Booting up "198X," a 1980s-stylized genre mash-up, I knew I was in for a heavy dose of nostalgia as well as a romanticized view of game arcades. I didn't expect a sense of loneliness nor the confusion, anxiety and unease that permeate adolescence, all of which "198X" lovingly brings to the fore.
In my nostalgia, I wasn't sentimental over the games or culture of another era. What I missed was an overriding sense of fear and excitement for the possibility of the unknown, which "198X" creates by focusing on Kid, who longs for the escape from suburbia offered by the lights of the big city and the malleable worlds of video games. But what's made "198X" linger long after its short two-hour play time is the way the game explores how interactive experiences shape our worldview.
A narrative adventure with condensed versions of arcade games (a beat 'em up, a racing game, a ninja game, a sci-fi shooter and a role-playing-game), "198X" impresses in the diversity of its offerings. But "198X" isn't a simple celebration of the '80s aesthetic now in vogue with the likes of "Stranger Things." Its pixel art is gorgeous, with details down to puffy orange foam on headphones and its emphasis on neon as a contrast to cookie-cutter homes and as a beacon into something unknown. As Kid experiences the difficulty of growing up, "198X" uses its retro games-within-a-game as metaphors.
Some are relatively simple. Young and coddled by the familiarity of suburbia, the urban brawler represents the fears and danger that may or may not exist beyond the walls of our home. But when Kid, whose gender is undefined, falls for a punk rock girl who appears unattainable, the racing game turns into an endless drive on city highways, a plea to be somewhere and with someone else. Any sense of competition disappears as "198X" turns into a cinematic experience and Kid narrates a dream of embarking on a more personal quest to explore and learn from heretofore undiscovered people, places and cultures.
While Kid at this point has graduated from childhood games, "198X" never abandons its thesis that there's poetry in video games, their imaginative worlds a gateway to self-discovery as potent as any other medium. The masks, the skeletons and the bamboo forests that Kid's avatar explores in the ninja game make it clear there's plenty to see and hear beyond whatever worldview we grew up with.
