Back again for our regular Sunday 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… I’ve been away for holiday part two though, so once again, please excuse the handheld focus, even if the thought of playing most of these handheld was pure science-fiction at the time!

I’ve started preparing for what will be an upcoming deep-dive into the SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 collection for PSP, and as is often the case when I remember it exists, my research got quite sidetracked by King of the Monsters! But how can you not get sidetracked by a 1991 NeoGeo wrestling match between two colossal beasts across an entire destructible city? Okay, its not the most sophisticated fighting game you’ll ever play, but it’s great fun, with six classic kaiju- and tokusatsu-inspired monsters to choose from and six near-future Japanese cities waiting to wrecked while you battle it out for a three-count! They might not be officially licensed, but there’s Godzilla, King-Kong, Ultraman and so on. Controls are dead simple, with context-based punches and kicks, grapples leading to suplexes and slams, rope throws and a special. It’s all very shallow, but who cares when those ropes are power lines that will electrocute your opponent, or that slam is on top of some packed stadium! The more you destroy while you’re wearing them down the better, with bonus points awarded for destruction between rounds, of which there are twelve in total. The cities are full of intricate colour and dynamic character as they try to defend themselves, and even though the scale you’re fighting on means the monsters themselves are relatively small, it’s the same for them too – all recognisable and enough movement about them to give the combat a bit of strategy and a bit of variety depending on who you choose. It played great on PSP but this week I’ve been playing the ACA NeoGeo on Switch, and it’s great here too.

As much as I’m looking forward to trying the new Madden NFL 24 in a couple of weeks, there’s no chance I’ll be playing it in forty years time like I still am 10-Yard Fight, the Irem American football arcade game from 1983! It’s such a simple arcade take on the game, but while there’s no intricate plays, its limited choices offer their own strategy and loads of fun! You receive the ball and run as far as you can, then it’s regular four downs to make ten yards of progress before the next set of four or a touchdown. As the quarterback, you can run with the ball, pass to a running back or pass long-distance to a single receiver, and you’ll take control of those too after a successful pass, when you’ll just be running as far as you can before being taken down or scoring, at which point you’ll then get a go at punting or a field goal and move to the next level. As said, very simple, but plenty of ways to go based on how each new play is set up, and you very quickly become very invested in your team’s micro game, and the next, and the next! I’ve loved owning the Arcade Archives release for years now, and have racked up tens of hours on Switch, but recently I’ve not been able to put down the Irem Arcade 1 release for Evercade from a couple of months ago. Yes, everything about it is primitive, but it’s still a hell of a game of football in its own way!

I’ve been playing Lifeline: Whiteout on my Apple Watch and iPhone since 2017, and finally saw the end of it this week! It’s a narrative adventure, all text-based, where you are the last line of communication with a lost amnesiac in a frozen wasteland. I think it was originally designed with the Apple Watch in mind, offering a small chunk of conversation with a branching path at the end as you help this guy first survive and then try and find out where he is and how he got there. After each decision, he’ll go off and do his thing, then you get a notification when he’s ready to talk again, which could be a minute later or could be ages… Although not six years ages! Honestly, I wish I’d never started it, as the story didn’t really grip me, but I’d occasionally notice there was something waiting for me in my phone’s games folder and do a bit more. Clever idea though, but I’ll probably give the other games in the series a miss!

I realised the Mega Drive bit of Nintendo’s Switch Online Expansion Pass has been a bit neglected in these parts so far, so I’ve been bouncing around various things like Gunstar Heroes, Zero Wing and Shinobi III, but strangely ended up playing the most of one of the least illustrious games in what’s a decent-sized library, Virtua Fighter II. I’ve played a bit of the original arcade game from 1995, but never this “reimagining” for the Mega Drive the following year (despite it also being on the Mega Drive Mini), where all that 3D motion captured violence is replaced by plain old 2D sprites and much simplified sound design. Less moves too, and less characters, less stages and less of everything really, but somehow I think there’s still something of the essence of the original here, with the moves replicated well (and moving as well as can be expected), and some really great music too. It’s not a top tier Mega Drive fighting game by any means, but taken standalone, I’ve enjoyed getting to know what did make the cut!

In another corner of the Switch Online library, I’ve also been playing Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins. This was the 1992 sequel to the original Game Boy platformer I brought home with the console on launch day, and which remains one of my favourite games on the system to this day. Less so this one, although I’ll gladly take any excuse to play through it again when I get one, like it being one of the few games actually in this library so far (despite the two Zelda Oracle games recently appearing in there). In this one, you’re up against Wario, who’s captured Mario Land and turned it into his private playground, which demands you explore thirty-two levels across six zones full of danger and monsters, looking for the six golden keys that will get you into Mario’s castle where you can put a stop to him. It’s more Super Mario World in structure than the simpler Super Mario Bros. of the first game, with the over-world map you traverse to get to the different zones and sections giving it a more bite size appeal, even if it’s not massively long. Lots to explore though, with secrets and new power-ups to find, and you can come and go and return to levels as you please. One of the better-looking games on the system too, without having so much going on that you notice the trademark blur making an appearance. Really makes me wish my original Game Boy hadn’t died!

Space Invaders Extreme was never exactly colourblind-friendly but I’ve been playing a bit of that all the same because it’s quite the head-trip, even if you don’t know what’s hit you or why the level still isn’t complete! However, a go on anything on the Space Invaders Invincible Collection on Nintendo Switch inevitably leads back to my favourite of all the games on there, Space Invaders Part II, so that’s where I’ll finish this week. This 1979 sequel introduced new gameplay mechanics like enemy reinforcements, aliens that split in two and rainbow showers. It was also the first game ever to have an attract mode, and in another gaming first, an end of level cutscene, with the final invader flying off in a space ship and sending out an SOS message! Otherwise, the look and feel (and ominous sound effects) are more or less what you know from the original. Cool challenge mode here too, where you have to finish a round while triggering the rainbow effect, which involves destroying all enemies except a single 10-point invader, that will then leave a visible rainbow trail as it starts moving faster. In the background I’ve been working on the first of a series of top ten shoot ‘em ups in various formats, and when I eventually get to single-screen ones, this is going to be up there!

That’s all I’ve got for this week but in case you missed it, last Wednesday we had a nice seasonal look at one of the Commodore 64’s most iconic games, Summer Games II. And be sure to check back next Wednesday for the first of a couple of summer specials, when we’re going to be thumbing through the August 1982 issue of Computer & Video Games! It’s a bit of an experiment into what I hope will be a semi-regular feature next year then a monthly one the year after (which is dictated by my C&VG collection!) but I really enjoyed putting it together so I hope you enjoy reading it too! See you then!