Back again with our regular roundup of quick-fire reviews and impressions of everything under the spotlight at Retro Arcadia this week, old and new and a bit of both…

We’ll start by continuing my series of one or two sentence reviews for every game on each of the Evercade compilations I got for my birthday recently (first part covered The C64 Collection 2 last week), and this time it’s the turn of Namco Museum Collection 2, a now-discontinued collection of Namco console classics that only runs on Evercade handhelds, so I’m only playing on the EXP this time but – apart from Zelda – I’ve been at this lot all week so can’t be all that bad! Right, we’re going alphabetical so Burning Force is first, a 1990 3D shoot ‘em up on the Mega Drive or Genesis; think a less spectacular Space Harrier but that’s never stopped me enjoying it over the years and I’m glad it’s here! I’ve played a lot of the original but not much of Dig Dug II on the NES from 1986, which is still about inflating monsters but less about digging tunnels and more strategically cracking the ground, or even destroying it. It’s fine but while I prefer simple immediacy of the first I’m glad it’s this one is here too because I’ve got the other everywhere! Dragon Spirit is one of my top ten vertical schmups and the version here, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend, is a 1989 remixed port for the NES, with new cutscenes and an easy mode to make up for missing some levels, and it feels at home on the system here!

Next game Galaga needs no introduction – the 1985 port on the NES and it’s everything you want it to be… Except the actual arcade version, which is the case for a lot of what’s here but we knew that coming in so no problem! Onto the SNES now, and Pac-Attack, the 1992 spin on Tetris, with a cool ghost-gobbling mechanic when you chain enough to get them off the playfield. I’d still rather play Tetris but that’s not here so this will do nicely! I’m a big fan of Phelios, the 1990 Greek mythology vertical shooter for the Mega Drive that’s very accessible, has great presentation and a cool weapon change mechanic, and makes a nice change from shooting sci-fi stuff! Two Splatterhouses next, first Splatterhouse 2, the 1990 Mega Drive sequel to the arcade game that brought more of the same 2D side-scrolling horror-themed brawling but with an extra helping of gore! Fantastic game it is too! As is Splatterhouse 3, which isn’t more of the same because now it plays like Double Dragon in a haunted house, with 3D movement providing some really fun and fluid combat; of everything here, this is the one I’m planning on sinking my teeth into properly first because I’ve still never beaten it!

The Tower of Druaga is the 1985 NES port of the influential arcade game from the previous year, and is a fantastic action-puzzling RPG meets maze ‘em up with surprising hidden depths if you want to seek them out, or just loads of arcade fun if you don’t! Warpman is a curious thing for the NES in 1985, starting out like Dig-Dug in space then transitioning to Bomberman then going back again, and while it’s not especially engaging I’m happy enough it’s here to have a go at every now and again because it’s good enough that you will. Last game is Weaponlord, another SNES game and this time a 2D weapon-based fantasy fighter from 1995 that plays like a primitive Soul Calibur, which I guess it inspired down the line at Namco. Anyway, good-looking game with loads to learn across an interesting but not huge roster of characters in story and arcade modes, and I’ll be spending serious time here sometime too! And that’s the lot, so time for a summary, and while there’s a few things here I’m not really fussed about, I reckon there’s enough I’m very fussed about that if this was the only cartridge I owned for my Evercade EXP, I wouldn’t be unhappy!

I was less happy with the Street Fighter 6 demo, and I was gutted because I’ve been looking forward to it so much! Just didn’t click with the whole open world thing. However, I did still get involved in the open beta last weekend all the same because, from time spent in the one-on-one tutorial mode in the demo, the fighting felt as good as you’d expect, and I wasn’t ready to abandon my pre-order on the basis of an hour in a very limited demo… The fighting turned out to be great online too, even if my skills are less so, with no problems getting into games, and performance seemed fine to me. I liked how easy it was to spectate bigger boys playing too, but the Battle Hub thing where the matchmaking happens – no! I don’t want all this social crap either, or obnoxious game-show hosts, or wandering around interacting with things and dressing up my character and speed-dating and dancing or whatever. I just want to fight! I suppose you can ignore the fluff and still do exactly that, but actually, I think I just want Street Fighter II – which also solves my new conundrum of now really wanting Diablo IV too after a more successful beta there… Maybe I’ll get that and wait for the new Tekken instead!

Finally this week, we’re jumping to Cursed Demons of Wallachia, a brand new platforming homage to my dearly beloved Hammer Dracula movies for the ZX Spectrum! You play as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who finds himself inside Castle Dracula in search of garlic and stakes to take down all the vampires, as well as the horde of “cursed demons” who live there with them, before finally escaping. There’s loads of excellent homebrew platfomers on the Spectrum but it’s not just the setting that elevates this one for me – it looks great, with so much atmosphere and so much colour (leading to some lovely colour clash!), and there’s a level of polish and attention to detail that only comes with a real love for the subject matter, but most of all it’s the creative and well-thought out level designs – old-school brutal but old-school fun too!

I’m still loving Wave Race 64, and I’ve started dabbling with Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 too, both care of Switch Online, but we’re running long so I’ll come back to those next week, maybe with a Zelda update as well. In the meantime, it’s approaching the end of the month, so we’ve got our regular look ahead to the mostly but not exclusively retro-interest new stuff being released in June on Tuesday. And then on Thursday, we’re going to reviewing the brand new Commodore Amiga-based Team17 Collection 1 on Evercade, with a look at every one of the ten games on there in turn and in more detail than where we started here today. Assuming the cartridge turns up in time! Finally, in case you missed it, there was another review of something properly brand new (kind of!) last Wednesday, when we looked at Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! on Nintendo Switch, so be sure to check that out! Otherwise, see you next time!