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 seem to be making a habit of starting here with something that’s not a game as such, and this week it’s the turn of Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel for PlayStation Portable from 2006! It’s the story of Metal Gear Solid for the original PlayStation, presented as a fast-moving mix of minimal and mostly monochrome thick-brushstroke and heavy-pencil illustrations, which are then separated and animated as individual elements, with a bit of motion, lighting and other graphical effects applied – Snake’s bandana blowing in the wind, snow blowing across the screen, crosshairs moving, that kind of thing – as well as overlayed text and speech bubbles, of course. And it all works very effectively, as you let the story automatically move along at its own pace (which takes about three hours), like you’re watching a movie, or switch to your own pace with button presses that let you spend a bit more time taking in the visuals or reading along, if you wish. Not that it’s massively heavy on the text but there’s just enough exposition and conversation to keep the plot moving and vaguely comprehensible, as far as Kojima’s bonkers (and far more long-winded) original narrative will allow at least! Except for voice-acting (which is probably no bad thing!) it’s got loads of the in-game audio too, from the epic, atmospheric soundtrack to all the sampled gunshots, bullet ricochets, slashes and stabs, as well as the resulting stuff breaking and nasty bodily sounds, and actually, this is what really makes this stand out above other features here, like being able to zoom in, or flag specific items for a more detailed look later, as something you couldn’t experience any other way, and as such makes it at least as worthwhile as any UMD movie you might also own on the PSP!

I thought supernatural sleuthing and walking simulator Kona was great, and have been looking forward to playing its 2023 sequel, Kona II: Brume, since it first arrived on Xbox Game Pass a few months back. It follows straight on from end of the original too, once again set in Northern Quebec in 1970, where a bizarre mist – the titular Brume – has descended on a seemingly quiet mining town and left it disconnected from reality, leaving you to unravel its mysteries, whilst also battling for your own survival. Except it’s less of a battle this time and more of a slog… Blimey, this game gets tedious! Proper walking simulator, once you’ve hiked back and forth across the same huge areas dozens of times! That’s not my biggest disappointment though – Kona could be a bit rough around the edges but it could also do peril, and it could do weather, maybe like no other game I’ve ever played, and combined that left you far more concerned about the relentless risk of freezing to death than any of its spooky nonsense; your only concern here though is falling asleep! And I’m still not sure what’s worse – having to trudge around an entire map looking for six missing dogs to pull your sled or having every single one already marked on your map from the outset of the stupid mission! There’s plenty more where that came from too, although it’s not entirely without challenge and there are a few decent puzzles later on… And it even gets a bit creepy, with one masterful surprise I won’t spoil but will be obvious should you ever stick with the game that far, although it did also serve to just remind me how much more I enjoyed its predecessor! There’s some proper jank too, like when the aforementioned dogs were finally attached to my sled but got stuck in the scenery, after which they then totally ignored the scenery, disappearing in a straight line into rocks, hills and all sorts, taking me along with them! The meandering plot works okay though, and was solely responsible for keeping me going to the credits, although a lot of that was also down to my own stubbornness too! And the audio adds to the atmosphere even if the visuals don’t so much this time. Just a shame that also goes for almost everything else! 

I’ll never forget seeing the original Last Ninja for the very first time on my friend’s Commodore 64 back in 1987 – probably the most stunning game I’d ever come across up to that point! We’d go on to sink hours and hours into its cinematic martial arts gameplay but less so the second game the following year, which never really had the same impact, and by the time Last Ninja 3 came along in 1991, it just seemed like a bit of a relic, with bigger and better “proper” 16-bit titles to spend what very little money I had on, so it took decades… By which time neither the clunky proto-tank controls, hapless enemy AI, terrible collision detection and even worse precision jumping had improved with age but throw in some save states to compensate and its C64 incarnation in particular can still be a wonderful thing! This time the game’s set in what seems to be fantasy-medieval-ish Tibet, with each of its five levels reflecting the elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water and the mysterious Void) that are the foundation of the Shaolin temples that give our ninja his power, which some nasty shogun and his four bosses are trying to put a stop to. To put a stop to them though, you need to explore each level, finding items and solving puzzles to get the magic scrolls you need to defeat each one, as well a way of physically getting to them. It’s all isometric flip-screens, with regular enemies to defeat on each one, and while you can just admire the wonderful somersault animation and skip by them, that won’t fill your bushido (or honour) gauge, meaning you won’t be able to beat the final level. Which I wish I’d known before I got there… The puzzles take some thought and the level maps are relatively small but very cunning, combining with the limited action perfectly to keep the pace fast, even while you’re scratching your head. Nice variety to it all too, with clever theming and typically gorgeous pixel-art at this point mixing things up every time (especially in the wildly cosmic Void final level), and the music on each is as sublime as it ever got on the C64 – it’s that good! Okay, the gameplay hasn’t aged quite as gracefully but I’m glad I finally got there all the same!

I’m also a good way into Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater on PlayStation 2 but you’ve probably enough of that this week already, and I’ve gone really long elsewhere, so I think we’ll leave it there for this time. In case you missed it last Wednesday though, do check out my deep-dive into Victory Run on PC-Engine… Could it be a rare case of a decent racer on the system? Well, you can read all about it and find out but it’s definitely more than meets the eye! Then next Wednesday, we’re going to be joining everyone’s favourite modern Stone Age family and discovering The Flintstones on ZX Spectrum so I’ll hopefully see you then… Yabba Dabba Doo!

As always, I’ll never expect anything for what I do here but if you’d like to buy me a Ko-fi and help towards increasingly expensive hosting and storage costs then it will always be really appreciated! And be sure to follow me on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) or Threads for my latest retro-gaming nonsense!