Become the symphonic Narita Boy in this awesome techno-trip of a ride through the Digital Kingdom as you try to save the world from the evil Stallions and the mysterious HIM.
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Series S & X, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Players: 1 Player
Genres: Action-adventure, Retro, Platformer, 2D
Developer: Studio Koba
Publisher: Team 17
Price: £19.99
A game code was provided by Team 17 for this Narita Boy Review and was played on PC.
Narita Boy
You are The Creator, a genius of his time. Who creates a game console called Narita One with its flagship title being a game called Narita Boy. The game becomes an instant worldwide hit. Within weeks Narita Boy is the best-selling video game of all time. Meanwhile, inside the binaural code, the digital realm starts to connect with reality. HIM has returned and deleted The Creator’s memories. The supervisor program, Motherboard, and her agents activate the Narita Boy protocol. The Stallions are coming, and the Digital Kingdom needs a hero. Now it’s time to rise up and wield the Techno-sword to defeat the Stallions and save the Digital Kingdom.
Your journey will take you across the Digital Kingdom as you explore the three Houses of the Trichroma. Along your way, you will meet original NPC’s that will send you on quests. Furthermore, you’ll encounter a wide range of enemies from grunts, mini-bosses, and full-blown boss fights. Each enemy from the Horror Dimensions have their own abilities and attack patterns you will need to learn to defeat them.
To help you with your fight you will have the Techno-sword at hand. A weapon with devastating potential. As you play you will unlock new abilities that will arm you to take on the Stallion forces.
Audio & Visual
The soundtrack to Narita Boy absolutely slaps. From start to finish your ears are blessed with an incredible synth-wave, retro score. Deep, heavy rhythmic beats twinned with light and snappy synthy melodies accompany every battle, location, and conversation. Every second of it is a triumph. Additionally, the sound effects for weapons and abilities that you both use and come up against pair perfectly with your environment. It creates an experience that immerses you in the digital world.
Alongside the fantastic soundtrack is the wonderful digital world that has been created. There is a sense of awe about structures, massive monoliths that tower over its inhabitants. Shrines and statues that pay homage to digital deities and Royalty. Furthermore, the Digital Kingdom is packed full of weird and wonderful symbology and unique-looking characters that are a joy to behold. Every time I met or fought someone knew I reveled in their design. Narita Boy is visually striking and stunningly crafted.
Gameplay
For most of Narita Boy, you will be traveling around three main areas of the Digital Kingdom. Here you will be facing off against enemies as you try to unlock the memories of The Creator. As with most platformers, you can expect to be running, jumping, and dashing around the place. There isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking here. That being said, what we do have is solid gameplay that feels responsive and snappy. Jumping, dodging, attacking all feel great and I would rarely be punished for something that wasn’t under my control. The only slight negative I have with exploring is that sometimes it’s tricky to know which surfaces you can and can’t walk on. At times I fell to liquidy death as it wasn’t all too clear that below me wasn’t traversable. However, it’s very minor and once you know what’s what, it doesn’t tend to happen again.
Combat feels just as responsive and it needs to be as a lot of what you’ll be fighting will rely on learning attack patterns, and jumping out of the way at the right times. As you progress through the story you will unlock new abilities that will help you deal with new enemies or takedown known ones quicker. There is quite a lot of variety in both what you learn and who you fight. Which helps to keep the combat feeling fresh and interesting throughout the game.
Conclusion
From the very start of Narita Boy, I was engrossed. The world and its characters within it, the soundtrack all had me hooked. There is a tonne of creativity in the game’s design and I loved exploring everything and encountering all the NPC’s. Whilst the story is cheesy, I was still invested in it. It’s like an 80’s action movie and I loved it.
If you’re a fan of platformers this is a must-play. If you’re not, I’d still recommend checking it out as it’s just so much fun. You can expect the game to take around 6-8 hours to complete.
Narita Boy is an early contender for my game of the year.
-Will
