Grand Dad Reboot Review: A GRAND Adventure (PC, Mac)

   For those of you that saw the last post, I'm doing some games that don't require Steam for the rest of the month. I gave out some clues to the identity of the games, and the first one is here. And it's a meme game, so hope you're all fans of inside jokes and references to bootleg NES games! If you're not, too bad! It's the side-scrolling platformer Grand Dad Reboot, by 'RED-FIRE' on Game Jolt!

"YYYYYYABBA-DABBA-DOO!!!"

    'Grand Dad' is the unofficial name of a bootleg character of the character above: a bizarre mix of animated caveman Fred Flintstone and Mario. According to the game's intro (rendered in glorious bootleg Engrish,) he's one of many bootleg creatures looking to take over Earth. They come not from China, not from Russia, not from Vietnam, but from space! However, our caveplumber has rebelled against his own kind and now must fight against them and their copyright-infringing terror in order to save humanity!

    The game's controls could easily be described like it's supposed to be played on an NES controller. Z acts as the A button and lets Grand Dad jump around, while X is the B button and is used to club enemies. It took a bit of getting used to, since it only hits enemies directly in front of Grand Dad, and I kept thinking it would hit enemies in the club's arc. I learned that lesson after several enemies kept hitting me from a diagonal angle. Enter acts as Start and pauses, while Shift lets you Select between your two sub-weapon slots, which are used by holding Up and pressing x. Holding Up while in the air lets Grand Dad cling to certain objects, similarly to his "inspiration" and his NES game.

Given that this mini-boss is called 'Domkey Kong,' I'm a little disappointed by the lack of black leather. Would have made them much more intimidating. (Cue someone drawing DK in black leather)

    You can get four different sub-weapons by picking them up as power-ups in the game. They're all fueled by picking up coins with a Fortran symbol on them (imagine a mix between a F and an I.) The slingshot is the cheapest of them all at only five coins and is a quick ranged attack, although it lacks much punch. Axes work like they do in Castlevania where they fly in an arc and cost 10 coins. The boomerang works like the Castlevania cross, is also 10 coins, and is probably the best against bosses, since it hits them multiple times as it flies through them. The egg costs 15 coins, but gives a net gain of 15 since it turns into a slingshot after one use. It blows up a decent area around it and does a ton of damage. Sad thing is, it's pretty useless. It's obviously not worth using on normal peons, and a good amount of bosses hover above the blast radius of the bomb, making it useless against them.
    The game plays just like an old-school platformer. You generally have Grand Dad run to the right and sometimes climb upward depending on the map and fighting bosses, like 'Domkey Kong' or Felix the Cat, who here is a terrifying master of illusions and darkness (Thanks, Russian bootleggers!(WARNING: Bloody/Gory)) There are a few interesting moments, like where the game lets you take a quiz on your bootleg game knowledge or a "boss fight" where you have to race a Sonic/Mario bootleg to an escape ship, but it's more or less what you'd expect from a NES-style platformer, including being pretty difficult. The second half of the game can get pretty nasty, especially since losing all your lives means you start at a stage's beginning. I still managed to beat it, and it's pretty wacky.

Grand Dad: Somehow faster than Somari, a plumber with the shoes of the fastest hedgehog alive. But is he faster than Doctor Robotnik?

    As for problems in the game, I didn't really see that many. The confusion I had with Grand Dad's swing was an obvious one, since I vaguely remember playing that NES Flintstones game. Of course, I might be getting mixed up with more modern 2d games with similar weapons that do hit in an arc. Being an NES-style game, it's not very long (I beat it in around two and a half hours,) but it does have some bonus stuff. There are some minigames (including an unlockable boss rush,) a sound test, and the ability to look at what appear to be the title screens of other bootleg games.

    Grand Dad Reboot is definitely a pretty fun game and a neat throwback to many of those crappy bootlegs from the NES era. It's always funny to see those characters that are obviously supposed to be characters you know distorted through the lens of international copyright-infringement. It's not a game that will set the world on fire, and lots of people will probably never get half of the references, but I certainly enjoyed it. There's also a Grand Dad game in the works revolving around the work of Internet musician Silvagunner, so that might be a fun game to try. Next week, I'll be showing off a RPG demo that's certain to get someone upset this Pride Month. Whether through Pride, or through certain Internet fandoms that particularly enjoy 'Try Everything' by Shakira.

Left to right: Kung-Fu Mari, Rocman X, Grand Dad, and Simba.