''Saturday Morning RPG'' is a

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

video game, created by

developer Developer may refer to: Computers *Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications *Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games *Web deve ...

Mighty Rabbit Studios Mighty Rabbit Studios, Inc. is an American independent video game developer based in Cary, North Carolina. History Mighty Rabbit Studio was founded by Josh Fairhurst and Nicholas Allen. They first met in 2005 while attending Wake Technical C ...

. The game was first released for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

in April 2012. It has been released on PC, Mac, and Linux through

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. It is also available on

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to p ...

, and was a launch title for the system. In the game, players control Marty, an average high school student who gains an extraordinary power through a magical notebook that resembles a

Trapper Keeper Trapper Keeper is a brand of loose-leaf binder created by Mead. Popular with students in the United States and parts of Latin America from the 1970s to the 1990s, it featured sliding plastic rings (instead of standard snap-closed metal binder ring ...

. This power allows him to use everyday objects in battle against the evil forces of the HOOD. As players advance through the game, they will discover new battle objects and new foes to fight. Mighty Rabbit Studios has supported ''Saturday Morning RPG'' with updates since its release in 2012 - adding two new episodes: To Bot or Not to Bot (Episode 3) and Ho Ho HOOD (Episode 4). The game is steeped in

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

nostalgia (mainly of the

Saturday-morning cartoon "Saturday-morning cartoon" is a colloquial term for the original animated series programming that was typically scheduled on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the United States on the "Big Three" television networks. The genre's popularity had a br ...

variety) - many of the enemies and battle objects draw directly from the pop culture of the time.

Vince DiCola Vincent Louis "Vince" DiCola (born November 11, 1957) is an American composer, keyboardist and arranger. He has composed scores for films such as '' Staying Alive'', ''Rocky IV'', and '' The Transformers: The Movie''. DiCola also pioneered the u ...

and his composing partner Kenny Meriedeth provided the game's soundtrack, with a guest appearance by

Stemage Grant Henry (born April 3, 1979), better known by his stage name Stemage, is an American guitarist and composer. He is known for his video game and television soundtracks, including Cartoon Network's animated series ''Steven Universe''. He is al ...

. On January 15, 2018, it was announced that the game would be coming to

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

in Spring 2018.

Gameplay

''Saturday Morning RPG'' fits into the

Japanese role-playing game While the early history and distinctive traits of role-playing video games (RPGs) in East Asia come Video games in Japan, from Japan, many have also been Video games in South Korea, developed in South Korea and Video games in China, in China. ...

subgenre of

video games. In the game, players control the main character, Marty, and navigate an open world occasionally triggering battles with enemies. Battles in the game deviate from the standard Japanese role-playing game systems by giving the player some degree of active control during battles. Some attacks require additional inputs to power up and all enemy attacks can be blocked with a well-timed button press. While not in battle, players can discover new items to use in fights, partake in a number of side quests, and earn experience by exploring the environments. Players can also discover power enhancing

Scratch and sniff Scratch and sniff technology generally refers to stickers or paperboard items that have been treated with a fragrant coating. When scratched, the coating releases an odor that is normally related to the image displayed under the coating. The tec ...

stickers in the world that can be attached to their notebook. These stickers must be scratched at the beginning of battle to unleash their effects. ''Saturday Morning RPG''s story is structured in an episodic fashion, much like the

s it draws inspiration from. Episodes can be played and replayed in any order, and any player stats or items earned can be transferred between episodes. There are currently five episodes of ''Saturday Morning RPG''.

Development

''Saturday Morning RPG'' began development in 2010 during the inaugural session of Joystick Labs, a video game developer incubator. Development continued for nearly two years until its release in 2012 on iOS. Two years later on January 29, 2014 - the game was released on

. A fifth episode of the game is currently in development, and the developers have announced plans to release the game on the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

. A physical disc release of the game for the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

was announced to be released on January 29, 2016 available through

' online store

Limited Run Games Limited Run Games, Inc. is an American video game distributor based in Apex, North Carolina. The company specializes in the release of digital games on physical media, with the games being sold on their website. The company, founded by Douglas ...

, which specializes in physical releases of indie games for Sony platforms. The physical version is limited to 1980 copies on PlayStation 4 and 2500 copies on PlayStation Vita.

Release

''Saturday Morning RPG'' was initially released for iOS on April 5, 2012. On January 29, 2016, the game was released on physical copy for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in limited supply. 1,980 copies of the PlayStation 4 version and 2,500 copies of the PlayStation Vita version were printed. They were sold and distributed through the website of Limited Run Games. The game came to

digitally and physically through Limited Run Games in Spring 2018.

Reception

The iOS version of ''Saturday Morning RPG'' has generally received mixed to positive reviews from review sites and game publications. Damien McFerran of

Pocket Gamer ''Pocket Gamer'' is a video game website that focuses on mobile, portable and handheld games. The site launched in 2005 and is published and owned by UK company Steel Media Ltd. The site covers all major portable and mobile gaming formats, incl ...

gave the game a 9 out of 10 stating that the game was an "homage to '80s pop culture and a legitimately entertaining role-playing title to boot, ''Saturday Morning RPG'' is as unique as it is enjoyable.". Lower review scores criticized the game's difficulty - David Oxford of Slidetoplay stated that "even if you like ''Saturday Morning RPG''s style, the battles can be really tough and drawn out". Slidetoplay issued an update to their review stating that

had addressed many of their concerns with the first update of ''Saturday Morning RPG''. Reviews for the game's PC version have generally been more positive than reviews for the iOS version, with ZTDG giving the game a 9 out of 10 and an editor's choice award.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://saturdaymorningrpg.com 2012 video games Android (operating system) games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Mighty Rabbit Studios games Nintendo Switch games Ouya games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation Vita games Role-playing video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Grant Henry Windows games Xbox One games