I played this for ~90 minutes (past the second boss) before I just gave up. I could forgive the overly long and meaningless text info dumps, or the meaningless open areas where all you do is move to the next area, or the terrible level design which requires back tracking in a non for literally no describable reason, I could forgive all and push through to see what it was cooking if the combat wasn't so boring. I want to like it because the art and the music, and the atmosphere seems cool, but the combat man, it's just... it feels like a worse version of hollow knight. And not even like peak hollow knight but like early early game hollow knight.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game. It's a visual masterpiece, with beautiful pixel art and colors, and extremely fluid animation. The story is also quite touching and kept me engaged the entire time. The gameplay is fluid and fun, and gets progressively more varied and interesting as your kit grows and more enemy types are introduced.

With that said, I do have a couple of gripes. The game can be a bit janky at times, just due to the nature of platforming and movement abilities, but it's not too much of an issue. I have more of an issue with the level design, as you will spend a good chunk of time in this game walking back and forth, and you don't walk very fast. Also, switching between colors isn't the most seamless transition, and the boss fights are kind of abrupt difficulty spikes. But, everything is manageable, and nothing dampened my experience enough to make me not like the game. I think it's definitely worth playing until the end.

The 80s neon-y synth-y cyberpunk-y aesthetic here seemed like it would be played out and hacky, but I was surprised to instead be blown away by the charm and originality of Narita Boy’s world-building and stunning pixel graphics and soundtrack. Similarly, the CRT visual filter (fuzzy glow and warped edges, with a subtle vertical scroll flicker) is incredibly fitting and well-done, instead of just making me roll my eyes as I would have expected. Combat and exploration mechanics are simple but deeper than I expected, and the challenge is just on the edge of old-school difficult without being frustrating. I hope this gets the sequel it hints at.

I really wanted to like this game. It's beautiful with a very cool faux retro tron presentation that looks SO cool.

Sadly I can't say the same about the rest of it. Despite the short runtime I felt ready to be done with this game fairly quickly. Every area/level boils down to you running around and talking to NPCs who spout a ton of nonsense to you before doing the same boring combat over and over. The combat feels weirdly stiff and your pool of abilities is small. You've basically seen it all fairly early on and there's no good hook to keep you interested.

The game suggests the world is open for exploration but this is definitely not a metroidvania. I got locked out of certain collectibles and the 'good' ending without realizing it because I had the wrong expectations about the game and couldn't return to previous zones.

While the visual and audio presentation is absolutely gorgeous, it does not make up for the ultimate video game problem: it's just boring to play.

Difficult: 3/10
Time to platinum: 10-15 hours
Platinum N°: 110

The game is a 2D action and platform game where we control Narita Boy, the hero who must save the Digital World from the evil Stallions and recover the memories of the Creator.

You must explore the Digital World finding upgrades, diskettes that serve as keys and fighting various types of enemies.

The pixel art and the music are wonderful, it even has a musical theme. The visuals with that style of monitor from the '80s are perfect and combined with the pixel art they are a visual delight.

The trophies are pretty straightforward and almost all of them come out as you progress through the story, but there are a couple that are missable and are related to unlocking a special memory of the Creator.

A game that i enjoyed so much and for lovers of indies and pixel art, i recommend that you do not let it pass (it's on sale on psn right now).

I enjoyed myself. Animations were phenomenal, it had a great soundtrack, and the gameplay was fairly tight. Story was quite emotional, and it drew me in enough to ask questions (one of which I definitely got right ;P).

It had a very 80s pastiche feel to it, and I appreciate that. I think there were some criticisms about that aesthetic, with it not being realistic, but it doesn't have to be.

I don't remember too many glitches, but the floppy board was bugged at one point, and I was able to use it outside of its intended purpose, which was actually kinda cool.

I don't know why, but I thought this was a Metroidvania? It sort of has some of that, with some ability-gated progression and collecting upgrades along the way, but there is zero backtracking (which is annoying, considering I wanted to try finding the First Memory disks) and no map (which some other reviewers said was a detriment, which is fair enough), but the fact it's not one is fine. That was an L on my part lol.

I definitely didn't expect what happened at the end. If you know, you know.