Narita Boy launched this week and I've been playing it as part of PC Game Pass. I'm absolutely floored by the way this game looks and sounds. Combat is pretty simple but there's a nice punchiness to it. Some of the early goings were pretty rough for me since I was having a very difficult time getting my bearings and figuring out where to go. It was frustrating enough that I nearly stopped playing, but the game's aesthetic made it impossible to put down and sure enough I finally solved the issue I was having, after probably 20 minutes of running back and forth. Since then it's been pretty smooth sailing, and I'm hoping to see the game through.

How's everyone else feeling about Narita Boy?

I don't think I'm someone who is especially sensitive to flashing lights and such, but playing this game for anymore than a handful of minutes makes me feel physically uncomfortable. So I haven't gotten too far in it. I'd like to go back to it, but I don't know if it's worth the potential discomfort. I also kind of don't like the jump. I seem to constantly over shoot with it.

@brian_: The movement feels a bit floaty for sure. And yeah, the game goes nuts with the flashing reds and blues and yellows. I'm glad they have a message about it when loading in but that doesn't feel like quite enough of a warning for what's coming.

I wonder if there's some sort of slider a developer could use to let you adjust the intensity of flashing lights in a game. I don't know if that's something that is do-able or not, I don't know anything about game development. It's just a shame, because I do think it has a cool aesthetic, and the combat seems adequate from what I did play.

I have absolutely loved this game. I started playing while outriders was installing, thinking it would be another Gamepass forgetful game. 4 hours later, i was in love. I do agree it is a bit floaty, and for some people maybe a bit too weird, but guess what I'm still playing? Aaaand already uninstalled outriders.

Played it for...I don't know, maybe 3 hours, before stopping. Already commented on the QL about their decision to add a Turbo Tunnel-like level into this game and how the fast movement of that combined with the game's bright visuals began to hurt my eyes. Of course the section itself already sucked and made me want to stop, but it was the fact that my eyeballs began to hurt that made me quit.

I do like the game's visuals, even though both those and the soundtrack also feel like something that went out of style (for me personally) about a few years ago. Considering that the game's Kickstarter page originally intended it to come out in 2018, I guess that makes sense.

Some of the story feels interesting, but the lore of the world became way too excessive for me almost right away and I couldn't tell you the name of a single character from the game if you asked. The only memorable thing about some of them were their apperance.

ANYWAY, not too likely that I'll continue playing it, thanks to the kinda middling combat, the sometimes incredibly poor platforming and that garbage fire turbo tunnel thing I mentioned.

@glots: Just wanted to say that after almost the exact amount of time I came here to say virtually (sorry) the same thing. I love so much about this game except like, most of the game? It's so weird.

I just wanted to chime in here and say that I like a lot about this game, but I wish it were better.

Played a bit of this today up until the first yellow world. Like many already mentioned - the visuals can be really amazing but everything else about the game is middling to bad. Unfortunately there are also parts of the game that look cluttered and visual signposting is not handled well. I feel like the camera is zoomed in a bit too much where you lose spatial awareness and feel like you're just melting into the background.

Movement feels incredibly sluggish as if there is some intentional input lag built in. Everything from jumping to swinging your sword or dashing appears to have this half second delay to it. I don't remember who it was but there was a dev on a podcast once explaining that when you do 2D platforming there is a trick where you allow the character to walk a few pixels off the actual platform and still make the jump otherwise platforming feels terrible - and this game doesn't seem to do that so the platforming does tend to feel terrible. The level design is also kind of frustrating with the amount of needless backtracking. There is a point right before you turn into the stag where you go through the key coded gate, then have to go back all the way to the beginning of the hub just to grab a key, so you can go back to the gate, open a door and then get another key to open a door back at the hub. C'mon guys.

The story is a little much. All the techno babble is kind of neat at the outset but the game keeps bombarding you with it and unlike Alex I haven't turned a corner on it by the time I called it quits for the night. Like Patrick mentioned in the latest Waypoint podcast, this is a perfect Game Pass game where you can experience the pretty visuals and get your fill before putting it down guilt free. I might go back to it just to see whats up ahead but I doubt I'll bother to go through the whole thing as there is little fun to be had from the moment to moment gameplay.

@humanity: Ha, i looked back at my comments based on the steam demo and your comment mirrors mine quite closely.

Narita Boy

stylish 80's 2d platformer. You're a kid that gets sucked into a PC and meet characters named Motherboard and Techno-Father. You use your Technosword to battle enemies, in both melee and ranged combat. The combat feels quite nice with plenty of impactful hits, but sadly the platforming didn't do it for me. Narita Boy is quite a heavy dude with tons of inertia before he moves around in the air. The foreground art also obfuscates platforms at times making it hard to see at a glance where you're supposed to land. At one point an arrow pointed between two platforms obscured by the foreground, as if there's some hidden tunnel or elevator in between. Sadly it just got me killed over and over. The storytelling didn't do it for me neither. On one hand it goes for all the tropes you expect in a 'you got sucked into a game' game. There are hackers, there are computer parts, a game creator, glitches, references to code and all that jazz. But it all gets introduced to you in the very first message prompt to the point where the terms and names just washes over you. Game has a lot of style though.

@onemanarmyy: For me the epitome of good gameplay and amazing retro art style was probably Hyper Light Drifter, where movement felt tight and combat was rewarding in addition to the amazing visuals. Narita is both goes overboard with the visuals and doesn't do a good enough job on the gameplay, which is a shame because it has a striking and unique look to it but there just isn't a good enough game beyond the surface.