198X

Lore & Background

198X was developed by the Swedish team Hi-Bit Studios and published by Sonka. A Kickstarter campaign launched on May 3, 2018, seeking SEK 500,000, reached its goal on June 2, 2018, with 1,920 backers pledging SEK 676,558. The game was released for PlayStation 4 and Windows in June 2019, with a Nintendo Switch port in January 2020. An Xbox One version was announced but never released.

The game's plot follows the Kid, a teenager in the 1980s who feels stuck in suburbia. One night, they discover an arcade in an abandoned factory and begin playing games such as the space shooter Out of the Void, the racing game The Runaway, the ninja game Shadowplay, and the role-playing game Kill Screen. The story touches on the Kid's disconnected school life, admiration for a punk rocker, and a family incident involving their father. The game ends with characters from its mini-games materializing around the Kid, who declares the game is not over.

Reader's Guide

198X received mixed or average reviews on Metacritic, with OpenCritic reporting 53% critic recommendation. Critics praised its soundtrack and faithful pastiches of classic arcade games, with Nintendo Life's Damien McFerren calling the soundtrack 'exceptional' and Out of the Void 'perhaps the highlight of the entire game.' However, the game was widely criticized for its short length—McFerren completed it in around an hour—and lack of replayability. GameSpot's James O'Connor gave it 5/10, calling it 'mediocre' and 'more like a proof of concept than a final product,' while Eurogamer's Martin Robinson praised the 'pitch perfect pastiches' but found the story unconvincing. Game Informer's Joe Juba noted that the game reminds players that simple arcade experiences can provide escape, and Nintendo World Report's Jordan Rudek described it as a 'bold and thought-provoking work.' The game's significance lies in its attempt to blend narrative with arcade-style mini-games as a tribute to 1980s gaming culture, though its execution was seen as uneven.

Did You Know?

• The game's Kickstarter campaign raised SEK 676,558 from 1,920 backers, exceeding its SEK 500,000 goal.
• The game can be completed in around an hour, according to a Nintendo Life review.

The Kid's Journey Through Suburbia and Steel

Set in the 1980s, 198X follows an unnamed teenager called the Kid, who feels trapped in sleepy suburbia, waiting for life to move forward. One night, while wandering their unnamed city searching for something to make their heart skip a beat, they stumble upon an abandoned factory housing a hidden arcade. A single session of a horizontally scrolling space shooter called Out of the Void quickly becomes a nightly ritual. The Kid, who feels invisible at school, finds in these games a strength and confidence the outside world denies them. Their only real connection at school is a punk rocker from the south district whose freedom they admire. As the story deepens, the Kid reveals their parents have split over an incident involving their father, and that the arcade is the one place where everything still feels possible. By the final chapter, characters from the games they've mastered materialize around them in the rain, and the Kid declares the game is not over. Structured across five chapters, each anchored to a different classic arcade genre, the narrative weaves a coming-of-age tale through the language of pixelated play.

From Kickstarter to Console: The Road to Release

198X was born from the vision of Hi-Bit Studios, a small Swedish development team, with publishing handled by Sonka. The project's funding journey began on May 3, 2018, when the studio launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking SEK 500,000. The response exceeded expectations: within under a month, on June 2, the goal was met with 1,920 backers collectively pledging SEK 676,558. The finished game arrived on PlayStation 4 and Windows in June 2019, followed by a Nintendo Switch port published in January 2020. An Xbox One edition was announced at some point but ultimately never made it to shelves, leaving that platform's players without access to the title. The relatively compact development window and the modest scale of the Kickstarter suggest a focused, intimate production rather than a large-budget affair. For a team of this size, delivering a multi-platform action game with five distinct genre-based chapters and a full narrative arc represented a considerable technical and creative undertaking, and the fact that the project cleared its funding threshold by a substantial margin speaks to the appetite among retro-gaming enthusiasts for a heartfelt tribute to the arcade era.

A Divided Critical Verdict

Critical reception of 198X was notably split. Metacritic classified the PlayStation 4, PC, and Switch versions as receiving mixed or average scores, while OpenCritic reported that 53 percent of critics recommended the title. Praise consistently centered on the game's soundtrack and its faithful recreations of classic arcade mechanics. Eurogamer's Martin Robinson, who admitted walking in with cynicism after seeing similar concepts before, called the genre pastiches pitch perfect and the most assured element of the package, noting the tributes sit happily alongside originals like Gradius and R-Type. GameSpot's James O'Connor, however, scored it 5 out of 10, calling it a great idea with middling execution and more of a proof of concept than a finished product. Nintendo Life's Damien McFerren gave 8 out of 10, praising the soundtrack and Out of the Void specifically, but lamenting that the entire game could be breezed through in roughly an hour and that the mini-games offered little reason to return beyond chasing high scores. The recurring criticism across reviews was the game's brevity and a narrative voice that some found either bored or melodramatic, leaving the Kid's emotional journey feeling underdeveloped for the concept's ambition.

Five Genres, One Love Letter to the Arcade

198X is structured as a five-chapter homage to the golden age of arcade gaming, with each chapter built around a distinct genre from the 1980s. The introductory sequence, Beating Heart, plays as a side-scrolling beat 'em up, establishing the Kid's physical journey through the city. The first full chapter centers on Out of the Void, a horizontally scrolling space shooter that many critics singled out as the game's highlight. The Runaway delivers a racing experience, while Shadowplay channels the spirit of classic ninja titles. The final chapter, Kill Screen, shifts into a role-playing format where the player battles three dragons through a maze before confronting an unwinnable final boss. These mini-games are not mere set dressing; they serve as the emotional vocabulary of the story, each one the Kid mastering to build confidence in a world that offers them little. Critics repeatedly noted that the recreations draw clear inspiration from landmarks like Ninja Warriors, OutRun, Gradius, and R-Type, and that the result feels like a genuine love letter to an era before wireless controllers and console wars defined the medium. For players who remember the glow of a CRT in a dimly lit arcade, 198X captures that feeling perfectly.

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