How long does it take, roughly, for media to go from "outdated" to "nostalgic"? If the video game market is to be believed, we'd probably have to say about somewhere between fifteen and twenty years. The NES was released in 1987, hit its stride around 1988, and twenty years later, we have Nintendo and everyone else finally redistributing their old games legally through digital distribution. The timeline makes sense, of course. It's about that long that kids have grown up, have some sense of disposable income, and want to recapture the spirit of youth, either for their own fulfillment, or for the joys of a new generation. Still, there's more to the phenomenon that just republishing old games. The passage of time has made the greater populace aware that, you know, just because a game is newer doesn't mean it's necessarily better. As such, we're seeing developers go back and mine old properties for old ideas. To whit: many joked (or perhaps were serious) that the killer app for the Xbox 360 back in 2005 wasn't Perfect Dark Zero or Kameo, like Microsoft would've had you believe, but was actually the $5 downloadable title Geometry Wars, whose roots lie heavily in the 1983 (GET DATE) arcade shooter Robotron 2084. The concept of Retro Game Challenge follows in a slightly similar line. Both titles, released for the DS, are a collection of retro-style games - none of them actually existed back in the 80s or 90s, but they're all designed to make it seem like they did. The graphics, the sounds, and the controls are all styled like they were back in the day. The atmosphere is explicitly meant to remind games of the lazy summers they spent in front the TV, playing games all day with their friends, flipping through gaming magazines and trading secrets. There's more to the games than mere nostalgia though - each of the games in Retro Game Challenge benefits from over twenty years of hindsight, as well as technological improvements. As a result, they tend to avoid the pitfalls of so many old games, except for the ones they explicitly mean to replicate. It's true that some are simply clones of existing titles, the kind that probably would've been scoffed as ripoffs had they been released years ago, but the genres they tackle are so sparsely populated nowadays that it's more a cause for celebration than criticism. Even more interesting are the games that combine two or more mechanics from disparate classics - it's fun to not only recognize the sources, but see how they work in tandem. One of the best examples if Ninja Haggleman 3 in the first title, essentially a mixture of Ninja Gaiden and Metroid. Had that been released fifteen years ago, it would've been Game of the Year material. Still, for all of its occasional brilliance, it's still a bit conceptually flawed. As much as we all love to think about the NES classics, the truth is that 95% of the things that came out were either forgettable or terrible. None of the games in the collection are bad, persay, but none of them would really stand up to, say, Super Mario Bros. or Contra. Part of this is because they're too busy emulating older games to come up with anything truly original, but at least the results are usually refined, if not inspiring. Another factor is that the games simply aren't very long. Most offer only a few levels at most, and can be beaten relatively quickly. The Japanese release is a tie-in to a retro themed video game show called Game Center CX, a funny little show where they take a comedian named Shinya Arino and force him to play through older games. They mostly focus on Famicom titles, but there are a wide variety of other games too. Some of them are classics, but many of them aren't, and most of the fun comes from the amount of torture Arino and his crew put up with in order to conquer the trials and tribulations of retro gaming. In Retro Game Challenge, Arino is portrayed as a maniacal, laughing polygonal face, reminiscent of Dr. Kawashima in Nintendo's Brain Training game. He's captured you, the player, and sent you back in time in order to play video games with his younger self. Each game has a series of four challenges - score a certain number of points, reach a certain level - that must be conquered before you can go on to the next. Once you've conquered the challenges, you unlock the "free play" for that game, so you can play from start to finish without being interrupted by the various goals. This structure is both its greatest strength and weakness. If all titles had been presented at start, then most gamers would probably just test out all the different selections, feel a tingly bit of nostalgia for a bit, then either shelve the game or (worse) sell it back to the store. This challenge structure gives a reason to learn how the play to game and make them seem less disposable. The problem is, it expects that the player is fan of all the genres presented. Some people just don't like racing or puzzle games, and forcing them to play something they don't want to, just so they can unlock something later on they DO want to, isn't exactly the best game design philosophy. Still, the developers must've realized this conundrum, and thus built in cheat codes. At your disposal are several video game magazines, each containing tips and tricks straight from the developers, which can let you conquer most the challenges pretty easily. The second game even gives you the option to skip them completely, if you've tried enough times, and bother Arino enough to give you a free pass. The magazines are more than just a tool, because they also add to the sense of nostalgia. In addition to the strategy guides, they're full of random fun minutiae, like previews, editorials and sales rankings for other (non-existent) games in the Retro Game Challenge universe. In the Japanese version, the names and portraits are taken from various people in the Game Center CX show. In the North American version, they're based on real life gaming journalists from magazines like Die Hard Game Fan and Electronic Gaming Monthly. They work under pseudonyms, but it's usually pretty clear who they are actually are. ("Sock" for example, is clearly Dan Hsu from EGM.) Enough about the framework, then. The crux of Retro Game Challenge are obviously the mini-games. Cosmic Gate Cosmic Gate is basically just Galaga. The major differences are the asteroid stages that pop up every few rounds, and a secret warp (the "cosmic gate" of the title) that appears when certain enemies are killed and can warp you ahead a few stages. This is the first game and it tries to set the tone for the others, but frankly it's a bit dull. Robot Ninja Haggle Man Obstentively based on Jaleco's not-quite-classic Ninja Jajamaru-kun, Robot Ninja Haggleman puts you in the role of a tiny little ninja who must clear each stage of enemies. The stages are comprised of several floors, which you can easily jump between, and the screen scrolls horizontally, looping endlessly. Although Haggleman's main weapons are shurikens, he can also kill enemies by jumping on them. As the game progresses, you'll come across enemies that are invincible to regular attacks, and must be attacked by leaping on their heads. Haggleman can only take two hits - after the first, his eyes bulge out, indicating his health status. It's the first "good" game of the set, but it feels like it's intentionally gimped to make way for its sequel, which is opened up later on. It's also quite short, with only eight floors total. DOOR KILLS Rally King Rally King is one of those overhead racing games. There were a number of these released in Japan, like Irem's Zippy Race (AKA MotoRace USA) and Konami's Road Fighter, although these are quite obscure by American standards, who mostly grew up on Super Sprint and RC Pro Am. It's quite tough to control and more than a bit tedious, although mastering the drifting technique is kinda fun. There are only four stages. Star Prince This shooter is developed by Tomato, the same fictional company behind Cosmic Gate, and is sort of a spiritual successor. While it's meant to be based off of Tecmo's Star Force, it really feels more like Compile's titles, like Gun*nac. Robot Ninja Haggle Man 2 16 floors total Rally King SP Rally King SP is a parody of those limited edition tie-in Famicom games like All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros (which replaced the sprites with cast members of a late night TV show) and Archimedes Gradius (which replaced the power-ups with ramen bowls.) This particular game is endorsed by a fictional ramen company, whose logo and mascot pop up around the game. Other than the new goals, different cheat codes and some palette swaps, this one is basically the same as the original Rally King, which is really annoying. Rally King wasn't that great to begin with, and making you play the whole thing AGAIN just reeks of laziness on developer's part. Guadia Quest Undoubtedly the most fully fleshed title of the bunch, Guadia Quest is basically Dragon Quest II - it's an 8-bit RPG where you control three characters, with random battles and turn based encounters. Although it's challenging, it's also quite a bit more accomodating than a typical NES RPG, allowing you to save anywhere. Although to beat the goal you only need to beat the first dungeon, it's quite large, and it'll take roughly an hour or two to grind yourself strong enough to beat it. There's another rather large to be had afterwards, if you want to clear the whole game. Obviously fans of classic RPGs will be in heaven - those that aren't will find it remarkably boring. Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3 The final title - and best game of either Game Center CX games - completely reinvents Haggleman and turns the cutesy ninja into an anime-styled hero, much how Jaleco completely reinvented their Ninja Jajamaru mascot multiple times. Instead of a simple arcade platformer, this game combines the action of Ninja Gaiden (complete with a variety of sub-weapons activated by hitting Up+Attack) with the non-linear exploration of Metroid, and the result is absolutely beautiful. Although the game is sectioned into stages, each has branching paths and special items which must be found in order to proceed. Enemies and orbs drop money, which can be used in shops that look suspiciously like the ones in Kid Icarus. It looks great, plays great, and would undoubtedly have been considered a classic if it had been released for real back in the 8-bit era. The only problem is that it's dreadfully short, with only three stages, although most of them are fairly expansive. SEQUEL Wizman Being one of the most popular video games ever made, Pac-Man inspired a whole bunch of clones, dubbed "dot eating" games in Japan. Nintendo made their own called Devil World, which is largely forgotten, for charitable reasons. Wizman is Game Center CX's take on this. The object is obviously to collect all of the dots of the screen while avoiding enemies. Also around each level are colored wands. All of the dots are colored either red or blue, and can only be collected when you're carrying the wand of the corresponding color. The type of wand will also determine which enemies you can kill, which are also colored. Collecting multiple wands of the same color will make you move faster, and also allow you to attack multiple times. Truth be told, this is kind of a boring game. When you give the character a weapon, it completely removes the intensity that Pac-Man had, and switching between wand colors is more tedious than fun. There are 32 floors in total, though, making for a relatively lengthy game. Mutekiken Kung Fu Although the name is probably inspired by Konami's Yie Ar Kung Fu, Mutekiken Kung Fu is more closely linked to Irem's Spartan-X (also known as Kung Fu Master outside of Japan.) It also borrows a bit from Broderbund's Karateka, using similar sprite coloration styles. Much like Karateka (which was released for the Famicom, but strangely, not the NES), Mutekiken Kung Fu is a "yoge" or Western developed game. It's also for the fictional MES-3000 system, which is meant to sorta be an equivalent to the Sega Mark-III/Master System, although you don't really get that vibe from playing it. Anyway, it's your standard "walk forward, punch bad guys" theme, with a twist - if you pull off multiple attacks in succession, you'll send your foe flying across the screen. If they kill another enemy, they'll release a power orb. Collect four to spell "MU-TE-KI-KEN", and you'll enter a super strength mode for a short period of time. These mechanics alone make it much better than similar games of the era. Plus, some of the enemies are particularly cool, like GET NAME reminiscent of Bruce Lee movies, or the grizzly and panda bears that show up as mid-bosses. There are also snakes, hawks, and floating dragon heads, a nod to the sometimes nonsensical animal foes of 8-bit games. With five stages in total, it's one of the better games in Game Center CX2. Demon Returns Demon Returns looks and feels a lot like Super Mario Bros., although there are some very fundamental differences. There are similar power-ups, which cause your demon to grow, and second power-up that allows you to fire wind projectiles. The world is full of destructible bricks, although they need to be directly attacked instead of being hit with your head. There are vases around each stage, which can lead to hidden areas, but can also contain plant-like enemies which breathe fire. Even the level structure is somewhat similar - each world consists of four levels, broken up into outdoors level, an underground level, another outdoors level with a slightly different tile set, and a castle dungeon. There are four worlds in total, making for a total of sixteen stages. That's half the length of the original Super Mario Bros. - not bad for a "mini" game. In the most drastic departure from the Mario formula, your demon has a short range claw swipe attack, allowing you to directly attack foes. You can also ride on any disabled enemy, which spins around almost haphazardly. While tough to control, you can use these to double jump onto higher platforms, and can also absorb a single hit from other bad guys. Also at the top of the screen is a "time" meter, similar to Adventure Island, which slowly depletes and can only be refilled by grabbing various bits of fruit. The intro is practically stolen straight from Ghosts n' Goblins, where an evil monster comes in and swipes our hero's girlfriend, turning you into a demon in the process. The graphic style is almost reminiscent of Monster Party, which must be coincidental considering the game was never released in Japan. This is also one of the better games on this release, but man, is the theme music ever annoying. Detective Kacho This is a series based heavily on Nintendo's Famicom Detective Club, which were never released outside of Japan. There were several other similar games on the system, too, which used similar interfaces - a picture window on the left side of the screen, menu commands listed on the right, and text displayed on the bottom. The only game that ever saw light in America that used this format is Spellcaster for the SMS (actually Kujaku-Oh), although the Western equivalent to these types of games are probably ICOM/Kemco's MacVenture games like Shadowgate and Deja Vu. Anyway, in these types of adventure, you pretty much just go to different areas, meet with people, talk to them, and try to solve vague "puzzles", usually just by finding the right items or using the right commands. All the way, you're accompanied by Arino himself. Most of the other characters and locations are based off of episodes of Game Center CX, in addition to areas like Bandai-Namco's headquarters. In addition to the standard "move", "look" and "talk" commands, there are also "bokete miru" and "tsukkomu", which roughly translates to "act like an idiot" or "play it straight", which are based off the manzai comedy routines Arino is known for. Like the Famicom Detective game series, these are supposed to be disk games, complete with a FDS-style loading intro screen, with mangled English, along with loading screens and simulated disk access sound effects. The only way to get more authentic would be to have the virtual disk belt break, rendering the system unplayable, but that might hit a little to close to home for anyone who had an ever-so-fragile Famicom Disk System. Also like the Detective series, there are two episodes, "Before" and "After". Only the first needs to be beaten in order to proceed to the next game. Each feature little action mini-games, like bike and boat chase scenes. Unfortunately, since these rely so heavily on not just text, but knowledge of the TV show, it's all but inpenetrable to non-Japanese games. You can play through it with the help of walkthroughs, but at that point, it's more of an obstacle than something to be legitimately enjoyed. Gun Duel Another completely awesome overhead shooter, Gun Duel is essentially the sequel to Star Prince from the previous game. There are easily a dozen different weapons, each formed by combining two different letters. You can also switch between the dominant letter, essentially giving you two weapons at once. This huge arsenal, along with the mini-boss segments featuring numerous enemy turrets, are very reminiscent of Compile games like Zanac and Power Strike/Aleste. There's also a two-player mode, where kid Arino will automatically control the second player. The two ships can then combine to form a single, ultra powerful attack vessel. Like Star Prince, it feels too advanced to actually be a FC/NES game, and is more like a TG-16 shooter, but it's hard to complain when it rocks so hard. There are four stages altogether. Triotos This game is for Game Center's equivalent of the Gameboy. It's a falling block puzzle game that combines Tetris with Sega's Columns. You drop block formations, each with different gems, and matching three games will cause them to disappear. Instead of cycling through gems like Columns, you rotate the pieces like Tetris. If you manage to fill a line entirely with gems - five across - you create a "spark" which takes down other gems. There's also a challenge mode where you need to beat an off-screen opponent. As opposed to Tetris' Russian visual themes, Triotris is more Japanese themed. The game is also developed by Gears, the same guys who made the (sorely missed) Haggleman games, so occasionally some of the characters will appear. This game's placement almost feels like a paradox. While its visuals are supposed to be nostalgic, Tetris (and other puzzle games) haven't really aged in the same way that platformers and shooters have. Therefore, it doesn't really feel all that retro. Plus, like Columns and all of those other rip-offs, it really isn't nearly as good as Tetris to begin with. Guadia Quest Saga This supposed to be for the equivalent of a Gameboy Color, but outside of the boot up screen, it's nearly impossible to tell, because it looks almost exactly like Guadia Quest from the first game. If they really wanted to go for the same look, they would've used the same oversized sprites and poor color palette choices that plagued so many GBC games, especially the Dragon Quest ports. Anyway, this is TECHNICALLY the third game in the Guadia Quest series - apparently Game Center CX just sorta skipped Guadia Quest 2. Still, the game's fundamentally the same as the first Guadia Quest, with three playable characters, identical commands, and even enemies. It would've been cooler if they went the Dragon Quest III route and let you create party members, but no. Instead, its evolution is more like Pokemon - there are two "versions" of game - "Light" and "Dark" - with different monsters. You're playing one, while Arino is playing the other, allowing you to connect your cartridges to trade. This one should satisfy retro RPG fans once again, and its challenge conditions are much easier than the first game - you don't even need to visit the first dungeon to conquer it. Super Demon Returns This sequel is for the equivalent of the Super Famicom, and hs pretty much everything you'd expect - more colorful graphics, copious use of transparencies (which kinda screwed up the emulator, hence the screenshots look a bit off), and some completely gratutious Mode 7, usually manifested as spinning logos. The game itself is more or less the same, although the levels are longer, featuring multi-directional scrolling levels, as opposed to the standard left-to-right levels of the first game. It's still just as good as it ever was, but something feels a bit off with this one. For starters, bringing the graphics up to Super Nintendo quality almost puts this on par with other DS games...which almost kind of ruins its vibe, since it no longer seems retro. The music itself doesn't really sound like the SPC chip either. The other bit is that, other than the color definition and visual effects, the graphics just haven't been upgraded that much. Looking back at all of the other NES to SNES transitions, there were huge jumps between Castlevania, Super Mario Bros, Contra, even Adventure Island. If this were a true sequel released back in the day, it probably would've been lambasted for looking lazy. BONUS Cosmic Gate MASA-X version The MASA-X is essentially the MSX, which received a number of FC ports back in the day, especially by Konami. This version reproduces it the look and feel pretty faithfully, especially with the slightly awkward animation and single color sprites, where "black" is simply transparent. There are a few minor differences, including a cameo appearance by Wizman. There are only 16 stages in this version, as opposed to 64. Haggleman - Koume Version Pretty much the same as the first Haggleman game, except starring his sister Koume. Amusingly, she has her arm in a sling when damaged instead of bugging her eyes like Haggleman. There are a few new enemies too. Rally King EX Basically a time trial version of Rally King, with a completely new stage. Star Prince SA (Score Attack) Like the Caravan versions of Hudson's Star Soldider game, this offers 3-minute and 5-minute modes to score as high as possible. Some of the enemy positions have been changed around too. Triotos DX This is the Super Game Computer version of Triotris, using much better graphics. There's a "hold" function GET DATA on this, and you can actually see your opponent's screen in two player mode. Training School - Kugure! Girijan MAX! This is basically a trainer for platformer games, where you just run and jump over a variety of obstacles. The graphics are patterned after Game & Watch titles, but the animation is much, much smoother. The title comes from two of Arino's catchphrases from the show - "Kugure", meaning "evade", from an episode with Super Mario World, and "Girijan", short for "girigiri-jump", from an episode with the Famicom game Atlantis no Nazo. 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