Retronika, currently in its early access phase, presents itself as a distinctly exciting yet uneven gaming experience. Designed by the Netherlands-based 4Players-Studio, it’s not burdened with inherently poor design, but it’s crying out for some major balance tweaks and fine-tuning before it can reach its full potential and earn a solid recommendation.
The game initially captures you with an intriguing trailer and concept—an engaging VR escapade where you’re in command of a hoverbike, akin to a real motorbike but with the added thrill of flight. You’re an alien, attempting to return home after being sucked through a wormhole into a future dominated by flying cars. The premise alone is enough to fuel excitement, and launching the game maintains that anticipation.
The developers have smartly approached Retronika’s complexity by easing players into the controls. With a real motorbike feel but in mid-air, you use virtual handlebars to maneuver. Push forward to accelerate and pull back to brake. Handling the handlebars with one hand limits your movements horizontally, while using both hands allows for full vertical navigation, letting you dodge flying cars deftly. Initially, you’re confined to horizontal steering until you acclimate before full vertical freedom is allowed, with weapons only introduced once you’re comfortable.
The game equips you with guns which automatically attach to whichever hand isn’t controlling the bike, letting you shoot at enemy drones trying to thwart your mission. The gameplay relies on clearing linear challenges where you navigate through a 3×3 grid filled with flying cars and either destroy drones or beat a time limit to the finish line.
Visually, Retronika is striking. It offers a cel-shaded cityscape filled with life, beyond your immediate racing track, giving a depth that draws you in. You witness bustling streets from a distance, trains zipping by, and skyscrapers piercing the clouds as you race through initial levels, free to enjoy the sights and hone your skills.
However, this immersive joy quickly morphs into frustration. Each level pits you against not only enemy drones that sap your health but also against the crowded racing grid. Your health bar diminishes for any wrong move—be it collisions, bullet misfiring, or veering off the grid where rapid health depletion ensues. Surviving these challenges often costs you half your health, even if you manage to scrape through a narrow save.
The density of cars in your path often feels excessive, forcing you into the only available space left like navigating rush hour traffic. Yet, without warning, cars abruptly veer into you, adding damage and jeopardizing your progress.
Enemy drones are a bigger menace. These attack from behind, firing instantaneously and almost always hit even before you’re ready, while your own return fire falls short in both speed and strength. Often, stopping the bike completely is your only escape for an accurate shot, leaving you defenseless against incoming traffic or bullets.
Faced with multiple drones, brace yourself to lose significant health; stronger drones may be insurmountable, decided more by luck than skill. Levels tend to be lengthy, and failures require full restarts, making retries laborious and discouraging after several demoralizing defeats.
While you theoretically have the option to upgrade your bike and weapons for a better shot at success, these upgrades—purchased with in-game currency—are disappointingly ineffective. Improvements rarely make significant changes unless stacked, and areas like health and defense seem overlooked. The costly upgrades make achieving necessary boosts through normal progression nearly impossible, trapping you in a grind that quickly saps enjoyment and feels laborious.
Retronika currently flaunts strong fundamentals—with responsive controls, an enticing visual environment, and plenty of missions and weapon diversity. But it stumbles on balance, affecting everything from NPC behavior to drone accuracy, and crucially, a defense system to keep it engaging rather than punishing. Difficulty options are a start but aren’t enough on their own. Without balance changes, playing becomes tedious, especially beyond the first ten missions.
The hope lies in the potential of updates, but with the end of early access looming and no significant adjustments on the horizon, improvements remain uncertain. What Retronika needs isn’t an overhaul but significant balance fixes to unveil the fun nestled within. Sadly, for a game holding such promise, it currently fails to deliver the fulfilling adventure of piloting a hoverbike through a vibrant city. And that’s genuinely unfortunate.
