Across town, a young boy who spends his nights playing video games on his PC is drawn into the Digital Kingdom as “Narita Boy”, champion of the three houses, tasked with awakening the memories of the “Creator” so he can purge the code of “HIM” and his “Stallion” minions.
In the 1980s, a coder falls asleep at his desk as a malevolent force begins to take control of his hardware. Between the Tron-inspired title screen, the catchy Narita Boy theme, and the stylish intro, you know you’re in for an audiovisual treat. It’s not a case of style over substance – Narita Boy has solid gameplay on offer – but it’s one of the rare games in which the presentation is an inseparable part of the experience. However, few can come close to the stylistic impact of Narita Boy. Like so many modern indie games, Narita Boy is a 2D action-platformer with pixel-art visuals. The other is the incredible soundtrack that I can’t stop hearing in my head. Part of that stems from it forcing me to reconsider my beliefs on the importance of presentation relative to other gameplay elements. I guess it's a way of telling us the next game will be a beat 'em up? Anyways it's not awful, just frustratingly average for the potential it had.Narita Boy is one of the rare video games I can’t stop thinking about since the credits rolled. The game ends on a high note with a big twist, but just after that you get a powerup called "Beat 'em up" and the game just ends with a "To be continued.". The final boss is probably the worst in the game, with really poor telegraphy on attacks, and being more of a big damage sponge with bullsh** moves rather than a powerful evil techno-wizard. The backstory of the creator was the only thing I didn't skip, and it was the most enjoyable aspect of the game. About halfway through the game I started skipping every single dialogue because I found it really hard to concentrate on what's being explained (and I'm used to playing old-school RPGs, reading long texts is not a problem for me if they're interesting enough). Seriously, I got into the game hoping for an engaging story about a digital kingdom, which really is my jam, but it's really badly delivered. You'll constantly be talking to NPCs that have the same 5 to 10 appearances, and the dialogue is baffling. The other part of the gameplay consists of jumping around, acquiring powerups that can only be used in very specific ways, and add nothing to the game, they're just cool ideas that aren't incorporated in any meaningful way into the gameplay. In fact, the majority of the bosses are either easy and boring or frustrating in a badly designed way. The main mechanic of the game is activating differently colored "modes" to kill enemies with that color quicker, but none of the bosses use the mechanic. The combat is serviceable, it works but isn't really engaging.
However, Narita Boy is pretty disappointing in most aspects. I really don't want to be harsh with this game, since it's made by such a small company and comes from Spain (my home country), no less. But beyond its art-style and fond execution on aesthetic, Narita Boy‘s unenthusiastic lack of originality and care for its overarching design, winds up carving out a satisfactory yet tepid debut for Studio Koba. Venturing through the Digital Kingdom does spark some moments of delight. And beyond that, a story/narrative the game really could’ve gone without given how little relevance or even impact it holds on a player’s progression. A world that too often feels unnecessarily padded on a level design basis a combat system though not terrible, feels a little too undecided on what it exactly wants to be. The problem then lies with its simplicity of delivery and the game’s general lack of appeasing those looking for something more than surface-level attraction. At the very least, the game’s somewhat-warped screen display and drenching in ’80s culture tropes is anything but off-putting. At its best, there’s certainly moments of appreciation and respect for the artistic detail Narita Boy lavishes in, with its pixel art and generally-eery vision of cyberspace run amok with corrupted foes.
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