Narita Boy

Narita Boy is among the best Metroidvanias in recent years. Its beautiful world, surprisingly emotional story, and diverse enemy pool will leave you wanting more from its short run time.

Narita Boy didn’t have to be very good. It was largely crowdfunded on Kickstarter, and once it was out it could have been like a lot of Kickstarter games, or it could have been a non-starter that got launched and fell flat, but the team at Studio Koba really pulled this one out. It’s not a life-changing experience nor is it some deeply spiritual journey, but I think it’a a fun retro game that understands that it’s still a modern release. This is the sort of project that makes big publishers take a team seriously, and whether they decide to partner with a publisher or stay indie, I suspect we’l...

There’s no question that Narita Boy is epic. As though it jumped right out of an arcade machine from the 80s, it has exciting, fast-paced combat and some of the most beautiful pixel art that will ever grace your screen. Though the story is rather complex, it does nothing but help fuel the unique tone of the game. You might not understand exactly what’s going on, but when the action is this much fun, it doesn’t really matter.

A thoroughly entertaining and highly playable Metroidvania, that goes beyond being a simple retro homage and offers some memorable gameplay twists and storytelling surprises.

Narita Boy, the debut game from Studio Koba, is an excellent 80's inspired action-adventure game with heart. It is up to you to enter The Digital Kingdom and defeat the nefarious HIM and his Hackernauts with your radical Techno-Sword.

While you were partying, Narita Boy studied the techno-blade. Impossibly good pixel art is locked behind bad-but-gets-better platforming and okay-but-gets-cool hack n' slashing.

A vibrant retro-futuristic fantasy adventure about cyber heroes and digital legends.

Narita Boy is a game that takes such a strong influence from so many past works, it can often feel a bit derivative. However, that doesn’t stop the game from being enjoyable, as there’s plenty of unique challenges to overcome as well as some solid lore-building. It’s gorgeous visual design and soundtrack will be enough to entice anyone familiar with 80s pop culture, and could prove irresistible to those that have a fondness for the era.

There are so many movies, shows, songs, and games focused on 80’s nostalgia nowadays that I’m pretty sure we’ve already filled our quota for that decade’s revival for the next twenty years or so. Between Stranger Things, The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights“, Ready Player One, and much more, it’s hard to come up with an 80’s-inspired product that feels truly original nowadays. Narita Boy is one example of that. It’s by no means an innovative take on the trend, as it drinks from t...

You are the chosen one. The unique individual who is destined to save the world, save the galaxy, or the universe depending on the threat level. It’s a clichéd narrative tool that has become commonplace in stories throughout history, but there’s a good reason for it. Narita Boy may seem familiar in terms of its initial premise, but it makes up for it in what it tries to say using that premise. Being an on-the-nose 80s videogame throwback to titles such as Castlevania or Space Quest groun...

There’s so much to love about Narita Boy’s style, which makes its comparably simple combat and exploration all the more sad to see. Its 2D sprite work, animations, and soundtrack are among the best I’ve come across this year, and the story told through its unlockable memories is still is worth playing through the mediocre action platformer built around it to experience – at least, every part except that borderline broken speeder bike-style level, which is in desperate need of a post-launch patch.

At its best, there's moments of appreciation and respect for the artistic detail Narita Boy lavishes in, with its pixel art and generally-eery vision of cyberspace run amok with corrupted foes. At the very least, the somewhat-warped screen display and drenching in '80s culture tropes is anything but off-putting. The problem then lies with its simplicity of delivery and the general lack of appeasing those looking for something more than surface-level attraction. A world that too often feels unnecessarily padded on a level design basis; a combat system though not terrible, feels too undecided on...