Long-awaited Retro City Rampage follow-up Shakedown: Hawaii gets a new trailer
And a bit of a development update.
Developer Vblank Entertainment has released a new teaser trailer showcasing its long-awaited retro-styled open-world adventure Shakedown: Hawaii - alongside a brief update on its development.
Shakedown: Hawaii, the follow-up to Vblank's 8-bit-inspired Retro City Rampage, brings back its predecessor's protagonist (albeit now a big-shot CEO, and 30 years older) and once against sets players rampaging through the gloriously 2D city streets - this time to build their corporate empire and destroy the competition.
This is done, says Vblank, by completing missions, and through "property acquisition, shakedowns, sabotage, market manipulation and collateral 're-zoning'". The new trailer below offers an updated look at the ensuing carnage. And speedboats!
Shakedown: Hawaii's action unfolds across a dense, lovingly detailed open-world city that runs from the downtown streets to the suburbs, with beaches, farms, parks and even jungle to explore - the whole thing is said to be four times the size of Retro City Rampage.
There's an obvious visual upgrade too, with the game eschewing its predecessor's lo-fi 8-bit aesthetic in favour of something closer to the look of 16-bit-era games. Shakedown: Hawaii's gameplay isn't constrained by its inspiration, however, and includes an ambitious feature list, such as completely destructible scenery, more fitting of a modern sandbox experience.
When Shakedown: Hawaii appeared during a Nintendo Direct last February, it had an anticipated release date of April 2017. That has obviously passed. In a new development update on its website, however, Vblank says that the game is now "finally almost content-complete". This, explained Vblank, means that "nearly all of the story missions are in, and the business acquisition metagame is fully functional".
Vblank is now focussed on polishing, tuning, bug fixing, and playtesting the experience. "There's still a lot of playtesting to do, so it's not quite around the corner just yet," noted the developer, "but it does mean the end is in sight." Another trailer, due later this month, will offer a proper "in-depth overview of the game".
Shakedown: Hawaii is due to arrive on Switch, 3DS, PlayStation 4, Vita, and PC - and while no specific release date has been given since its original delay, its Steam page currently has the game down to launch some time in 2018.