Narita Boy Review: A Blast From the Past (PC)

On its surface, Narita Boy comes across as a love letter to the ’80s. The bright neon lights are reminiscent of the original Tron movie, while its score sounds like it belongs in a lost John Carpenter film. Studio Koba has crafted a short but sweet adventure that leans on nostalgia while also adding new depth to a traditionally campy aesthetic. While the title has some minor gameplay issues, it never ceased to amaze me with its world and characters.

Narita Boy is currently available for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC for your regional pricing.

Story – A Colorful Journey

The story of Narita Boy is simple at first. Lionel Pearl, also known as The Creator, is a computer programmer with bold ideas about the future of technology. While working away at his masterpiece, one of the programs named HIM becomes sentient and attacks The Creator, wiping all of his memories. Lionel now stares at his computer monitor, unaware of the danger that looms inside his game. 

Elsewhere, our hero rests in their bed. Awoken by the glow of their monitor, they are suddenly sucked into the screen and find themselves in The Digital Kingdom. The other programs dwelling within the software have summoned you to defeat HIM and save the world. It is now up to you to find and restore the 13 lost memories of The Creator. I was instantly pulled in with its opening moments and set the tone for the rest of my adventure. 

The Creator has lost his memory and now sits in his office confused.

Discovering the lost memories of Lionel Pearl is incredibly rewarding. I found the main narrative to be both wild and enjoyable. Unfortunately, I figured out the ending about halfway through, but that didn’t hinder my experience and fascination with this world.

While the overarching narrative was good, I was the most intrigued by the smaller stories lurking within The Digital Kingdom. The characters in Narita Boy reminded me of those in Nier: Automata while I was playing it. Both feature non-human NPC’s like robots, or in this case, programs. But these characters have a surprising amount of depth and emotions. I stumbled upon a crying bartender who was too worried about his lost brother to do anything else, for example. These characters struggle with morals, religion, and everything else humans naturally face. I loved going from area to area and meeting these unique characters.

Gameplay – Cartridge Fever

As the opening scene fades away, we finally get a chance to control our hero. The first hour proved to be the most challenging for me as I had difficulty adapting to the character’s physics. Our hero is a bit floatier than other platforming characters like Mario or Donkey Kong. This led to me constantly underestimating my jumping ability and falling into the pits between platforms. Fortunately, the load times and checkpoint system were decent enough never to leave me truly frustrated.

The start of the adventure.

While I eventually understood how to control our protagonist, finding out where to go next remained an issue. Despite being an adventure game with some necessary backtracking, Narita Boy never provides a map for the player. I had moments during my playthrough when I stumbled upon a room that required me to come back with a certain item. When I eventually discovered that item, the idea of aimlessly searching for that room again seemed too daunting. I was also disappointed that when I finally had the initiative to go back and look for lost collectibles, most areas had become blocked off after defeating their boss. 

Combat

The action of Narita Boy makes up for the platforming, though. You begin with the Techno-Sword, the only weapon capable of defeating HIM and his minions. As you advance through, you will unlock new skills and abilities, each one creating more possibilities while fighting and exploring. Familiar techniques like the shoulder bash and downward thrust eventually helped alleviate some of my issues with the platforming. 

The Techo-Sword is also a Techno-Gun.

Enemies are both well-designed and fun to fight. You may lose your first couple of battles against a new foe, but I never felt like the game was unapologetically brutal. Narita Boy also has an impressive range of adversaries to fight. When I thought I had mastered taking one down, a new opponent would come my way, so I never felt too safe. There were certain spots where you must face waves of monsters, though. That’s when I felt the most overwhelmed by the number of characters and effects happening on the screen.

Graphics – Old School

Studio Koba has created a stunning world to look at. It can shift from a neon-drenched city to a minimalist black and white flashback without breaking a sweat. There were certain points, though, where I thought the flashing neon was a bit much. The game uses many strobing light effects, to a point where I found myself closing my eyes or looking away. Perhaps if I were playing on my TV with more distance between myself and the screen, it would have been less of an issue. Fortunately, there were only a few times when I found it to be too much. The rest of the adventure was glorious eye-candy coated in delicious nostalgia.

The Priest’s flashing blue beam was a bit too much for me.

Audio – Synth-Sensei

I first heard the theme for Narita Boy a week ago when I booted it up, and it’s been stuck in my head since. The soundtrack, composed by Salvinsky, was my favorite part of my experience. The use of synthesizers helped add emotional weight to The Creator’s flashbacks while also intensifying nearly every enemy encounter. It’s difficult not to compare the score to the one we hear in the TV show Stranger Things. Salvinsky has created an exciting assortment of songs that help shape this world while also being great on their own. It’s an album I will be going back to often this year.

I was initially worried that the sound of combat would take me away from the epic score but was pleasantly surprised when the sounds of explosions and swords clashing only heightened the experience. Every single sound felt like it was there for a reason. The digital heartbeat of the game resonated through the screen and continued to surprise me to the end. 

Narita Boy was reviewed on PC.