[DIYGamer correspondent Ken Ellis gives us thoughts from his demo session with Retro City Rampage (new screens here.)]

I got my hands on a little Retro City Rampage action tonight during the Xbox Live showcase event at this year’s Comic-Con (video coming soon.) If you have ever played a game, ever, then you will probably like this one.

RCR follows the tale of a thug named “Player” living in Thieftropolis who answers an ad to work as a henchman. The game picks up in his third year of henching. The Jester is planning a heist and he needs your help on this one. Obviously the plan goes awry and adventure follows.

The best part of this game is that about every five seconds there is a reference to a classic video game from yester-year and a few movies too. While playing through the game for about 10 minutes, I was bombarded with tongue-in-check scenes from Mega Man and Duck Hunt and characters from Frogger, Bill and Ted, and Back to the Future (even DUCK TALES!) while going through familiar locales like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sewers and Bomberman areas. There was even a quick MK “Toasty!” that popped into view.

The game feels like a straight de-make of Grand Theft Auto, where you’re a random henchman who can beat up or run over anyone and get chased by the cops. It has clear way-points to guide you and simple controls that let start enjoying everything pretty quick, and I mean everything! In the first few scenes, I frantically ran through there were no less than five different styles of NES gameplay. I’m sure you get it by now, but RCR bleeds retro from a wound that surely can never be closed.

Anyone can and should play this game, but for the more experienced gamer there are plenty of wonderful and humorous gems to get you going back mentally to your early gaming days.

Retro City Rampage is coming out later this summer on Xbox Live and sometime in the fall for the WiiWare crowd. Definitely something to check out!