The Nintendo 3DS edition of Retro City Rampage will benefit from more than a year's worth of tweaking and rebalancing, according to creator Brian Provinciano, who calls the forthcoming eShop game its "definitive version."
Retro City Rampage is a downloadable game that parodies retro pop culture and Grand Theft Auto gameplay; players complete missions around the game's city while avoiding authority figures. Retro City Rampage DX, as the new edition is called, incorporates player feedback in addition to the game's long history of updates. In the 15 months or so since Retro City Rampage's first release, Provinciano said he's updated it at least 16 times. However, the developer considers the 3DS version "worth checking out," even for those who've played it on other consoles.
"This is the definitive [version], as of now," Provinciano told Polygon. "The PC version would be second, because it's also had a lot of updates.
"All of those improvements came [to the 3DS], but since it was a clean slate — a brand new platform — there were a lot of things I could do that weren't going to mess with the leaderboard economy or things like that."
"Hopefully the colorful graphics and cartoony tone are really in line with the Nintendo audience."
For Retro City Rampage DX, Provinciano tweaked the game's arcade challenges and missions. Some have been cut down slightly to steady the experience, the developer said. The 3DS version also includes all the comforts of its platform: touchscreen controls for the map and inventory.
"I did quite a bit of experimentation with different things trying to see if I could use the touchscreen as a virtual stick and trying the circle pad," Provinciano said. "These things didn't quite work that great so I decided to cut them, because overall I just wanted to make sure that for everything that was in here, nothing was going to bring it down."
Provinciano said he currently has no plans to tweak the Vita edition, which has already received several changes through two updates. Retro City Rampage DX is expected to launch for the 3DS Feb. 6 in North America and Feb. 20 in Europe.
"Hopefully the colorful graphics and cartoony tone are really in line with the Nintendo audience," Provinciano said.
"I deliberately made it where it's not quite a mature-rated game — I attribute the violence more towards Looney Tunes. Hopefully kids will be able to buy it without getting their parent's permission but still have the fun that they would want to have in Grand Theft Auto."
