A fun little management and simulation game that appeals to the nostalgia of anyone old enough to have frequented the dingy video stores of the 90's. Unfortunately the underlying simulation left me feeling disappointed.
A fairly simple game. You play the role of a independent video rental store manager in the early 90's. You engage in a loop of renting video tapes to customers, using the cash to buy more tapes etc. The day to day gameplay is engaging enough. You quickly find a rhythm and the games pace is slow enough that you rarely feel overwhelmed, yet quick enough that you nearly always have something to do. The game deal out unlocks and seasonal events at a quick pace adding variety to the day to day, a much needed mechanic in the later hours as the gameplay begins to grow stale.
Unfortunately Retro Rewind, while charming and brimming with potential, has too many flaws to recommend. The underlining simulation is baffling simple. Tapes have only a handful of traits meaning that there is little to distinguish them. Seasonal events mean specific genre become more popular with your customers. But that means little as all tapes rent for the same price and customers will always rent when in your store anyway. And one of the biggest let downs is your inability to change prices on anything. All good have a fixed price, set by the game. This means the game just boils down to quantity and discourages specialisation or creativity.
Ultimately Retro Rewind left me disappointed. There's promise and potential for a fulfilling and cosy little management game here, and if this was an early access game I would be a lot more lenient. But as a full release there’s little reason to engage and the last 10 hours I put in to the game to get all the achievements felt as much of a chore as the extinct job it is simulating. The developers have promised continued support, so this title might be worth checking on in a year or so, but as of right now I can't recommend this title.
