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’m a big fan of Sega’s Virtua Tennis games, and it turns out the PlayStation Portable is a great place to play them! I just picked up a copy of Virtua Tennis: World Tour, which first came out in Europe and North America in 2005, then became Power Smash: New Generation in Japan the following year, and I think was a PSP exclusive. It’s got fourteen real-life players to play as and against, and we’re talking the likes of Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Tim Henman and Roger Federer, although the World Tour bit of it actually involves you creating both a male and a female character of your own and taking them through a series of singles and doubles tournaments, trying to become the world number one. Between tournaments, there are a bunch of mini-games to improve your skills, like Tank Attack to improve your stroke and Pin Crasher for your serve, and then there’s other modes including quick matches, various tournaments, exhibition modes and a nice variety of multiplayer modes, although, as always nowadays, good luck even getting your PSP online, let alone finding a game! More than enough solo stuff though, and as well as more than decent AI and a really good flow to things, it all feels so good to play on the analog nub-thingy here, with serves, regular shots, lobs, slices, drop shots and smashes on buttons, while shot strength is down to you setting up your return in time, and ball direction is totally intuitive on the directions as you’re hitting the ball – which, most importantly, you can actually do from the outset, unlike many of the more stuffy tennis games! Arcade heritage or not, the ball physics are good and feel distinct on different surfaces, and the presentation is equally slick, with realistic thwacks and grunts really adding some weight to the gameplay, and recognisable player models moving smoothly and acrobatically, with good-looking between-play close-ups and replays, and the five well-known “fictional” courts that look really great too, full of life and colour. Which also nicely sums up the game, which is just immediately fun, and that’s so rarely the case with these!

I’m pleased to report my original Atari 2600 cartridge addiction seems to have let up a bit, so although I’m about to present you with yet another batch of another six of them I’ve also recently picked up, I think it’s going to take me a while to get to the next six, especially now my shopping list is mostly in the realms of harder to come by! At the opposite end of that spectrum, Pac-Man was the system’s biggest seller despite leaving a bit to be desired in many people’s eyes, but if you’re able to get past the extreme simplification of the visuals, the horrible sound and questionable collision detection as you travel around its single maze, I don’t think this port from 1982 is too bad! In fact, once your senses adjust to it, it’s pretty enjoyable, and certainly doesn’t deserve the abuse it still gets, even if its sequels are admittedly what you want to be playing on here. Maybe next time… These are in no particular order so I’ll go with Tennis next, a pretty pioneering sports-sim from 1981 that might play as simple as it gets but does a very good impression of the sport for the time, with a bit of nuance and a nicely competitive back and forth, especially with two players.

Speaking of which, let’s jump to Fishing Derby! This one’s all the way from 1980 and has two anglers sat on the docks either side of a lake full of fish and a big (lake?) shark, who’ll try and nab them off you before you can land them to add to your weight tally. Especially the big ones at the bottom! It’s an iconic game with a great cartoon look and is a real blast to play as you try catch fish faster than the other guy while avoiding the shark! That was by Activision’s David Crane (of Pitfall fame), and so was Freeway a year later, so we’ll go there next… It’s kind of like Frogger but also has plenty of personality of its own, as you race to get as many chickens across increasingly busy roads as possible against the clock, and once again, ideally against another player. It’s colourful, fast-paced, pleasantly infuriating and just a lot of fun!

We’re going to fast-forward all the way to 1987 but stick with David Crane again for Skate Boardin’ (or Skate Boardin’: A Radical Adventure). Far more sophisticated thing too, as you skate around a maze-like, top-down-ish town, looking for the thirty tricks you need to perform within a time limit; they could be ramps to jump off, pipes to crouch through, and you can even get a tow from passing cars to save a bit of time finding them! It takes a while to get your head around but once you do, it’s hard to leave alone, and some really nice music too! Our last game for now is another arcade conversion, and it’s Donkey Kong from 1982. Although maybe a bit more faithful than Pac-Man, it’s had similar treatment, with only the opening falling barrel stage and the rivet-popping stage making the cut, and graphics and sound are toned down too, but it’s all authentic enough, and at the very least, is way better than all the clones (or klones) I used to enjoy on my VIC-20 at the time! And at less then £20 for the lot, I reckon that’s another decent haul!

I’ve actually been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 and South of Midnight more than anything this week but there’s not a lot to add to what I said about them last time, except they’re both still fantastic, so I also reckon that’s a decent place to call it a day here too. In case you missed it last Wednesday though, do check out my Top Ten Favourite Guilty Gaming Pleasures, which ended-up delving way deeper into my gaming psyche than I originally intended! Then next Wednesday, we’re all the way back to the very first game I ever finished on the ZX Spectrum, rediscovering Alcatraz Harry, as good a £1.99 as you’ll ever spend in 1984! Hopefully see you then!

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