I didn’t grow-up with Garbage Pail Kids. I used to be born in 1989, and the ultimate set of stickers in the course of the authentic 80s fad was set to launch that 12 months, however it bought cancelled. After wanting on the archives on the wonderful useful resource website GeePeeKay, yea, good name that was. I imply, Christ! That’s some sick shit in these playing cards. It appears like, by the top, Garbage Pail Kids turned extra about being mean-spirited, like they have been making an attempt to intentionally bait controversy as a result of that grew the franchise within the first place. Having mentioned that, I wasn’t unfamiliar with the model. When my Godfather’s son gave me his comedian guide assortment once I was six, the containers they got here in have been lined in GPK stickers. Plus Topps sometimes revived them for transient comebacks beginning within the 2000s. Hell, for some time, my LaserDisc amassing father had the god terrible Garbage Pail Kids film listed on his “treasure hunt” checklist of discs he hadn’t added to his assortment (in seems it by no means even launched on LD, possibly. There’s nonetheless debate on if it got here out in Japan, I believe). It’s a type of manufacturers that an outsider looking-in can’t imagine was as large because it was at its top. It was simply greater within the 80s than the fads of MY childhood like Tamagotchi or Furbies. I’m telling you, I’d have made a significantly better youngster of the 80s than I used to be as a 90s child. I imply, have you ever seen how shitty our Transformers regarded? And don’t even get me began on our Voltron!

MIND BLOWN!!

Of course, the one factor lacking from Garbage Pail Kids was a online game. 1984 was too late to finish up on the Atari 2600, and it by no means would have been on Colecovision for.. uh.. apparent causes. Nintendo would by no means have allowed the model on the NES as a result of they used to suppose bodily fluids have been the satan’s brew, and Sega didn’t get cool till 1991. Garbage Pail Kids simply had shitty timing throughout to transition to gaming, actually. And that’s why the actual story behind Retrotrainment’s Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum actually, no joke, introduced tears to my eyes. Because children of the 80s used to unfold rumors that they heard a Garbage Pail Kids sport was FOR SURE coming to the NES, even claiming they’d seen it listed in sport magazines. It by no means truly occurred, as a result of no such sport was ever in improvement. Since children knew it needed to be coming as a result of their pal mentioned their uncle labored at Nintendo and informed them it was occurring, they assumed Nintendo had put the screws to it. Retrotainment teamed with The Goldbergs author Adam F. Goldberg and Topps Trading Cards to make that mid-80s elementary faculty recess fantasy come true. They even created an elaborate meta story behind the sport that it WAS created, then cancelled and buried till the ROM was unearthed in 2022. The trailer for this was so convincing that my pal Ryan was open to the chance it was truly true. It’s completely prison this video solely has 11K views as of this writing. This simply didn’t discover its viewers, and that’s heartbreaking.

That’s why I hadn’t even heard of this new Garbage Pail Kids sport main as much as this week. Somehow, it simply didn’t unfold by way of social media. So, for many who don’t know, it is a 2022 NES sport you can truly pre-order now on cartridge. OR you should purchase it proper now for all trendy platforms, the place it performs on the identical wonderful NES emulator by Digital Eclipse utilized in collections like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Cowabunga Collection or SNK fortieth Anniversary. If you purchase this on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, or Steam, it comes with a boatload of extras. On the emulation aspect of issues, you get a fully-loaded “Infinity Gauntlet of Emulation” which is my time period for the six key “Gems” of emulation: save states, rewind, flicker elimination, display filters, button mapping, and a full tool-assisted play-through video that allows you to take management of the motion any time you need. Media extras embrace the soundtrack, two quick movies (together with the above trailer), idea artwork, and extra. My favourite characteristic was the side-by-side comparisons of the actual GPK playing cards and their in-game 8-bit counterparts (48 whole characters from the playing cards are used someplace within the sport). It was enjoyable seeing how shut the sport sprites got here to the actual playing cards, whereas others weren’t even within the ballpark.

And now I need a sequel greater than I need to dwell to be 60.

Of course, if the sport itself was no good, all these extras could be downright obnoxious. Which could be becoming for Garbage Pail Kids, after which I might crack jokes like “it belongs in the trash.” But alas, it’s top-of-the-line authentic NES video games of the homebrew period. Seriously, no joke, it is a phenomenal platformer. The meta idea of “lost 1986 – 88 licensed NES game” had me anxious. Let’s face it: most licensed video games on the NES from that period sucked, with uncommon exceptions like Goonies II or Capcom’s work on Disney properties. A developer aspiring to pay a mostly-accurate homage to each Garbage Pail Kids and 80s licensed video games might have turned in a barely playable LJN-like effort and mentioned “GET IT?” But, as a substitute, Retrotainment gave us a sport that feels genuinely true to the GPK license whereas additionally serving as a correct tribute to the most effective licensed 8-bit efforts from corporations like Konami and Capcom. Nice graphics. Really good play management. Feels like they weren’t simply caught with the model as a part of a money seize they usually’d fairly be doing the rest. No, it is a labor of affection, and you’re feeling it each single second of gameplay.

The humongous bosses characteristic some actually spectacular graphics. YES, you’ll be able to generally “see the seams” of how they’re actually not that large (this one right here is an efficient instance, the arms by no means transfer) however it feels so gosh-darn true to the time interval you can’t assist however be charmed. Most importantly, all six bosses are enjoyable.

You have 4 participant characters, six decently-sized ranges, six very enjoyable boss fights, and extras to gather. I’ll begin with the one and solely main grievance: Garbage Pail Kids is let down by very mediocre sound design. I’ve by no means been a sound or music individual, as I’ve authentic bodily points that muck up music for me. But simply the sound results alone actually take the punch out of GPK. It’s a extremely gentle, overly-conservative set of sound results that simply didn’t work for me, and in reality, it took away tremendously from the OOMPH of the fight. In eleven years of doing sport evaluations, I can depend on one hand the quantity of occasions sound results have been so poorly achieved that they stood out to me, and I’m not glad they occurred right here, as a result of most every part else is very nice.

Enemies comically fly off-screen if you kill them. That half works, however I simply hate how little pizzazz there may be to the sound results. This is a type of video games that I hope different builders research the place the entire sport is extremely enjoyable to the purpose that the weak sound actually stands proud like a sore thumb.

There’s additionally some inconsistencies with collision containers, particularly when utilizing the primary Mad Mike character. It’s by no means a deal breaker, and the collision points virtually universally favor the participant, however it additionally combines with the poor catalog of sound results (and I don’t suppose the music is excellent both, however once more, that I can’t declare experience in) to remove from the motion feeling prefer it has real-world weight, velocity, and inertia to it. Imagine for those who performed Super Mario 1 and also you went to cease a Goomba, and the stomp occurred with seen distance between you and it, AND that well-known Mario “WOO BOOP” sound if you do the stomp was as a substitute a subdued “pff.” I’ve at all times mentioned gameplay is king, however GPK is a main instance of how skimping on sound turns into distracting. In a sport pretty much as good as this, that one space being actually unhealthy stands proud like a sore thumb. Which might be a GPK card, come to think about it.

Garbage Pail Kids have been “Trading Card Stickers” and the “trading” half is labored into the sport with a reasonably good system. Each stage has a information character that you just’ll encounter all through the extent who affords you suggestions after which affords to commerce playing cards with you. There’s 39 playing cards whole to gather. 4 of them truly can be utilized for particular talents within the sport, essentially the most helpful of which brings a personality you’ve run out of well being with again to life. 35 of the playing cards are for adornment solely and might both be acquired through buying and selling or by discovering them randomly in rubbish cans positioned across the stage. When you commerce, every card is assigned a 1 – 10 worth, and it’s essential to commerce playing cards equal to the worth (or inside one level) to get a commerce to occur.

Now, let’s get to the nice stuff: if Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum had actually come out in 1988, it could be remembered as a legend of the NES period. The six ranges are all extremely enjoyable to discover, particularly so with how they designed the participant characters. You swap between the 4 on the fly with the SELECT button. Each of the 4 characters has distinctive talents, and three of the 4 are so completely different that they essentially change the sub-genre of the sport. Use Mad Mike and GPK appears like a 2D sword sport, one thing like Rastan or Wizards & Warriors the place it’s a must to assault enemies immediately (the bonus to that is he does essentially the most injury). Use Leaky Lindsey to primarily flip GPK right into a gun-based platformer like Mega Man or Contra as she fired snot projectiles at enemies. I used her essentially the most. Use Patty Putty and the gameplay feels actually completely different, as GPK turns into a Mario-like hop ‘n bop style game. The only of the four who feels like he’s not world-altering is Luke Puke, who can vomit out puddles that are efficient on enemies beneath you. I used him the least, BUT, I did discover loads of makes use of for him. The stage design feels prefer it’s well-suited for all 4 characters and has sections designed with particular characters in thoughts. It’s like a really gross, lower-budget Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, solely with simply as a lot vampires.

Hiroshi Yamauchi is doing backflips in his grave.

Each of the six ranges, which may be taken in any order (sorry, no finale stage or final boss), really feel fully distinctive from each-other and there’s not a stinker within the bunch. None actually stand-out, both. Garbage Pail Kids is that uncommon sport the place there’s no weak-links and loads of surprises. A stage themed round dinosaurs all of the sudden has a summer season camp space. A stage themed round hell all of the sudden has a cafeteria. The staff behind this actually stretched their imaginations on this one and created a blinding number of settings that you just need to see extra of. There’s a pleasant assortment of enemies, solely certainly one of which I used to be irritated by (a woman being struck by lightning, which brought on a display flashing. I don’t have seizures as badly as I used to however that stuff can nonetheless make me fairly sick). If I needed to complain, I want they did extra with finding buttons to open doorways, as I appreciated the exploration parts most of all. The sport additionally by no means strays from platforming, however given that may usually be disasters, that may have been the suitable name. There are two mini-games hidden in every stage, although they’re the identical form. Outhouses take you to a button mashing mini-game that I hated. I can’t mash buttons today. I even needed to have my Dad beat one for me. The higher mini-game is Buggy Betty’s. She’s hidden in each stage and affords a usable card for those who can full an electrical maze with out hitting the partitions in three tries or much less. There’s no bonus for amassing all of the playing cards, however I needed to anyway.

The controls for the fly lady mazes have been excellent, as was the collision detection. There have been some tight squeezes too, just like the one seen right here. Yet, it was by no means unfair. Side Note: Buggy Betty can be one of many 4 super-power playing cards within the sport. Pause the sport and activate her card and also you flip into her for ten seconds. There was just one part in the complete sport I wanted to make use of her, and one other the place I used Adam Bomb’s clear-all-the-enemies energy.

As of this writing, Garbage Pail Kids for the NES (and by advantage of emulation, all trendy consoles) is possibly the largest shock I’ve come throughout in years at Indie Gamer Chick. I’m surprised by how a lot I beloved my time with it (which was solely about two hours of whole playtime, possibly). I used to be NOT this sport’s audience. I’m NOT nostalgic for Garbage Pail Kids. I believe Garbage Pail Kids are silly and gross and I don’t get the enchantment in them in any respect. Transformers I get. G.I. Joe I get. Garbage Pail Kids? What the fuck, 80s children? So, being resistant to GPK memberberries, this needed to stand totally on its gameplay deserves. Boy, does it. It’s certainly one of 2022’s greatest video games, indie or in any other case. It’s a genuinely nice sport. Ignoring the sound design points, every part about this works. As I neared the top of the sport, I needed much more! I needed to maintain taking part in! My enthusiasm to see what got here subsequent by no means dipped even a bit of bit. The bosses, particularly, have been each enjoyable to battle and felt like superb rewards, like correct boss fights ought to really feel. With no a smidge of affection for the supply materials, I walked away from Garbage Pail Kids considering “you fucking heartless bastards better support this because I WANT MORE! I need a sequel and I need it like five minutes ago!”

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Garbage Pail Kids as an IP means nothing to me. BUT, it meant one thing to the individuals who got here collectively to make Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum. I’m at all times aware once I overview video games at IGC that whether or not I really like them or hate them, they may very effectively be one thing that the builders had in thoughts from the time they have been little children. My job right here is to play and overview these goals. But, it’s uncommon that the dream in query truly will get to make use of the precise dream license from the designer’s childhood. Usually, they must “file the serial number off” it and do their very own creation. This is a type of very uncommon cases the place the dream got here fully true: working with the license, and making the sport they at all times dreamed of. Imagine how onerous it could be to say THAT sport sucked. Thankfully, I’m off the hook. Garbage Pail Kids is a superb sport an elite indie developer, and top-of-the-line indies I’ve ever performed. It feels true to the license, true to the timeframe it was imagined to have been “lost” from, and most significantly, true to the dream. And it’s a dream come true. How are you able to not admire that? Plus, in making this sport, they turned a part of the franchise’s lore.. without end. If that doesn’t carry a tear to your eye, you don’t have any coronary heart. Hell, I guess they even made a GPK card of that, too.

Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum is Chick-Approved
Leaderboard Ranking: #16 of 305 Indie Games Reviewed*
Top 97.5 Percentile of All IGC Indie Reviews
Top 94.8 Percentile of All IGC-Approved Indie Games
*Rankings primarily based on time of publication. Check the Leaderboard for up to date standings.

Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike and the Quest for Stale Gum was developed by Retrotainment
Point of Sale: Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, NES Cart (Limited Edition)

$9.99 mentioned “there’s only one Cathy with a C card in the history of GPK? OH COME ON TOPPS YOU BUTTHOLES” within the making of this overview. I cannot stand for this discrimination of Cathys with Cs. Everyone is aware of the Kathy with a Ks are objectively terrible individuals!