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…

It was my Mum’s birthday last week, and I called in to see her after work, which my youngest brother had also done. We got onto the subject of old toys, and he mentioned he’d come across his Donkey Kong Game & Watch in a recent clear out in his loft. The orange one, I asked? Yes. With two screens that fold up? Yes! I don’t remember him ever having this, and he wouldn’t have even been 3-years old yet when it came out in 1982, but anyway, guessing it was about to go on eBay regardless, I said to him I’d give him whatever the asking price is on there instead because I’ve been after one for ages. That was that, but I said I’d stop at his place on the way home to pick up some stuff he had for me, and when I did, there he was with an orange box in his hand for me to just take with me! My neighbour had one in the early eighties and I used to play it whenever I could, so this was proper Holy Grail stuff for me, and like most of these games, it’s really stood the test of time too! It’s a small handheld that opens up into the dual-screen format that inspired the Nintendo DS, and I think it was also the first appearance of the cross-shaped d-pad we still use today. The game itself is adapted from the arcade original, with you as pre-Mario Mario making your way up the girders on the bottom screen, jumping over the barrels rolling down from the top, then flipping a switch to activate the crane on the other screen, which you have to time a jump onto to rescue your girlfriend, Pauline, defeat the big monkey, and do it all again. The gorgeously detailed monochrome sprites behind colourful screen overlays are timeless, and the beeps and blips that accompany them are so nostalgic! As is the score chasing, one-more-go gameplay, from a time before most of us had consoles or computers, and one when game that played as well as this was literally all you needed. All you were getting too, if you were lucky, so I’m very happy to finally have one of my own! 

I never did get around to Tekken 8 after it arrived last year but when I recently stumbled across a copy of Tekken 5 on PS2 from 2005 for next to nothing on eBay, I thought that would do instead, especially as it also contains the arcade versions of the first three games, all of which were old favourites but I’ve never owned anywhere myself! The arcade version of 3D shooter StarBlade is also unlockable but takes a bit more work in the mass of regular modes also included, with story and arcade battles, time attacks, versus and team battles, a survival gauntlet, a practice mode, and also Tekken: Devil Within, a full-on 3D beat ‘em up in the midst of all the one-on-one fighting fun… Although once you’ve got what you wanted from it, so to speak, I doubt you’ll be back for much more! The fighting elsewhere is far more fluid than in Tekken 4, and more familiar too if those predecessors are old favourites, mostly based around single buttons for punch, kick, jump and guard, which can be deployed high, mid, low or dashing. You’ve also got counters and reversals, and each of the thirty-two characters (of which six are new and one is a variant) also has an unblockable special in their unique arsenal, which, with loads of difficulty levels, all adds up to plenty to keep you out of trouble! I’m not really into the mostly generic electronic soundtrack but there’s a lot of sound adding impact otherwise, and the visuals are great – big, detailed and full of character, with varied and dynamic backgrounds, and it moves beautifully. Maybe not quite my favourite Tekken all the same but it’s filled a gap very nicely! 

Having now seen the back of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on PlayStation 3 (more here but I thought it was great – probably second favourite), I decided to sidetrack to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which I picked up a while back for Xbox 360, where it originally came out in 2013. It’s a spin-off from the mainline series, and in many respects couldn’t be more different, seeing a return of the divisive Raiden, lead character from MGS 2 who was also back in 4, in a role more akin to Devil May Cry than Metal Gear, which many may argue is where he’d have been better suited in the first place! It’s set four years after the events of 4, albeit with a completely standalone and far less, er, philosophical narrative than you’d get elsewhere in the series, as you travel the world with your own private military organisation, trying to take down a rival one that’s out to destabilise formerly peaceful nations for profit. Which involves the most over-the-top and downright spectacular hack and slash gameplay you could ever wish for, full-on DMC or God of War-style, and enhanced no-end by Raiden becoming mostly cyborg at the start of the game! It’s all ridiculously fast-paced and totally relentless, as you move from set-piece to set-piece to huge mechanised boss fight and back again, taking down human or otherwise enemies by the dozen with joyful graphic violence, and that’s before you trigger the Blade Mode, which lets you slice up anything into a thousand pieces. Literally! Loads of weapons, upgrades, secret missions and all-sorts to find too, and it’s wildly cinematic, even more polished and simply as good-looking as that generation ever got, and with a soundtrack to match, all as you’d expect from a Metal Gear game, even if the rest is anything but, in the very best possible way!

I actually managed to get that finished this week too, which is why – apart from some more Blue Prince (see last week) – that’s all I’ve got for you today, but in case you missed it last Wednesday, we went super old-school to discover Demon Attack on Atari 2600, at least once I was past my favourite box art ever, so do check that out! Then next Wednesday, join me again because it’s the start of the month, so we’re heading back exactly 40 years for the very latest in video gaming in Retro Rewind: May 1985 in Computer & Video Games, straight from pages of the original magazine! See you then!

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, and also on Bluesky, which is under my real name but most it ends up there too if you prefer!