It has been a while since we last heard much about Vblank Entertainment’s upcoming Grand Theft Auto-inspired 16-bit game Shakedown: Hawaii, but the game finally had a resurgence of information today. In addition to an in-depth post on PlayStation Blog, we also learned it will be launching sometime in Q1 2019 for 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS Vita, and PS4,
For some history on the title, Vblank Entertainment released Retro City Rampage, an 8-bit mix of Grand Theft Auto and tons of retro references, on several platforms to great success in 2012, after 10 years of development. Its successor, Shakedown: Hawaii, was revealed during the first Nindies Presentation ever and was originally pegged with an April 2017 release date. That month came and went, and we were still without a true release window until today.
This new overview trailer goes over several aspects of the game in detail and makes it clear that Shakedown: Hawaii is much closer to a retro-Grand Theft Auto than the nostalgia mash-up Retro City Rampage was. That isn’t a bad thing either, as the game looks immensely detailed and packed with content.
Shakedown: Hawaii stars an older businessman whose businesses are being decimated by things like online shopping, ride sharing, and video streaming. Like in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a major part of the game is buying up properties all across this Hawaiian City in order to save your business and generate money. That being said, the brunt of the gameplay is exploring and fighting enemies others in a large and fairly destructible open world.
Customization is also a big part of the game, with several upgrades, vehicle colors, clothing, and hairstyle options to choose from. Outside of the story mode, Shakedown: Hawaii is also going to feature Arcade Challenges that provide more destructive bite-sized tasks for players as well as a free-roam mode for players to just mess around in. Shakedown: Hawaii is also content complete at this point in development, so Vblank Entertainment is taking the rest of development to polish the game further.
You can check out the overview trailer below. Shakedown: Hawaii will finally launch for PC, PS4, PS Vita (with cross-play), Nintendo Switch, and 3DS in Q1 2019.