Rough Justice ’84 is a strategy-puzzle title for the Nintendo Switch. It involves recruiting agents and solving cases in a fictional, crime-ridden city set in the 1980s. With neon lighting, voice acting and an 80s synth-based soundtrack, it has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, there are cracks beneath the surface of this Switch version that tarnish the experience.
The story revolves around Jim, an ex-cop who was sent to the slammer for a crime he didn’t commit. After his release, he is given a second chance to clean up the streets through a new crime-fighting agency. The beginning of the game involves taking on caseloads from clients and hiring special agents to do the real work.
The cases are varied enough to keep things interesting, requiring your hired guns to do everything from tracking down a missing person to finding a stolen vehicle. Cases are solved with few means. Most are based around a dice-based game that requires you to roll certain numbers. For example, you may need four, five, or six to complete the mission. Others use time-based puzzles, offering you the chance to drag cars or open a door by connecting wires.
The agents themselves are equipped with stats based on strength, intelligence, empathy, and perception. In other words, it is better to use an agent with strong perception to solve cases that require this ability. Agents also come equipped with action points. After you spend them, the agent will need to take a break, sending you back to the hiring team to hire your next contractor.
On paper, this all sounds great. And it is, in terms of concept. Unfortunately, Rough Justice ’84 suffers from a problem we see regularly on the Switch. does not transfer well at all.
Most of the issues come from bad controls. It’s easy to tell that this title was meant to be played on a PC with a mouse. Moving around the map to select pods with the joystick is a cumbersome experience, especially when there are time limits. Another problem is inconsistent button mapping. Sometimes the A button is used to select something, other times the Y button. And then, sometimes, you’ll even need to use the B button. It’s messy, and it gets worse. Let me go through my experience.
Selecting a case requires you to move the cursor over the icon within the city. Press A. You are now given a lot for the case. Then you need to press ZL to select your agent. Then A to…select your dealer. Then Y to accept the case. Now your agent moves to the location on the map in a frustratingly slow manner. Oh, pressing X lets you speed it up, but it takes the cursor off the map. There’s no way to know that, of course, so when your agent arrives, they sit idle for about 15 seconds while you try in vain to get back on the case. The agent literally quits and the case automatically fails. You lose money, XP and reputation points. The word “disappointing” comes to mind.
There are other issues. The introduction is so loaded with instructions that it’s overwhelming and confusing. The soundtrack is really great in terms of synth background music, but the sound itself is awful—some voices are too loud for some reason. It feels really bad together.
I was also stuck for a loop at one point near the beginning when I was told to check out the store for the first time to buy gear for my dealer. When I tried to buy something, I was told that my current agent (who was recommended to me for the first mission) had no spare tool slots. So why am I in the store? And how do I get out? I tried every button to get out only to be frustratingly stuck in a “buy something. no you can’t buy anything buy something.” I’m still not sure how I ended up escaping. Needless to say, I was reluctant to go back into the store again.
Overall, Rough Justice ’84 presents a unique concept that doesn’t execute well on the Switch. Hard to recommend at all. The soundtrack is definitely a highlight and the idea of solving cases is a fun one. Unfortunately, the controls and poor user interface make this avoidable.