Narita Boy is part video game project, part idle day dream. Even its creator isnt entirely sure what it will become. But the art and energy behind it is undeniable. Like a long forgotten NES cart buried in your grandparents basement, Narita Boy insinuates itself in the imagination like a memory of something that never happened.
The game follows a dimension hopping warrior sporting a techno sword whos tasked with saving the digital kingdom from certain doom. Currently four people working on the game, including Eduardo Fornieles, its creator, and the founder of Studio Koba. Previously of Friends and Foe where he worked as a visual and conceptional developer on Vane, Fornieles left to try and bring his own vision to life. I started to feverishly create the Narita Boy universe as it appears in the 200 drawings I hooked on the wall, he said, referencing a wall in his office filled with illustrations located in a Spanish village. The desk in his office is filled with post-its and memos that attempt to contain the games sprawl as it unravels in his mind.
The project is something of a collage of childhood influences at this point, ranging from action figures and cartoons to classic video games and 80s cinema. He-man action figures were my favorite toys and Double Dragon was my first game on an arcade machine, said Fornieles. I became obsessed with Metroid and Castlevania on the NES. The delicious and strange universe of Another world also inspired me. And then theres the grainy, warbly aesthetic of VHS and movies displayed on hulking tubular CRT televisions.
GIF
The strange magic transmitted by the analogic films of the 80s with their astonishing visuals, synth music and stories full of innocence and imagination are a key part of Narita Boy, he said. In isolation these scraps of disparate media might form a familiar pastiche, but Fornieles hopes to bring a new alchemy to bear in the hopes of relaying an experience with an identify of its own,
Narita Boy was born from the need to transmit the strange universe and the nostalgic feeling that I had in my childhood. The idea was to create something metaphysical and poetic, to combine the subtlety and beauty of Japan with postmodernism and western culture. It is once again the story of the path of the warrior and at the same time an effort to transcend the plot towards something more referential. Parody is a key factor as well as the rich and complex plot that gives the game the right to be itself and not only a nostalgic journey to the 80s.
Japan, where Fornieles worked for several years and also met his wife, looms large in the background of the games influences. He calls Tokyo the the Digital Kingdom, a huge capital with monoliths and lights everywhere. He was surrounded by high rises and from his terrace at night Fornieles felt like he was living inside scene from one of Katsuhiro Otomos Akira cityscapes. Massive rectangles of concrete shining like fireflies in a silent lake, he said. Juxtapose this with the village in Castle and Leon, Spain where Fornieles now lives and is working on the game, and the inspiration for Narita Boys larger expanses and desolate geography feels acute.
We are from Barcelona but after returning from Tokyo my wife and I settled in the village of my family, in Castile and Leon, where all my ancestors come from, he said. The energy in the village is wonderful and is boosting our creativity. He believes the tranquility and calmness village life affords is key to building out his vision of the games world of cyberpunk nostalgia. The contrast it cuts throws also appears in the way the game shifts between these two types of spaces. On the one hand, theres Blade Runners dense hot Los Angeles, and on the other, Fornieles said, The country side is the void, the meditation, the exploration parts of Narita Boy when he cross a big and almost empty land.
So what does cyberpunk mean to him? The term gets thrown around a lot, especially in video games, as short hand for a certain look or sound, and in a way thats all thats really left of it. The future imagined in most cyberpunk stories has already been replaced by the recent past. Hacking, digital surveillance, and the growth of corporate influence are all common tropes at this point bordering on banal.
To escape those cliches, Fornieles tries to stay abstract. For me, cyberpunk is the first paragraph from Neuromancer, Tetsuo about to explode, hundreds of air con between old buildings in Tokyo where wires remember human hair in the morning, the skyline of Odaiwa from my terrace in Tokyo at night and Ghost in the Shell... Hes similarly vague when it comes to how old media and outdated technology are realized in the games particular style. Retro is the taste for the nostalgia. The past rebooted by the new trends. The retro to me brings the impression of distant and obsolete futures, he said.
GIF
In terms of the game itself as people will play it, this means a hack and slash action with exploration in the vein of a Metroidvania-style side-scroller. At least for now. The project is in its infancy and still full of unknowns. In Narita Boy everything is about an experience, said Fornieles. An ironic and artistic experience where image, code and music dances together.
For all of his metaphors, Fornieless concrete memory of the Double Dragon machine he used to play at an arcade near his grandparents in a summer town along the Catalan coast seemed to capture his aspirations for Narita Boy the best. When I asked if the arcade cabinet was still there and he played it since, Fornieles turned wistful. The cabinet is not there anymore, he said. It would be awesome, right? I remember stealing 25 cents from my aunt to play the game. And I still remember the smell of frankfurts, tobacco and the insert coin message flickering on the screen.
Those same flickers are half of Narita Boys appeal. The games trailers depict a game filtered through old technology, like scratchy MP3s trying to imitate vinyl on a turntable. The field of view is even curved, as if the game itself is something being re-discovered rather than newly created. Its also reminiscent of the first line of Neuromancer cited by Fornieles.
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. Narita Boys ambition seems to be making that dead channel playable again. The game is currently planned for release in December of 2018.
Originally posted here:
Narita Boy Is A Cyberpunk Game Inspired By TV Scanlines - Kotaku - Kotaku
- Cities Skylines 2 goes full Cyberpunk 2077 in stunning new city building game coming to Steam - PCGamesN - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Player Finds Hidden Message in the Game - GameRant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Dystopika is a chill city-builder where you can create the cyberpunk cityscape of your dreams - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Make the Night City of your dreams with this cyberpunk city sandbox builder - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Metallic Rouge is a cyberpunk mystery worth unraveling - Polygon - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk devs promise new patch to sort out most common remaining issues - ReadWrite - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- New Cyberpunk 2077 Patch Inbound; Will Fix Finisher Animations and More Reported Issues - Wccftech - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Hidden Cyberpunk 2077 Detail May Reveal The Location Of Cyberpunk 2 (Orion) - Screen Rant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Ruiner devs reportedly lay off over half of studio behind cyberpunk shooter - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel is in the "conceptual phase," but might ramp up production this year as its devs consider ... - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 publisher giving away one of gaming's most controversial titles free - GAMINGbible - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Has Huge Weekend, Sells 5 Million and Overtakes Cyberpunk 2077 in Steams Most-Played Games List - IGN - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- CD Projekt Red Is "Considering" Multiplayer In Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel - TheGamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld beats Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 with an all-time peak player count of more than 1.8 million - PC Gamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 collides with Assassin's Creed in slick new action game - GAMINGbible - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- CD Projekt latest: next Cyberpunk game might have multiplayer, Witcher 4 enters "production phase" - Rock Paper Shotgun - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Witcher 4 could enter production this year, multiplayer being considered for Cyberpunk 2 | VGC - Video Games Chronicle - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel May Feature Multiplayer, as The Witcher 4 Set to Enter Production | XboxAchievements.com - XboxAchievements - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Turbo Overkill is like a Cyberpunk Doom, and it's coming to Xbox - TrueAchievements - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel: everything we know about the sci-fi game - Evening Standard - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Gamesradar - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Yahoo! Voices - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- The reality of a cyberpunk universe in the real world - Verdict - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 sequel could have multiplayer - Project Orion - Gamereactor - Gamereactor UK - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Passes Impressive Steam Concurrent Player Milestone, Beats Cyberpunk and Elden Ring - GameRant - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Follow-up to The Witcher 3 will be in development this year - ReadWrite - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Former Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk Devs are Developing a New Game that Could Be Better than Both - FandomWire - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld Beats CS2, Dota 2, and Cyberpunk 2077 to Become the Second Most-Played Game on Steam - Beebom - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- The Witcher 4 Could Enter Production This Year - TheGamer - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Palworld becomes only the sixth Steam game to reach one million concurrent players, beating Cyberpunk 2077 in the ... - Yahoo Entertainment - January 27th, 2024 [January 27th, 2024]
- Cyberpunk 2077 collides with GTA 6 in upcoming game you'll want to keep an eye on - GAMINGbible - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Black Friday 2023: Grab Some of Our Favorite Cyberpunk and Witcher Merch - IGN - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Is the Cheapest It's Ever Been - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition For Xbox And PlayStation Have One Huge Difference - Screen Rant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 story lead casually reveals players haven't found his favorite Easter eggs, so "I won ... - Gamesradar - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- The Best Games To Play on Steam Deck OLED From 'HiFi Rush' and 'Cyberpunk 2077' to 'Street Fighter 6' and 'Dave ... - Touch Arcade - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 story lead "won't talk about" his favourite Easter eggs until players find them - VG247 - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- How To Complete Forward To Death Quest In Cyberpunk 2077 - TheGamer - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get Inside The Riot Club - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get the Warden - GameRant - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- You can finally romance the hot French netrunner from Cyberpunk ... - VG247 - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Northland man's custom cyberpunk car to be released as Hot ... - 1News - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Here's Austin Powers Being A Huge Nuisance In Cyberpunk 2077 - Kotaku Australia - November 26th, 2023 [November 26th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 finally has 'very positive' rating on Steam, 2 years later - GAMINGbible - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Why Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Being the Only DLC is For the Best - GameRant - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077: Things You Never Knew About Johnny Silverhand - GameRant - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- Bringing A Baofeng Into The Cyberpunk 2077 Universe - Hackaday - July 19th, 2023 [July 19th, 2023]
- What is Cyberpunk Genre Definition, Origins & Examples - StudioBinder - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 review | TechRadar - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- More Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC News Coming In June - GameSpot - March 31st, 2023 [March 31st, 2023]
- Cyberpunk 2077 DLC Phantom Liberty gets release window, first trailer ... - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]
- Utah band Spirit Machines beats out 7,800 others to have song featured in video game Cyberpunk 2077 - ABC4.com - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- Nvidia's RTX And DLSS3 Cyberpunk Support Demonstrate Why These Features Are The Future Of Gaming - Forbes - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- How to hack the Cyberpunk 2077 Militech Datashard - pcgamer - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- The Last Of Us Updates, An Award For Cyberpunk 2077 And More Gaming News For Wednesday, January 4 - Forbes - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Why Playing Cyberpunk 2077 As A Melee Character Is The Most Fun You Can Have With It - Kotaku Australia - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Win NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 GPU with Cyberpunk 2077 backplate! - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- The best Cyberpunk 2077 mods | PC Gamer - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Best Of 2022: Cyberpunk 2077's Redemption Arc Is A Breathtaking Return To Form For CD ... - Latest Tweet by - LatestLY - December 28th, 2022 [December 28th, 2022]
- Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, and Plenty of Other Hit Games Will Soon Be Able to Play in ... - Latest Tweet - LatestLY - December 18th, 2022 [December 18th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077's First Big DLC Stars Idris Elba - Kotaku - December 12th, 2022 [December 12th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Core Team Moving to Boston to Start Work on Sequel - Latest Tweet by GameSpot - LatestLY - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Hits 90% Positive Reviews On Steam For The First Time - Forbes - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Tips To Break Hearts, Romance Everyone After All The Updates - Kotaku - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 is a revelation with Nvidia's new DLSS 3.0 technology - VG247 - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 is a Strand game with this courier mod - Gamesradar - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Happy Together walkthrough guide: How to complete the side job and more - Sportskeeda - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Has the world finally forgiven Cyberpunk 2077? - Gamesradar - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077: How To Get $200,000+ Right At The Start Of The Game | Corpo Life Path Trick - Gameranx - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- BLIND GUARDIAN Streams Cyberpunk-Inspired Video For "Life Beyond The Spheres" - Metal Injection - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077 Johnny Silverhand Items Locations Guide - RespawnFirst - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Shares of Cyberpunk 2077 publisher surge after announcing a slew of new games - CNBC - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- 'Cyberpunk 2077' Re-Review: Two Years Later, What's Changed? - Forbes - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Cyberpunk 2077's revival continues as it becomes one of the most popular games on Steam Deck - Eurogamer.net - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Want to play Cyberpunk, Ghost Runner through a set-top box? Heres how 5G will help - Business Today - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- How to Read Shards in Cyberpunk 2077 - Attack of the Fanboy - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Where to Find Nibbles the Cat in Cyberpunk 2077? - Attack of the Fanboy - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Destiny 2: Lightfall is cyberpunk battle when it launches in February - The Verge - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Tower Of Fantasy Will Receive New Land & Character Soon - Bleeding Cool News - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]
- Turn-Based Cyberpunk RPG 'Jack Move' Will Boot Up On Switch Next Month - Nintendo Life - August 29th, 2022 [August 29th, 2022]