Bad Boro's Design Is a Hodgepodge of Gaming Influences and 1990s Aesthetics
Mainstream nostalgia tends to follow a cycle of 20-to-30 years, with creators incorporating elements of media they enjoyed growing up. For example, 1977's Star Wars pulled inspiration from Flash Gordon serials of the 30s and 40s, meanwhile sitcoms of the era like M.A.S.H. and Happy Days were all about the 50s. Recent media like Stranger Things and Thor: Ragnarok are steeped in 80s aesthetics, and plenty of video games over the last few years pull from consoles like the SNES. PseudoZap's Bad Boro wears its 90s inspirations on its sleeve.
Studio co-creators and cousins Peter Mosur and Konrad Messyasz grew up bonding over video games, and their interests were incorporated into Bad Boro — described as a twin-stick brawler, but ultimately because «we don't know what else to call it,» according to Mosur. Its mechanics come from a variety of sources, but the game's visuals and sound design focus heavily on creating a «punk vibe» befitting its 1990s New York-inspired setting. Game Rant spoke to Mosur and Messyasz about the elements contributing to Bad Boro's design over its four years of development.
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Mosur recalls numerous family gatherings with his younger cousin where they would play video games together. One series they bonded over was The Legend of Zelda, among other Nintendo classics, but Mosur said «the first significant game» he showed Messyasz was Dark Souls 3. This got Bad Boro's artist, who goes by Zals online, into a big Soulsborne phase during the interim before Breath of the Wild released in 2017.
That interest was hugely influential on Bad Boro, as PseudoZap decided to make a «really difficult» game with a mysterious world, vague storytelling, and
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