I want to give this game a positive review in the worst way, but I can't. Two big reasons why:

the first crime is Saturday Morning RPG is obviously imitating 90's jRPGs. While it gets the walking around the world part right, the jRPG style battles are god awful. I get the designers' decision to make the process involved with timed button presses, but they went overboard. Almost every attack relies on button mashing or QTEs. Worse is your character is so freaking weak your basic and special attacks hardly do anything to enemies so the battles drag needlessly. To be fair, there is a charge move that multiplies the damage your next attack does. Unfortunately charge is so OP I find myself relying almost entirely on it just to effectively damage normal enemies. And, of course, the charge move that gives you the best bonus is the one that involves hammering on a single button. REALLY annoying. The combat is easily bad enough that it ruins the game.

the second crime is the soundtrack is not included with the game or offered as a download. The music was co-composed by Vince DiCola. If you don't know who that is, he composed the instrumental tracks for the Transformers The Movie (also the awesome montage medley in Rocky IV which undeservely won a razzie) so Saturday Morning RPG has the exact same super cheesy 80's synth sound and its a perfect fit for the game and its theme. The OST is wonderful. I'm actually really ticked I can't listen to it!

Aside from these 2 issues, Saturday Morning RPG does everything else correctly. It crams as many sly references to 80's and early 90's Americana (including a Fruit Stripe reference) into its cliched cartoony plots that seem heavily biased towards Transformers and GI Joe (not complaining). Nostalgia is a big part of the enjoyment if you're old enough to pick up on most of it. The writing is actually good. There's a lot of awfully odd and amusing flavor text sprinkled thorughout. In fact, most of the references in the game are amusingly cornball nonsense. If it weren't for the game's awful combat system, I'd fully endorse the $7 asking price, but that awful combat system is like 1/2 the game and sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of it.

I want to give this game a positive review in the worst way, but I can't. Two big reasons why: the first crime is Saturday Morning RPG is obviously imitating 90's jRPGs. While it gets the walking around the world part right, the jRPG style battles are god awful. I get the designers' decision to make the process involved with timed button presses, but they went overboard. Almost every attack relies on button mashing or QTEs. Worse is your character is so freaking weak your basic and special attacks hardly do anything to enemies so the battles drag needlessly. To be fair, there is a charge move that multiplies the damage your next attack does. Unfortunately charge is so OP I find myself relying almost entirely on it just to effectively damage normal enemies. And, of course, the charge move that gives you the best bonus is the one that involves hammering on a single button. REALLY annoying. The combat is easily bad enough that it ruins the game. the second crime is the soundtrack is not included with the game or offered as a download. The music was co-composed by Vince DiCola. If you don't know who that is, he composed the instrumental tracks for the Transformers The Movie (also the awesome montage medley in Rocky IV which undeservely won a razzie) so Saturday Morning RPG has the exact same super cheesy 80's synth sound and its a perfect fit for the game and its theme. The OST is wonderful. I'm actually really ticked I can't listen to it! Aside from these 2 issues, Saturday Morning RPG does everything else correctly. It crams as many sly references to 80's and early 90's Americana (including a Fruit Stripe reference) into its cliched cartoony plots that seem heavily biased towards Transformers and GI Joe (not complaining). Nostalgia is a big part of the enjoyment if you're old enough to pick up on most of it. The writing is actually good. There's a lot of awfully odd and amusing flavor text sprinkled thorughout. In fact, most of the references in the game are amusingly cornball nonsense. If it weren't for the game's awful combat system, I'd fully endorse the $7 asking price, but that awful combat system is like 1/2 the game and sucks a lot of the enjoyment out of it.