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…

Firstly though, let me recap how we’ve got to 2024 and I’m still playing Metal Gear Solid games for the very first time… I’ve actively avoided stealth stuff for as long as it’s existed, but a Retro Gamer article from earlier this year got me interested enough to fire up Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation Classic, then I was hooked, and by the end it was making a play for the business end of my big list of favourite games ever! I quickly picked up the sequel for PlayStation 2, which was covered here a few weeks back but I can since confirm I also adore that one, so here we are now with the third, which we recently heard will be getting the remake / remaster treatment soon too, so all well timed after all! Anyway, I managed to grab a pristine copy of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, also for PS2, for less than a fiver on eBay, and I’ve certainly had my money’s worth over the past few days! This one is actually a prequel to the rest of the series, set in the Russian jungles of 1964, thirty-one years prior to the original Metal Gear, where you, Naked Snake, are trying to rescue a rocket scientist, destroy a super-weapon and kill your defector former boss. As usual, there’s more to it than that but it will do for now! Despite the time and the setting, it’s familiar territory to a born-again fanboy, although we’re now relying on the jungle itself to keep our energy topped up, while damage can be taken anywhere on your body and requires specific treatment depending on what and where, and there’s a new camouflage system for sneaking around, as well as a nicely balanced close-quarters combat system. As usual, it’s all groundbreakingly cinematic too, with masses of cutscenes and narrative to try (but mostly fail!) to keep on top of, and the sound design is typically wonderful, and there’s very atmospheric, albeit very of the time visuals. Still feels good to play though, and it’s gripping and well-paced, and this series just keeps getting better and better!  

It might not be the genuine article but Iron Meat, launched a couple of weeks ago, is the best Contra game I’ve played in years, way better than any of the real thing, including this year’s Contra: Operation Galuda. Unlike that one though, where the demo had exactly the opposite effect to its intended purpose, I actually deleted the demo for this one way before the end of the very first level because I was already sold! It’s a high octane indie run and gun shooter that plays as heavy metal as its soundtrack, as you blast through a retro-inspired future overrun by an iron-guzzling mass of mutated meat resulting from some secret experiment on the Moon gone wrong! Perfect excuse for some stunning pixel-art gore but that’s only half the visual story because there’s so much variety, life and character in what could easily have been generic, military-themed environments, with absolutely gorgeous spot-lighting effects, explosions, smoke and the like, mixed with larger-scale environmental set-pieces and so many layers of parallax scrolling! Some great big bosses too, who play remarkably fair for this kind of game, and with fifteen lives the rest does too despite the mass of enemies coming from all sides, and it controls so well, with your little Robocop-type dude moving smoothly and shooting fluidly. Then there’s the cutscenes, the power-ups, the unlockables, the customisation… But most of all there’s so much fun! I’m played on PC via Steam but it’s out all over the place and I can’t recommend it enough! 

Let’s finish with an unexpected bonus that arrived a few days before launch yesterday, so I thought I’d squeeze in some first impressions! It’s also something I absolutely didn’t need and wouldn’t have bought if I wasn’t so shallow, in the shape of the limited (to 2600 units!) woodgrain version of the new Super Pocket Atari Edition handheld console by Hyper Mega Tech, spun out of Blaze Entertainment, the Evercade people. Which it’s also got a cartridge slot for in the back! I do already have the Taito edition of this from last year, and I still use it a ton, so I’m sure I’ll also get my £60’s worth from this as well but even if I don’t, just look at it… That Atari 2600-inspired woodgrain effect, with the orange front and rear buttons – all so lovingly inspired by the original console I remember so fondly from decades ago – is simply irresistible! It doesn’t hurt that I’m a sucker for old Atari games either, and while I do own everything here on a dozen compilations on a dozen systems already, including on Evercade, I’ll very gladly play them all again anywhere else too, and there’s no less than fifty included on this thing, spanning the Atari 2600, 5200, 7800 and Lynx, as well as thirteen arcade games!

All the games are listed on the picture here but a few highlights include the original arcade versions of Asteroids, Night Driver and Millipede; then on the 2600 there’s stuff like Adventure, Dark Cavern, Yar’s Revenge and Solaris; and we’ve got Miner 2049er, Final Legacy and a handful more on the 5200 (but sadly no Star Raiders); the 7800 includes the likes of Desert Falcon, Ninja Golf and MotorPsycho; and finally some fantastic stuff on the Lynx, including Warbirds, Checkered Flag and Basketbrawl (but also no California Games unfortunately). It’s a genuinely well-curated selection on the whole, with a good selection of originals and ports, although it’s not too heavy on the latter at all, and there’s only one or two instances of different versions of the same game included. Really good value then, especially when you can stick any Evercade cart in the back too, and like the Taito version I already have, a great build for the price, with an excellent screen, surprisingly decent sound and plenty of battery life, although once again, it is properly pocket sized, which makes me appreciate having girl hands, especially on the shoulder buttons but fortunately, there won’t be many times the games included on here are crying out for them. Apart from that, there are various display options, and an easier difficulty mode for the arcade games, as well as save states, but not much else, which is exactly the idea, and overall I already love this thing, and will very likely be carrying it around all over the place for a very long time to come!

Right, that’s your lot for this week but make sure you check back next Sunday for my annual Halloween Special! And if you fancy a bit more before that and missed it last Wednesday, Yabba Dabba Doo join me and everyone’s favourite modern Stone Age family as we discover The Flintstones on ZX Spectrum! Then next Wednesday, we’re back again with a brand new feature! There are a handful of games I looked at here a very long time ago when things were done differently and for various reasons I think deserve another look now, and the very first one I want to go back to is a pioneering game with the most disappointing conversion ever… Revisiting Kung-Fu Master – Arcade & ZX Spectrum! Hopefully see you in a few days for that.

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