Revoltin’ Youth is a new puzzle/platformer from Open Emotion Studios. The evil Big-Wig has covered the characters town in crummy marketing gibberish. It’s up to you to control the three characters through 50 levels of headache inducing puzzles. The game feature a unique pixel-art style and a robust chiptune soundtrack including tracks from George&Jonathan, Sabrepulse and 8Bitlegend.

Playing the game for a bit I was instantly reminded of The Lost Vikings and wondered if that game had anything to do with how this game was created… and it turns out that WAS the inspiration for Revoltin’ Youth! Here’s what Open Emotion Studios said:

Revoltin’ Youth is a game that I have been wanting to make for about 6 years. As a kid, I had this great game for the SNES by Silicon & Synapse (Now Blizzard), which saw you control three vikings with unique abilities that you had to use to get through Puzzle/Platform levels. I loved it and played it so much that I actually still remember some of the passwords by heart – SMRT (Level 17, I think) – I always waited for someone to come out and do something similar. A couple of years ago I had the idea for a Lost Vikings style game about some Urban Youths (Heaviliy influenced by Jet Set Radio at the time) who have to stop an evil guy whose brainwashed all their friends. I left it at that as I was not involved in the game industry at the time, but when we were trying to figure out our next title after Ninjamurai, straight away I had this idea for a game called “Youth in Revolt” (Not to be confused with the movie/book of the same name…

First couple of levels are a minute or two long at most since, as minis have shown us, smaller burst of content that help spotlight all gameplay elements and let us get used to them and eradicate any questions we might have is definitely the way to go. We also get our first taste of the great 2D pixel art on which the game is built AND listen to some of the tracks from the Revoltin’ Youth Soundtrack. You can can listen to all music tracks in the Sound Test Menu and I have to say this is the first game in a while where I HAVE used said option. I just loved the great chiptune mixed soundtrack(already bought it on itunes!) and it helped make the game better.

Controls are very easy since you use the D-Pad to move around, X makes your character jump and Square is used to interact with objects and use your characters special ability (when available). I imagine we can all remember that layout, right?

You can control 3 characters in total and here’s a small summary of how they’re each different from one another:

Badger (spray can user): Can pick up different colors of spray cans which affects which “eye” switches he can trigger with it. For example, on level 3 he starts with a blue spray can which you use to trigger the first switch but then you need to get a yellow one and make your way back to the yellow switch to match on towards the exit. He has 4 HP, normal movement and jump attributes, can create a glider out of thin air when he gets to the right spot and can trigger the aforementioned Eye CE (get it?) Stations.

Cole (our tank): He can’t jump… he hops! He moves very, very slowly and can’t jump even if his life depended on it. Always lead with Cole when possible since he can quickly take out any enemies that might cause trouble for others thanks to his punch ability. He can also push around Barrels and Companion Cubes to help others reach higher or lower spots OR to trigger switches. Also remember that Cole is too heavy to be carried around by the wind from fans so he can just walk right past them to turn off said fans. Since he has 6 HP in total he can easily take some damage to protect his fellow team members.

Kamiko is fast so she can trigger spikes half a second after crossing over their trigger without being hurt (as long as she doesn’t stop moving). She can also jump extremely high AND climb the green netting you’ll find lying around some of the levels. Unfortunately, Kamiko has a very low HP total (only 2) so you have to be extra careful of not being damaged.

Characters don’t always start together so sometimes you have to work with each one on their respective part of the level so you can open up the way for all of them to come together and march to the exit. You can switch between characters with the L and R buttons and you have to juggle controlling all three since while leaving one of them unattended you run the risk of an enemy showing up to deplete their health bar if you’re not careful. Also, all characters must reach the Revoltin’ Youth sign at the end of the level to finish it.

You can go back to any level you’ve already completed to try and beat your completion time which is displayed below the level number on the selection screen. How low can you go? Give it a try and relieve your favorite levels!

Bottomless pits (or those that are Pro-bottom but that also insta-kill you) MUST be present on this type of game. Falling from a high place (about three times the height of your character) will kill you as well. Not as bad as Lode Runner but something you must keep in mind when trying to quickly make it to the end of the level. Luckily there are checkpoint signs in place in longer levels and touching them will bring back to life any of your fallen team mates. IF they touched the checkpoint sign then they’ll appear near it. Should that NOT be the case, then they’ll re-spawn in the exact same spot in which they started the level. Run into a red “mischevious face” sign (which you can see in the left of the header image for this review)? It means you shouldn’t go any further unless you want to fall to your death.

You can spot some Ninjamuai posters here and there. There are ones for Mad Blocker Alpha as well. Great to see Open Emotion Studios promoting their other minis releases, both of which we’ve reviewed here at PS3blog.net.

Revoltin’ Youth is a great game that helps validate the minis program as what we really want more of are new games that are exclusive to the service and allow us to experience a fun game that isn’t too expensive, time consuming or complicated. Buy it now!

[review pros=”Only $1.99!
2D Artwork and an Awesome Soundtrack
Lost Vikings!” cons=”Not enough enemy variety” score=81]

Published and Developed by Open Emotion Studios

Cost – $1.99

Disclaimer

– Total amount of time played: 3 hours.
– This review is based on a retail copy of the PSP version of Revoltin Youth provided by Open Emotion Studios.

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