It feels a bit like Contra mixed with Ninja Gaiden or like a Contra ROM hack with Mega Man Zero-style short and long-range action. Turning unlimited ammo on changes the game from a short-ranged affair akin to Ninja Gaiden into a mix that includes long-range gunplay. Players don’t have to beat the game or kill a certain amount of enemies to unlock invincibility–all of this freedom is available from the get-go. Essentially, players have most of the benefits of a baked-in Game Genie-style device or modern-day emulator from the start.
From a simple menu with bold white text on a black background, users can choose to have unlimited ammo, a double jump for easier platforming, turn off respawning, and turn on invincibility. The sheer amount of customization options to increase the user-defined experience is impressive and something all retro-inspired game developers can learn from. However, the biggest thing they have done is make it the most accessible platformer I can recall.
Creaky Lantern Games has nailed a lot of little things to make Street Cleaner look and feel like an NES game, only one without any flicker or technical problems. After Batman, they replicated that kind of success with Batman: Return of the Joker, but few other licensed properties received a lot of care. In a sea of low-grade THQ and LJN-branded games, companies like Sunsoft at least aimed for the stars and reached the moon. The Contra series wore its ’80s influences proudly, while games like Batman showcased some of the best of what a licensed property could do with the right development team behind it. It was an era fueled by extremes, and both violence and muscles ruled the day along with some film archetypes that wound up bleeding into gaming. Inspired by a synthwave group called Street Cleaner, it has a pretty cool concept as the game is “inspired by” a fictional movie, which itself would be a takeoff of a slew of Arnold/Sylvester Stallone ’80s movies. There haven’t been many that truly feel like they could’ve been released in the NES days, but Street Cleaner: The Video Game is just that kind of adventure.
They’ve gone from retro-chic to old hat to being revived once again with games like Shovel Knight bringing back the art style with a level of detail not typically seen in that era. It’s often said that what’s old is new again, and we’ve seen a revival of 8-bit style games in the past decade and beyond.
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