Retro Revengers Review (PS5)

Retro Revengers celebrates gaming’s 16-bit past while being painfully aware of its contentious present.

Made by Japanese streaming group ii Otona-Tachi, (and originally released only in Japan for the Switch in 2022) Retro Revengers tells the tale of a group of misfit video game streamers that get sucked into their latest retro game purchase, Jumanji style.

Finding themselves stuck in various levels, each character, who handles differently, must reunite to defeat the evil Demon of Triple A (DOTA, get it!) and return home.

Each of Retro Revengers’ five main characters is gifted different powers by the Retro Goddess and helped along by the characters they each created in their spare time. It’s a silly setup but it works well for the light-hearted adventure.

It’s a clever premise that allows for several playstyles that ape different classics from Castlevania, to Mega Man and Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts.

You have one character that throws knives like a Belmont, one that flutter-jumps like Yoshi, another one that slashes like Striker, and more besides.

During your first run, you play each of the game’s stages with a single prescribed character. This lets you learn how each of them handles and provides a fairly decent level of challenge as each stage is tailored for the character you are handed at the beginning.

Once you’ve made it to DOTA, you’re all kicked back to the beginning to run through the game again Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts style.

However, this time the streaming group is all together so you can switch between the five characters whenever you like.

This makes the second play-through a lot easier, since some characters *cough* the cat *cough, splutter* can effectively skip large parts of each level just by having a skillset that gives them an advantage over whoever the level was designed for the first time around.

This is tempered slightly by the second play through tossing tons of enemies at you that will merrily toss you into the nearest pit if you touch them via a Mega Man-style knockback. It’s incredibly irritating and resulted in more than a few cheap deaths throughout my run.

The easiest part of the game though is the boss battles. Each can be polished off in seconds before they even wind up their first attack. It’s a shame really because it’s clear there was love and care put into their design, but you can just slap them silly and it’s over. The only exceptions are DOTA, because he’s a multi-stage battle, and the Mermaid, because bubbles.

Retro Revengers may be fairly easy and short. However, it’s clear it was made with speed running in mind as trying to shave off a little time by finding new routes through each level is half the fun, and the other half is trying to find the myriad of secret chests and hidden characters strewn across them.

The presentation is great and does a great job of evoking the style of the 16-bit classics that it apes. If you told me this was a Mega Drive game I would believe you. It’s colourful, the levels are varied and fit the style perfectly.

Meanwhile, the score by Mega Man and Shovel Knight composer, Manami Matsumae is fitting considering the game’s theming and Capcom-heavy inspirations and works well to help further evoke that 90s tone that permeates the game.

Final Thoughts

Retro Revengers is a mostly fun if short, speed-running platformer with fun character designs and a cheeky sense of humour that pokes fun at the current state of gaming while celebrating its roots.

Although there are the occasional cheap death and all sense of challenge nosedives in the second half. If you’re in the mood for pleasant afternoons platforming it’s worth a punt.