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…

We’ll start brand new but very familiar with Metal Slug Tactics, out this week on everything including Xbox Game Pass where I’m playing. And for a nerdy turn-based strategy game, this feels remarkably like the timeless, most bombastic of side-scrolling run and gunners that is Metal Slug, and bizarrely in pretty much every respect too… Which is probably why I stuck with it long enough to find a deep, varied, fast-paced and very clever take on the genre in its own right because a mass of endless tiny text tutorials all at once wasn’t the warmest welcome to the more casual player! Anyway, you’re leading a squad of elite soldiers, assembled from a choice of nine very unique series veterans, trying to take down the returning General Morden, his Rebel Army and some iconic returning bosses across over one hundred maps and twenty mission types. It’s plays tactical and rogue-lite and RPG-lite but here’s the twist – unlike most stuff like this, you’re rewarded for going in all guns blazing with your choice from loads of loadouts and combos, and the more aggressive you move in each turn, the more adrenaline to power specials and the better defence against attacks you get, and then when you land an attack, a synch mechanic means the rest of your squad can attack too, and once you get your head around working that, you can take out an entire map in one go! Both the modern pixel-art visuals and the soundtrack are nothing short of stunning and couldn’t be more authentic, and the level of detail (particularly in the series’ trademark animation) is outstanding. So much fan service too, so if you are a fan, just stick with it for a bit because it’s worth the investment!

Back in March, I very belatedly played 2001’s Ico on PlayStation 2 for the very first time, and quickly decided it was one of my favourite games ever! Way too good for emulation, in fact, so I bought a nice boxed version not long after, and have now just bought a copy of the 2011 PlayStation 3 high-definition remaster, bundled with the same treatment for its spiritual sequel-prequel Shadow of the Colossus. And I never have and never will like that game, so that’s the last you’ll hear of it here! Ico, on the other hand, I can’t get enough of! Just to recap, it’s a minimal 3D action-platforming adventure with maximum scale and immersion as “different” boy (called Ico) meets princess girl while they’re both locked up in a castle, which they then try to escape together, in the face of vertigo-inducing obstacles, puzzles and her evil mother’s terrifying magical minions. The gameplay is as sublime as the art style, simple and logical but – in combination with the deceptively intense narrative – emotionally draining, frequently exhausting and utterly wonderful all at once! This version, on the whole, is about fancy new presentation, as well as stereoscopic 3D support and PlayStation trophies if either float your boat. I was also impressed to see a few gameplay tweaks, particularly to a long-winded trial and error section by a waterfall, which they’ve not only now signposted with a big new waterwheel but you can climb over it too, taking away the need to land a horrible jump. There’s also a very distinct new smoothness to everything though, and not just things like the sweeping cinematic vistas of the game world, but how it feels to play – which admittedly might just be the controller being better! That said, there’s also a bit of the original’s magic lost, as that forlorn gloominess is brushed aside by clean lines and crisp colours; it’s all so polished and clinical and so PS3 now! It’s so Ico too though, adding embellishments and flourishes to the original but staying totally authentic, and if this was the only way I had to play it I wouldn’t be disappointed.

As I said when the first of two DLC packs dropped a couple of months back (see here), I went physical with Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection, and the cartridge has been a pretty much permanent fixture in my Nintendo Switch since it first came out at the end of 2022… I’ve barely stopped playing the games that came with that DLC of late either, and have been counting down the days for this second batch to arrive! “The First Console War” finally launched on Friday this week, and reflects gaming’s oldest rivalry, spanning all the way back to 1979, then continuing until Atari finally bought up what was left of Intellivision (and I’m not talking about that Amico embarrassment) earlier this year. It was never hotter than in those early years though, when Mattel, originally behind the Intellivision console, decided it was going to start making games for the Atari 2600 as well, a lot of which are represented in the nineteen included here. I’ll come back to those but as you’d expect from Digital Eclipse, there’s way more to this than just a bunch of old games, with a new interactive timeline containing loads of cool artefacts forming the backbone of the DLC, together with eight new video segments covering the back and forth between the Intellivision and the 2600 (or VCS as it was also known at the time), including interviews with M Network (the monicker for these crossover games) programmer Jane Terjung, Activision’s David Crane & Garry Kitchen, homebrew programmer Dennis Debro, and historians Leonard Herman & Mike Mika. 

As for the games, once again they’ve been integrated into the original compilation’s carousel, and include twelve of those 2600 M Network titles from the Intellivision, such as Astroblast, Frogs and Flies, International Soccer, Super Challenge Baseball, Air Raiders and Star Strike to name just a few. There’s also three unreleased M Network games, including Antbear (based on a Stern IP), Swordfight and Sea Battle, and the recently rescued unreleased prototype for Tower of Mystery. The regular 2600 library also gets expanded with Basketball and Video Pinball, which I’ve had such a blast going back to – actually, without spoiling too much, I’ve been toying with a top ten favourite pinball games feature for a while, and this has been hanging around my shortlist from the outset, despite being as primitive as it is! Never stopped anything being fun though, even if the ball is just a square! Over on the 5200, I’ve also spent some time with another prototype of an Atari 8-bit port, Final Legacy, which got as far as being advertised before being pulled then disappearing until 1998, and is a real-time war game linked by three pretty basic but still fun mini-games set in different nuclear theatres. Another one I’ve really been enjoying too, and likewise, an old friend by the name of Desert Falcon for the Atari 7800, a very fun and surprisingly deep (not to mention well-animated) Ancient Egyptian isometric shoot ‘em up. Finally, those 8-bit computers haven’t been left out this time, with the addition of Xari Arena and the graphically impressive Hardball, which I’ll hopefully get into in an upcoming Weekly Spotlight because I do love discovering a new baseball game! And I do love this DLC, a total bargain at £6.69, and will no doubt be coming back to plenty more from it too! 

Right, I am still playing Tomb Raider from the Remastered collection on Switch (see last week) as well but nothing new to say, and also (speaking of Metal Slug…) the brand new IREM Collection Vol. 2 too, which includes various versions of pioneering run and gunner GunForce, it’s spectacular sequel, and related shoot ‘em up Air Duel, but you’ll just have to wait for my review of that next Wednesday, which is the day before it launches, so check me out with my exclusives! Anyway, that will do us for today, but in case you missed it last Wednesday, we counted down my Top Ten Favourite Commodore 64 Arcade Conversions, complete with some colourful (but probably monochrome) ZX Spectrum-fanboy commentary, so do check that out! And I’ll hopefully see you next time!

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