Prison City Review

Prison City is an independent action game with a retro style. Released on August 28, 2023 on Steam and recently on PlayStation, discover this retro platformer that will remind you of the NES.

Retroware's Prison City tells the story of a Detroit prison that has been taken over by techno-terrorists. The game is openly inspired by NES games and action films from the 80s and 90s. You play as Hal Bruzer, a former policeman, to enter Prison City and eliminate the enemies.

In relatively linear levels, you'll have to search all the areas to find the guardian's key so you can fight the bosses. It's easy to get lost in the levels, despite the presence of a small map.

The levels are relatively diversified, with several reappearance points for a quick return in the event of death.

The principle of the game is to progress by eliminating enemies. Your character will have a main weapon called Chakram, which can be aimed to fire in all directions. It will also be possible to collect upgrades to make your weapon more powerful. These upgrades come with the constraint of losing them if you're hit more than once. Although this controls the difficulty of the levels, you won't be able to run into the pile if you want to keep the upgrades.

Prison City is a game with a slightly difficult level design. Your character will have to squeeze through restricted openings and cling to any kind of structure, leaving you with a relatively high number of failures. Enemies will also have a tendency to attack you at the least obvious moment.

Some bosses also possess insolent strength compared to you, and you'll have to hang on to defeat them. On the other hand, you'll have a variety of boss types, and once you've acquired their attack patterns, you'll be able to take them out more easily.

In a nod to 90s games, Prison City also offers a few bonus levels that may remind you of what you'd find in Street Fighter or Ninja Turtles.

Graphically, the game once again puts retro gaming in the spotlight, retaining all the codes of the style. We can see the detail that has gone into the gameplay as well as the music, which totally respects the style.