Shakedown: Hawaii

(Ignore the low playtime, I love this game so much I have beaten it twice on the Epic Launcher, twice on the Switch and once on the 2DS, so I know what the balls I'm talking about.)
Shakedown: Hawaii is a brilliant masterpiece that has the same gameplay from Retro City Rampage but refined so it doesn't suck anymore, and hilarious metadialogue, but instead of pop culture references left and right, the gags are all about unchecked capitalism, which could be somewhat of a hypocritical stance due to the Epic Exclusivity things but we'll get to that.
You play as the most ethical CEO of all time, in that he actually gets his hands dirty and doesn't sit behind a desk all day drinking the most expensive champagne in the boardroom. Instead, in his ambition to revive his company and take over the island, he sets out to nefarious tactics of intimidation and coercion. The latter is actually a business deal. Signed. With an RPG aimed at the other executive. See what I mean about this game being awesome? No?
How about the story lampooning dumb shit that corpos do, like taking advantage of gaming trends, lootboxes in videogames (which was still a problem when this game came out), saving money while marketing that you are "eco-friendly" now, I will say if you're trying to get OFF the anti-capitalist bandwagon, stop reading this now it's not good for you. Shakedown has genuinely made me more cycnical about capitalism.
The mechanic of shaking down business allowing them to be bought outright is a fun enough gameplay loop, but in all honesty, the gameplay is the weakest part of the game. Not to say it's bad, in fact, it's very fun. But you're really coming into Shakedown for the funny writing and anticapitalist metahumour.
There is a bit of an issue for some, I'm willing to guess, that this game is hypocritical because it took Epic Games' money and became a store exclusive. And while I have what I like to call a Need-to-Greed rating to judge whether a studio needed the money from being an exclusive, with 1 being the studio absolutely needed the financial windfall, and 10 being why are Ubisoft, and Shakedown scores a 3 on the Need-to-Greed meter, if only because of the message and dialogue in the game that could be seen as tone deaf. But hey, who cares? I freaking don't, and I really, REALLY recommend Shakedown: Hawaii to anyone who enjoys top down GTA1 and GTA2 clones. Imagine top down GTA meets the property ownership of the Saints Row Reboot, but simpler, and that's what you get.
On a personal note, Shakedown was my Game of the Year for 2020. And again, this Steam version is actually my FOURTH copy of the game, with both Nintendo Consoles (2DS and Switch) and of course the Epic Fail Games Store already played to death. Was buying another copy just for me to write this overly long gushing review, or was it an excuse to play the bloody thing again? Yes.
10/10

Excellent game for short or longer sessions if you so like. Advances quite a lot the mechanics and game play compared to Retro City Rampage. After 7 hours it's been a blast all around. Plenty of stuff done and so much to do. Note here this game is what could be described as a 'chore' game so if you are hyper allergic to having a huge list of stuff constantly on your ToDo lists then reconsider. People who played original GTA1 and 2 games feel right at home here as difficulty is not even close to how these old classics played.
Some negatives lift up the characters and lacking in story department compared to Retro City Rampage. I don't agree at all and wonder just how rosy glasses they must have had when playing RCR. I recently completed RCR and even though i must admit it's linear story and simplified world had it's funny moments this one blows it out of the water. Constant funny 'forced' humor is the name of the game here. This also being a negative to some, to me it is genuinely funny once you get even a bit into the endless torrent of new weird situations and characters. It sticks as it is systematic. Weird at first perhaps, cheap even but the flow it is consistent. I am laughing here for real to these weird mission cut-scenes with the protagonist wearing pink and doing yoga mini games or cursing at ads on websites or Adobe style forced subscriptions. At this stage it seems like an endless barrage of new stuff coming at you. Just 'who designs mad stuff like this?' is a question that comes to mind. Someone sure has a really weird sense of humor out there.
Got this for a very deep discount. Any price basically is worth it but pick your price point and dive in if you can stomach this kind of chaotic game play. And dont forget the original Retro City. It is still a good game and even was recently updated.

Played on Steam Deck
Great gameplay and story
Play like GTA, with the ability to destroy some buildings.
Drive through trees and fences, people and other cars.
Going to keep an eye for thier next game :)
*Tried it once on PC, locked to 60 fps, didnt feel too bad.
But I bought it for Steam deck and I like it more on a small screen on the go then my Pc

Shakedown Hawaii is a hidden gem. Classic isometric GTA style gameplay that's done really well, although the controls are a bit awkward. The gameplay is varied, lots of mini-games, property management, extortion, platform levelling. There is just a lot crammed in to this little game. It's got a great sense of humour, dripping with satire playing off of today's hyper-capitalist world. The pixel art is top-notch. Really enjoyed this one.

I was sitting around wanting to play some GTA2 a couple weeks ago and that's when I remembered I had Shakedown Hawaii, although I thought it was called Shakedown Miami at the time. This was such a great game, so creative and funny. I was really impressed with everything.
The controls were great, I was able to choose between two car control types, so I went with the better one where you turn left and right rather than drive towards the stick tilt direction. The car handling was pretty good, for a while I was having trouble but after a while I realized I was actually in x2 zoom, so I switched it to 1x zoom and was good to go. On foot everything controls great as well, I played the whole game using an Xbox style controller using my steamlink hooked up to my 65 inch TV. It ran perfectly and looked great on there.
This music is awesome too and fits the game so well, especially because of how the music changes with scenes and based on what's happening as well as having a nice driving soundtrack you can switch between.
The graphics are some of the best pixel art I've ever seen, and there is so much. The cutscenes are so good and the character designs are absolutely perfect. Some of the sleaziest looking people you've ever seen in your life. I love it so much. (My favorite movie is Street Trash from 1987). I love how sleazy and scummy the main characters are, but especially the old man. OMG he's the best.
The entire game took my 13.3 or so hours with minimal screwing around. I did some car returns, some coffee upgrade missions, B&E's and selling vanloads of loot, etc. All in all, the game length feels great. I was having lots of fun for most of the time, although towards the end, perhaps around mission 100 out of 115, it was getting a bit tedius or repetetive. To make up for this, the developer seems to have cranked up the difficulty of the last few missions and thankfully so as it sort of brought some of the excitement that had slightly faded. I wouldn't really want the game to go on more than it did, so the game length is very good and feels right.
I would love for there to be a sequel, but I don't think it would be possible since there is so much here already. So much creativity went in and lots of thinking as to what scummy businesses do that I think everything was mentioned, so there really isn't much left to make a sequel about. Maybe a DLC add-on at most? It really doesn't need it though.
When playing I found that even though it was fun, it is best enjoyed in 45 minute or so game sessions. There is something about the way the cutscenes go that seems to quickly tire me out. I don't know if it's the way they cut to and from things, or maybe it's the reading on the top and then the bottom of the screen, whatever it is, it makes me want to step away after close to an hour. That said, I always want to come back soon after, and now that it is over I kind of miss it.
I would give this one a 9 out of 10. It's fantastic. Very well done. I am so glad to have played it and beaten it.

Cool game with a fun story.
Story is filled with examples how companies cheat customers to make profit.
This game would be perfect if car driving wasn't so "fixed".
It needs more variety between different cars.
Please aim for GTA/GTA2 feeling next time ;)

Great game to blast through and 100%, runs really well on steamdeck too