Retro Game Aliens is a visual novel video game developed by qbert and published by Waku Waku Games.

About

“Let’s play on the dark side of the moon.”

Retro Game Aliens is a nostalgic, fantastical visual novel. You play as yourself, an insomniac who has taken to wandering in a residential area in the middle of the night. When a mysterious girl asks you to finish off a few retro games for her, a labyrinthine adventure begins where your childhood memories of 8-bit games blend with the here and now.

Story

Retro Game Aliens is a visual novel set in modern Japan. It follows a linear main story which progresses based on how well and how much you play of three “in-game games.”

Before you know it, you find you’re wandering in a residential area in the middle of the night again… Insomnia is rough on a middle-aged man like you. But this is the first time you’ve come across a girl on the street who is concentrating hard on a game she’s playing on a handheld console.

“Hey, could you clear this game for me?”

The girl’s sudden request throws you for a second, but you can’t pass up the chance to have a “reunion” with the retro games you used to play when you were young. So you take the game console…

Three “In-Game Games”

Play three click-and-choose adventure games in any order, which appear to be remakes of games released for Japanese PC in the 1980s and boast the same odd plot developments that retro games are known for. The graphics of each “in-game game” feature pixel resolutions and limited colors that are faithful to the performance of PCs of the time, partnered with background music (composed by Foilverb) that is as infectious nowadays as it would have been back then.

Chat with a Mysterious Girl

Take a moment in-between playing the “in-game games” to talk to the girl you’ve met. Indulge in innocent conversation with her as you warm up to each other, and see if she won’t sometimes give hints on how to make it through the games you’re playing… Wait a second. If she already knows, why does she need you?