“Onwards and upwards. Ka-ching.”

May 8, 2019 11:09 AM

Shakedown: Hawaii [YouTube][Game Trailer] “Designer Brian Provinciano’s spiritual successor to 2012’s Retro City Rampage, Shakedown: Hawaii is out today on PS4, Switch, and Vita, and it’s bigger and prettier than its predecessor in almost every way. Its 16-bit sprites flutter in the pixelated winds that blow across its sprawling island, which is several times the size of Rampage’s map. The faded backgrounds and grimy streets of the original have been replaced with electric pinks and balmy palm trees, making the carnage you still leave in your wake feel more like the residue of a gonzo vacation than a Bonnie and Clyde death pact.” [via: Kotaku]

• Shakedown: Hawaii - crime and capitalism in a sunny open world [Eurogamer]

“Moment to moment, it's a breezy action game built around murder and capitalism. Cars are plentiful and easy to handle, weapons range from the basic to the baroque, the odd run-and-jump section mixes nicely with kill-everyone-and-get-out-of-there stuff and you can even shoot from your car if the mood grabs you, which it will, because of murder and capitalism. As an open-world, Hawaii has range and scale if not much in the way of monuments. The top-down pixel-art provides lovely chunky detailing, though, and regular trips to distant jungles and rivers and mines halt the creep of boredom. It's diverting stuff, and generous with side missions and challenges and all of that jazz. When it's done, it fades from the memory pretty quickly, and, rather than a criticism, I suspect that might be the point of it really. This is drive-thru nihilism with a patina of satire to make the whole thing sing a little more.”

• Shakedown: Hawaii Review - I want the world, I want the whole world! [Nintendo Life]

“As a game that ridicules the worst of consumerism, Shakedown: Hawaii adopts one of the most reviled aspects of modern gaming: a Ubisoft-style checklist style of completion. There are 81 properties to shakedown, all of which come down to performing one of six different activities: eliminate gang members, scare away customers, cut off someone’s hair, escape from an underground jail, steal a shipment or drive away with the shop owner on the hood of your car. Since the shakedowns are placed in large clusters on the game’s map, you’ll most likely be tackling them in groups at a time, highlighting the repetitious nature of the signature mechanic. In between shakedowns and story missions, you’ll pop into your map and purchase a few properties. Maybe you’ll save up for an expensive building and dump all of your money into upgrading that – it’ll make a good bonus for your daily revenue. Within Hawaii, there are hundreds of buildings to buy, each with thirteen upgrades that you’ll have to manually apply. It’s mindless repetition: the monotonous moments of repeatedly pressing down and “A” on each and every property to purchase its upgrades is far from fun.”

• Shakedown Hawaii: Another Rampage [Destructoid]

“I think what I dig most about Shakedown is the relaxed emphasis on doing whatever you want. Based on how many business you shake down (or retail/investment properties you acquire) you'll net an income, which kind of just pops up periodically on-screen as a bonus. At that point you can keep blowing stuff up, go tackle a story mission, or buy another property in a few seconds by bringing up the world map and selecting it. Other Crazy Taxi-style minigames pop up, like "destroy the [basically Amazon Prime] delivery truck" or "repossess cars whose owners are overdue on their payments." A typical AAA studio move would be to force all of these things to move at a snail's pace; requiring players to manually go to the building to purchase it amid lengthy load times. But with Shakedown you just casually select it from a menu and start raking in cash, then resume your regularly scheduled activities like using a machinegun during a speedboat chase. This is probably the only game where you can hijack cars on the search for the next big superfood to market to hapless consumers through sponsored advertising. Plus, my immediate thought after scaling up my business was "man now I can pay myself a bigger salary!" So I'd say they nailed it.”

posted by Fizz (4 comments total)

Yeah it definitely comes from the GTA school of game-play and it's very turn off your brain and maybe your morals too. It's a violent shoot-em-up, so I get why it might not be for every one.
posted by Fizz at 5:49 PM on May 8, 2019

“Launching Shakedown Hawaii with Brian Provinciano — Electric Playground Interview” — Electric Playground Live!, 08 May 2019
posted by ob1quixote at 10:01 PM on May 8, 2019

this looks rad! thanks for letting me know about it.
posted by wibari at 10:40 PM on May 8, 2019

I want it too, kalessin! I'm trying so hard to not buy another game right now while I'm obsessing over Cuphead...which, let's be honest, is going to take me like a year to beat. At least.
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:00 AM on May 9, 2019