Super Rad Raygun Review

It’s always a good time when you get to revisit a classic game style and actually enjoy it. It’s seemed lately all I have been doing is play modern games taking a spin at old styles. Super Rad Raygun says “Screw modern!” It’s a simple side scrolling platform action game reminiscent of Mega Man in all its simple glory.

You are a very Game Boy looking robot named Rad Raygun. You have been activated in the midst of a Russian attack against the President of the United States. With your double jump and your… “Rad” raygun (puns are hard when delivered in text form.) You must now venture into 198X America and save the country from the communists.

The art style looks like something you would see released on the Game Boy, not a coincidence I’m sure. But it doesn’t feel as clunky as it should, which is made evident by the easy to navigate platforming sections and laser shots that can actually miss and hit fairly accurately. Navigating the platform sections with a double jump wasn’t as easy as you would expect, on different occasions jumping through screens was required, but proceed with caution. On the other screen many endless respawning communists await to bring you death.

A fairly standard addition would be the upgrading system. After collecting certain items you can open the menu page and upgrade yourself with extra health, weapons/devices, and all those usual things. It’s a very straight forward interface and even if the little tutorials were absent the game makes it easy to figure everything out.

Following the tried and true “lives and health bar” system Super Rad Raygun still manages to be challenging without diminishing the charm of the game. This is shown through the NPC’s quick and funny one liners, and the new-age-personality-type bosses.

Super Rad Raygun was produced by the well-known online entertainment company Rooster Teeth and their affiliate Screw Attack. As a fan of the both of them I can say for sure that the company’s humor style really comes out, not only in the writing but in the visuals as well.

Not being able to change the difficulty was a touch shocking, but made getting through tough sections rather satisfying. The absence of control options made playing with keyboard and mouse rather difficult. The game was obviously developed with a controller in mind when tutorials mention using the RT and LT controls, but this was just a minor setback only needing a few minutes to press every button on the keyboard looking the ones you need.

Super Rad Raygun is not what you would call addicting, simple silly fun inspired by a simple silly time in video game history. Any classic gamer would love this title and would even be a great way to introduce new gamers to what it used to be like for us old people. I would easily play again between AAA releases.