Game:

Retro City Rampage (2012)

Duration: 15:25

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Gameplay Performed by: TrevorDFox.

Retro City Rampage is a downloadable open world action-adventure video game for WiiWare, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Microsoft Windows developed by Vblank Entertainment. It is a parody of retro games and '80s and '90s pop culture, as well as Grand Theft Auto and similar games. It was released on October 9, 2012, for PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Microsoft Windows; on January 2, 2013, for Xbox Live Arcade; and on February 28, 2013, for WiiWare. Retro City Rampage was the last original game released for the WiiWare service globally until Deer Drive Legends was ported to the service the following November.

The game was then released for the Nintendo 3DS via its Nintendo eShop as Retro City Rampage DX, an enhanced version of the original, on February 6, 2014, and later on the Nintendo Switch on August 3, 2017. Later ports of the original also got the enhanced version of the game. In June 2015, a DOS version called Retro City Rampage 486 was announced with the majority of its features left intact.

The concept for Retro City Rampage originally came from a homebrew project that began in 2002. In his spare time, game programmer Brian Provinciano constructed his own Nintendo Entertainment System development kit and set about remaking one of his favourite titles, Grand Theft Auto III, with 8-bit sprite graphics, under the codename of Grand Theftendo. At the 2011 Game Developers Conference, he revealed his methods, showing how, over several years, he built advanced software tools to help him overcome the limitations of Nintendo Entertainment System hardware, before eventually shifting development to the PC.

At one point in the process, he started to add characters and locations from other games he enjoyed from his childhood. This ultimately inspired him to work on the project full-time, but instead of using scenarios from GTA III, he decided to create an entirely new game with original content in 2007, which would be released as a downloadable title for consoles. He used a real-time map editor to adjust and debug on the fly, and also integrated several suggestions from playtesters.

For most of the project, he had worked completely independently on the design, coding and art. Later in development, he hired a pixel artist to assist with the visual design of the game and went through revisions. He also brought in three renowned videogame composers, Leonard "FreakyDNA" Paul, Jake "Virt" Kaufman and Matt "Norrin Radd" Creamer, to create chiptune songs for the game's soundtrack. Provinciano stated that the game contains roughly two and a half hours of chiptune music. On February 22, 2012, the Retro City Rampage soundtrack was released on Bandcamp.

The game pays tribute to many titles through its title, storytelling, levels, and character abilities, such as River City Ransom, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Duck Hunt, Mega Man, Contra, Bionic Commando, Metal Gear, Smash TV, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, among others. The game also pays tribute to "cheesy" one-liners, television shows and pop culture, as well as cameos including Phil Fish (creator of Fez), Billy Campbell, and Phil Guerrero (of YTV fame) with permission.

Despite the game's title sounding similar to River City Ransom, Vblank Entertainment's Retro City Rampage Twitter account has stated that the title is, in fact, not a reference to River City Ransom.

The game has received several updates since the original release polishing the game and adding features. The PC version specifically has been updated 15 times.

Retro City Rampage has received positive reviews. It holds a metascore of 71 on Metacritic.

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