When you hear the words about the street, it may potentially mean something more than a traffic jam or an upcoming accident. The street is an urban ecosystem, filled with cultures, norms, and potential dangers. People use it to survive, find friends, make connections, and establish a future while other seek domination and control at all costs. Gangs, markets, schools, fields, yards, sports, family,  are all what embody the street.

The street was the epic center of life back in times before Netflix streaming and the iOS App Store. Essentially, if you have ever seen movies and shows like The Sandlot or better yet, Hey Arnold, it’s like that. For “Inner City Kids” the street is no longer a safe haven. It is a battle ground for a hidden conflict. When adults get abducted and are replaced with robots overnight, it’s up a tight knit group of friends to take to the streets.

Inner City Kids is a turn-based strategy game with an urban street culture theme. Upon making a startling discovery of what is happening to all the adults, to the kids take the streets at night to battle the fiendish bots. Players will have an entire urban ecosystem to explore and plunder from subway systems to the underground to the buildings above.

The city, as intimidating as it is, will also be your greatest asset. Exploration will allow players to secure intel, rescue potential allies, and discover new areas. The biggest strength lies in securing frames and modules for combat.  James Biddulph of Jamo Games took to the PlayStation Blog to explain,

“In Inner City Kids, weapons are made up of frames and modules. Frames define the method of attack (gun, sword, turret, mine, remote drone etc), whereas the modules define the weapons effect (damage type, status effects, area damage etc). Using this simple system, the player is able to come up with whatever strategy suits their situation best, and isn’t limited by just using whichever weapon has the highest numbers on it.”

What this means is that the game will feature literally endless ways to combat your enemies and customize your battle strategies, making for a new, modern take on the classic combat system. Coupled with exploration, the range of enemies a player will face, and the pixelated art style that uses lighting, this will make for an innovative title for the PlayStation Vita.

You can read about the rest of the game on the PlayStation Blog here. Check out Jamo Games, the developer of Inner City Kids, on Facebook and Twitter.  Inner City Kids will release for the PlayStation Vita this upcoming Spring of 2015.

If I can name my group the “Sharks” or the “Jets”, be able to snap my fingers for intimidation,  and have a triumphant musical score with greatly choreographed musical stunts straight out of West Side Story, this is a Game of the Year contender of 2015.