Tanuki Justice (PS4) Review
Release Date: 16 October 2020
Date Played: 30 December 2021
Introduction:
Tanuki Justice is a charming 8-bit inspired side scrolling action platformer. The developers, Wonderboy Bob & Storybird Studio, proudly display their inspirations with this cute, fun, and difficult game. You can see, hear, and feel the influences of Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, and even Contra in this throwback to the golden era of gaming when the NES reigned supreme.
You play as a Tanuki (a Japanese Raccoon) and his sister (in 2 player mode) who have to platform their way through 7 stages while taking out countless anthropomorphic enemies on their quest to save the world. It's a basic story that we've seen a million times and fits in nicely with the old-school feel. Honestly, you don't need anymore exposition than the brief but well illustrated cut-scene before you're dropped right into the action. Everything is presented in a fantastic feudal Japan art style that really helps the game stand out and gives it a nice little boost to its appeal.
Gameplay:
Like most, "Nintendo Hard" games from yesteryear, Tanuki Justice gives us easy to learn but difficult to master gameplay. Present are the one hit deaths, respawning enemies, and tight platforming that drove me into a rage when I was a child. You're armed only with your double jump and a very short range and weak throwing star. You can fire in all 8 directions and can even lock your shot or character in place with use of the trigger buttons. In addition to this you have a massively destructive magic attack that can be unleashed once the meter is filled. This will usually make quick work of any enemy you come across and will even take a pretty sizable chunk out of the bosses you'll encounter along your way. Filling the meter is as simple as destroying the enemies you come across or by collecting crystals hidden in chests around the level. In addition to these crystals, you'll also find powerups for your throwing star, 1-ups, and shields. All of these are highly essential and you'll want to grab everything you can find. The shield will prevent you from taking a hit and basically serves as an extra life. The throwing star upgrade greatly increases the range and power of your puny base shot and is a necessity for most of the game. Although it doesn't increase your very limited range as much as I would have liked, completing many of the levels without it feels like an almost insurmountable task at times because you won't be able to reach enemies without getting right in their faces.
As you go through the diverse settings of the games stages that range from bamboo forests, undergrown caverns, graveyards, and even a ninja temple, enemies will come at you from all directions and will sometimes even spawn right in front of you as they jump out of doors at the last second. Knowing when to move forward or hold back and wait for the opportune moment is key to this game. Often enemies are placed in a precarious position that will put your skills and reflexes to the test. Sometimes, they pop out of nowhere and basically sucker punch you in the face and cause you to die. A lot of the time you don't have the chance to react to this and just have to know where the enemies are going to be before they get there. This is especially true in the second half of the game where you'll need to play the stages again and again to memorize the enemy patters and carefully learn to route your way through the hazards of bottomless pits, spikes, disappearing platforms, and dozens of lethal enemy types. Yes, this game is just as challenging as those incredibly difficult games from the NES days. Luckily, the developer takes pity on you and allows you to respawn right where you died until you run out of lives. If you're forced to continue, you have to start at the beginning of the stage, but it's never that far to go as the levels are action packed but brief. Also, you're given unlimited continues on Normal and Hard difficulties. This makes the game beatable as you're allowed to retry each stage as many times as you need until you get it right. And, by the way, you WILL need to retry the later stages several times for sure. After you finish a stage, it's unlocked in a level select for that difficulty. This of course allows you to practice each stage to your heart's content. At the end of each stage, you'll face off against one of the fun and well thought out bosses. They all have engaging patterns that you'll have to learn to master them. While difficult, I never found any of them to be annoying or frustrating and was able to get the kill after only a handful of tries and usually enjoyed my time doing it.
The trophies in the game, however, ARE extremely frustrating, draconian, difficult, and downright impossible. Many of the trophies focus on beating the game in a certain time limit, or without dying, or without killing a certain number of enemies. I was absolutely shocked to see that more than half of the trophies in the game have a 0.0% completion rate. As in, NOONE, has EVER done these tasks. I think it's a little brazen for the developers to think that their game is so unbelievably amazing that they expected the community to basically want to perfect a world record caliber speed run just to unlock them.
Presentation:
This game is oozing with charm from ever aspect. The main characters are unbelievably cute in their design and their little furrowed and menacing brows only make them even more adorable. The same can be said for the dozens of well designed enemy and boss models. All of the stages are bright and colorful and feel very different not only in design but also in art direction. There are many memorable and striking set pieces that are thrown your way as you work through the game. I won't spoil these, but they certainly stand out in several of the stages and remind you that you're playing on a current gen console and not something from 1985.
The music is also quite good and has some catchy tunes to it. My daughter and her friends were hanging out in my game room while I was playing, and I caught them all humming along to the soundtrack. If that's not a compliment to the composer, I don't know what would be. Once again, you can feel a strong influence from Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden. Perhaps a little TOO strong because I heard little hints of melody taken directly from those games and chord progressions that I know were lifted from some of my favorite stages in those games. It's not blatant or malicious, but you can tell that some of the hooks were um, borrowed, from the NES greats.
Conclusion:
Tanuki Justice is exactly what it was developed to be. For better or worse, it feels like it could have been released in 1989. You have the very short game length (less than 20 minutes if you're good enough) that is made artificially longer by its extreme difficulty and having to retry levels over and over. This is made more obvious by having unlimited continues. You'll soon realize that most stages are only a two or three minutes long. It's a tough balancing act and I'm not sure the developers could have done any better. You don't want to pad out your game because you need keep it short and energized like they were back in the day. But, you don't want to scare off modern gamers by limiting their continues and trying their patience to the point of them quitting. Pleasantly, I think Tanuki Justice successfully walks this tightrope and give the player just enough challenge to make them feel like they're playing a game from that period, but has enough leeway to actually allow them to finish it.
I can honestly say that if this game had been released on the NES or Sega Master System three decades ago, it would be considered one of the best games on the system and a bonified classic. It's a fantastic recreation of a game from that time period and can stand toe to toe with them. Unfortunately, this game wasn't created in 1989 and was released in a time where we're going through a retro themed game renaissance. Other 8-bit inspired indie games over the last few years have taken the framework of these classic games and evolved and improved them to create something magnificent and groundbreaking. Some of these games have even won game of the year by beating out AAA multi-million dollar franchises with insane pedigrees. Tanuki Justice doesn't do that. It doesn't try to break new ground or alter the formula in any way. It pays homage to the games that inspired it by trying to be exactly like them... and it succeeds. The only problem with that is that there already so many games just like this and you could just play them instead. I wish it had gone out of its way to bring something new to the table. Personally, I was able to beat it, but didn't have any desire to put more time into it because I felt like I had seen it all before. It made me say to myself, "Man, I should play Ninja Gaiden again."
Final Status: Beaten
Final Score: 7/10 (Good)
