As I continue to age wholly ungracefully into the unblinking and uncaring future, I often look back to my childhood for the games and sensations that filled me with joy and helped shape my interests. The SNES was definitely my cornerstone that made JRPGs my forever love, but the NES is where I laid the foundation for what made a game great. It’s easy to be swayed by stacks of pixels that vaguely look like an IP character, but, when there was something that popped or stood out in a big way, I would come back to it time and again. After spending time with Progmancer and Retroware’s 8-bit delight Prison City, I can say, unequivocally, this game would have been my go-to recommendation for anyone and everyone who ever picked up that painful, rectangular controller. Because, besides being visually on point, it’s genuinely a fantastic title.

I…what?

Quick, try to remember the broad strokes of the first Metal Gear title. Now think about a hub based level selection that Mega Man popularized. Add in some really gritty action and challenges that evoke Shatterhand and some level design that feels distinctly Castlevania. Before you top it all off, throw in as many homages to the action worlds of the 80s and 90s that you can fathom (Mad Max, Escape from New York) and just let them run wild. You are Hal, a former cop who is hired to deal with a bunch of dangerous, violent and uncontrollable entities that have taken control of Prison City Detroit. Scattered across the city, each has taken up residency in different districts and molded the land to fit around their identities. Everyone desperately wants to tell you what’s happening and why it’s important, but Hal doesn’t care: he’s just here to get paid.

Prison City is an action platformer that has a small amount of exploration and customization. Each stage, you need to discover the door to where the boss is and the key that unlocks the door. The key is held by some renegade who knows the truth and hints at deeper corruption within Detroit, which, again, Hal tries to ignore. The levels are peppered with enemies and traps, so you need to jump around, slide dash and take out everything you can with your dope chakram. Using your weapon depletes your stamina, forcing you to strategize in lieu of mashing the attack button repeatedly.  Each area also has one hidden “power up” that increases either your health or your weapon meter, so some level of exploration is necessary to become the best damn ex-cop-turned-mercenary you can be.

I must conquer this gauntlet of pain for the incredible hot dog plus.

Players who have a fondness for the NES and the era of gaming therein will find Prison City to be a mixed bag, and that’ll deeply affect your overall affinity for the game. On the one hand, the design is purposely leaning into a darker and dirtier portrayal than we might often associate with games of the era. Where things like Super Mario Bros. 3 used plenty of bright scenes to contrast with the darkness of the airships, Prison City exclusively lives in the shadier zones, giving the whole game a very morose, dystopian feel. It helps in crafting the atmosphere as well as letting the gaps in visual cues get filled in by the player. It’s a technique that not enough designers used back in the day, but has been embraced by modern designers to craft a larger space with fewer elements.

Personally, I adore the technique and think the game looks incredible. There was a lot of thought into making some different, unique spaces for all the various mobs, traps and boss enemies that make up the now totalitarian city of Detroit. There’s plenty of diversity in moving from the rooftops to the sewers, the sports arena to the actual freeway, and all of it has cohesion and smart portrayal of a world that’s gone mad. The lore based choice to empty Detroit, make it into a literal prison city and then have the Techno-Terrorists run wild is a great one that allows plenty of wholly bizarre identities to take shape. Why of course, the nature preserve in Detroit has now turned into a jungle of sorts, why would we question how there’s any justification for such a level?

You may have forgotten you’re in Detroit. Here is a subtle reminder.

Speaking of the levels, Prison City seems to have no issue in having a variable approach to exploration and reward. In trying to get the key and then unlock the door to the boss, the endeavor can range from a pretty thorough looping of the entire map to, in one particular case, getting the hell out without seeing over half the map. While most stages are far from free roam, there’s a shocking amount of versatility in how you move above and discover things, and this can lead to a pretty straightforward “in and out” styling. Despite the hidden powerups, there aren’t any additional weapons to find, so you aren’t cheating yourself out of anything by ignoring the powerups that exist. Frankly, it might save you some headache when the game really starts punishing you later on.

Prison City is undeniably hard, and that’s both by design and by happenstance. Enemy spawns happen as soon as they appear on the screen, and that also applies for respawning. If you know the exact point an enemy pops up, be sure not to scroll back onto that pixel because the enemy will reappear again. When you have limited stamina to keep throwing the chakram and the refill being plenty fast but not always fast enough, you can find yourself under assault and just trying to recharge more often than not. You really don’t want to burn through your limited number of lives any faster than absolutely possible, so playing defensively as well as offensively is very important.

Hal, as you can tell, is always camera ready.

Additionally, exploration itself is challenging due to the nature of the button choice. There seemed to be times where climbing or accessing a higher area involved both pressing up and the jump button even if I had just jumped, and that was utterly confusing in terms of natural muscle response. Moreover, it didn’t even feel like this happened every time, which then led to me getting to my desired spot and immediately letting go. I was working with what I thought were the expected button inputs per what the training taught me, and I was still befuddled by trying to hook onto building ledges once every five times. This doesn’t seem like much, but, when it happens time after time, it can get frustrating.

Having said that, I then had a blast with Prison City once I swapped to easy difficulty (and there’s also custom difficulty if you want to just have the smoothest ride in the world). There was still a lot of work to be done to make sure I was hitting everything and not getting hit, but healing items dropped more frequently and my stamina held significantly longer. I gave myself time to explore and appreciate all the details and jokes that went into the game, from the talking dolphin that delivers you the keycard to the clear Immortan Joe boss that shows up on the freeway. There’s so much nuance that went into appreciating the crazy machismo of years gone by without leaning into overly toxic traits that spawned from this era.

Though choosing for the bonus game to mimic the infamous TMNT underwater bomb scenario was a choice.

Plus, even with the easy difficulty, the bosses are wonderfully hard. You need to discover patterns, adjust timing, and be ready to fail again and again in order to make it right. While the name of the game is still “hit them till they die,” you need to take your butcher’s position with a bit of grace in order for it to be successful. Or don’t: there are at least two boss fights where we both got in the final hit at the same time, and I was named the victor and got the “Stage Clear” notification. Who cares about your health and well being in times like this? Certainly not Hal: he’s a retired cop who went into a literal penal colony where Detroit used to be. Why not just, I don’t know, stay retired and do something else?

While this doesn’t have as long of a tail as Infernax and other great modern NES inspired games, Prison City is a damn fun time with a solid soundtrack, excellent graphics and some truly fun gameplay. Developers who show what’s possible to pull off with the designs of old have a special place in my heart, and I really had a blast as the game got more and more bananas. There’s a great time to be held whether you’re slowly trudging through or actively trying to speedrun, and anyone who grew up loving Commando and Heavy Barrel will have a blast.

Prison City is available now on Steam, GOG, itch.io, Epic, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Prison City was provided by the publisher.