Yet another retro-styled title is making its way to major platforms this year! Shakedown Hawaii, developed by Vblank Entertainment, is a unique blend of gaming genres: empire building and open world. From the makers of another similarly styled game, Retro City Rampage DX, Vblank is taking their entertaining and exaggerated action to the tropical islands of Hawaii. The overall goal is to build a “legitimate” (heavy on the quotes) corporation from the ground up through accomplishing certain open world tasks. This can range from paying to have areas re-zoned, attacking competitors and their goods, purchasing other businesses, giving out threats to shops for protection money, and completing a variety of missions. The most recent trailer from Vblank gives an action-packed overview of what’s to come:
The entire island of Hawaii can be taken over by the player’s sketchy business and its violent practices. Parodying real-life big business entities, Shakedown Hawaii implements some of the most insane methods to have a profiting empire. Players will be at the helm of the corporations and will utilize “questionable subsidiaries, misleading ads, fine print, hidden service fees, and marketing spin” to accomplish goals in a somewhat over-the-top political fashion.
For all other scenarios, players will have to call in the big guns to take down enemies and the competition. The gameplay that has been revealed so far for the indie thriller shows off machine guns, a vast array of explosives, and flamethrowers. All throughout the action will be cut scenes that relay what the next steps of the business operations should be or who is causing you problems, like rival, tropical gangs.
Shakedown Hawaii is on its way to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PC on May 7. It will be sold primarily in digital for the PS Vita platform as it is being limited to 4,800 units.