Shakedown: Hawaii Reviews
Shakedown: Hawaii has a lot to do and see, and maybe even more to say.
Hawaii Shakedown is one of the prime examples of open world dynamics with retro art style. If you missed old school GTA games, you should definitely try this game.
Review in Turkish | Read full review
Shakedown: Hawaii offers a wonderful cavalcade of carnage down in paradise, where making money is king. The place is inviting, but may lose its appeal for some after the jokes and violence get old.
Shakedown: Hawaii is better than Retro City Rampage in just about every way, but they find a way to compliment each other. The game’s biggest strength is not relying on references, even though I miss them. The story is very guided by being very hand-holdy. I wish you were given more creative latitude, but that’s where the free roam and arcade modes come into play. With a styling akin to a Super Nintendo or Genesis console, Shakedown: Hawaii looks and plays amazing. It’s being ported to literally everything, and no matter where you play it: you absolutely should.
Shakedown: Hawaii combines a fun top-down GTA world with a business sim to good effect; and although the game falls flat towards the end, my time on the island was a blast.
Though it suffers from some repetitiveness, Shakedown Hawaii is nonetheless a blast to play through thanks to its fun gameplay and great humor.
I didn’t hate a single minute of my time with Shakedown: Hawaii; in fact, I rather enjoyed almost all of it. The game retails for $19.99, which is a fair price if you are a fan of the genre. Vblank took a pass on the creative storytelling to bring ultimately satisfying and responsive gameplay, and mowing over pedestrians in a hijacked vehicle while shooting an automatic rifle out the window and using a flamethrower to wreak havoc in a trailer park feels (in the most non-psychotic way possible) as fulfilling as you can imagine.
Shakedown Hawaii was absolutely worth the long wait it took to get here. From superb score attack challenges, a good story mode and just a bunch of stuff to do and fun to be had, Shakedown Hawaii ended up feeling just a bit better than the original RCR thanks to a bit more focus.
After the successful Retro City Rampage, Shakedown: Hawaii takes the things to a new level. The game not only features a even better cast of characters, 16-bit graphics and some great mechanics, but also a pretty funny script even is the main character is a POS. The game also works great on PS Vita.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Shakedown: Hawaii delivers a unique brand of humor and some solid arcade action in a world players will love to destroy and then build back up with their own brand plastered right on it.
There’s no doubt that if you’re looking for a pretty mindless sandbox where you can enjoy blowing things up, getting into gunfights, and generally being a menace Shakedown: Hawaii provides you with ample opportunities for just that...
I'm not mad at Shakedown: Hawaii, just disappointed. Vblank demonstrated a deep understanding of mechanics-based story cohesion in its last release, but that seems to be forgotten here. The disconnect between plot and play in Shakedown leave both shallow and underwhelming.
Shakedown Hawaii gets you into a business trip around a 16-bit world that sometimes leaves much to be desired.
A bittersweet sucesor to an indie classic. Shakedown: Hawaii is a fun game that pokes fun at capitalism and unethical business practices that, in the end, falls flat.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Apart from the slight foibles I’ve mentioned, however, Shakedown: Hawaii is a solid experience, full of fun segments and a ton of laughs.
Shakedown Hawaii one-ups Retro City Rampage in almost every way, and is most certainly a must-play on the Nintendo Switch. Heck, it's a must-play on every system, because Vblank made sure to put it on just about everything. If you like things that are fun, you're not going to have much bad to say about this one. It would have been nice to pick from a man or a woman main character, but that's about the largest complaint I can levy. Go get this game.
Regardless of how "intense" it is (or isn't) Shakedown: Hawaii is still a fun, beautiful game, and I enjoyed my overall experience with it.
If you really like the open-world, GTA-style games and haven't grown tired of really old graphics technology, there is some fun to be had with Shakedown: Hawaii. Otherwise, you might want to look for a more robust game to squeeze some more life out of you Nintendo 3DS.
Shakedown: Hawaii energizes its open-world satire with the transparent and ruthless cynicism of modern commerce. Its antihero's flagrant and invincible dishonesty would go beyond parody if it weren't kept in check by the player's underhanded complicity. I want the money numbers to go higher, too. And I'll destroy or ruin anyone in Shakedown: Hawaii's lush pixel paradise to see it through.
VBlank Entertainment's second GTA parody isn't the close-to-perfect sequel we expected, but it's still a decent game. Despite all of its numerous shortcomings, there's still some fun to be had when you're not toiling through menus, but it's hard not be disappointed when you consider VBlank's previous work; hopefully, like Retro City Rampage, we'll see a better DX version in the future. As it stands, Shakedown: Hawaii is full of potential, but it's overshadowed by monotony.