Game Review: Saturday Morning RPG (PS Vita)

Mighty Rabbit: I love you. From Saturday morning cartoons, to Saturday Morning RPG, this is one of the best “nostalgia-driven” experiences I’ve had since “Fanboys” and “Thunderstruck” came out (both movies, mind you).

I was born in the 80s, so I’m a fan of pretty much every single pop culture source in this game (that had a worldwide release, anyway… I was in Paraguay after all). That being said, Saturday Morning RPG runs on way more than meets the eye (wink ;).

At its core, SMRPG is a solid RPG-lite experience, with fast combat, interesting enemies, a fantastic over-arching story, charming characters, beautiful art, good level design and great music. 

You play as Marty (you had me at Marty, guys), and throughout the 5 episodes, you must use your trapper-keeper (given to you by The Wizard, no less), to stop Commander Hood and his evil, evil plans.

From a gameplay standpoint, it is a standard (albeit stripped down streamlined) JRPG experience: turn-based combat, item collection for power-ups, leveling up, sidequests, you know the drill.

However, everything seems… better, due to the way it has been done. Instead of feeling cheated out of a “proper” JRPG Final Fantasy 100-hour extravaganza, the game has been optimized in such a way that the quick pace makes it feel arcade-y rather than bare.

It’s hard to explain, but it really, really works.

The game is also episodic, although all 5 episodes are included in the Vita version. Each episode has a self-contained storyline (as well as following up with certain central themes). Although the first episode can feel light on content, as soon as you hit the second episode you’ll realize that they had more time and resources to work with after the (extremely) positive reception of the first.

Although the art can be confusing at first (the paper-Mario like sprites with full 3D stages), you get not only used to it, but fond of it. It just looks like such a huge amount of love went into making the thing: the details, every single reference, the lot.

We, as an industry, are constantly trying to validate videogames as works of art. However, sometimes we tend to leave emotion out of the equation. And SMRPG is a work of love. It has a huge heart, it plays well, it looks great, sounds awesome.

You know what? I’m repeating myself. You want to know what I think about it? I think you should buy it, and enjoy it.

  • Title: Saturday Morning RPG
  • Publisher: Mighty Rabbit Studios / Limited Run Games
  • Developer: Mighty Rabbit Studios
  • Format: PSN Download / Limited Physical Release
  • Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4)
  • Memory Card Space Needed: 586Mb

Vita Player Rating - 09

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About Marcos Codas 384 Articles
Lover of portable gaming and horror cinema. Indie filmmaker and game developer. Multimedia producer. Born in Paraguay, raised in Canada. Huge fan of "The Blair Witch Project", and "Sonic 3D Blast". Deputy head at Vita Player and its parent organization, Infinite Frontiers. Like what I do? Donate a coffee: https://www.paypal.me/marcoscodas

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