more than convincing final result.
Ok, ok, but how to play?
Here, this is a question with a very different flavor.
From a critical point of view narita boy it is configured as a rather adventurous action game, in which through the exploration of the game world you will find the objects and clues necessary to understand what to do and above all where to go.
The player, after having obtained the techno sword, will finally have the opportunity to defend himself from the stallions with blows. The combat system of the title is not particularly refined and offers some combos of melee shots to dodge, charged attacks or ranged attacks. The difficulty bar is set on an excellent balance that makes the video game quite fun in the vast majority of its moments, without ever excelling. Certainly there could have been a little more care in the structure of the combat system, with more convincing feeling shots or better management of the hitboxes but nothing that makes you tear your clothes screaming scandal.
To show a bit 'the side is the platforming system and the exploration of the world.
In narita boyDue to the absence of a map and the structure of the game, it is very often necessary to perform backtracking in areas that no longer offer anything of interest to the player. To this must be added a somewhat slippery management of jumps that will give some passages a bit difficult for less skilled players.
The final report card speaks for itself: within a technical artistic sector of the highest order, with absolute peaks almost touched by our happy eyes, we find a slightly lame game system, which suffers from some inexperience from the point of view of design .
Narita Boy is a feast for the eyes and almost a joy for the fingertips. Studio Koba's title is fun, visually stunning, and artistically huge. To damage this combination of elements there are some inaccuracies that do not make the gameplay perfect but that will hardly change the mind of those who are looking for a two-dimensional action a little metroidvanioso.
