RKGK Review – Great-Fitti

I’ve been a platformer fan ever since I began enjoying video games (shout-out to Mickey’s Wild Journey, you always remember your first), so 2024 has already been a banger 12 months for me due to gems like Penny’s Huge Breakaway, Pepper Grinder, Animal Effectively, and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown.

As nice as these video games are, you’ll discover that almost all of them are 2D platformers, or in adjoining genres specializing in the second dimension. However I’ve at all times had a selected mushy spot for 3D platformers like Psychonauts, Jak and Daxter, Sly Cooper, and just about another sport that pops into your head if you consider the nice ol’ PS2 days.

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RKGK Preview – 2024’s Reply To Hello-Fi Rush

An hour with RKGK’s beautiful world and satisfying platforming has it primed to be certainly one of this 12 months’s hidden gems.

Whereas the 3D platformer lives on by means of Nintendo and the indie scene, they’re nonetheless quite a bit tougher to come back by on this era and have began to really feel like a relic of the previous. So, when RKGK (also called Rakugaki) sprung out of nowhere with its eye-catching graffiti aesthetic, I used to be as eager as a runner-and-jumper bean.

A Attractive Tribute To Graffiti Artwork

Valah using her spray paint to hover in RKGK.

Instantly, Rakugaki jogged my memory of Jet Set Radio and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. However as vital as graffiti is to these two, I’d be hard-pressed to recollect any of the designs I spent hours tagging their maps with since they largely blur collectively in a haze of spray-paint doodles.

That’s not the case with RKGK, although, which places its love for the artwork type on the forefront with among the most beautiful and artistic graffiti I’ve ever seen in a sport. Each time protagonist Valah unleashed a brand new design on Cap Metropolis, I couldn’t assist myself stopping to odor the noxious fumes. RKGK’s artistic use of spray paint as you skate round a colorless world and convey it to life already makes it a feast for the eyes, however the trendy and artistic graffiti that you just cowl ranges with turns it right into a banquet.

RKGK additionally pays tribute to anime and manga at each probability it may get, together with a number of costumes impressed by Dragon Ball, Hunter x Hunter, and Akira, to call a couple of.

Whereas I can’t say sufficient good issues about how RKGK shines a heartfelt highlight on graffiti and eventually makes it really feel like greater than set dressing, I didn’t fall as arduous for one more key a part of its presentation and elegance – the techno music. I’m extra of a drum-and-bass man myself, however even with that famous bias, I discovered the OST to be background noise at finest and repetitive and unmemorable at worst.

Saturday Morning Cartoons Introduced To Life

The solid of heroes and villains are equally as memorable as RKGK’s visuals. Valah is a bubbly and loveable hero with simply as a lot attraction as her artwork, whereas the primary antagonist Mr Buff, is a cartoonish villain with some nice one-liners that jogged my memory of Crash Bandicoot’s Neo Cortex. I simply want a bit extra vitality was spent on telling a charming story, as Valah’s quest to liberate Cap Metropolis is stored easy and doesn’t take the time to discover the deeper facet of her motivations.

I anticipated RKGK’s artwork type to be the spotlight, however wonderful platforming mechanics implies that there’s much more to take pleasure in right here than simply attractiveness. Every degree has Valah racing round a distinct a part of town and bringing it again to life by protecting soul-sucking screens with graffiti, which she does by making artistic use of spray paint.

The spotlight of Valah’s moveset is a capability that permits you to surf on a wave of paint that reinforces your pace whereas leaving a vibrant path of artwork in your wake. This central mechanic transforms RKGK from a comparatively easy platformer right into a fast-paced speedrunner’s paradise that’s akin to a few of Sonic’s 3D outings. Don’t fear, I imply the nice ones.

Jet Set Radio Meets Sonic Journey

Valah using her spray paint cans in RKGK.

At first, getting used to Valah’s moveset and mixing paint-surfing with the standard methods of the style like leaping round and sliding is slightly difficult, however when you get the dangle of it, RKGK has a fantastic sense of rhythm and momentum that ends in some extremely speedy ranges that I had a blast making an attempt to race by means of.

I adore it when a sport palms you a comparatively easy moveset and allows you to grasp them to really feel really feel like a platformer god, and that’s precisely what RKGK does. Among the finest ranges are fully optionally available talent checks that take the mechanics to their breaking level, akin to an early-game one which focuses on the paint browsing and the intense speeds it may attain.

One other memorable optionally available degree is one which locations you at midnight and has you skillfully utilizing your graffiti to mild a path ahead.

RKGK’s platforming is top-tier and a wonderful reminder of why I really like 3D platformers a lot, nevertheless it does sometimes stumble. Chief amongst these is the fight, which is extremely easy and doesn’t add a lot to the expertise past slowing you down and conserving you away from the high-octane motion that RKGK does so nicely.

Valah inspecting a piece of graffiti in RKGK.

The degrees themselves can even blur collectively resulting from their purposefully lifeless design and lack of distinctive gimmicks. There are a couple of that stand out, like one which focuses on gravity and one other that has you operating round a sewer, however they often really feel near-identical to 1 one other. They do not less than have a ton of optionally available aims to incentivise replays if you’ve mastered the mechanics, nevertheless it’s the one time when RKGK’s visuals really feel like they work in opposition to it.

Even when these minor points stop Rakugaki from absolutely filling the outlet in my coronary heart that the equally vibrant Hello-Fi Rush left, its unbelievable type and fast-paced platforming make it one of many 12 months’s finest hidden gems and a powerful entry into the style that exhibits that its coronary heart remains to be beating robust.