Gamertell Review: Retro Game Challenge for DS

Title: Retro Game Challenge
Price: $29.99
System(s): DS
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Publisher (Developer): XSeed Games
ESRB Rating: “Everyone” for alcohol reference, mild fantasy violence and mild language.
Pros: Games so retro you swear you played them, conversations you swear you had and cheats you think you already knew. Able to keep a manual screen open while playing.
Cons: Silly premise and some conversations that drag on a little.
Overall Score: Two thumbs up; 94/100; A; * * * * out of five.

If you are old enough to remember the excitement of each and every new NES game being released, no matter how insignificant, then Retro Game Challenge will certainly be a positively nostalgic experience for you.

Comprised of faux Famicom games, Retro Game features a crazed, Max Headroom-esque game master who tasks you with several silly challenges for each game as you thumb through humorously era-appropriate fan mags. It’s silly, it’s appropriately nostalgic and enticing enough to keep even current gen gamers interested.

Like, Totally Gnarly

Each game is presented on the top screen and two bubble-headed gamers are on the bottom screen, chatting about each game and periodically downing a cup o’ noodles. You do get to partake in some small conversation trees but, regardless of choice, they all end up on the same branch. There you can also browse game manuals and fan magazines (appropriately titled Game Fan Magazine) that include silly interviews, hints and – naturally – cheats.

The game’s evil task master is Game Master Arino who forces you to play through five specific challenge for each game before you are allowed to get another cart, One or two of the challenges is usually super simple while the others significantly increase in difficulty or time. Once you do complete all of a game’s challenges, you unlock the Freeplay mode for that game as well as the next game in your challenge (until all five games are unlocked, of course).

The games include: Galaga-esque shooter Cosmic Gate, platformer door game Robot Ninja Haggle Man, top-down racing game Rally King, R-Type-ish space shooter Star Prince, platformier Robot Ninja Haggle Man 2, slightly improved top-down racer Rally King SP, grind-a-rama turn-based role-playing Guardia Quest and a rev-imagined Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3.

Since the game is based on a Japanese TV show of a similar name (Retro Game Master starrging Shinya Arino ), there are some odd references but that’s fine since really nothing is lost in translation here. Or, at least, it seems like intentionally mis-translated text. It’s all about love of old school, 1980s games and two kids becoming engulfed in gaming culture.

Beauty, Eh?

Part of the beauty of this game is its sense of ’80s games. Not only is is presented with the appropriate graphics of the era but it also has many of the same features: inescapable intros, quick and overly useful cheats (that involve combinations of up, down, B and A), tinny music and even a nod to questionably sequel-ized franchises.

The developers did well in creating games that could have easily been released in the mi-’80s. Each of the two space shooters represent the two ends of the genre (fairly simple and seemingly impossible). The Haggle Man series of games represents not only the milking of a franchise but also how the same game can evolve into something completely different, in this case, from a low graphics, single-room platformer to a multi-level, backtracking Castlevania clone (those who believe this is a Ninja Gaiden clone need to go back and replay the original Castlevania – some of the room elements are identical to the point that I even knew where I could break through a wall without thinking).

To help mix things up a bit, the challenges in the game are not all your standard “make it to level X” or “score X points” – though there are a few of those – but often involve a very specific task that may not even require that you finish a level. Some examples, which often require that you read the in-game fan magazines (and you are heavily guided in that respect), include warping twice in Cosmic Gate, clear the third level of Haggle Man (1) without using ninja stars, get a 1UP in Star Prince and, the shortest challenge, get a starting line boost at the beginning of Rally Race 2.

Appropriately rounding out the ’80s genres is Guardia Quest (dern similar to Dragon Quest), a turn-based role-playing game that requires an obnoxious amount of grinding. The nice part is that you can use a non-’80s Auto function that will do its statistical best to win the battle for you. Your standard commands are there and, as was true even then, the manual is woefully lacking with regard to what every item will do (so you’ll wast a lot of items on fallen comrades). Much like those early games, this one seems like it can grind on forever but ends sooner than you think.

The game’s final challenge for the story mode is to get to the end of each game. Naturally, you can use all the cheats and even warp to the last level but, by that point, you can pretty much play through most of the games without complaint.

Go Back to the Future

Retro Game does such a good job reminding you of ’80s NES games that even the most annoying parts are enjoyable, especially since you know they are intentional parodies. After completing the main challenges, you’ll wish there were even more fake retro games to play.

While you can certainly find a favorite genre or two that was missed (street brawler, skatboarding, fighting, etc.), this is still a nice enough sampling to keep you going for quite a while and hope for a *gulp* sequel.

The most remarkable aspect of Retro Game for gamers that were playing in the mid-’80s, is that even those each neo-retro game seems so very familiar, you really never played them before. When you start to get tired of the ol’ same ol’, there’s that little gamer in you that will keep you playing until you do it all.

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