Venture Kid

Venture Kid is the sort of game that understands how blatantly it borrows from previous genre luminaries yet makes no effort at even attempting to surpass them; this is very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ sort of experience.

For short, nostalgic blasts of fun Venture Kid succeeds in almost every respect. While there's fun to be had here, it's painfully clear that, just like playing the game itself, everything is just going through the motions.

The intentions of Venture Kid are obvious – to pay tribute to the NES shooters of yore, Mega Man in particular. Via the level design and sound track, the game does this admirably. Unfortunately, at only 6 or so hours long, with bosses that are vanquished easily and with additional weapons divorced from the level design themselves, Venture Kid is a shade of the game it attempts to emulate, resigning it to an “also ran” in a genre that is seeing genuine innovation elsewhere.

Due to its style and a healthy dose of that "good old nostalgia" Venture Kid feels at times like it is perfect for the Switch. Made by fans for fans it's a game that will likely appeal to those who enjoy the retro action platforming genre. Unfortunately, tight controls and extra modes aside, you're mostly left feeling that this game is lacking that something truly special.

It only took me about an hour and a half to finish Classic mode on normal, then another half-hour to get the other secret items and finish the final stage. That doesn’t sound like much, but there’s enough to do in Venture Kid that I played through it a couple times and went through Survival mode too. Also, there’s next to no downtime in this game; it’s almost constant action, and it just feels good to clear a room of spike pits or avoid flame jets and the like. It’s a pleasant retro-styled experience, one worth the $10 price tag if you’re planning to do all there is to do. Whether a veteran of the genre or just getting into it, there’s room for both to enjoy this.

The title of Snikkabo and FDG manages to revive, in a veiled way, a classic long ago given for lost and it does so in an honest and respectful way, looking for the fun of the player with a simple and direct game.

EXCELLENT - Venture Kid is a true retro gem for the Nintendo Switch. Fans of the NES Mega Man games and lovers of 8-bit chiptunes will find a ton to like here. Why aren’t you playing this yet?

If you are looking for a stroll down Mega Man-memory lane, Venture Kid offers a solid nostalgia trip down the side streets of the genre's general neighborhood. Platforming feels tuned to the best examples of the era. Taking heavy influence from classic NES titles, Venture Kid captures the 8-bit age with pitch perfection, even if it misses the mark in other places.

All in all, Venture Kid is a retro platformer that plays fairly well, but lacks the excitement or inspiration of the Mega Man series it tried to model. With such a wide spectrum of games in this genre that push the limits of what an action-platformer is capable of, something so vanilla is going to get lost and overlooked. Unless this is the first such game you've ever played, you've likely seen everything offered here somewhere else.

If you're satisfied with a basic Mega Man style 2D retro throwback then you can definitely have some fun with Venture Kid.