Narita Boy Gameplay Preview – A dive into a zany computer world

Narita Boy is a very stylish explorative, narrative focused game with gorgeous pixel art. The general feel of the game is pretty similar to games like Hyper Light Drifter and Resolutiion.

Narita Boy is a bit hard to categorize as it doesn’t fit neatly into a single category. The game has segments where you are exploring the world and talking to characters to find out more about the world of Narita Boy. Narita Boy is a video game that has come to life and managed to connect to the real world somehow.

An ambitious overseer named HIM has managed to use this connection to erase the memories of the game’s creator, allowing him to manipulate the code of the game and take over both the digital and real world. The protectors of the game world have activated the Narita Boy protocol to summon a player from the real world to save theirs. This is where the game has similar vibes to Tron.

As you explore, you also run into enemies and the occasional boss fight. The game has a pretty responsive combat system with dodges, melee and ranged attacks, as well as charge attacks you can string together to form combos on the fly.

Interspersed between the exploration and combat sections are some pretty strange and outlandish narrative bits. You see a pregnant robot lady, and in another section you turn into a stag so you can pass through the digital forest, and so forth. All very odd yet cohesive in terms of style.

Overall, Narita Boy is a wonderfully strange jaunt into a cyber world filled with many oddities. The game’s art and style is incredible, as is the backing sound track. The game play itself is solid, although it can be easy to get lost navigating the levels. I would definitely recommend playing on a controller for PC players as the default keyboard keybindings are not optimal.