14 DAY TRIAL // 
When I was young, I hated waking up early during the weekdays, but during the weekend, especially on Saturday, it was imperative to wake up first thing in the morning so that I could catch all the various cartoons aired during that time.
After many years, a video game developer has finally decided to pay an homage to that era, in the form of Mighty Rabbit Studios, with its Saturday Morning RPG title.
The game, like its name suggests, is an RPG that chronicles the adventures of a regular high-school kid who gains great powers and must take out villain Commander Hood.
With the promise of an 1980s-themed experience that features all sorts of clever riffs and nods to that era, the game seems pretty impressive.
Does it manage to deliver a great experience or should it be taken off the air? Let's find out.
Saturday Morning RPG focuses on Marty Hall, a high-school kid who, thanks to a powerful wizard, gets a special notebook that allows him to equip scratch and sniff stickers, as well as all sorts of outlandish powers.
The stickers can be scratched before battle to get various bonuses, while the actual powers are some of the most imaginative seen in gaming nowadays. You can grab a toy robot and then morph into a truck to run over your opponents, you can use a floppy disk to deliver critical hits and turn your enemies into Blue Screen of Death errors, and all sorts of other things.
In terms of actual gameplay, Saturday Morning RPG is, like its name clearly says, an RPG featuring turn-based combat reminiscent of Japanese role-playing games of the time, but also elements taken from Nintendo's Paper Mario series or, more recently, Costume Quest.
The action, however, is structured in episodes, just like the ones from your favorite cartoons, each with different new adventures for Marty but most focusing on his battle with Commander Hood and his goons. Your enemies will include his soldiers but also all sorts of other beasts and outlandish characters.
Besides deploying powers, Saturday Morning RPG also relies a lot on quick time events. Every battle begins with a scratching session for your stickers, and then deploying many powers also requires various efforts, especially powering up your abilities. This whole thing gets a bit tedious after a while but, as long as you don't binge on the episodes, you won't feel exhausted. The game handles pretty well with a keyboard, but you can also employ a controller, which makes some of the QTEs a bit easier.
The title features four story episodes as of right now, but a fifth one will appear as a free update soon. Replayability is quite high, as you can bring your upgraded powers into each one and encounter a bigger challenge, and there are even a few choices that have an impact further down the road.
After completing the regular episodes you can also indulge in a few other modes, such as an Endless Battle one, but also in an Arena against various enemies. Speaking of foes, they're pretty aggressive and the difficulty curve is quite good, especially if you keep defensive and health regeneration abilities in your notebook.
In terms of visuals, the game, being a love letter to the 1980s, boasts a pixelated style that's quite pretty, even if it may not suit everyone's taste. The combat start animation is rather repetitive, but it only becomes obvious when playing in lengthy sessions.
The soundtrack evokes 1980s cartoons in an awesome way, especially since it was made by Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth, who previously worked on Transformers, Power Rangers, X-Men, or DuckTales.
Conclusion
Saturday Morning RPG is a great love letter to the 1980s featuring all sorts of great nods to that era but also some good gameplay mechanics that feel fun and an amusing story that takes all the best moments from cartoons while also mocking certain outlandish things.
