Story

Set sometime in 198X, you play as The Kid – a cynical but relatable high school boy who is desperate to escape his small town suburbia. We meet him at a time when he is experiencing the struggles of growing up that we all face, but he discovers a way to escape through his town’s basement arcade. The story follows The Kid’s daily life as he seeks more and more relief through the arcade. It’s a narrative that mirrors many of us that sought out games as a means to escape the confusing and often troubled reality of childhood. Even though I wasn’t around during the 80’s arcade era, the game’s dialogue does a great job of portraying all of us misunderstood gamer kids and is a nostalgic introspective experience. It hits hard.

Gameplay

This is where things get really interesting. While you play as The Kid, you don’t really control his character other than through the arcade games he plays. The gameplay breaks down into various minigames that call back to retro arcade classics. There’s the side scrolling fighter “The Beating Heart”, the space shooter “Out of the Void”, the racer “The Runway”, the ninja platformer “Shadowplay”, and the dungeon crawler “Kill Screen”. Each of these minigames has quality game mechanics that ring true to their inspiration. However, I call them “minigames” here for a reason. While they cover a broad selection of genres, they lack any real depth to them. Each only has about two short levels and no real difficulty wall. With the game only being comprised of five minigames with short cutscenes in-between, it only took me about three hours to beat. While I understand that this is only a $10 game, I wanted more from each level.

Graphics

198X brings the retro pixel style of the 80’s into the modern era. The cutscenes between gameplay are incredibly detailed, pulling me into the experience rather than taking me out. It really made me appreciate that art style and realize that I put too much emphasis on the hyper-realistic graphics of today. When gameplay switches to the arcade games, the quality barely seems to drop. Whether you’re looking at exploding spacecraft in “Out of the Void”, or racing down a fluorescent highway in “The Runway”, everything is gorgeous. The difference in art direction for each level is different, but cohesive.

Soundtrack

The chiptune soundtrack of 198X adds yet another layer of the retro gaming feel. During cutscenes where you listen to The Kid’s musings on life, the synthesizer’s beats are low and made me feel like soul-searching too. When you jump into a minigame though, the tone switches to match. Each track fits perfectly with its level. When I was frantically spinning around trying to avoid 20+ galactic fighter jets shooting at me all at once, the upbeat synth music added to the fun insanity. I usually find chiptune music to get annoying after a while, but even when I had to repeat “Shadowplay” a few too many times (apparently I can’t avoid shuriken well), I never got tired of the level’s track.

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Overall Freeze Score