When making games that honor the legacy of retro titles from the NES era, there has got to be a high level of challenge in trying to define what the overall experience should be and how it should play. Over the course of the Switch generation there have been all sorts of takes on how to tackle this problem, ranging from games that both looked and played like they could have simply been lost titles actually made at that time to ones that have a vintage feel but use more modern ideas to enhance them. 

In the case of 1989 After the War it feels like the developer opted to go fully old school with its design, and while I have no doubt that there’ll be people who enjoy the challenge it offers, it more often reminds me of the past in bad ways. Playing as a side-scroller, and offering a mix of some slashing action and some shooting, it does actually manage to distinguish itself for being a little different from the norm in that regard. Since your gun has limited shots, and a reload you won’t be able to steadily rely on it outside of helping avoid bigger troubles, you’ll likely end up using your limited-range slash more often. You’ll also have the option to throw a grenade, but honestly since you don’t control its trajectory, and the game seems determined to have you throw it as far as possible, I honestly found it useless more often than helpful.

Where the game lost me though was with the use of too many enemies continuing to respawn, and that everything seems designed to wear you down through volume and chipping away at your health. The fact that aside from your base health you need to separately keep track of your radiation level feels like an added cheap device, designed to bring you down with something that you aren’t likely to keep track of in the heat of the action. This can lead to issues where at times even when it feels like you’re making progress, you’re still doomed. I suppose some folks would invite the challenge it offers, but it really rubbed me the wrong way with its approach.