An ordinary high school student named Marty Hall has a dream one night where the evil General Hood, a parody of G.I. Joe’s Cobra Commander, abducts his crush Samantha. After a devastating defeat at the hands of both Hood and his lackeys, Marty receives aid from the mysterious Wizard in the form of a magical notebook that turns any object into a weapon. After using it to defeat General Hood and rescue Samantha in the dream world, Marty wakes to find he still has the notebook in the real world. He decides to use the notebook to not only get through an average day of high school but to fight evil, gaining a few allies of varying usefulness and drawing the ire of many enemies including the actual General Hood.
Saturday Morning RPG is your standard RPG with a lot of 80’s nostalgia thrown in, played out in a very episodic fashion which unfortunately leads to a some linearity. The game is primarily set around the town of Shadow Valley, with each episode slowly expanding on the surroundings, starting from the high school, out to the town, then a dam, and eventually to a freaking spaceport. While populated by a mostly human cast, Shadow Valley is populated by a number of unusual characters including the Share Bears – Care Bears shaped more like an ordinary bear – who are in town as foreign exchange students or celebrities, a giant rat running a pizza joint, a sentient rock who wants to be a comedian, and a race of Minion-like critters fleeing from an omnivores race from Jim Henson’s nightmares. Many of these characters offer sidequests for mostly experience and money, most of which are simple but may involving talking to other characters… sometimes repeatedly. These sidequests can become tedious, though the circumstances and dialog can be rather entertaining.
The game’s system focuses around the notebook, which most people may recognize as a lawyer-friendly version of a Trapper-Keeper. Here is where you can equip stickers, weapons, check stats, see the main quest objective as well as available sidequests, and save and exit the game. Stickers, which are placed in a set of five on the notebook’s cover, can be used to give Marty boosts in battle and are usually found in McAstley’s boxes. Weapons are held on the inside of the notebook… somehow… can be found in vending machines as well as scattered over the game’s world. Almost everyone weapon is some reference to 80’s pop-culture, sure as the F. Scott cartridge giving Marty the ability to throw sword beams or the LaserDisc reducing enemies to digital cubes similar to Tron. Only five weapons can be equipped at a time and can only be used a limited amount of times in battle, so plan accordingly.
Encounters are scripted like Earthbound or Chrono Trigger, allowing for players to either avoid battles or sneak attack enemies. The fights themselves are turn-based like a number of classic RPGs, though they all start out with scratching as many of the stickers as the player can within an unseen time limit. Players can then do three things: charging the Multiplier, using a “Magic Attack,” or using an unarmed attack. Charging the Multiplier causes Marty to, of course, charge up, complete with a Dragon Ball Z-styled aura, increasing the power of the next attack but eating through the Magic Points (MP). Magic Attacks allow Marty to use one of his equipped weapons, which can affect the order of attack and may have a mini-game to do more damage. Unarmed attacks are free to use but have a fairly simple mini-game and can potentially restore MP based on how well you do. Enemy attacks can be blocked by pressing the Attack/Action button just before the attack connects, which can reduce or even negate the damage taken and restore MP. Some attacks can even be reflected with a perfect, or, in this game’s case, “Righteous” block.
The graphics for Saturday Morning RPG are a mix of 16/32-bitsprites atop a polygon-based background. The characters on the overworld are on par with many classic RPGs while the battle sprites are larger and more detailed. Overall, the graphics aren’t that bad, but I think it would have been better if they were done in a style similar to Ducktales Remastered, which would have in-turn given the game a more Saturday Morning feeling any more. This, however, may have been out of the game’s budget, especially when taking the music into consideration.
The soundtrack does a good job making the game sound like something out of the 80’s with a number of tracks utilizing synthesizers, though they don’t get too carried away with the usage. The game even features a very 80’s sounding song, “No Risk No Glory,” which is featured late in the fifth episode. Its helps that composers Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth produced the music, both of who had a hand in composing soundtracks for many classic animated series and movies. The only real gripe I have with the music is that it sounds like it’s playing off a CD with some tracks not looping properly. This seems rare and may be relatively unnoticeable, though the overworld music for the Christmas episode is pretty glaring.
Currently, Saturday Morning RPG is sitting at a grand total of five episodes, the fifth of which was released early this year. With each episode dipped in nostalgia, the game is a love letter to much of the pop-culture that came out of the 80’s. Its far from the best RPG, but is still quite entertaining. If you’re a child of the 80’s or simply a fan of the entertainment of the era, be sure to tune into Saturday Morning RPG on your local (Play)Station!
Links
Official Website
Steam Page
Playstation Store (PS4) Page
Playstation Store (Vita) Page
Amazon App Store (Android)
Ouya Page
Mac Store Page
Wii U Version in Development
