While I didn’t personally live through them, I feel like I’ve experienced enough 1980s nostalgia in the last two decades to make me feel like I was there. It seems our culture got a jumpstart during that time period, with many recent games and media reflecting on childhood or teenage memories of the time period. These memories translate into a lot of monsters pit against groups of friends trying to stop them.
In that way, Kingdom Eighties is a pretty faithful testament to the time period, also making sure to show older answering machines, payphones, and other 1980s technology. The story of a group of friends defending their small town isn’t anything new and really isn’t the point of the game anyway. The much more interesting part is the mashup of tower defense and management mechanics.
Throughout the four acts of this title, players will build their army and retake their city and beyond from the invasive Greed that seeks to expand forever. While it might seem simple at first glance, and it largely is at first, I found myself drawn into the constantly growing and expanding of my kingdom.
Be the dad that stepped up
The premise is pretty simple and really only works as a reason for why a bunch of orphaned children are following you into battle. After finding a crown that gives you special powers, you find yourself at a school with children who need a little direction. So, after you pay them with a single coin, they’ll become indebted to you forever, either becoming archers, builders, or specialty ranks earned later.
The game works on a daily cycle, so players will spend the daylight hours clearing out hazards like the purple Greed-infected trees. After clearing up to a traffic cone, you can then establish a wall to keep the monsters that come at night at bay while your archers shoot at them. Sometimes cleared areas also provide other unique benefits like new vehicles or buildings that spawn more coins.
As you get more coins, you’ll use them in similar ways to other games, upgrading your walls, base, and defensive turrets. You’ll also need them to hire workers at specific stations and to progress in certain objectives, so spending your money without thought can leave you struggling, especially in the later levels when resources are much more limited at the start. This challenge kept me on my toes and snapped my attention back to the game when I realized I’d wasted all my money.
I do appreciate that it didn’t take me obscenely long to scrape my way back either, I just had to get creative and remember where my money was coming from. For example, investing one coin to take down bigger trees or open a mailbox has the chance of providing two coins, and is guaranteed at least one, so you’re going to make your investment back every time.
That being said, your money also serves as your health, so losing all of your coins and then having your crown stolen will result in a game over. The few close calls I had with this were pretty tense and had me stressed, especially the longer I went without losing. It’s a fun mechanic and the uncertainty of how the money will stack and fall out of your bag only adds to the feeling.
A long trek with good friends
One of the more annoying things is getting around each level since the title is a side-scroller with a base that extends on either side. Kingdom Eighties tries to offer some small solutions to this, but it’s a mechanic that resulted in a lot of headaches early in the game. Even in later levels, the money that I would have to pass through would often cause it to pile over in my bag and spill into the water.
Thankfully, this usually meant that I had more cash than I knew what to do with so it was just more stressful than anything else to see my coins gone. That loss of revenue was one of the few stressful parts of this title, though. I found slowly grinding and building my army to be a really enjoyable experience, seeing my builder corps and archers walking around in large groups after only starting with a handful.
You also get to build a group of unlikely friends, all referred to vaguely by their role in the group as opposed to names. The main character may also be non-binary based on how their parents refer to them in a voicemail, which was a subtle hint but one that will hopefully be seen by those in the community. Leader is the player, Champ is strong, Tinkerer is good with gadgets, and Wiz knows technology.
Once you’ve completed your team you can do some really fun stuff with the machines and a siege mechanic where Champ pushes a dumpster while a large group of archer children follow behind him and destroy the gates spawning enemies. For being so ridiculous, it’s one of the cooler moments I’ve experienced in gaming and I’ve never felt it more when I needed to make a hasty retreat.
The game is worth playing for these moments alone, especially if you don’t mind the slight grind needed at the start of some of the later levels as you establish your kingdom. If you can grab it on a handheld device like the Steam Deck or ROG Ally, it’s the perfect game to pick up and put down when you’ve got some spare moments.
The Final Word
Kingdom Eighties is beautifully repetitive and simple while still managing to be a lot of fun to play. While it might not look like it from afar, developer Fury Studios does a lot to ensure that the player never gets too comfortable inside this greedy new world. If the developer were to refine and improve on this concept, I could honestly see myself playing future titles like this, guiding my children to victory.
8.5
A code for Kingdom Eighties on PC was provided to Try Hard Guides for review on Steam. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website!