Rad Rodgers Review: Dusty’s Bad Hair Day

We live in a time where throwbacks are becoming more and more prevalent, which is becoming a bit of a double edged sword. People love the nostalgic feeling these games offer, but seem to forget the not so great stuff that went along with the associated memory. I have fond memories of platformers from my time with the NES and Genesis; however, many of the titles I spent hours in front of the TV with as a child are nowhere near as entertaining as they were as a child. Sure, Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog are still masterpieces, but for every work of art, we have 5 more crappy licensed games in the vein of Friday the 13th or Robocop. Today we have Rad Rodgers, which aims to spark that feeling while treating us to current gen graphics.

Much like the 16 and 32 bit games that inspired it, this does not feature much of a story. The game begins with our young hero, Rad, being put to bed by his mother mid-level. After being denied “just one more game,” he reluctantly goes to bed only to be woken up by his TV turning back on. Fearing the flip flop on a stick or whatever method of punishment his mother uses, Rad gets out of bed and tries to turn off the TV through various means, including blowing into and beating on his trusty console. He’s then transported into the TV and greeted by his foul mouthed console, Dusty (voiced by Jon St. John of the Duke Nukem fame). Dusty will no doubt become a fan favorite, with his tongue-in-cheek adult jokes that will go over younger players’ heads. Our duo then sets off on their adventure to figure out whom or what has brought Rad into the game world.

The visuals featured are simply amazing and would have made 10 year old me drool all over my controller if this had been released during my younger years. Each level features token designs that are clearly homages to similar games from generations past, but feature much more detail and vibrant colors than the 16 or 32 bit hardware could have handled, even with fancy add-ons like the Sega CD or 32X. What impressed me the most is how the title fluidly transitions from current-gen graphics into pixelated areas, reminiscent of the old school technology mentioned previously. These areas are thrown at the player regularly, as Dusty will have to enter glitches to work through mini games that are more akin to high end Atari levels to remove obstructions in the current-gen areas for Rad to move on. While these areas are varied and do switch up the gameplay, the color scheme chosen makes navigation as well as evading enemies in the area difficult, since almost everything is a shade of blue or purple. This required quite a bit of trial and error to pass these sections initially. In addition to this, the game is prone to freezing on the Xbox One, regularly kicking me to the home screen or locking up entirely. In my time with the game, this occurred at least 10 times, most of which were on the map screen, which did not impede progress but did create minor annoyances.

Mowing down the cartoonish, brightly colored enemies resulting in a ridiculous amount of blood is great fun, but the platforming which becomes more and more prevalent after a few levels is not. Rad lacks a double jump, and while Dusty will help if you get close enough to the ledge by pulling you up, you will regularly have to repeat long platforming segments due to one failed jump. This could be chalked up to me sucking at the game, but it often felt as if jumping would yield different heights despite hitting the button in the same manner. While checkpoints are present, the placement feels as if they were slapped together as an afterthought. Luckily the shooting mechanics work much better, although the arsenal offered is a bit lackluster. There are pick-ups that will randomly drop, though you cannot switch between or retain more than one at a time, similar to Contra.

While the title is beautiful, this is a case of style over substance. The title offers a small amount of levels padded with a few boss encounters, which are all either forgettable or highly frustrating, often changing mechanics when the game feels it’s necessary with no warning. In addition to the boss battles, there are a few levels that involve Rad being required to move at a steady pace on a pogo stick, which feels similar to the chase sequences in the recent Rayman entries. Players who move at a steady pace and do not struggle too much will likely finish the game in a few hours. There are a number of secrets, collectibles, and unlockable hats or masks for those that want to revisit any of the levels more than once. If you were hoping for any additional modes or co-op offerings to extend the gameplay, you won’t find that here. While I am opposed to shoehorning co-op into a title that doesn’t need it, I feel like this would have added a lot of replay value and made my time with the title more enjoyable.

Rad Rodgers checks off a lot of the right boxes, but it misses the mark on multiple occasions. If you’re too lazy or don’t have access to some of the tried and true platformers from the 90’s, this might be what you’re looking for, but I would personally prefer to dig my own Dusty out of the garage and boot up something a little less mediocre.

6 out of 10

Pros

  • Stellar Visuals
  • Some Fun Easter Eggs
  • The Adult Humor Coupled with Cartoonish Graphics Meshes Well
  • Gunplay Controls Well

Cons

  • Horrible Platforming
  • Mini Games are a Chore
  • Prone to Freezing

Rad Rodgers was developed by Slipgate Studios and published by THQ Nordic. It was released on PC December 1st, 2016, and on PS4 and XB1 February 21st, 2018 for $19.99. The game was provided to us for review on Xbox One. If you’d like to see more of Rad Rodgers, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.

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