Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Narita Boy
Developer: Studio Koba
Publisher: Team 17
Genre: action adventure, platformer
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 30 March 2021
Price: $24.99
I seldom encounter games that really make me get awestruck with their aesthetics. Yes, I have played quite a lot of good-looking games over the last few years (one of the perks of reviewing video games), but there are games that really goes to 11 when it comes to art style. Games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Guacamelee, and Gris, just to name a few. These are the type of games that will make you feel like you owe it to yourself to finish them, because the developers really put extra effort in making their games stand out.
Narita Boy, in my opinion, belongs to this crowd. When I first saw it, I thought that it looks and sounds mesmerizing, too mesmerizing that I had to play it. And luckily, I have, and I had a great time from start to finish.
In this game, you play as a kid who gets sucked into a video game Narita Boy, when its Creator gets attacked by HIM, leader of the Stallions (the group of enemies in the game), making the Creator lose all of his memory. Motherboard, leader of the digital realm within the game, referred in-game as the Digital Kingdom, activates the Narita Protocol, which chooses a player from the real world to get transferred inside the game, a bit similar to what happened in Tron. You, the kid, then becomes the titular Narita Boy, and it is up to you to save a digital kingdom in distress, as you battle against time to recover the memories of the creator (who looks like the late great Lemmy from Motorhead).
Quite surprising for an indie game, Narita Boy has a somehow complex narrative structure that relies heavily on character interactions. As you talk to the NPCs, gradually, you get to know how the world in the game works and how the present has come to be. You will learn about the Trichroma and how it shapes the Digital Kingdom and its inhabitants, and how the Creator gets to create all of this world from the real world.
Since this is primarily an action adventure game, you will have to battle it out with enemies. The game has a wide variety of enemy types, with different types of challenges that come with them that will be thrown your way. As you embark in this digital adventure, you get to wield the Techno-Sword, which grants you the ability to fight against digital enemies and further along the line, you get to acquire additional attack moves and abilities that will make you more formidable in combat. Your basic attacks are the sword slash and the shotgun blast. You can hold the attack button for a few seconds to unleash a more devastating attack, and you can press and hold the trigger button to unleash a laser beam attack that can hit multiple enemies at once. Later on in the game, new abilities get added to your repertoire, like the dash move and the shoulder bash. You will also get to free NPCs that will grant you new attack moves and skills that you will need in your adventure. These characters are the Trichroma Dudes that will grant you access to yellow, blue, and red Wild Fire abilities. They can be more effective to certain enemy types when used properly. You can activate a specific color of Wild Fire to cover yourself in flames for a limited time, and makes you able to quickly dispose enemies that use the same color, but with a catch: they also hit you harder. A bar gradually gets used up when you activate a Wild Fire and you cannot switch to another color until the bar is empty, so you have to keep that in mind especially when multiple enemies using different Wild Fire abilities are engaging you. You can also activate special attacks from each of the Trichroma Dudes to hit all enemies on the screen at once if you have enough energy in your attack gauge.
Each time you learn a new move, the game makes you test it out by introducing new enemies that you will be required to use your new move on in order to win. This is quite cool, since you get to learn the new moves and skills right away in a hands-on manner, making you remember them more effectively. To unleash Trichroma special attacks, you will have to fill up an attack gauge by slashing enemies with your Techno-Sword. If you don’t want to use a special attack, you can alternatively use the gauge to fill one health bar if the need arise.
Each time you engage enemies, the area gets enclosed and you will not be able to proceed further until all enemies are defeated. If you die in a fight, you respawn near where you fall and have to start the entire fight from the beginning, so you have to decide wisely depending on the situation, whether to attack or heal up. As you progress further into the game, the battles become more and more challenging. You even get to fight bosses, which are extra challenging but not unfair, and may require you a few tries to defeat them, but eventually, you will get to memorize their attack patterns and defeat them.
When you are not fighting enemies, you will have to explore the Digital Kingdom. You will have to acquire Techno-Keys to open different areas in the game. To do so, you have to fight enemies, talk to some very interesting NPCs to somehow vaguely point you to where to go next, battle some bosses, and solve some puzzles. The things you have to do to acquire Techno-Keys can get a bit tedious at times, despite the game listing what you have to do. You don’t get shown where to go exactly, which is fine by me, but the lack of an in-game map can make things too confusing.
The Digital Kingdom is divided into different areas, each looking distinct from the others, and all masterfully designed. These areas are themed uniquely and have their own set of enemies and NPCs to interact with. Navigating from one area to the next flows quite smoothly, making exploration very satisfying to do.
As you collect Techno-Keys and open up the world for you to explore, you will have to accomplish your main mission: free the memories of the Creator. Scattered across vast world are totems that resemble the Creator’s head. When you unlock and get to enter them, you get to enter an area where you see 12 doors, each housing a specific group of memories of the creators, from his childhood to the present. You get to relive these memories and get to see the Creator in various points of his life, witnessing his triumphs and failures and other events in between. The scenes depicted in these memories are oftentimes melancholic, and they may pull a heartstring or two within you as well as you watch them unfold. You will want to know what happens within this memories, so that is one motivation for you to finish the game.
As I mentioned earlier, this game can get too tedious and confusing, but if you make an effort to get to know the different intertwining narratives and systems within it, the game greatly rewards you, as accomplishing your goals is very satisfying. The games packs a surprising amount of content with quite a few secrets to discover that can really make you smile from ear to ear.
Overall, Narita Boy is one amazing game that looks and sounds very stylish while offering great gameplay. The entire game is presented in an amazingly stylish art style with retro-futuristic aesthetics. The game kind of reminiscent of past games like Flashback and Out of this World while also borrowing styles and vibes from movies like Blade Runner and Tron. Its excellent synthwave-heavy soundtrack complements the art style very well, and this divine union of visuals and sound makes Narita Boy a truly remarkable game. I highly recommend this game to any gamer, whether you are a fan of platformers or not. This game is one fine example of a good balance of substance and style, and its well-worth the price tag. The game is only less than 10 hours long, and yet, it feels like it is filled to the brim with content, with not a lot of down time from beginning to end. If you so choose, you spend a bit of time to just admire the visuals in the game while listening to the superb soundtrack. So give yourself a favor and play Narita Boy. The Digital Kingdom waits for you, Chosen One!
REPLAY VALUE: Very High
PROS
- Amazingly stylish visuals and retro-futuristic aesthetics
- Superb soundtrack
- Excellent gameplay and combat
- Challenging boss fights
- Works very well on the Nintendo Switch, although infrequent FPS drops can be encountered when the screen gets too busy
- Ideal for handheld gaming
- Very good story and narrative style
- Cool dialogue style
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- Lots of interesting NPCs to interact with
- Lots of cool secrets to uncover, some even referencing pop culture
CONS
- Too dialogue-heavy at times
- No in-game maps
- The D-pad cannot be used for movement and is reserved for the activation of Trichroma Dude special attacks; you have to use the L analog stick, which is not very ideal for 2D movements
- No option to turn off flashing lights that could trigger epileptic episodes on some players
RATING: 4.5/5 Trichroma awesomness
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