Welcome to our review of Rad Rodgers, the Radical Edition, it finally arrived on Nintendo Switch and it rocks!
Rad is a rambunctious but spirited young boy who maybe plays too many video games. After dozing off at the tail end of a long night of gaming, Rad awakens to find his dusty old console has turned itself back on. Suddenly a vortex emerges and he’s sucked into his TV, where he finds himself the star in his very own video game adventure.
Dusty is Rad’s good-hearted but foul-mouthed, now-sentient game console. His clock speed isn’t what it used to be, but what he lacks for in megahertz he makes up for with experience and attitude!
Rad & Dusty’s adventure takes them through many dangerous stages of action-packed, humor-filled, hardcore platforming fun. This decaying jungle world has been infected by a fierce corruption, and it’s up to the unlikely buddy-duo Rad and Dusty to save the jungle’s inhabitants and restore the Elder Tree as guardian of the land.
Weapons: Dusty arms Rad with a variety of radical bad-ass weaponry. The Bolt Blaster has unlimited ammo, is easy to use, and more than enough firepower to get the job done. The Phoenix Cannon shoots out a fiery bird whose wingspan lights enemies ablaze as it flies by.
Sounds & Music: Composer Andrew Hulshult combined his years of musical experience (both performing and writing) with his passion for retro-style gaming to create an amazing and authentic soundtrack for the game complete with MIDI-inspired music… And synthesizers!
The Pixelverse: While Rad and Dusty are a great team, only Dusty can enter the electrified Pixelverse — a dangerous spacetime-breaking region that exists behind the game world. Dusty enters the Pixelverse when necessary to repair glitches in the running game world, allowing both Rad & Dusty to continue their journey.
Classic Easter Eggs: The game features hard-to-find collectibles in sometimes even harder-to-find classic secret rooms. Use your precision platforming skills to collect ’em all.
Rad Rodgers not only brings us a great platformer or shooter, it brings an overall great experience to the Nintendo Switch. I actually owned and played this game on Xbox One, being one of the few games I bought upon purchase of my console. I have loved this game for a long time and was very curious to revisit it on Switch.
As I knew what I was getting myself into, I chose to start the game with the obscene function on, but with the baby steps for the actual gameplay. This results in endless lives, but as I already played and finished the game before, I knew what to expect and not to be stingy about getting through harder levels and just focus on the joy of cruising through the levels.
Compared to my previous gameplay, I can only say this is a great game! I did seem to have a visually downgraded experience or maybe my eyes were betraying me. I do seem to recall my Xbox game to be crisper. I am not an expert though, so keep that in mind.
What makes this game so much fun, is that it is this fun mix between Metal Slug and a great platformer. Like it is the game you never knew you were missing! I still enjoy it even after a few playthroughs. Whether I am shooting at enemies or jumping on moving platforms, this game is so energetic that I just keep insisting on finishing one more level before going to bed. Obviously, this resulting in 2 hours of more gameplay instead of just one more level.
The reason? Those games in between levels kept me up. There is this one where you jump a pogo stick to get as high as possible as to avoid the rising water from drowning you. I just could not permit myself of stopping at a lower score, no no, I had to get a better score.
It is exactly this level of addictiveness that is the power behind this game. At every single time I start up this game, I am playing a lot more than I should, especially with my sleep in mind. As enemies become more and more impressive throughout the game, you will slowly but surely begin to hone the skills needed to finish this game. Don’t get me wrong, as fun as this game is, it is not easy at all.
In conclusion, Rad Rodgers is great and I think it might be one of the more mesmerizing games in this genre, filled with profanity (or not) and a bunch of amazing characters to choose from, Rad Rodgers brings the pain to your fingers when you get sucked in.
