Shakedown: Hawaii

Shakedown: Hawaii builds on its predecessor by improving its visuals and music massively. It does keep the unique humour, story and over the top action though, while the city building systems are a welcomed addition and I feel most players will enjoy what's on offer. You get quite a bit of game for your money and there is a lot to do in this uncanny little title.

Shakedown: Hawaii delivers a unique brand of humor and some solid arcade action in a world players will love to destroy and then build back up with their own brand plastered right on it.

It’s a small price to pay for low-stakes arcade open world antics. Shakedown: Hawaii might play similarly to Retro City Rampage, but it takes place in a markedly different world. It’s more than enough to warrant giving both games a shot, and a worthy successor to a now-seven-year-old adventure.

It seems fitting that one of the last games to ever be released for the beloved Playstation Vita is a long-awaited sequel to one of the system’s first widely acclaimed titles released way back in the first months after its launch. There’s just something poetic about it. Even though Shakedown: Hawaii is available on more modern and more powerful platforms, such as the Switch, I just felt a moral obligation of testing this game on the Vita. I don’t know how many more opportunities like th...

Shakedown Hawaii gets you into a business trip around a 16-bit world that sometimes leaves much to be desired.

Despite that, I’m left with a sense of unfulfilled ambition. Shakedown: Hawaii presents itself as a unique real estate-centric twist on open-world action, but it seems satisfied to stick with a cheap rental.

The caveat to all of this though is that your enjoyment with Shakedown will depend on how much you enjoy these types of games. While this may sound obvious, if you saw the trailer and thought it looked like a game you would enjoy, chances are you will, with the opposite also being true. If you dug developer Vblank’s previous game Retro City Rampage, you’ll find plenty to like about Shakedown: Hawaii.