Retro City Rampage lets you know up front that this game is all about revisiting games/cartoons/movies from the 80's. The fact that it plays the first Grand Theft Auto is really only half true since the game is constantly changing up the gameplay style to better fit the game it is referencing. Whether it is playing a Paperboy like stage or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles water levels you will always be seeing a slight variation on what could have just been a generic GTA clone. The over the top narrative gives you a reason to keep playing just to see the next crazy level.
Going into this game without knowing about the period of time it is pulling from doesn't seem like a good idea. Also the side challenges are really boring since they are all just kill so many things within a time limit missions. Which then comes down to the fact that the standard gameplay in this game is kinda boring. But like I mentioned before half the time the game is mixing it up enough to keep it interesting. Overall this game does a great job of poking fun at and referencing the era the developer grew up in. If that sounds like a good time to you then check this game out.