An 80s childhood simulator... brilliant. Aside from the included games themselves, Retro Game Challenge pretty much simulates the entire pre-internet gaming culture. With gaming magazines and playground rumours of cheat codes and the like, it's a tribute to times long past.
As for the games, they're pretty good simulations of 80s famicom games, and they manage to be pretty fun as well. People used to more recent games might find them a bit lacking in depth, but that's really missing the point.
Dunnymeister(5) on 22, Oct. 2009 09:50 (HKT)
Retro gaming goodness I held out on buying this title because I'd decided to dedicate my time to other big-name games. Now that I've started playing it though, I kicking myself for ignoring it so long!
All of the games within it look and sound old with simple gameplay, without any of the annoying elements that plagued games in the 90s. Collision detection is fine in Rally King, there's no "leaps of faith" in Haggleman 3 and no 1-Hit KOs in Guardia quest.
And the kids are SO CUTE!
Gestahl(5) on 02, Sep. 2009 17:10 (HKT)
Fantastic game Whoever gives it less than 5 stars, has no heart.
I'm not that big fan of old games myself, but the game so brilliantly imitates the old games, at the same time giving them the traits of modern games, that it is impossible to turn it off.
Too bad we'll never see the sequel in English but oh well... Hopefully my Japanese sometimes will be good enough to play it.
thristian(1) on 01, Sep. 2009 19:38 (HKT)
Fascinating, clever, true-to-life As an homage and parody of video-gaming in 1980s Japan, this game excels. It has a whole bunch of games that could very well be lost Famicom games, from shooters to platformers to racing games and even an RPG, that each represent a typical entry in their respective genres from that era, and the included videogame hints-and-news magazines go even further, with reviews and previews and celebrities and repeatedly delayed games.
The problem with Retro Game Challenge is that it may well be too accurate a simulation: 90% of Famicom games were crud (as per Sturgeon's Law), and so the "average Famicom games" in RGC can be kind of mediocre at times unless you have particularly strong nostalgia for the era. Although the difficulty games have been tweaked for the more casual DS audience, there's still a bunch of grinding and repetition necessary to complete the later games - very authentic, but not exactly fun (I'm looking at you, Haggleman!).
Despite the low-points, there's still a lot of quick, bite-size fun here, and if you're at all interested in the early days of Japanese video-gaming, it's worth a purchase.
