Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first thing that separates Antro from a standard side-scrolling platformer is its commitment to music as more than atmosphere. Nittch traverses the underground city through platforming and puzzles, but the game’s chase sequences put both the route and the action in sync with the soundtrack. That gives the central act of simply moving through ANTRO a sharper pulse, especially when a pursuit demands that you pick up the pace.

The mix is sensible on paper. Puzzles slow the journey down long enough for the city and its political pressure to register, while parkour and full-speed escapes restore urgency before the game settles into a crawl. This is not a pure rhythm game, nor is it positioned as a demanding platforming gauntlet. It is an action-adventure built around switching between deliberate obstacle solving and the need to run when La Cúpula closes in.

That structure will suit you if you like a narrative platformer that changes gears often. The tradeoff is that the individual pieces are familiar: obstacles, puzzles, and escapes carry the game, while the music-driven framing is the distinctive ingredient. The journey is likely to work best when you let the songs set the pace rather than expecting deep combat systems or an elaborate simulation of its underground world.

Graphics

ANTRO is a dirty, dark underground version of Barcelona, divided into social and geographical layers. The lower city is defined by survival and forced labor, while the upper strata belong to the people in power, giving Nittch’s climb through the side-view spaces a clear visual and thematic direction. The bleak setting fits a world where public expression has been suppressed.

Story

Nittch is not introduced as a conventional revolutionary hero. He is a nihilistic, lonely courier from ANTRO’s lowest level, and his immediate goal is only to deliver a package to someone he does not know. That smaller starting point gives the premise a useful bit of tension. You know he has stumbled into something much bigger before he does.

The city’s conflict is blunt but effective: after the Collapse, the survivors live below ground under La Cúpula, a totalitarian government tied to technological overproduction and automation. Speech is censored, music and art are forbidden, and people at the bottom endure forced labor while the upper levels rule. It is familiar dystopian material, but the focus on banned music gives the resistance a more specific human stake than another generic anti-corporate uprising.

As Nittch draws La Cúpula’s attention and becomes involved with Los Discordantes, the package becomes the literal burden of the story. The game clearly wants its songs to carry part of that narrative weight, with each track reinforcing the emotions and momentum of the journey. If you respond to stories where culture itself becomes an act of rebellion, that connection between soundtrack and uprising is Antro’s most promising narrative choice.

Overall Experience

Antro earns attention because it understands that a rebellion story needs a voice. Here, that voice is urban music, and the idea of fleeing through a censored underground city while hip-hop, drill, R&B, and electronic music push the action forward is more memorable than the game’s broad dystopian outline alone.

The package-delivery framing keeps the adventure personal, while the movement between puzzles, platforming, and rhythmic pursuits prevents the route from becoming one-note. Still, this is a game whose promise rests heavily on whether its musical momentum lands for you. If that energy does not connect, the familiar story of a lonely nobody pulled into a resistance may not have enough novelty on its own.

For a closer look at its premise and musical approach, the official Antro description lays out the same underground journey. Antro is worth a shot if you want a compact 2.5D adventure with a politically charged soundtrack at its center. Go in for the rhythm, the momentum, and the idea of music as resistance, not for a radical reinvention of the platforming dystopia.

Retro Replay Score

6.7/10