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…

The arrival of two CX30+ paddle controllers and the 4 Games In 1 Cartridge that came with them for my new Atari 2600+ console marked something of a turning point in my recent obsession with creating an instant collection of original cartridges too. Three more (which I’ll cover another time) arrived the same day but beyond testing they work, I’ve barely touched any of them because there’s only so much you can get to grips with at once, and they’re stacking up to the point I won’t do that with any of them soon and the pile will just keep getting bigger! Anyway, as well as showing great restraint since that day, I’ve been having a blast with these things, and they were totally worth the extra cost of getting them from Amazon Germany because the UK one (Atari’s only distributor here) has been out of stock for a while with no signs of more to come. It’s two paddles on one DB9 port, and to all intents and purposes they’re authentic, right down to the stickers, and will also work on original 2600 and 7800 hardware. And for stuff like the games included in the pack, you can’t do without them! We’ve got Breakout, Night Driver, Canyon Bomber and Video Olympics as a taster here, all on one cartridge and selectable by DIP switch configurations on the back. Breakout feels good up to the point it gets way too fast a bit too quickly; Canyon Bomber really needs one more player than I’ve got but doesn’t really need a paddle until you get deep into its game variations for a take on another Atari arcade game, Destroyer; Video Olympics is fifty variants of Pong, which is all the Pong you could ever wish for; and Night Driver is just superb, pioneering, 3D racing, and I’ve now spent hours and hours playing it for high score (which I’m recording in a notebook)! Nice collection, nice controllers, and when I’m feeling less restrained again, I’ll hopefully add some more carts to my collection to take advantage of them.

Moving on several decades to 2013, I’ve been on a bit of a journey through the three Xbox 360 Ninja Gaiden games, all on Game Pass, mainly because I’m now fed up of seeing them untouched in my Series X games library, having added them the day I got it several years ago, but the remaster of the second just appeared on there too, so it’s now or never! That said, while I gave the first two enough of a go to get the jist of what was going on, I really couldn’t get into them – I didn’t find the hack and slash gameplay particularly enjoyable and the narrative and locations weren’t really doing it for me. I’d started so I wanted to finish though, and duly fired up Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge for a quick go, and a whole evening later there I still was, and having a great time! The weird thing is, first impressions were even worse for this one, as I charged through London this time, doing all the high-speed ninja stuff without really knowing what I was doing, or even which one I was a lot of the time, as I faced-off against big groups of similarly styled enemies – I’d even be doing things I didn’t need to, like randomly jumping, just to see where I was! Despite that, it still felt good though, in an overpowered but well-balanced kind of a way, and the Mortal Kombat-inspired cinematics had really been ramped up to support the Metal Gear Solid-inspired narrative, and otherwise relentless action. Okay, it’s linear and repetitive and probably a bit shallow by today’s standards but it’s also mostly mindless (and increasingly bonkers) good fun, as you mow down entire armies and some cool, big-scale bosses. I think I might even try and stick with this to the end.. Or at least until it gets too hard for me!

I’m a huge fan of Lonely Mountains: Downhill, and haven’t stopped dipping in and out since it took the number four slot in my 2019 game of the year countdown, but with the release of its sequel, Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, this week, it might finally have been superseded… Straight to Xbox Game Pass as well! The concept is the same, with you trying to find the ideal route down a sprawling mountain in the fastest possible time, and with the least possible crashes, but now you’re on skis rather than a mountain bike, and it’s not so lonely either because there’s both co-op and up to eight player versus modes too. Not really for me though, but with a no-pressure Zen Mode on top of a huge set of courses to get through, there’s more than enough solo stuff to keep you going for another six years, as you try to hit each one’s time and crash targets to unlock more (and be rewarded with all sorts of customisations), exploring each of the mountains in search of the perfect way down, then trying to perfect your own technique accordingly, over and over and over again! It’s so one-more-go, much like Trials was, and with similar challenge too, but also similar checkpointing so you can instantly retry those bigger risks (and some wild drops!) for the reward of a few saved seconds, until you’re skilled enough that next run might just be the one! So atmospheric too, mixing oversized pixels with these realistic but super-stylised and utterly gorgeous snowy dioramas, and the mountain sounds just right. The various types of snow feel just right too, with simple controls transmitting a real physicality. So addictive, so absorbing, so exhilarating, and a genuinely beautiful experience!

I’ve gone long on those so I think I’ll call it a day there. I did eventually finish Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops on PSP (covered here previously) this week though, and have the PS3 version of originally-PSP Peace Walker that came on the MGS HD collection on there on the go already, so I’ll let you know about that next time. And, no doubt, I’ll also get into my new (ancient) Phoenix, Chopper Command, Kung-Fu Master (and more…) cartridges on the Atari 2600+ too! In the meantime, in case you missed it last Wednesday, take a look at a brand new entry into my ongoing, genre-spanning top ten shoot ‘em up series, when this time we’re counting down my favourite isometric shooters. Then next Wednesday, do check back again when we’ve got even more throwing yourself down a mountain… Must be the time of year! Anyway, we’re going to be discovering Snowboard Championship, Gaelco’s hidden arcade gem from 1997 that’s so much more straightforward than the real thing, as we’ll find out! See you then!

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