An arcade experience that pits you and your flying bike against a planet of traffic.

Retronika, having spent some time in early access, has now officially released onto the Meta Quest platform.

Developed by 4Players-Studio this game is an interesting mix of shooter with the movement style you might be familiar with if you ever played mobile games such as Subway Surfer. 

“Retronika is a unique mix of high-speed racing and intense shooting, set in a world inspired by old-school cartoons. Players ride a hoverbike with intuitive controls that create a smooth flying experience—until the action ramps up with enemy encounters, pushing adrenaline levels even higher. The game has a learning curve due to its unique mechanics, but once mastered, it delivers a seamless, exhilarating flow,” said Alex B, a team member of 4Players-Studio. “The game’s original concept was inspired by classic arcade shooters and a mobile smash hit from years ago. It started as a simple obstacle-dodging game but evolved into a fully realized world with its own story. Stylistically, it draws inspiration from Fallout (especially in music and atmosphere) and Futurama for its humor and aesthetic.”

Being a small studio, the team consists of four who worked on the game in their free time, investing their own time and money to bring this project to life over the last six years. What has been released as of Feb. 20 is an arcade shooter that is easy to learn but takes skill to truly complete.

The game contains 50 levels in its storyline that sets you out to learn the basics, before carrying out varying missions across a very busy – and traffic-laden landscape. You’ll need to maneuver your bike not just left and right, but up, down and around the wild vehicles that take up most of the space.

As you make your way through, things will then start to heat up and you’re not just mastering the flying of your bike, you’re also having to take up arms against hostile drones and other vehicles.

To survive across all 50 levels, the game boasts a deep upgrade system for your bike and the ability to unlock new weapons. These upgrades are all done from your home station – which is also where you select your levels to play. To improve things like your bikes speed and handling, or adding a new weapon to the armory, you’ll need the rewards you collect from completing each previous mission. This means doing as well as you can – here it means netting three stars on each level – to collect the most rewards.

Now let’s talk about how things work and look. Retronika treats you to a graphical style that is very animated and almost looks hand drawn. It’s an aesthetic that is not only visually pleasing, but helps to accentuate things like your bike and weapons against the rest of the world. Things run smoothly and look great here, with no framerate dips or other issues.

Flying your bike around is extremely easy, and the controls are shown to be well thought out and intuitive. 4Players Studio should be commended for the work here as you are required to adapt from flying around with two hands, to one handed – and even no hands if you’re fighting a particularly difficult enemy and require both guns.

Alex says the controls are what set this game apart, and after playing the game, you’ll see it’s done very well.

“What truly sets Retronika apart is its hoverbike controls. Many VR vehicle games aim for realism, but we prioritized an intuitive, effortless control system that allows players to fully command their bike without straining their hands—leading to a more fluid, enjoyable experience,” said Alex.

But it’s not just an option to show off as you swap between deftly flying around to blasting down drones, you need to master going from using both hands on the bike, to both hands on guns, and then right back in a split second.

It’s little things like this which show the developers made a game that anyone can complete, but not everyone can master.

Shooting things is as easy as flying, just choose the guns you want for each hand – you can mix and match from your unlocked armory – and they stay ready by each side of your bike. You can grab your guns and then drop them as needed throughout a level – and you will need them sooner rather than later.

The only downside here can be attributed to your power system. A blue bar can be seen on your bike, this is your health and power that drains when you shoot weapons – surprise, you gotta be careful when aiming. This bar drains when enemies fire at you – and they do this a lot – when you fly outside the designated area, bump into the cars that are driven as realistically as cars on the streets of Toronto at this very moment, and as mentioned: firing your weapons.

A tweak may be needed in some of these areas, as leaving the designated flight space drains your health in abundance, and getting hit by enemy fire can be far too deadly at higher difficulties. Also, maybe letting players shoot at the bad drivers should be a thing – it would certainly help people who may draw parallels between the cars in VR and those they see on the road as they drive home.

Now that the game has officially launched on Quest, 4Players-Studio hopes to make the game available on other platforms, including the PlayStation VR. This of course, depends on how successful it shows itself to be on current platforms.

“The next big goal is expanding beyond Meta Quest to PC VR and PlayStation VR, which will allow us to push graphical quality beyond mobile hardware limitations. We’ve already prepared versions for Pico and Vive XR Elite, set to release soon after the Quest launch,” said Alex. “Our future depends on Retronika’s success. Right now, revenue from the Meta Quest release barely covers a single month of game maintenance, and we’re still funding everything from our personal pockets. If the game gains traction, we can continue improving it, expand to other platforms, and work on new projects.”

Overall, Retronika is an entertaining and beautifully designed game that engages all levels of skilled players. The bike controls are engaging enough, but being able to blast away drones while skillfully avoiding a collision with flying traffic nets you a unique experience. From a small studio this is incredible work that only shows those with a dream to make a video game, that anything is possible when you work hard.

“Retronika is proof that passion and perseverance can make anything possible. When we started, we didn’t know if a small, self-funded team could create a fully realized VR game. Six years later, we proved that with enough dedication, even the biggest challenges can be overcome.”

Retronika, was reviewed on the Quest 3 after receiving a key from the developer.