Back again for my 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. While it’s been a bit less intrusive than I reported last time, the building work has continued at home, with four new custom-made (because 400-years old) windows successfully installed, complete with a brand new layer of dust everywhere, having just about got rid of last week’s from all the plastering! And now we have to paint the stupid things inside and out… As well as seven “new” walls… Oh well, nothing better to do really, apart from playing a few games, of course!

I’ll start with something I finished with here last week, but only gave a quick mention of… Mega Man X is one of eighteen games that came on my Capcom-edition Evercade EXP handheld, but despite being a real old favourite of mine (not to mention all the time I’ve spent with these games on here), I’m not sure I’d even fired it up before! It’s right at home on this thing too, with that iconic synth-rock soundtrack really coming alive through headphones, its masterclass in ice-cool pixel art looking great on the small(-ish) screen, and I don’t think it’s ever felt better to play, which includes being very well-suited to bitesize sessions! This originally came out on the SNES in 1993, and is set a century after the original NES titles, where humans live alongside robots called Reploids, one of whom is our hero X, who’s the first of them to demonstrate free will, which he then uses to join the Maverick Hunters and help stop a baddie called Sigma and his band of rebel Reploids from destroying everything. As well as the generational (and slightly grittier) leap in graphics and sound, X has a few new skills too, including what I still reckon is one of the best wall-jumps ever, plus dashes, and various weapon and armour upgrades, all delivering a new energy and some new pace with it. It really plays great too, but despite all the updates, it’s still Mega Man at heart, including its classic level and boss order conundrum, although my biggest conundrum remains what’s my favourite – this or Mega Man 2? By the way, sorry for the rubbish photo above! I think I did a bit better with the next one…

Last time out we also looked at the new BurgerTime Super Micro Keychain Gamer from the makers of Evercade, and I concluded by saying that although there were elements that made it a bit pricey for what it was, I’d likely get my £20’s worth out of it before it was consigned to a drawer for most of the rest of its life… Well, that happened far quicker than anticipated already, and somewhere I wasn’t really expecting it to! As well as the NES version of BurgerTime, it comes with the that version of Karate Champ and Side Pocket too – still not sure why it’s not the arcade versions, but whatever! Now, I’ve played a lot of the Mega Drive port of Side Pocket before but never the NES one, which I think first arrived not far behind the original 1986 arcade game by Data East, where the main objective is to take your billiards skills from city to city by hitting a target score in each. You do this by potting balls, ideally in consecutive shots, ideally in numerical order, and ideally in the pockets sporadically highlighted for big bonus points, but you’ve only got a certain number of “lives” to do it in, although these are not present in the two-player variant. The NES conversion seems pretty faithful too – a bit more forgiving with more lives, and with a few more rack configurations, and while it’s totally lacking the polish and the nuance of the later 16-bit versions I know very well, I literally haven’t been able to put it down, which was never the case with those! It works absolutely fine on this tiny screen too, simply presented but with some really nice touches of colour and animation to add interest, a catchy backing tune, decent ball physics and really easy-to-use direction, power and spin controls. Obviously, the two-player game is totally redundant here, but I don’t have a player two anyway, and what is here is all I need! Just loads of fun, loads of challenge, and that’s loads of reason to give the stupid three AAA batteries that should be a charging port at this price a workout! 

I’m going to finish with the new Atari 50 Namco DLC, which I picked up on Switch when it came out last Thursday… As though this wasn’t the best compilation ever already! That’s said, while there’s some great stuff here, realistically it’s only a handful of classic Golden Age arcade games spread across Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 console versions, Atari 800 home computer versions, and a disappointingly sparse lineup of the originals, totalling fourteen titles. Only two of these are the arcade versions, Dig-Dug (pictured at the top) and Xevious, but no complaints it was those that made the cut! Xevious only got to the 7800, and that’s here too, and it’s quite the showcase, although not for the only time with this lot, long-term will you ever come back? Case-in-point, Dig-Dug, which then appears on every platform here, with only the sluggish 800 version letting the side down, while the 2600 one is also quite the showcase! Pac-Man on there not quite so much, but I think once your eyes adjust it’s absolutely fine, and I’d rather play that than what’s another shoddy 800 port, which is weird when the similarly constructed 5200 take on it is so good! No original version though, and no 7800 port either, but it did get Galaga, which doesn’t quite have the energy of the sadly-absent arcade game but is very welcome here all the same. The original Galaxian is missing too, and of all the arcade ports missing here, that’s the one I miss the most, but we do have the incredible 2600 version, which is one of the best arcade ports on the system! There are also 800 and 5200 (pictured above) ports included, but there’s really not much to choose between them – both very close approximations so take your pick! That’s all the games, but you also get an excellent interactive timeline with interviews, old promotional stuff, histories and loads of bonus content to wade through, all in what’s become a typically highly-polished format with this compilation. Honestly though, it’s what’s not here that makes this the weakest of its DLC packs so far – I’m not sure why they’re not here, and I’m sure there’s a good reason, but those missing arcade titles would have really elevated the package!

I might have accidentally started another new game of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater as well, but as that got plenty of coverage here previously, I think I’m going to call it a day for this week! Do check back again next Wednesday though, when alarmingly, we’re going to be making a start with a busy schedule of festive programming! Not that it’s festive in the slightest, but this series has become a tradition at this time of year to kick-off the season, and I’m talking about Wonderful Sights in Gaming Part 5, where we’ll be taking a look at another bunch of gaming scenes that have left an impression on me over the years. Hopefully see you then!

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