Prison City Review (PlayStation 5)

by Jim Smale · November 21, 2023

For this Prison City Review, we play a dystopian, action-packed side-scroller with tight mechanics and intricate level design. Battle Techno-Terrorists with your chakram and grenades, eat hot dogs for health and locate contacts to help take down bosses.

Prison City Review Pros:

Beautiful 16-bit graphics.
356.4MB Download size.
27 trophies.
Own in-game trophies.
10 save slots with copy and delete options.
Four difficulties – Easy, modern, classic, and custom. Each has Pros and cons.
You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game.
Graphics settings – CRT and soft filters, display (stretched/pixel perfect), border art on/off, and button graphics.
Action platformer gameplay.
You can rebind the controls.
Optional tutorial level with optional advanced levels.
Chiptune soundtrack.
Armed with Chakarams, you can shoot them in 8 directions with button presses rather than angling the d-pad.
Supports using the d-pad and/or analog.
Goes for a style and absolutely nails it.
In-game cutscenes.
Solid responsive controls and movement.
Power up your weapons with pickups, once at max level 3 you can fire through walls.
Familiar controls for the genre.
Eight locations – rooftops, freeway, stadium, cold storage, sewers, power plant, factory, and preserve.
You get to pick where you go after each level.
Big boss encounters complete with on-screen health bars.
You can skip the cutscenes.
Each location has unique enemy types.
The map uncovers as you explore.
All levels have many routes and secrets.
Throwing your Chakarams causes them to heat up, filling them up will disable them temporarily.
The goal in each level is to find your informant and get the key for the exit.
Actions – slide, jump, ledge grabbing, and climbing fences and ladders.
Checkpoints can be found and used as respawn points.
Health bar with health pick-ups.
Shields can be collected to make you temporarily Invincible.
Awesome-looking enemies and obstacles.
Vehicle segments are really good fun.
Grenades are like a smart bomb and kill all enemies on the screen.
An excellent example of a modern retro game.
So much fun to play.
A must for Contra and retro fans alike.

Prison City Review Cons:

The grabbing-a-ledge system just feels awkward, it requires you to hold up as you hit the ledge or fence which is a pain when you’re trying to go down the screen.
At times the art style gets in the way and makes it hard to see what’s in play and what isn’t.
Enemies respawn as soon as they go out of sight.
A hard trophy list.
No Platinum trophy.
Little replay unless you are after all the trophies.

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