Evil Man Industries is enslaving everyone in the city and turning them into mindless zombies! It’s up to three youths to revolt and save the day. Help these three young heroes work together to overcome obstacles in this downloadable 2-D action-puzzler platformer PS Minis game you can play on PS3 and PSP.

Hey old school gamers, do you remember a 16-bit game called The Lost Vikings? It was a classic 2-D game where you guided three Vikings, each with different skills, to the end of a stage, trying to keep them all alive to the end of the level. Well, Revoltin’ Youth is a LOT like that. Switch between the three different characters and use their unique abilities to progress through dozens of levels, defeat enemies, and make it to the end of the stage with all three teens intact.

Badger (I think that’s his name) looks like a Jet Set Radio reject, and has average jumping and movement. He’s the only one who can use spray paint cans, which can do a variety of things. Spray enemies to stun them temporarily, or paint certain poster pictures to activate his hang glider to reach far off areas. Collect different colored spray paint to activate switches of the same color.

Cole is the muscle of the group. He’s super slow and can hardly jump, but he’s so heavy that gusts of wind from blowing fans won’t affect him much at all. Cole can take the most hits from bad guys, though, and is strong enough to push barrels and blocks, and defeat enemies by punching them.

Purple-haired Kimiko is the quickster of the bunch. She can run so fast that floor spikes don’t even hurt her, and she can jump the highest, too. She can even climb certain walls. But she can only take a couple of hits, so keep her away from strong enemies. All three characters can use keycards and flip switches to bypass obstacles.

Revoltin’ Youth has a retro-themed feel about it that makes it look graphically like a TG-16 or early Sega Genesis title. The soundtrack is pretty peppy, too. The game is a little rough around the edges, though. Controls are a little clunky sometimes, and if one character dies, you can continue to play with the other characters, but you won’t pass the level. This can be a little annoying since you have to manually pause the game and restart the stage. Characters will die if they fall too far, but your field of vision is so limited that it’s hard to tell if a pit is safe or not to jump into. A zoom feature or something that would allow you to scroll around the level would’ve solved that problem. But even though the game could use a bit more polish, it’s one of the best PS Minis I’ve ever played. So if you can overlook the rough spots, it might be worth the download.

Kid Factor:

Revoltin’ Youth is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence. You can spray paint and punch enemies, but they only disappear in a puff of smoke when defeated. When your characters get hit, they just fall off the screen. Reading skill is helpful for the instructions, but not entirely necessary as you’ll figure things out just by playing. The game promotes logical thinking, but younger gamers might get frustrated at the difficulty and slow controls.

Tags: Game Reviews