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…

After playing the original for the first time last week, I thought I’d give Steamworld Dig 2 a go too, as it also appeared on Xbox Game Pass last month, but while it arguably just does the same thing better, I’m not quite sure I had the same good time with it… This first arrived on other platforms in 2017 then Xbox a year later, and picks up after the first game, where the original cartoon-steampunk robot miner protagonist has gone missing and you’re here to find him. It’s mostly more of the same but with fancier graphics and a weaker soundtrack, playing a bit more puzzle-platformer but still with the same metroidvania-infused mechanics of mining to get precious stones and metals and resources to trade for upgrades and new abilities to get a bit deeper and gradually unravel the mystery at hand. Some of these are really cool, like the robot arm that can punch through rock and the hook shot for propelling you across the vast underground tunnel network you’ve in part helped to form as you go, and it’s all very polished and feels even more fluid than its predecessor to move around in, but maybe wasn’t made to be played back-to-back with the original, especially when you’d run out of steam, so to speak, on that too. Like that though, glad I finally got to it but I think I’m done with these Steamworlds for a while now!

I’ve never really gone to town on Space Invaders DX, despite owning it all over the place since those cool old Taito collections on PS2, although this week I’ve been having a really good time with bits of it on Nintendo Switch. This take on the familiar formula first hit the arcades in 1993 (to celebrate the series’ fifteenth anniversary), and includes three modes to choose from – Original, Versus and Parody. Original is what you’d expect – graphics taken as far as you can while still being regular Space Invaders, with lots more sound and a slightly punchier vibe to the gameplay. Versus gives you competitive multiplayer, with dastardly mechanics like increasing the number of aliens gunning for your opponent. Finally, Parody mode, which is where it all comes alive, and that’s where I’ve spent most of my time this week! It’s the same game but with a cast of characters from Taito’s other titles replacing you and the aliens (and are possibly lifted from the SNES version here but I’m not sure where I previously came up with that fact)! Anyway, they’re from stuff like Bubble Bobble, Darius, Arkanoid and, maybe most notably, The New Zealand Story, which absolutely pops when you first fire up this mode – almost as gorgeous as the original and so full of unexpected character, which you’ll experience over and over again the further you get! Okay, it is just reskinned Space Invaders with a few “modern” bells and whistles but is that such a bad thing?

Along very similar lines, I’d never even heard of Namco’s Tinkle Pit when it got an Arcade Archives release on Switch and PlayStation a couple of weeks ago… It’s also from 1993, and it also features familiar faces (and objects) from their previous games, such as Pac-Man, Rally-X and Galaxian, and from the trailers I saw it looked really cool, so here we are! Actually, the gameplay isn’t unfamiliar either – maze game where you collect stuff, avoid stuff and do this kind of reverse inflate from Dig-Dug that lets you drop a big bell thing then drag it back towards you like a yo-yo, killing any enemies in-between. Get rid of all of them (or all but one and they’ll do a runner anyway), and you move to the next level, or a boss every few of them. It’s never really explained why any of this is happening, but it’s simple with some cool scoring mechanics that keep you coming back, and it really plays great, even if that does mean like a relic from a decade previously! Anyway, loads of wacky variety between levels too, from farm to cake factory to futuristic to just all sorts of happy, each with its own cute theme and drenched in so much colour and detail, all supported by the most sugary-sweet music and sound effects. Much like the last game, it’s probably not what anyone still wanted when it first appeared, and isn’t quite up there with any of the classics that infuse it, but it’s a lot of fun all the same!

I have never, ever played Metal Gear Solid before! I did try a demo of something on PSP but had no idea what was going on and I really don’t like stealth stuff regardless, so that’s my entire history with the series… Until now! Reading the cover feature on the 1998 PlayStation game in the latest issue of Retro Gamer magazine got me interested enough to give it a go though, so out came the PlayStation Classic Mini (where it’s built-in) and I’ve been blown away by how much I’ve actually enjoyed it ever since! Who’d have known… Anyway, in the unlikely event you know as little as I do, it’s action-stealth by Hideo Kojima, where you play super-soldier Solid Snake, trying to get into a nuclear weapons facility, rescue the hostages, neutralise the terrorist threat and prevent a nuclear strike. It’s an incredible, seamless mix of 2D and 3D, top-down, third-person, first-person and in-engine cutscenes, making for this totally cinematic experience unlike anything else I can think of today, let alone at the time! Obviously, the PS1 isn’t always great at letting things age gracefully but this still looks great, with some really lovely lighting (although some sections are overly dark), as well as decent voice acting and an excellent original soundtrack that often really adds to the drama. As does that cone of vision map gadget that helps you evade enemy attention, and the sheer panic of running away and trying to hide when you fail! I remember the buzz when this first came out and obviously I didn’t buy into it, but I’ve no regrets about that today because I wouldn’t have liked it back then anyway. Now though, I reckon it might just be a bit of a masterpiece, stealth and all, and I’m really looking forward to trying to get to the end!

Right, on that bombshell, I think we can finish there for this week! In case you missed it last Wednesday though, be sure to check out my deep-dive into Brutal Sports Football on the Atari Jaguar… Horizontal Brutal Deluxe or just the best version of a 16-bit game for a 64-bit machine that money can buy? Then next Wednesday, we’re discovering some old arcade shoot ‘em up classics from one of the genre heavyweights in Psikyo Shooting Library Vol. 1 on PlayStation 4, so hopefully so you then!

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