Developers are more successful than ever at tapping into retro joy, identifying what made classic games of yesteryear work so well.

But they’re doing it while making best use of modern day platforms, finding creative ways to get the best out of these games, giving them smoother, cleaner, crisper quality.

Chenso Club falls somewhere in the middle of that. On one hand, it taps into the Rainbow Islands and New Zealand Stories, with quick, sharp gameplay, loaded power-ups and tricky boss battles, really making the best of all things. Blending it in with more modern rogue-like elements.

On the other, it gets a bit too frantic at times with its tricky enemy types and the sheer numbers of them, the controls are quite slippery and slidey which lends itself to frustration, and the premise is a bit flimsy and forgettable.

The game gets into its flow early, which is a good thing, and it immediately sweeps you along for the ride, but rarely manages to get itself out of third gear between its comic book storytelling and overly familiar action. Not helped by its spelling mistakes.

There is the option to change your fighter, though, which does break things up a little bit. You start off with Blue who stores energy in her hair and chainsaw, but you’ll later get to try a mallet-wielding bad-ass and a specialist in ice picks.

All of them are part of the Chenso Club, which is basically just a fan site for people to visit, follow you, and offer you cool items that add to your game. The more fans you get, the more access you get to unique powerups that can change how you defend and attack in clutch situations.

Between each stage, you’ll also get to dive into a shop where you can trade blood (yup!) for shields and swords. Blood is accumulated from the enemies you beat and certain enemies drop special items which can then be redeemed against your fan items.

This is where the Rogue-Like elements come in, allowing you to customise the types of attributes and abilities you want to assign to your characters. And after boss battles you have to make a choice between two different attributes that permanently boost you for future runs.

Chenso Club also fills up with bonus stages where you have to fight against a moving side-scrolling screen and fill up a vial full of blood by defeating enemies and collecting powerups. All against a backdrop that wouldn’t look unfamiliar in Robocod. It’s all very weird.

And that’s the thing with Chenso Club, it’s charming to look at, quite fun to play, and easy to lose an hour to, but it’s a game that doesn’t really know what it is or wants to be. It’s all very chaotic and over the place, and when you’re done, you’ll know you’ve got better options elsewhere.

It’s not a bad game by any means, but the reason you can spend a day on Rogue Legacy vs an hour on Chenso Club is the depths, the layers, the desire to progress and a feeling that your choices make a difference. I picked up any number of powerups in Chenso Club and wasn’t entirely sure whether I was any better off for it.

Verdict

Chenso Club looks, sounds, and plays the part for a good hour or two, but you soon see its limitations the more time you spend with it. Whether it’s the slippery controls, the overly chaotic gameplay, the half-hearted story or progression uncertainty, it’s a game that is confused by its own identity and never really stands apart from its competitors.