Review: RetroRealms

Movies from the ‘80s will never die, thanks to video games. Well, and all merchandising, really. And sequels and remakes. But they turn up in video game form with such regularity you’d think the movies had just hit. Ghostbusters, RoboCop, tonnes of various tie-ins. It’s apparently fertile ground.

Licensed movie games were once embraced by the big-budget sphere of the video game industry, but unless it’s a multi-billion dollar franchise, they’ve become rare. This has allowed them to slip into small-budget productions with crossovers galore. Some publishers have begun making it their business model to focus on licensed titles, like Devolver’s new Big Fan Games label and, according to an in-game video, Retrorealms’s publisher Boss Team Games.

Retrorealms, currently consisting of adaptations of Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead, has brought up a question in my mind that I hadn’t really thought of in-depth before. What is the goal of a licensed movie game? Not from a business standpoint but from a player’s.

RetroRealms (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch)
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Boss Team Games
Released: October 18, 2024
MSRP: $24.99 each, $49.99 bundled

The most obvious business answer to the question of what a licensed game’s purpose is would be a mix of profit and advertising. Movie games would often be released right alongside the movie itself as a way of building excitement. If you see something everywhere, regardless of how much you know about it, you’ll probably assume it’s pretty popular. If you’re a gamer, you might play the game and want to see the movie. If you’re a film… person… filmer, you might watch the movie and want to play the game.

But, as a player, why would you want to play a licensed game? The answer might be different for many people, but it would probably involve wanting to further interact with the characters or universe they inhabit. Sometimes, we’re not ready to say goodbye to a beloved story, so we seek ways to further our experience. Other times, the reason might be to immerse yourself in the film’s world. Rather than simply live out the plot of a movie, you play a part in a completely different story based on what is established in the movie. Or maybe you want a different perspective on things, to see how they are interpreted by the developer.

I doubt that you just want to look at things that resemble the property that you love. Personally, I don’t just want to play a game where the worlds just look like recognizable scenes and the characters appear as they do in a movie. I want the gameplay to be informed by the concepts in the movie. The N64’s Goldeneye gave a lot of thought to how it would make you feel like James Bond. It gave you objectives to complete beyond just shooting dudes on your way to the exit. RoboCop: Rogue City wasn’t just another FPS. The developers considered how to make you feel like both an anal-retentive police officer and a tank on legs.

Both the Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead parts of Retrorealms Arcade feel like pretty standard platformers where you play as Ashley Williams and Michael Myers. That’s not the end of the world, but I feel they don’t capture their source material very well.

Backing up, Retrorealms Arcade is sort of a platform for other games. While right now, there’s only Ash vs. Evil Dead and Halloween, there’s an indication that more will be added later. You can roam a 3D interior, interact with 3D replicas of props from the movies, and view behind-the-scenes videos. You launch the games by stepping up to their respective arcade cabinets. This isn’t a complaint, but it looks less like an arcade and more like a ‘90s fast food chain with the arcade cabinets in the foyer.

One of the things that interested me about Retrorealms was the hub. I like the idea of the games existing within a space, but unfortunately, the space isn’t used to add context and body. It’s just a dusty museum with an unrealistic layout. I’d be more interested if it actually looked like an abandoned Chuck E. Cheese and gave some background on the machines themselves. Or a functioning Pizza Hut, I don’t care, but some 3D rooms with dioramas of the games aren’t that compelling.

But that’s just the hub anyway, forgotten when you jump into the games. And the games are… fine. They’re purchased separately or in a bundle, and characters are functionally their own thing, so if you own both games, you can play as Ash in the Halloween machine or Myers in Evil Dead. There are two other characters you can buy separately: Laurie Strode from Halloween and Kelly Maxwell from Ash vs. Evil Dead. It’s a neat concept, and it would be a shame if this is how far we get.

Where I’m really down on Retrorealms is the fact that the games are just so basic. The fact that they’re set up as physical arcade cabinets is confusing, because they don’t feel like arcade games. They feel like DS tie-in games, the sort that Wayforward often had a hand in back around 2010.

In typical WayForward style, they’re certainly competent games. They feature some terrific pixel art and a great soundtrack. The problem I have is that 2D sidescrollers with terrific pixel art and a great soundtrack are a dime a dozen in the market today. We are so spoiled for choice to the point where I need a hook well beyond competent/pixel art/soundtrack, whereas that wouldn’t have been the case back when A Boy and His Blob came out on Wii. Now, I need something like an inventive twist on gameplay like Gunbrella, an infectious attitude like Pizza Tower, or era-authenticity like Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland. You can’t slap the word retro on pixel art and think that’s authentic. I can smell the difference.

With the only unique aspects being a 3D hub and the ability to buy more characters, the bruises on Retrorealms are only more apparent. The levels are boring. Only a single simple gimmick distinguishes each of them, and I’d have trouble recalling where each one was placed. The bosses are terrible, all over the place in difficulty. The story is practically non-existent, and what is there would probably be better off actually not existing.

The only inventiveness really comes from being able to switch into the Nightmare Realm at will. This is a more brutal mirror of the stage you’re on, with harder and more frequent enemies. It will also change the positioning of some walls and platforms, which is usually used in puzzles where you can obtain a ticket to unlock items in the museum or collectible MacGuffins of no immediately discernable use. Unfortunately, these puzzles also waver in difficulty, and I found some of them to be more effort than they were worth.

The characters all play uniquely, but when they’re against such drab backdrops, they don’t have much chance to shine. Ash vs. Evil Dead and Halloween games are interchangeable: 10 levels across five backdrops. All the same boxy platforming, both visually similar. Not that I’d expect them to be vastly different, but that might have made the whole experience more interesting.

If anything, I found the included behind-the-scenes videos to be the most interesting part. Specifically, WayForward founder Voldi Way talking about his appearance in the 1980 film, The Changeling. There’s also a video where the developers cite their favorite horror movies, and none of them name Halloween or Evil Dead. Not that they need to, since that would probably indicate that they aren’t all that well-versed in the genre, but I found it amusing anyway. Unfortunately, there are only four videos as far as I’m aware. I’d assume more get unlocked through various means, but I got an achievement telling me I watched them all.

Aside from that, Retrorealms Arcade just feels so unspectacular. Competent, sure. It’s not a bad time. It’s just not a particularly memorable one, even if you’re a fan of the movies within. It feels like WayForward made sidescrollers and put the characters in them rather than having the games informed by the characters. So, if you wanted to play a platformer like Michael Myers, then that’s what you get and very little more. There isn’t much meat to sink a knife into.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}