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 really didn’t click with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake for at least the first half an hour I was playing it… Old-school unfair and then some, but with all its predecessor’s good jank (like respawning rations when you reenter a room) totally removed! It looked great though, and while I’m no expert, probably as good as it ever got on the MSX2, kind of top-down pseudo-3D, with loads of colour, detail, variety and glorious pixel-art atmosphere, especially when you’ve tripped an alarm and there’s flashing red lights and sirens going wild! Sound is something else too, even when you’re not drawing attention to yourself, and the haunting soundtrack is a real indicator of what was to come from the series. And likewise Kojima’s storytelling, which you could see from the outset was literally trying to burst out of its 8-bit shell… I talked myself into a second opinion and checked out some reviews, and yeah, they confirmed all of the above with loads of “best 8-bit game ever” talk, as well as reminding me quite how groundbreaking stuff like crouching and crawling to avoid line of sight or making noise that would attract enemy attention was, as if their evolving fields of view weren’t enough! At the very least, it deserved another half an hour, during which time I found some more rations, which meant I could start finding some more exciting stuff, and go back to where I couldn’t before and find more exciting stuff, and even start making some progress, and I suddenly realised I was quite enjoying myself… And then this thing was absolutely brilliant! It was originally released in 1990, exclusively in Japan, although an English translation was included on the PlayStation 3 HD Collection, tucked away on the MGS 3 title screen, which is where I’m playing now. It’s set in 1999 (a few years after the first game), when the world’s run out of oil, and the creator of an alternative has been kidnapped by the very militarised state that also stole everyone else’s nuclear weapons, and is now building its own Metal Gear D super-weapon, and our man Solid Snake needs to sort it all out! The narrative really goes places too, as does the gameplay, however unfair and of its time it certainly still is, but what a time it turned out to be, and a real statement of intent too.

As great as Namco’s 1987 arcade original still is, the 1988 PC-Engine conversion of Galaga ‘88 is where I know and love it the best, so when I had a hankering for a bit of old-school shooting this week, it was my first port of call! I think it was the third sequel to Galaxian, and continues to build on its iconic formula with more complex alien waves and more mechanics, as well as the returning Boss Galagas at the top of the screen, who don’t just take more hits but will also suck you up in a tractor beam given the chance, which in turn then adds more depth, with the opportunity to rescue your captured ship from them using subsequent lives and then fight on with dual ships… Or they could just end up being another alien to shoot at if you screw it up! This concept goes further in Galaga ‘88, where the boss aliens can suck up the two of you, giving you the chance of a triple fighter! It’s now also made up of five worlds of four stages, with branching paths, boss fights and four endings, plus the bonus stages where this game’s excellent music really comes alive. The rest is more of a lick of paint, with new colour and character to the aliens and some cool backgrounds, but this port just nails it all. 

We’ll finish today with The Alters, which recently launched on Xbox Game Pass and elsewhere, and is kind of Stardew Valley in Chernobyl! It’s a third-person sci-fi survival adventure, with you playing the sole survivor of a mining ship that’s crash landed on this bleak, radiation-ravaged planet. Fortunately, you’ll soon be joined by your alters – alternate versions of yourself, born of decisions you didn’t quite make in your own past, with their own personalities and a few unique, handy skills you could have had yourself if things had gone differently. Oh yeah, while you’re busy getting your head around that, learning to survive, and creating and managing your new crew, you’ll also have to manage and expand the giant, wheel-shaped base you find yourself the caretaker of – in a kind of Fallout Shelter style – in order to both keep it running, keep you alive, and whatever comes next. This leads to a lot of resource gathering out in the dangerous world, some strategic thinking and prioritising how to use them, and some serious time management on top… Which is a shame because a relaxed version where you can potter around in your base and explore at your leisure would be really cool! Not sure how much would be left without that pressure though, or the hard-hitting narrative it’s driving along, so we’ll be happy with what we’ve got, which also includes a very atmospheric and frequently striking environment, and decent, if not massively memorable sound design, as well as perfectly intuitive gameplay. And it all comes together really well, as consistently compelling as it is weird, and hard to put down for the five or six hours I’ve played so far at least, which I hope continues for whatever the duration is! 

That’s all I’ve got for this week, but in case you missed it last Wednesday, something I’d been looking toward to getting into since I did the same with Vol. 1 (here), as we discovered some arcade shoot ‘em up classics (and more besides!) in Psikyo Shooting Library Vol. 2 on PlayStation 4! Then next Wednesday, we’ll somehow be approaching the end of June, meaning it’s for the annual Retro Arcadia Game of the Year Halfway Hotlist, with everything I hoped for and a lot more besides for 2025 so far! Hopefully see you then!

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