Review: Regular Show: Mordecai and Rigby in 8-Bit Land

Regular Show: Mordecai & Rigby in 8-bit Land is the very first video game based on the hit Cartoon Network TV Show. Mordecai and Rigby are trapped inside a video game and must travel through the pixilated land of 8-bit to find their way out. This hijinx-filled adventure is packed with platforming, space shooting, and old-school top down video game mania, and comes fully loaded with tons of Regular Show characters and jokes.

Pros:

• Excellent graphics that not only capture the characters from the TV show perfectly, But with the 8 bit angle added in, The atmosphere is defiantly that of a retro game.
• Animations again are true to the show and look fantastic.
• Original cast member voices are in there which keep its authenticity.
• Controls are simple and easy to learn.
• 3D is subtle and looks great in the platform levels.
• You can swap between characters at any time but each character have their own set of skills. Mordecai can change in to a ship for example whilst Rigby can get into smaller areas.
• The game is split up into 3 different genres. The core game is a 2D platformer which then branches off to a 2D scroller like R-Type, Thirdly it switches to a top down shooter. The mix of different genres really help the game to maintain a fresh feel.
• You collect golden VHS tapes and money through the level. You can earn more money by killing enemies.
• At the end of levels you can spend your in game cash or play coins on the mini game. The game consists of putting money on one of the 4 lanes. Each lane will lead to a item or a black hole. The coin will follow the lane, switching over if the lanes are connected.
• Big boss battles await you and figuring out how to kill them is simple enough.
• Collect power ups throughout the game to make you stronger, ship shoot more bullets etc.
• In theory you get infinite lives as, Once all lives are gone you can continue and carry on.
• The level select screen is the same l;ayout you would expect to see from a Mario game. You can replay old levels and the bottom screen will tell you if you have all the golden tapes on a particular level.

Cons:

• The game is difficult a lot of the time, Even more so if you are not used to side scroller shooters. Its even old school in the way that if you hit an enemy wrong, even by a pixel then its game over!
• The game itself is relatively short and you feel that the game just gets going when it suddenly ends.
• Checkpoints are only in the middle of the level, So dying before or after them will lose not only a life, But all collected money and tapes and reset you back to the beginning.
• You feel that sometimes the scrolling aspect of the shooting sections in particular, Is slow and tight. You may struggle to see what is coming.

In Summary, Its a solid game and younger players will love how much like the TV show it is, Whilst adults will appreciate just how true to 8 bit games it is. All these years of hand holding in games will come back to bite you. Here you must channel the inner child gamer you once were and again unleash the dragon. The game is short but to be honest its so much fun that kids will be more than happy to play through it again and again. Adults on the other hand may see this as a retro de make of Dark Souls, With your only crowning achievement being that you invented new swear words as the game bests you time and time again. Either way it is worth checking out.