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…

Something brand new to begin with, and it’s Pepper Grinder on Nintendo Switch. I really didn’t think I’d like this when I first fired-up the demo that dropped from Nintendo’s Direct-thing back in February, but there was something there that made me stick with its weird, almost Ecco the Dolphin-like drilling-motion mechanic for more than my usual dismissive thirty seconds, then within a couple of minutes it was suddenly fluid and increasingly precise as my little pixel pirate burrowed and leapt her way through the bold and mysterious cartoon island she’d found herself shipwrecked on, trying to recover her stolen treasure. And here we are with the full game, which finally launched this week! You dig, you dive and you fly, collecting loot, uncovering secrets, solving puzzles, controlling machines and taking down enemies as you go, all with your trusty drill and its ever-increasing usefulness, and it’s all a very clever twist on a kind of familiar, very indie formula.

A bit of both old and new next… I loved the three original Lotus games from Gremlin on the Atari ST, so much so I even bought rather than copied some of them! They would then create something very similar for the SNES called Top Gear, which spawned another series that would span loads of platforms, all the way to the PlayStation 2 and beyond, and that series also became known as Top Racer along the way. And I’m also a big fan of the three of those games collected in the recent Top Racer Collection, which I’ve been playing on PC via Steam, including the original split-screen, very-arcade-racer from 1992, the marginally more realistic 1993 sequel, and 1995’s Top Racer (or Top Gear) 3000, which was similar again but set in the future. And it turns out I quite like the “brand new” fourth game included on there too, albeit not for the reasons you might think… This is because it isn’t just more of the same but seems to be exactly the same as the first game, with cars out of modern spiritual successor, Horizon Chase, about all I can tell being actually any different! Which is a bit of a cheek but, having not played any of these for a while, I can’t deny I’ve had loads of enjoyment out of its pixel-heavy, mildly strategic, high-octane racing anyway, so I’ll give it a reluctant pass for now as part of a very good set.

Realistically I’m never going to spend £50 on the new Princess Peach: Showtime! on Nintendo Switch but it’s always good to see what Nintendo is up to, even when they’re clearly winding a console down, so I thought I’d give the demo a go, and I’m glad I did because against all the odds, I had a great time with it! The game begins with the Princess in the lobby of the fancy Sparkle Theater, waiting (arguably for a bit too long!) for the show to begin, when a mysterious masked villain makes a dramatic entrance then takes the place hostage with some dark magic, leaving her to save the day… And the play! She’s assisted by glittering guardian Stella and her special ribbon, which allows Peach to interact with the various stage sets, rally the actors and take on a host of transformations, each with their own unique abilities. The demo lets you try out the platforming meets beat ‘em up sword-fighting one, and the joyful cookie construction and cake decorating patissiere one, but there’s also kung-fu, detective, mermaid, figure-skater and loads more in the full game to help you through appropriately designed and themed areas that look like they’ll offer a lot of variety. They seem polished to bits too, which admittedly helps mask the very simple and not very challenging but obviously broad-appeal gameplay, however varied it is. Doesn’t stop everyone enjoying it though, even if it’s a far outside your wheelhouse as it is mine! And while I might not spend £50 on it, I’ll be keeping an eye on future eShop sales!

I’ve played a load of several of the games included on The C64 Collection 3 for Evercade since it came out a month or so ago – I love Summer Games II so any excuse, and I’ve made serious in-roads into the wonderful Paradroid, Anarchy and Boulder Dash for the first time in far too long… Even gave the ridiculously hard Deliverance: Stormlord II way more time than it probably deserved! However, I covered those enough when I reviewed the compilation here, so let me talk Zynaps instead, which at the time I only pointed out was a secret bonus game when you plugged both this cartridge and the second one into the Evercade VS console at the same time… Love it when they do that! Anyway, this is a 1987 horizontal shoot ‘em up by Hewson Consultants, and if you thought Stormlord was ridiculously hard then you ain’t seen nothing yet! It’s fourteen of the most brutal levels that you’ll never see the majority of, not helped in the slightest by the lack of checkpoints – you die and it’s right back to the start of each one! And you’ll die a lot, clever cycling single-button power-up system or not! The thing is, as rough as things quickly get, it’s very clearly your fault every time you do, so you’ll keep trying and dying and trying again! But you’ll also make gradual progress, and maybe see lots of the variety in the level designs, some of which are a real treat to look at too, as they scroll smoothly by with some cool sounds on top. And then you’ll keep trying some more! I really like this one, however much as it hates me and makes me hate myself, which, once again, can be way more enjoyable than it sounds!

Right, I’ve got Easter eggs to eat so I’m going to leave it there for this week! In case you missed it last Wednesday, we had a very special deep-dive into a brutal, pioneering shoot ‘em up, and the very first game I ever bought! Catchy name too… My Life With Arcadia on the Commodore VIC-20! Then be sure to check back next Wednesday, when we’re heading back exactly forty years for the very latest in video gaming… It’s Retro Rewind: April 1984 in Computer & Video Games, straight from the pages of the original magazine! Hopefully see you then.

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