Rad Rodgers review

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Hey you! Yes, you, who was a kid in the 90s! Aaaah, the wonderful 90s! Remember when we stayed up late playing video games and our mom would come scold us to go to bed because of school the next day? Rad Rodgers is a 2D platformer that tries to bring back that nostalgia in older players, even showing the little situation I mentioned above.

I don’t know if anyone else has had a similar feeling, but often I feel that, because of the large number of games in the style, I end up missing many good games without even knowing they exist. It was like that in the 90s and it’s like that today with the large number of indies released every month.

In the 90s many companies tried to establish their mascots in animated, colorful 2D worlds and often these failed to become a big hit. There was no shortage of reasons: it was a very popular genre with big established names like Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, Donkey Kong and several others, and the sheer number of titles often made many games slip by the mass of players unnoticed; examples abound: Aero the Acrobat, Rolo to the Rescue, Zool, Dynamite Headdy, Bubsy, Prehistorik Man, gosh! The list is immense!

The same happens nowadays. Since it is a relatively simpler type of game and cheaper to produce than more complex 3D titles, and has a much greater appeal among retro gamers through nostalgia, both in those who play and those who make them, 2D platformers today are the vast majority of the indie games we find available on current systems.

It can be said that Rad Rodgers is part of that group of games that for one reason or another failed to attract much of the spotlight; not without reason, the game has its flaws that may make some turn up their nose a little. Still, it can prove a good weekend game and hold some good moments for those of the old guard who enjoy references and tributes to the pop culture they have followed and consumed for so many years. Although I mentioned some console games up there, don’t be fooled, the inspiration here comes from the PC games of that era, more specifically Commander Keen, Jazz Jackrabbit and especially Ruff’n’Tumble.

But enough history, let’s get to the game! You are Roberto Rodriguez and, like so many other boys your age, you are killing yourself in front of the TV with your favorite video game at all hours of the night until your mother shows up, furious, telling you to turn off “the toy” and go to bed at once. That’s when our young hero is sucked into the TV and transported to a fantasy world suffering from a terrible evil, and only you can save the world!

For that you have the help of Dusty, your video game console! An anthropomorphized NES wearing Power Gloves and cosplaying as Kratos! Think that’s badass? Then know he is voiced by none other than Jon St. John! The guy who voices Duke Nukem! (admit it, you read his name with the voice in your head).

You will come across a fantastic world, both on the initial map that shows the stages and in the stages themselves; this game’s art is very pretty and well made. Visually it is one of the most beautiful 2D platformers I have played in recent times. But note, there is no pixel art here, all the stages are three-dimensional and built with polygons. The gameplay, however, is exclusively 2D; there is none of that so-called 2.5D, with camera variations or the character advancing on different planes. I personally like that a lot, many times these 2.5D implementations are only there for show and add little to the gameplay.

There is, however, a way to observe each setting in greater detail: the game’s photo mode, accessed from the pause menu, lets you rotate the camera at various angles, bringing the view of the scene closer or farther away; it is really very cool and lets you see the care and affection the team put into building the game’s stages.

The sound is another high point of Rad Rodgers; the compositions are very well made, fit each environment and convey that pleasant feeling of 90s action games. It helps you get into the mood and further improves the gameplay, which still holds some surprises. At certain points the scenery seems to have some defect, which may be because of the evil plaguing the game’s world or else some “lazy programmer who forgot to add a platform”. It is then up to Dusty to take control and enter the Pixelverse to reorganize the game’s code and fix the defective areas. Very cool, by the way, and it helps vary the gameplay and make the adventure even more interesting. In addition, the game has several items and collectibles to discover, which holds things together well and will make you spend a bit more time in each stage.

But the game has its problems and, as much as I enjoyed embarking on Rad and Dusty‘s adventure, I can’t help but acknowledge that some of its flaws end up harming the experience as a whole. As I said, the game is pretty, full of detail and color, in some cases even too much. Some settings have too much on screen, buildings or paths reaching the plane where the character moves can confuse a bit, distracting attention; I think somewhat more simplified visuals in the backgrounds could help make the look a little less cluttered.

Another serious flaw of the game is its enemies, uninspired, without any charisma, with repetitive movements and extremely dumb, which leaves the challenge dull and unengaging. Add to that some little gameplay problems such as little precision in some jumps, ledges and platforms with strange delimitation, some you can climb by jumping from below, others not, and there is no visual or intuitive indication to tell which is which. This takes some points off Rad Rodgers, especially considering that in a 2D platformer, precision is everything.

Another big problem is that the game tries to be funny at any cost and thereby ends up pushing it too hard. “Here, take this heart, but know that it’s actually a butt plug and you’d better use some really strong cleaning product because it’s very smelly”. Like, WTF? And yes, this dialogue is in the game. It is also nostalgic, as it feels like those games that desperately tried to look cool, radical and much more grown-up than Mario and company in the 90s. But back then that wasn’t cool either, here it is even less so.

In conclusion, it has its flaws, but it can be a good challenge and great gameplay for every type of player; even though it is quite focused on pleasing the old-school players, the younger ones may find a lot of fun in its stages and characters. The older ones who grew up amid the games of the wonderful 90s can’t miss this one; the references will certainly bring plenty of smiles to old geezers, as it did to this one speaking to you.