Super Rad Raygun is a Retraux Platform Game by TRUFUN Entertainmnet and Screwattack Games done in the style of a Gameboy game and released for PC through Steam on November 8, 2016. The game starts you off as a robot named Rad who is assigned by protect the President to go to Russia during the Cold War and end communism. In the first level Rad must protect the White House from an onslaught of Communist Invaders. After the first stage, the player gets to a world map where they can select whatever level they want, all while having to collect items to upgrade themselves and get more powerful.
Simply defeating enemies allows the player to collect Bits, the in-game currency that can be used to upgrade items in game. The items can give Rad new powerups, increased health, or simply just upgrade his basic blaster, and all of it is governed by an energy meter that has to recharge. There is also a system of collectible batteries to power up basic abilities. The energy meter recharges by standing still, which is good because even moving can drop it, and losing energy will leave you vulnerable. The batteries can also be used to decide what powers you take into each stage when you choose a stage.
All of that strategic fun is wrapped up in an old-school game with plenty of references to old-school games of the time.
Tropes present in this game:
- 1-Up: Mini Rad figures act in this manner.
- Alternate History: One where a sapient bear named Medved note managed receive a doctorate in the USSR and engineer enormous robotic armies, then send them out to invade America.
- Blackout Basement: Some levels can be very dark, which is where Rad's Backlight stat comes in handy.
- Charged Attack: One of the available skills is the charged version of the basic shot.
- Collision Damage: Played straight, much like in the titles that inspired it.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Averted at the Volcano Core level, where ambient heat will in fact damage Rad and destroy him very quickly, unless the player had invested into his Protective Case stat first.
- Cyborg: Rad is actually only able to do anything because he's been accidentally fused with Dr. Yokoi's assistant.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: The fate of every enemy and boss.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The game generally uses the greenscale monochrome graphics, though on some levels it shifts to bluescale or just black-and-white.
- Double Jump: Present, though it'll consume some of Rad's energy meter when activated.
- Gratuitous Russian: There are propaganda posters with CCCP, the face of the game's bear antagonist...and an obvious Google Translate-generated version of "Keep calm and carry on", "Сохраняйте спокойствие и вести", which actually means "Keep calm and news."
- Meta Multiplayer: There are online leaderboards ranking all the players on how they go through the levels.
- No Communities Were Harmed: Averted. Every location is a real city, country landmark, from NYC, Berlin or Gdansk, to Tripoli, Bhopal or Mount St. Helena.
- Ray Gun: Rad's signature weapon.
- Respawning Enemies: Enemies will aggressively respawn throughout the levels.
- RPG Elements: You can upgrade Rad's Blaster, Max HP, Battery, Agility, Protective Case, and Backlight stats by collecting battery packs and bringing them back to Dr. Y's lab in order to attach them.
- Shout-Out: Rad is essentially a Game Boy with limbs attached to it.
- The basic Soviet robots are simply Goombas, but with ushankas.
- Sprint Meter: Rad has an energy meter that is consumed when he double-jumps or does moves like a ground slide. It can only be recharged when he's immobile, and running out leaves him massively vulnerable to damage.
- Super Drowning Skills: Rad doesn't drown, but he does slowly lose health in water, unless his Protective Core had been upgraded beforehand.
