![]() ![]() Classic 2D scroller action with new exotic time and dimension jump mechanics, RPG elements and amazing worlds to explore from the streets of the 80s to the weird futuristic landscapes of another dimension.Narita Boy reloads the creative canons to find a unique style that combines the past and the future of video games A homage to the 80's that tastes like retro but is also new.Purely handcrafted pixel sprites with rich and complex animations. ![]() your father) is seduced by the dark, red code of HIM – the main antagonist of the game who’s, you guessed it, quite Sith and/or Darth Vader-like. Returning to the Star Wars references now: First and foremost, every time Narita Boy dies, a booming voice declares, “REST IN FORCE!” It is also mentioned many times in the dialogue that the Trichroma and/or Force is “strong in you.” The Techno Sword (main weapon in the game – a sword comprised of three light beams) is clearly very lightsaber-inspired and, to top things off, the Creator (Lionel Pearl Nakamura. The two most obvious examples of this are the main theme ( Narita Boy Theme), which sounds almost like a Weird Al version of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky (with assistance from Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, of course), and then, when Narita Boy is in on the Trifurcation path, he encounters the “Synth Sensei/Bard of Trifurcation,” who’s music sounds quite like a lovely Wendy Carlos composition. It’s quite clear that the composer, Salvador Fornieles, who performs under nom de’ musique of Salvinsky, is simulating the synth-heavy sounds of both Wendy Carlos (composer of the TRON soundtrack, among others) and Daft Punk (composers of the TRON: Legacy soundtrack and electronic/dance music legends) throughout the score. Without spoiling every wrinkle of the story, I will say that Narita Boy’s writing is quite nuanced and layered, putting some really cool, technology-laced spins on the basic hero’s journey tropes and conveys a more satisfying narrative (in my opinion, of course) than both TRON and Star Wars ( A New Hope at least).Īnother area that Narita Boy is heavily influenced by both TRON and its sequel is in terms of the music and/or soundtrack. But it goes deeper than that with TRON, as Narita Boy’s overall plot borrows heavily from TRON (and Star Wars as well) in terms of themes, tone, and story beats, and many have proposed that both Star Wars and TRON are just modern re-telling of the classic “Hero’s Journey” so succinctly defined in Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. In the first place, the title screen (see below) looks very much like the original TRON movie poster that what plastered all over every movie house in 1982. The two biggest old-school references and/or inspirations found in Narita Boy are drawn from both 1982’s TRON (and, in some ways, the 2010 sequel TRON: Legacy as well) and the original Star Wars trilogy. We’re venturing into SPOILER territory here, so you’ve been warned. So much so, that I did a deep dive on all the references (intentional or not) that I caught while playing, and here’s what I noticed. At its heart, it’s a Metriodvania which is a genre that, realistically, needs to be paused for a bit, but this one did suck me in simply because it does old-school nostalgia exceptionally well. It’s an excellent game (if I was formally reviewing it, it would be a solid 9 out of 10) steeped in 80’s nostalgia. “Body don’t wanna quit, gotta get another hit,” the late, great Prince Rodgers Nelson once sang on his classic 1999 album.Īnd for me, the recently released Narita Boy by Studio Koba is exactly that next hit in the interactive entertainment form, rather than any Peruvian powder. ![]() Very, very sad indeed, because it seems you’ll never feel that good again… until you get another hit. It’s much like snorting a bump of coke (the 80’s drug of choice), to fly high again, but with that buzz fading away rather quickly, leaving you feeling, well, sad and miserable. It’s excellent because it gives you the “warmth and fuzzies” for a bit a wistful buzz, if you will. It was bolstered by the 2013 TV show, The Goldbergs (Fun Fact: series creator Adam Goldberg and I grew up about six miles from each other in the 80’s), and was cemented by Netflix’s Stranger Things which came along in 2016.īut here’s the thing: nostalgia can be both excellent and terrible at the same time. In my mind, this wave of 80’s nostalgia was kickstarted by Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, Ready Player One, which got a decent movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg in 2018. ![]()
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