Saturday Morning RPG – You’ve got the touch!
Nostalgia and parody are two great tastes that taste great together. That makes Saturday Morning RPG the tastiest morsel available for iOS platforms. Yeah, I don’t normally review games for mobile platforms, but I was looking for an indie title to play and I latched onto this the minute I read the description. Not only does SMRPG go straight for strings that hold my childhood memories in the form of parody, but they actually got Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth to do the soundtrack. I love everything about this game and I would imagine that most gamers that grew up in the 80s will feel exactly the same. Yes, I’m old – deal with it.
Last time in my childhood
Saturday Morning RPG follows the story of Martin “Marty” Michael Hall, a typical high school student that is bestowed with extraordinary power. In order to save the girl he loves from being wed to the dastardly Commander Hood, he is granted the use of a magical notebook by a mysterious and powerful person known only as “The Wizard”. With this notebook Marty can gain magical powers from ordinary objects. Now it’s up to Marty to save his love and the world!
All the nostalgia
Okay, if that doesn’t strike you as a Saturday morning plot, I don’t know what will. SMRPG has so much radical content jammed into it that I don’t know where to start. The game itself is done in an episodic fashion that’s easy to digest one piece at a time. So thankfully my heart didn’t need to explode from so much awesome being thrown at me all at once. The notebook is at once recognizable as a 1980s era Trapper Keeper complete with cartoon theme cover and scratch and sniff stickers. Magical items include basketballs (with which you totally burn your enemies), laser discs, and even a certain rhinestone covered glove. Those are just in the first episode and you can squee over the karate headband with its crane kick defense in later episodes. If you have to Google any of this stuff, you may not be the target audience for this game. You should still play it though.
Are you some kind of spaz?
I sure look like one when I’m playing this game on the bus during my commute, that’s for sure. Game play is exceedingly tactile and bound to make you look silly (especially with that grin on your face) while you vaporize the bad dudes. Matches start with you frantically scratching (okay, rubbing if you don’t want to actually scratch your device) the stickers on your binder in a random order to get power ups before combat. Many items and powers require mini-games where you will tap furiously or with great precision at your screen for maximum results. Thankfully nothing makes you shake the game or I might really start getting concerned looks instead of polite avoidance.
I did promise parody
Beyond the simple parody of cartoon tropes (geeks, jocks, vapid rich girls, etc) from the 80s found in the normal NPC characters that inhabit Shadow Valley High, there are some great enemies that should be easy to recognize. Standouts include Skeleboar, Commander Hood, the HOOD twins Benjamin and Nimajneb, and Sunhowl. There are also specific NPCs to keep an eye out for like May O’Bailey, the plucky reporter. One of my favorite things to see parodied in the game is the power graph after each fight. The only thing that would make it better is requiring a red piece of cellophane to read what it says. Every new thing that I came across in SMRPG made me smile like an idiot and there are far too many things to list here.
Saturday Morning RPG is concentrated awesome that you must shove into your brain. If you’re a child of the 1980s, this is sure to bring memories flooding back with each episode. Mighty Rabbit Studios knows exactly what a powerful drug they have here and as we were always warned the first taste is free. I really can’t say enough good things about this game, so instead I’ll just let you watch the trailer for yourself. Remember: be excellent to each other.
Saturday Morning RPG is being featured as part of the PAX East Indie Showcase. Check it out here.
