Hi-Fi Rush was one of th🎉e biggest and best surprises💖 of 2023, launching out of nowhere and stealing my heart with its earnest characters, stunning visuals, and excellent 3D character action. Its uncynical and arguably old-fashioned approach to delivering a focused single-player campaign stood out in an age of battle passes and microtransactions, which made it an easy choice for my Game o💝f the Year.
I bring up my unending love of Hi-Fi Rush in this preview of a completely different game because, after only an hour with RKGK, it&rsqu💞o;s giving me the exact same vibes. As the world’s number one Chai fan (we like to call ourselves Chai-hards), that is some of the highest praise I can give.
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From the moment that Invaders Must Die starts blastin𒉰g, Hi-Fi Rush becomes an all-timer.
, RKGK is the first game to come from Mexico City indie studio Wabisabi Games in partnership with Gearbox Publishing and Riot Games' Underrepresented Founders program. While the initial reveal trailer was CG and didn’t show any actual gameplay, its vibes and style still stood out to me.
The name RKGK comes from the Japanese word &ldquo🌄;rakugaki”, which refers to doodles and s𒁃ketches.
Colourful World, Colourful Characters
You play as Valah, a young graffiti artist/ member of RKGK who is using her skills to bring colour back to a world that has been rid of free thought. To do this, Valah must make her way th🦋rough Cap City and bring life back to its populace through the power of art and self-expression.
I only got to play through three levels as part of my preview (the full game will have around 30) and didn’t experience too much of the story and characters, but what I did see was encouraging. Valah’s interactions with the RKGK crew are charming and full 🍬of character, but there are also hints of deeper themes like what it means to make your passion your purpose that I’m interested to see expanded on
It's too early to tell if I’ll fall in love with Valah and her robotic companion AYO as much as I did with Chai and 808 just yet, but they do help exemplify what I love most about RKGK - its eye-popping art style. I’ve always been a fan of graffiti and urban art (despite lacking the skill to do it myself, believe me, I’ve tried) and have loved how they’ve been presented in games like Jet Set Radio and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, but RKGK is on another level.
One of the key inspirations behind RKGK🐠’s art style is anime like Dragon Ball Z, which makes me even more suspi🦂cious that it was made just for me.
Graffiti Saves The Day
The graffiti designs are stunningly creative and a joy to see come to life, which is exactly how graffiti should make you feel. Some of them are even animated and have moving parts like a lucky cat that waves its paw in front of an explosively colourful background. I usually don’t look twice at gaming graffiti since it’s very rarely done justice, but I took every opportunity I could to stop and smell the spray painted roses in RKGK. I’ve only scratched the surface after playing three levels, but it already understands the art form better than an𓂃y other game I’ve ever played.
RKGK’s stunning visuals aren’t just eye candy either, they also tie directly into the moment-to-moment gameplay. The main objective of each level is to collect s🐈pray paint cans dotted around that are then used to graffiti over the screens that are brainwashing Cap City.
Valah’s basic platforming skills, which include jumping, sliding, and dashing through the air, are all satisfying to use, but they’re all brought together in inventive ways that use her spray paint cans. Not only can they be used for quick melee attacks that take out little robots in your way, but they also allow you to hover over platforms and surf♔ along the ground, leaving a vibrant path in your wake that made me nostalgic for Splatoon’s ink-roller.
Jet Set Radio Meets Sonic The Hedgehog
As Valah moves through levels and successfully covers up screens with graffiti, she’ll add to a meter that activates Defacer Mode. Beyond giving her a rainbow paint trail that gorgeously covers everything around her, it lets Valah move even faster while surfing. Defacer Mode is only active until you get hit, which turns levels into time-trial-esque challenges that reward you for never stopping. It's a little bit like the lovechild of Jet Set Radio and Sonic Adventure.
Sorry for making you picture that.
It takes a little time to get used to the tight platforming and high movement speed, but once you do, it’s a joy to blaze through levels while trying to find every collectible and tag evꦑery screen. Each level also has a number of optional objectives like trying to get the best score or avoid being hit, which pushed me to master RKGK’s mechanics and added a lot of replay value to my brief time ꧋in the preview.
My only concern with RKGK so far is that it’s a bit on the easy side. Enemies don’t pose much of a threat and Valah’s fast pace in Defacer Mode (whicꦜh is also very easy to activate and keep going) made speeding through levels a breeze. The one boss battle I got to fight also ꦍdidn’t give me a hard time, so I hope there are some greater challenges in the final game.
I might have only spent an hour with Rakugaki, but its incredible art style and fast-paced gameplay left such a strong impression that it’s quickly become one of my most anticipated games of 2024. I won’t have long to wait until I see if it can stick the landing as, just like Hi-Fi Rush (that’s the last time I mention Chai, I promise), it’s launching very soon after its reveal on May 22. I'll be counting down the days until I return to Cap City.
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