Saturday Morning RPG, indie opera by Mighty Rabbit Studios published on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, iOS and recently also Nintendo Switch is, as the title suggests, a turn-based RPG, based on the childhood and adolescence memories of many of us.
This title is meant to remind us of the Saturday mornings passed to taste "Ninja Turtles”Or reviewing the movies over and over again Transformers. The ideal of this game is to channel that nostalgia and that typical eighties air in an indie game with a strong authorial component.
A return to the past
The strong point of this title is in fact the setting, a set of areas and missions spanning years 80s and 90s from every pore: the protagonist will not by chance resemble the famous Marty McFly from "Back to the Future", but every single detail will be prepared to bring nostalgia, from the missions to the areas we will explore.
Also the aesthetic style he will try to trace the old man's memories Super Nintendo Entertainment System with the pixel art.
The excellent songs of DiCola wins, extremely well known for his compositions for the films of Transformers, which fit perfectly to give the right mood to face the adventure.
The quotes may seem a little exaggerated, but spirit and purpose will never be lost of the game, which is almost only to remember those years, both in his positives than in the obvious downsides, like the exaggeration of the entertainment world.
Introduction and Narration
And as a premise more 80s than a hero who must save his own Princess from the clutches of a antagonist uselessly cruel interested in destroying the world?
This in fact will be the basis of the story, which will develop into five chapters that have a duration of almost 10 hours in total: Our Marty, in love with a student of the same school, will try to save her from the clutches of the big villain, Commander Hood, and his criminal organization, which will seem to wink at Giovanni's rocket team.
Ma there will be no few surprises during the adventure, between mutogenic liquid, Autobots and space travel there will always be something to laugh about in the memory of the exaggeration of those years.Honorable mention also to the characters, absurd to the right point to be very rememberable and always funny .
Le secondary missions they are almost always funny e interesting and the game he will never lack charisma, but rather will continue to wink at the player with references everywhere, without ever stopping.
However, the game really has little replay value, and despite the myriad of side quests, after having finished them, you will not have much to do in the game at a narrative level and you will only be able to find some easter eggs for a few hours beyond the duration of the story, and then abandon them.
Also, as the game didn't sell much, the ending is not present. More precisely, the sixth and last episode of the game is missing, which was shelved because in loss for the software house.
This is due to theepisodic release of the game, which was developed until the fourth, only to receive a fifth with the release on consoles, but to be reluctantly abandoned by Mighty Rabbit for lack of funds and resources, as they wanted to focus on other projects.
This obviously had an extremely negative impact on the game's narrative, therefore left halfway.
Despite this, the quality of the plot and of the secondary missions, annexed to the many easter eggs, it is totally worth the price of the ticket.
Extremely interactive gameplay
The gameplay, pad or keyboard in hand, is extremely enjoyable and manages to entertain for many hours without being particularly monotonous.
The game is a RPG, but has many peculiarities, even with respect to his gender: to fight Marty will use everyday objects. “Care Bears”, paper airplanes or even a cell phone will become a weapon with the magic that the protagonist will receive at the beginning of the adventure.
It will in fact be equipped with a particular "plastic notebook"Which will make every object of common use a weapon to face enemies, during battles with a spirit that is very reminiscent of the series of Paper Mario.
Il timing skills will be important, as will defense against enemy attacks. Even just to have the buffs that are obtained by attaching stickers to your "plastic notebook" you will need to detach them, with frantic movements right to left with the controller.
THEinteractivity never fails and in combat i dead moments are very rare.
Although the choice and quality of objects used will be important, so will i reflexes of the player, who will feel rewarded by playing well, as much as he can fend or also raise enemy attacks.
As a side note I also want to compliment the amount e quality of usable objects, each different and particular, and that make the gameplay another great strong point of this game.
However, it is also true that the game is often particularly difficult and you will sometimes get stuck fighting some enemies, even if the reduced duration of the game will not point out this flaw as much.
Audio-Visual Section
There is not much to criticize on this point either music is on the piece and perfectly in line with the game and the explosion of nostalgia it causes: you never feel out of the particular world of the game
In the same way the art style is fits perfectly and it looks extremely natural in the context of the game.
Not surprising for sure, as it is extremely simple, but it certainly is another piece of the puzzle of the particular feeling of this game.
Also in this section, we are almost obliged to say that the citations and winks at the time are wasted e they help tremendously also in the visual sector.
Furthermore, we can see an almost total lack of bugs or glitches of any kind, if not minor and not affecting the game. There review and l 'love data for this game are evident even after a few hours.
A rather narrow and selective target
A major problem for the game, however, is the tiny niche which he tries to get close to.
You have to match several criteria to really enjoy this game, and unfortunately one of them is knowledge of English required, as the game has never had a translation in other languages, much less in Italian.
If you are in the target of the game we can only recommend the purchase: every single penny will be well spent. Laughter and memories at every corner, with one excellent narrative frame however simple and a extremely solid gameplay.
To sum up
The game is extremely solid from many points of view: the narration è simple but well conjugated, audio and video do not detract from the title even if indie and the gameplay is extremely solid, fun and interactive, almost never being boring.
The biggest flaws of this game indeed they are not the fault of the product same, but of the reception of the public and the target to which it aimed, not to mention that as an indie, it was almost not advertised at all.
Grave is the lack of the ending and equally serious is the limited replayability, sacrificed to allow himself to create a fifth episode, just as it is a pity there lack of Italian language.
But even these defects do not sink the ship, the captain is firm and so is the boat. The game is a excellent purchase, funny it's a excellent hobby, which of course you will remember after playing, despite these flaws.
