Are you rad enough to outrun the law and carjack the ’80s? Then power-up your POWER-UPS, because you’re about to go on a RETRO CITY RAMPAGE!

Retro City Rampage is finally coming to Europe on PlayStation this Wednesday after its legendary (and lengthy) development. I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience. Your wait was not without merit, and you’ll be enjoying the best possible game from day one. It boasts an additional month of development, polish and improvements since the original North American release, which has dominated the charts; sitting at #1 on PS Vita downloads since it was released.

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As I announced in the last blog post, Retro City Rampage is coming to PS3 and PS Vita! But wait, I have even more great news…

Last week in Toronto, we held an amazing event called PlayStation <3 Canada to promote and support Canadian indie game developers. In attendance were us here at Vblank Entertainment, Drinkbox Studios (Tales From Space: About a Blob), Queasy Games (Sound Shapes), ][ Games (Dyad) and more. It was a blast! For me, the highlight was finally giving fans a chance to see and play the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage for the first time. I’ve been going on for a while about how amazing it looks on the PS Vita, and now you can see what it looks like for yourself.

While the PS Vita version of Retro City Rampage boasts everything that its PS3 counterpart does, I had fun making a few tweaks to tailor the experience to the handheld. While the PS3 version supports tube TV simulation filters which curve the screen and add scanlines (allowing you to play on an LCD TV with the feel of an old CRT), the PS Vita version supports classic dot-matrix simulation filters giving it a heavy dose of Game Boy/Game Gear nostalgia. I absolutely love it and it’s my filter of choice when playing the game. If the LCD grid simulation alone isn’t retro enough for you, you can also change the colour mode. The colour modes let you make Retro City Rampage even more retro with options such as “Brick Handheld” (yellow-green monochrome) and “Virtual Burn” (all red), “Blurst Processor,” “SEE=64,” “PC DOS EGA” and a dozen more (also available in the PS3 version).

Those of you who are worried that the characters might be too small on the PS Vita screen needn’t be! It supports two screen modes. The standard mode designed specifically for the PS Vita scales everything up and ensures that the characters and everything else are easy to see. Alternatively, the second mode uses smaller pixels but displays the entire 16:9 widescreen image and supports the TV/arcade screen borders of the PS3 counterpart, so it’s entirely up to you.

The PS Vita’s touchscreen also adds a nice…touch. RCR is a love letter to the days of the d-pad, for core gamers who grew up with controllers and buttons – but that doesn’t mean that the touchscreen can’t be used where it makes sense. It really makes the menus, minigames and shops faster and more convenient to navigate, going hand in hand with RCR’s overall design philosophy, which is to emit nostalgia while still catering to our evolved expectations of games. This extends from the added touchscreen functionality to the game design and tutorials. For example, you won’t need to flip through a manual or call a tips hotline to figure out what to do. But if you’re an absolute purist, you can still play the game 100% with the buttons.

I’m willing to bet that if you have a PS Vita, you also have a PS3. Well, you’re going to be exceptionally excited to hear about just how good friends the PS3 and PS Vita versions are. If you’re like me, you want the best of both worlds. You want to be able to play your favourite games on your nice TV from the sofa, but still take them with you everywhere you go. With Retro City Rampage, your dreams have come true! It supports continuous play so you can play the game on your sofa, save it, and continue where you left off from your PS Vita (and vice versa).

One question you’re going to ask is “WHEN!?” I don’t have a fixed release date just yet, but it’ll be out as soon as possible. I’m fixing the final bugs and working around the clock to get it into your hands as soon as I can. Keep your eyes peeled here on the PlayStation.Blog!

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Let’s get right to it — Retro City Rampage is coming to PS3 and PS Vita! I couldn’t be more excited to finally share the news. For those not familiar with RCR, it’s an over the top open-world crime game that combines everything you loved in classic games and mashes them up into a “toon town” of nostalgia and parody. Steal cars, and then jump on pedestrians for big shiny coins. Collect power-ups and outrun the law while rampaging the city, shooting a light gun or swinging your bionic arm.

Fans of Grand Theft Auto will feel right at home with RCR, but the missions extend far beyond driving and shooting. They fuse classic gaming and modern mechanics to span virtually every genre, from stealth to platforming, adventure, rhythm and more—there are even underwater levels. What I’m most proud of is that everything flows together using the same mechanics and visuals. Even missions inspired by ’80s coin-op games seamlessly take place in the open-world. (more…)

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