Retronika Review (Quest)
Summary: Retronika is an action and racing shooter that delivers on a lot of fronts. Threading through traffic is demanding in VR at first, but becomes more fun the further you get into it and unlock more upgrades. While the game is easy to put down due to its start and stop style of gameplay and overall casual design, the one of a kind and eccentric nature is delightful to experience.
3.6
Topsy-Turvy Turbulence
Blast through traffic on a hoverbike while mowing down large heaps of metal in this high-octane rush to get back home! Retronika is an action and racing shooter that is developed and published by 4 Players-Studio and first released in early access on August 3rd of 2024 and has now fully released on February 20th of 2025 on Meta Quest and is coming soon to Steam. Retronika is all about fast paced action while balancing the different gameplay mechanics as well as balancing your hoverbike. This futuristic world is dangerous and through upgrading different parts of your flying velocipede, you may be able to weave in and out of congested jams to make it to the finish line.
May May and her trusty robot companion have been sucked into a portal and transported to another world known as Retronika. Taking refuge in a garage, the two try to get their bearings on their new surroundings. The owner of the garage, Earl, has no problem letting these aliens figure things out, as long as they do some small errands for him. Eventually, trouble comes speeding to their doorstep as some unknown force is dedicated to taking them down. Now you have to complete tasks to earn enough Solvex energy to upgrade your hoverbike to make it back to your planet safe and sound.
Retronika is spread out into 50 mission based levels where you simply need to make it to the finish line. The game introduces the ins and outs of how to play very well, making sure you are comfortable with the controls. You grip the handlebars of your bike to steer it left and right and pushing either of the control sticks forward accelerates you closer to your goal and pulling the control sticks back allows you to slow down or stop. Pulling up or pushing down on the handlebars will move your bike up or down so you can dodge other flying cars in your way. There is an energy field, known as the Power Zone, that you have to stay in while flying through the city skyline and bumping into it will make you lose energy.
The movement is pretty tricky at first and you sort of glide around a lot, but the game lets you get used to it in the early missions. Overadjusting feels odd at first, especially when it comes to slamming into the back of a car, but it quickly becomes natural. After you fully adjust to handling your vehicle, the game gives you weapons to use on the oncoming onslaught of enemies. Letting one hand go from steering will equip your weapon in which you can then drive your hoverbike and shoot your weapon at the same time. Of course, this is even a trickier gameplay mechanic to accomplish in a successful way, but it is very rewarding when you fully grasp it.
There are different weapons you can use like a gatling gun, a laser, and a gun that shoots out a stream of electricity. Each weapon has their particular uses and you may find one weapon easier or better to use in a mission than another depending on its stats. Eventually you can obtain a shield to protect your precious energy that is needed to stay alive and you can even dual wield weapons to pump even more deadly power into the face of your foes. While having a wide variety of blasters lessens the issues of enemies, they too run on the same Solvex energy as your health and your bikes hit points. So getting hit by the enemies, driving out of bounds, and using your weapons, becomes a hard to balance juggling act as you race to the endpoint. Each mission gives you a certain amount of energy you can use so not only do you have to focus on maneuvering your bike between hovering automobiles, you need to keep track of how much of your energy you are consuming.
At the end of every level, a list of your results for your health, energy, and damage, determine your star rating as well as your points and Solvex energy reward. You can use Solvex energy back at the garage to upgrade four different stats on your hoverbike: max speed, acceleration, controllability, and braking. You can imagine how valuable each of these upgrades can be in helping you accomplish the different missions smoothly. Completing missions will grant you more energy to spend on bike upgrades which then help you go through missions even better. It’s a nice gameplay cycle, but the rewards are sometimes really small and repeated visits to the same missions over again to grind for energy can be a bit of a pain.
Besides picking your weapons and upgrading your bike at the garage, you can also change the color of your bike and attach keychains. The keychains you can equip are meme related and range from Big Chungus to Sans from Undertale. There are some unlockable skins you can use to wrap the bike up to make it look super spiffy as well. The customization is nice, but since you are on the bike, you don’t often stare down at it and if you do, it’s only briefly to check your radar for enemies or how much energy you have. It could’ve been cool to change the actual parts of the bike or the cars that are driving around to add some more flair to what you are actually focused on.
The gameplay, while chaotic, is really fun to play casually and more fun when you master it. Figuring out the best combination of weapons for a mission and then using them propitiously all while trying to move forward on your hoverbike at a decent pace is exciting. It is frustrating for a while before you get your bearings, but the game does a good job at easing you into the fray. All of the weapons are fun to use and offer up a lot of replayability and strategy for conquering the energetic air routes.
While actually playing the game can be challenging and forethought about what you bring with you into the next mission is important, I never felt incredibly determined to complete the levels. Retronika brings a softer energy to the VR space that makes it super playable, but because of this, it never fully enraptured me. The game is immersed in such a positive attitude that I feel like I wasn’t fully committed to my decisions. While that is not a detriment to the game at all, the arcade nature of the game didn’t really stick with me as much as I wanted it to.
The cel shaded graphics are great and totally make this a standout in that regard. The flat colors and bold outlines definitely make this a unique experience in VR. Since the game deals with floating vehicles and zooming through city environments, I definitely felt like I was in an episode of Futurama at times. The design of the cars, enemies, and characters are pretty bland, but get the job done. The levels can get pretty stale as well since you are moving around the same type of areas, but tunnels and weather conditions break up the monotonous scenery nicely. Dialogue from your robot friend is fine albeit a little dull and there were a lot of misspelled words. There’s a nice variety of music and you’ll hear some ragtime tunes and futuristic bops, but everything pertains to background music and doesn’t do anything remarkable.
Final Thoughts?
The game is very whimsical and has a nice casual carefree nature to it. While the game starts off pretty easy, it progressively gets harder with narrower paths to travel down and harder enemies to defeat. The entertaining gameplay allows you to put up with any task the game throws at you. Different modes and playstyle options offer up nice replayability and value for your time and money. The game looks great and has a clean and crisp style that heavily fits the mood. The unique experience and challenging gameplay in Retronika is like no other game I have played and I would recommend avid VR players to check it out.
About the Author
Nay Clark Gaming holds a special place in my heart and I never stop talking about video games. I really love all types of games and have an interest in games that have complicated stories and lore because I enjoy untangling the mystery of it all. When I'm not gaming, I unsuccessfully try to control three amazing and incredibly bright kids.
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