Shakedown Hawaii

Shakedown Hawaii one-ups Retro City Rampage in almost every way, and is most certainly a must-play on the Nintendo Switch.

Shakedown: Hawaii is one-part GTA and one-part capitalism simulator. Yet this combination provides an interesting power trip that also manages to act as a somewhat successful critique of the woes of contemporary business practices.

Excellent GTA-style 2D action adventure game totally recreated in a 16 bit "look and feel". Fun main missions, absolutely crazy minigames and arcade sections and awesome chiptune music.

Overall, there's enough charm here in Shakedown: Hawaii to wring out a number of hours of enjoyment. [Issue #40 – July/August 2019, p. 28]

A worthy successor to the Retro City Rampage, this is a 16-bit pack full of action and explosions that destroy even the fourth wall and jump right into your heart. If you loved GTA and the 16-bit era, you will love this game.

Shakedown: Hawaii brings forth a fun, well-humoured and visually satisfying 16-bit inspired world to a game that despite its good intentions, does not fully tick all the necessary boxes to achieve its entire potential. Mostly because the game feels like it ends too quickly, even though there is still plenty to do but the overall feeling of repetitiveness and a certain lack of challenge make it less compelling and involving than it could be. All that said, this is still a good effort that will keep players enjoyed.

VBlank Entertainment’s second GTA parody isn’t the close-to-perfect sequel we expected, but it’s still a decent game. Despite all of its numerous shortcomings, there’s still some fun to be had when you’re not toiling through menus, but it's hard not be disappointed when you consider VBlank's previous work; hopefully, like Retro City Rampage, we’ll see a better DX version in the future. As it stands, Shakedown: Hawaii is full of potential, but it’s overshadowed by monotony.

Good retro style game but with living open world,good sarcasm,dark humor,many possibilities,I see no glitches after hours playing and story that can catch you up. Even some repetitiveness in missions I dont find it annoying. You can also choose from many graphics spectrums to change world looks little bit. Buying some buildings have effect on world....Something should be better like cops system and building possibilities inside but nothing can make me angry in this game. Really worth it.

A nice game but a little too much basic. Too easy as well. A little repetitive and the story is way too short. You will have fun with this game but is feels like it could have been so much better. The gameplay is actually very good and fun.

Really fun game that doesn’t take itself to seriously. Visuals are very clean looking and 16-bit adds a nostalgic touch to it. Gameplay is very easy which makes for a relaxing play through. Customization is very limited and doesn’t save to your character/vehicle at times. Offers a in-game currency that allows you to invest in companies/buildings but the linear story basically spoon feeds it to the player.

I was a little disappointed with this game, it's not bad but it looks a little underdeveloped. I thought it was like a 90's GTA, but it's not. Moving around in a car and the protagonist swimming kinda turned me off from this game. An interesting proposition but it could have been better.

Honestly, this one is a bit of a dud for me and I'm surprised. It seems like a pretty big game, but it all feels shallow to an extreme extent. Essentially you have a mediocre twin stick shooter piled onto a GTA clone. There are lots of new features from RCR, such as the entire economic side. Sadly, a few hours in, you'll have literal hundreds of millions of dollars and money won't matter anymore, yet your billionaire will continue to murder hapless rubes to get another 150 dollars out of a convenience store. Where the game is really let down is in the writing, which is extremely hack. The main character is the out of touch old guy who kills people. His playable son is the poser teenager who acts like a jerk at all times. Neither is interesting. Nor are the low hanging fruit jokes about video rentals, streaming, food labels or any other joke that has been done by a standup in the last 20 years with more success. For a game with so many cut scenes, you would think they'd be worth while, but they are not. This isn't to say there isn't fun to be had. Its still a GTA clone and that is amusing. But I expected a lot more. And I got a lot more, its just that the more isn't terribly good.