Escape from 8-Bit High review

• Reviews by Serena Nelson
• Published:

Fueled by charming 1980s nostalgia, this throwback adventure from the creator of D3AD HAND rocks!

As a child of the 1980s, I have fond memories of that time and often find my thoughts returning to those formative years. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and when something comes around that scratches that itch, I’ve got to see how well it pays homage to a very special time. Escape from 8-Bit High is just such an experience, and I was pleased to discover that it’s full of fun Easter eggs for those who feel the same way. At its core this is a traditional point-and-click pixel art adventure game that harkens back to the ’80s, but there’s so much more to it than that. It’s a feast for the eyes and ears, has a handful of gameplay surprises, and is well worth checking out for anyone who wants to see what was so great about the decade, even if you feel no personal connection to it.

You play as the various band members of Blueberry Finn, who are about to perform at the local high school prom. As they enter Cloudydale High, however, all hell breaks loose. The school goes on lockdown and our three intrepid heroes find themselves having to save the world from an evil sentient Pomodore 64 (an obvious nod to the old Commodore 64 computer console). You quickly discover that this technological creature has its digital hands in many pies, and it’s up to you to solve the mystery of who summoned it in the first place and to thwart its wicked schemes.

With its retro aesthetic and multiple protagonists, Escape from 8-Bit High clearly found inspiration in some of the old LucasArts games like Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle. After a brief prologue involving just Hank the lead singer, you are freely able to change between him, guitarist Duck, and keytarist Alex at will. Rather than working and travelling together the whole time, the trio split up and each person has their own major storyline. There’s little overlap between them but you don’t have to complete one to move on to the next. With the exception of having to rescue Hank a couple times, there is no interaction between the three bandmates until the very end of the game.

Hank’s story is pretty straightforward. He’s trapped inside the school proper, where he sets out to learn who from the staff summoned forth the evil computer. He’s even given a notebook by the janitor that you can review at any time, with clues you find by searching everywhere and talking to the five potential suspects. Of course, there’s also the matter of unlocking several rooms throughout the school via puzzles and inventory usage. Of the three paths, I’d say this is the weakest of the lot due to its fairly generic setting, though it’s still fun to play.

Duck, meanwhile, gets transported to an alien ship that’s set to invade Earth. The Kaleds, a race of organic beings trapped inside metallic shells (and a direct nod to Doctor Who’s Daleks, right down to their spelled-backwards name), have been sent by the malevolent Orange Supreme to wipe out humanity. But the Kaleds have problems of their own, being attacked by creatures known only as hug monsters. The only way to get rid of them is by…milking a cow that the Kaleds have abducted. This is easier said than done as the cow is stuck behind a force field in the ship’s brig, and other systems will need repair under the threat of hug monsters. Even once you get your milk, you’ll have to find a crystal that powers the ship’s faster-than-light drive and end up on a planet inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune series. 

Alex’s tale is just as fantastical but more reminiscent of the likes of Journey to the Center of the Earth, whereby she takes a mole people’s digging vehicle to the Underground filled with subterranean creatures. There she needs to become the champion of either the molemen, batmen, or mothmen, and then go even deeper to the Earth’s core where she encounters dinosaurs and Amazons. She’ll even descend to the lost city of Atlantis, which has cheeky references to Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, including a (thankfully very-easy-to-navigate) maze.

Wherever you go, Escape from 8-Bit High is full of ’80s and ’90s references and callbacks. Of the five school staff members needing interrogation, you’ll encounter a vegetarian vampire, a MacGyver-esque science teacher, and the gym instructor who has a backstory with ties to an old movie. Zombies also abound in the school, with undead football jocks stuffing an Urkel-parody nerd in his locker. These walkers have been summoned from beyond the grave using the dreaded Necronomicon, a talking book that makes several H.P. Lovecraft references during its battle with Hank.

Speaking of which, beyond the more standard point-and-click adventure fare are music battles. Our three isolated must use their respective musical skills to face off against what can best be described as “bosses.” These play out as a mini-game where you need to catch falling icons from the top of the screen onto a paddle at the bottom. Skull icons hurt you, so you’ll want to avoid these, while the other icons hurt your opponent. Do enough damage to them and you win. Take too much and you lose, retrying the battle indefinitely until you win.

Escape from 8-Bit High

Genre:	Comedy, Science Fiction
Presentation:	2D or 2.5D
Theme:	Musical, Savior, Team-up
Perspective:	Third-Person
Gameplay:	Puzzle, Quest, Minigames
Control:	Point-and-click
Game Length:	Long (more than 10 hours)
Action:	Arcade, Rhythm
Difficulty:	Medium
Graphic Style:	Cartoon

Depending on which difficulty you choose, these can be either incredibly hard or insanely easy. Even on “Normal” difficulty I suffered damage – a lot of it. On the Super Easy mode, you don’t get hurt at all by the skulls. I had a fair bit of problem with these beyond the first few battles, so I often had to pick the easier difficulty. Unlike in most games, here you choose between the two options before starting each battle, at which point you’re locked in until the song ends in success or failure. I’ve never been great at this sort of mini-game, so I was glad to have that option when things got tough. 

There are a few other varied arcade-style games throughout, including a pizza ninja cabinet that has flinging pineapple pieces and a Game Boy-inspired skateboard side-scroller where you must jump over obstacles, but none are required to complete the game. These are actually pretty fun, although they can be tricky to master. I could see myself spending a fair chunk of time just trying to beat the high scores. The good thing here is that once unlocked, both the arcade cabinets and music battles can be replayed at any time from the main menu.

The majority of gameplay in Escape from 8-Bit High, however, comes from its inventory-based puzzles. You’ll be collecting a lot of items, combining some of them and using them on other characters or in the environment. Most of these are simple to figure out, with either the band member themselves or another character clueing you to a possible solution. There appears to be more than one way to solve some of them, so if you can think of even one of the possibilities, chances are it will work.

In between there are also a number of logic puzzles. Of particular note are a couple sliding tile challenges. I’m not really a fan of just moving tiles around a screen and hoping I’m doing it right. While not particularly hard in this case, these puzzles did take me a while to get the full (pardon the pun) picture. There is also a drink-mixing mini-game towards the end of Alex’s path that is rather fun as you make beverages from the recipes found in a book. Any of these recipes can be tried, and there’s even a hidden achievement for attempting to mix a specific brew. A few puzzles require Hank to grab books that have the hints or solutions you’ll need to help out the other two (even if Duck and Alex don’t actually realize he has the solution).

As with developer Duck Made Of Wood’s previous adventure, D3AD HAND, the design of this game is one of retro pixel goodness, though with much different locales this time. Everything in Escape from 8-Bit High looks…well, 8-bit. From the character art to background environments, the aesthetic screams “old-school adventure,” though more mid-1990s in style than ’80s. There is a sort of VHS filter that you can turn on and off at will, which makes it feel like you’re watching a grainy movie from a videocassette player on an old CRT TV, complete with rounded edges and even the occasional static popping up on-screen during certain cutscenes. 

There are some close-ups of the various characters, most notably during the music battles, which give a clearer, more detailed look at them than their in-game counterparts. Each of the three protagonists has a very distinctive look that suits their personalities. Hank, for instance, wears a jean vest and a red bandana, while Alex has the look of female rockers like Joan Jett, complete with short hair and a black tank top with a skull on it.

Each of the three stories is highly varied in appearance as well. While the school grounds look like they were pulled right out of a teen movie or television show, the more alien settings are surreal and otherworldly. Aside from the industrial-feeling spaceship, you’ll visit an asteroid mine with a cyberpunk vibe, complete with animated billboards and neon signs. The underground jungle just below the caverns of the mole/bat/moth people is vibrant with green trees and clear blue water, while the Amazon village looks like it belongs in a Greek play with its marble columns and stylized buildings in the background.

But while the art of Escape from 8-Bit High has plenty of old-school charm, where the game really shines is in the audio department. The music is catchy on its own (I enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying the soundtrack) and it fits well within the context of the narrative. Aboard the spaceship we’re treated to some suitable electronica, and many scenes play out with an appropriate chiptune melody, especially the ones accompanying the arcade machines. With the three protagonists being part of a band, the music played during the boss battles is frenetic and keeps amped up until the end. Sound effects are just as fun to listen to. From the squeaking of a rusty toolbox to the beeps of old computers, and even the quacking of a duck, they all combine to inject even more life to a game that’s already full of it.

Every character is fully voiced just like you would expect: Hank sounds a bit like a hippy, Duck has a sort of Hispanic drone, and Alex has an obvious British rocker vibe. Even the secondary characters are great to listen to. The school principal would fit right into a TV sitcom, Orange Supreme hilariously riffs on a prominent colorfully hued political figure, and the underground mole people have a sort of nasally sound. Hank’s uncle Seamus, though only a very minor player, gives off a southern “hick” accent that made me chuckle.

A lot of the dialogue is very funny, as is expected in a game parodying so much pop culture from the decade Escape from 8-Bit High is set in. The janitor resembles a Mr. T ripoff, for instance, who comes off as a conspiracy nut but turns out to be pretty much right on the money. And I really enjoyed the Romanian-accented school chef trying to not spill the beans that he’s not entirely what he seems, even after it’s very obvious what he really is. The confrontation with Orange Supreme in particular had me in stiches. 

Not only is a single playthrough a pretty lengthy experience, taking me over twelve hours to finish, there are reasons to go back and try again multiple times. What you do as the three main characters matters, and at certain points you’ll be treated with a “so-and-so will remember this” pop-up à la Telltale-style games. These will play a part in the ending you get, along with a brief description of the consequences of your actions right after the final battle with the Pomodore 64. This tempts me to go back and try other choices just to see how they play out.

Final Verdict

Escape from 8-Bit High will be a treat for those of a certain age who like parodies and throwbacks to the 1980s. From the many era-appropriate pop culture references to the retro art style and catchy tunes, it's almost like stepping back in time. And yet a lot of the game feels timeless, with plenty for any sci-fi or comedy fan to enjoy. The music battles in particular are fun to compete in, and the three band members are memorable protagonists. The developers aren’t afraid to poke fun at them and the multitude of insane situations they find themselves in, leading to funny dialogue and very different experiences. Having three main paths makes for a rather lengthy adventure as well, so whether you grew up in the ’80s or have fond memories of playing adventures from the genre’s Golden Era, you should have a blast with this one.

Serena played Escape from 8-Bit High on PC using a review code provided by the game's publisher.

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