Summary
For all the science fiction tropes played out in video games, flying cars have gone highly underutilized. That’s why I was pumped to try outRetronika, a Meta Quest 3 game recently released out of early access that lets you live your sky highway fantasies.
If you’ve playedFrogger(and I’m willing to bet you have), you know that crossing the busy road feels like the most emotionally treacherous part of the frog’s journey. The titular amphibian is defenseless against the onslaught of wheels threatening to inadvertently squash him.
Now, take that moment and put yourself directly in Frogger’s webbed-foot-accommodating shoes. You’ve gotta imagine the green fellow ain’t so mellow about his predicament and would love a way to retaliate. He dreams of the day when he turns against the oncoming traffic and weaves his way above, below, and around the menacing cars. Oh, and he has a gun.
Swap out Frogger for a space biker and the road for a space highway, and you getRetronika.
Retronika
A video game for VR headsets where you ride a hoverbike through space traffic at high speeds while shooting drones.
Yet what makesRetronikasuch a treat isn’t just its twist on an instantly familiar concept, but its clever execution built around a unique hoverbike control scheme. Pulling and pushing the handlebars to move vertically feels like learning to drive again at first, but once you start to grasp it, you’ll be swerving through heavy traffic like it’s easy. If you like figuring out new machines, this is a real treat with a dopamine-fueled payoff akin toa Disney World ride you control.
Things get even wilder when you add in the gunplay. Learning to aim at enemies with one hand as you steer with the other is a multitasking nightmare until it clicks, and then you’re blasting drones on the go like it’s nothing. Even the most similar VR games, which operate explicitly on a horizontal plane, can’t quite match this feeling of mastering a new skill.
Even whenRetronikais at its worst—namely the baked-in currency grinding to upgrade your hoverbike and unlock new weapons—I couldn’t help but be enthralled by building up my space driving proficiency.
Why Visual Design Is Critical
Something many VR games suffer from is a lack of visual identity. The platform incentivizesaping popular titles or attempting realism, something developers often chase in lieu of art direction rather than alongside it.Retronikastands out for not falling into these trappings.
Beyond being a beauty to the eyes, the game’s cel-shaded style is a perfect fit for the Meta Quest 3, as the bold colors and intentionally flat textures shine through any technical limitations. This also serves the game design when the action is at its most frenetic, making it easy to visualize enemies or find narrow pathways through a sea of cars.Retronikacould’ve easily been a frustrating mess if it didn’t nail all this through smart aesthetic choices.
The hoverbike’s design is also spectacular. This analog hog is stacked with meters and radars that aren’t any different from the tech you’d find today, grounding it in realism. The unusual control mechanism to maneuver it in 3D space is a lot easier to grasp when the bike feels otherwise familiar. It also doubles as adiegeticuser interface, which is never not cool. Add in the visual customization features for the hoverbike, and you’ve got one of the most compelling video game vehicles I’ve piloted in a long, long time.
So, Where’sFrogger?
At this point in writing this article, I realized I should see if there was aFroggergame for VR I was unaware of. What I found instead wasMetal Frog Solid: Road to Revenge. With a name like that, you know you’re in for… something. But what I didn’t expect was for it to be nearly identical to the Frogger revenge story I made up as a vehicle to explainRetronika.Only, this one is better since it gives the frog a tongue whip that tosses cars around.
I had to try it, and it was indeed the pure mayhem I hoped for. The robot tongue whipping is janky mayhem, thehadoukensand hand grenades are bombastic, and the frog’s wisecracks are jubilantly unhinged. It’s not a particularly great game, but this developer knew exactly what they were doing and succeeded at putting a smile on my face. A smile of revenge, that is.
Is it worth your $7.99? If that price is worth a few dozen minutes of ridiculous mecha-frog antics, then sure, why not. You should at the very leastwatch the trailer on the developer’s website, which is a whole experience in and of itself.
There’s Also a Cyberpunk Version
If you’re looking for the most analogous game toRetronika,RUNNERis your best bet. It’s essentially the motorcycle combat minigame fromFinal Fantasy VII Remakein a cyberpunk setting, with more mechanics and weaponry. If you want to know how close a comparison I’m making, you even have a blade that sends out slice-shaped projectile attacks. I didn’t say Cyber Buster Sword, did you?
There’s a free trial, so it’s a good way to see if a game ofRetronika’silk is for you. Plus, the opening “cutscene” is pretty dang cool.
Check out How-To Geek’s Meta Questing series for spotlights on the latest Meta Quest 3 and VR games. In the last entry, I took a look at anew martial arts game styled after PlayStation 1 graphics and Kung Fu movies.
Meta Quest 3
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