Here we are with another instalment in a seasonal series of features covering everything retro-related I’ve been spending money on that I probably shouldn’t have been over the past three months! Not that I’ve gone mad at all this time, and I have still been selling stuff on eBay to balance things out, including a couple of over-sized boxsets that also reclaimed a load of shelf space, so I’m not feeling too guilty. Reckon it’s time to let my two Atari Lynx cartridges for Evercade go while they’re worth a packet too – I took them both on holiday with me earlier this month, with the intention of working my way through all the games on them just to make sure I was happy to get shot, but the fact I never plugged either of them in while I was away, as well as them still sitting in my Evercade EXP travel case as I write, probably says it all! They’ll easily pay for all the new carts on the way and probably the new Intellivision Sprint console I might have accidentally ordered too! We’ll hopefully get to those in my winter pickups recap when it comes in a few months, but in the meantime, here’s what I’ve got for you this time…

We’ll stick with Evercade to begin with, and what was supposed to have been the first of three NEOGEO cartridges to arrive on there since my Summer pickups recap, but the next two got delayed and aren’t quite out at the time of publication, so as just said, we’ll hopefully get to those next time. For now though, this one, together with the fourteen NEOGEO classics that came on the NEOGEO-themed Super Pocket I covered back then, make for quite the instant collection of not-necessarily easy to access games regardless! I’ll run through each in turn in a sec, but let’s have a quick look at the overall package first, starting with one of the best bits… An actual box to open with an actual manual inside, filled with game histories, trivia, instructions and a few tips on top… Pages of King of Fighters moves too! Once you fire the cart up, you’re also getting typically slick, sortable on-screen game-select menus, quick saves and loads, game info screens and brief instructions, although no DIP-switch settings like we’ve seen for recent arcade releases. Should mention support for two players where applicable too, providing you’re on an Evercade VS attached to your TV, rather than an EXP handheld or one of the Super Pockets.

As for the games, let’s start with Ironclad, a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up from 1996 that’s big on spectacle, has some great music and plays like steampunk R-Type with the branching paths of Darius, but while I know it’s a bit of a Holy Grail among collectors, I think it’s a bit dull! Glad to have The King of Fighters 2000 on here next, simply because I’ve never played much of it before. It’s a fighter with a 3-on-3 team battle format, a huge roster, atmospheric environments and typically accessible but deep combat and game-changing strategies, and it’s all so fluid, with another awesome soundtrack, even if I do still maybe lean towards the more vibrant KoF ’98. Speaking of awesome soundtracks though, Magician Lord has one of the greats! This is a 1990 side-scrolling walk ‘n cast platformer with a fantasy vibe, nasty initial difficulty and some mean-spirited checkpointing throughout, but as I already knew long before this compilation arrived, perseverance is rewarding, even for the music alone!

I guess 1996’s Metal Slug is the headline act here, and it remains a masterclass in straight-up, no holds barred, adrenaline-fuelled, side-scrolling run ‘n gun action that’s heavy on relentless chaos, spectacular pixel art, insane attention to detail and just having fun! Sengoku, on the other hand, is a bit crap! It’s a side-scrolling beat ‘em with a supernatural, time-travelling twist from 1991, and although it has its moments in the sights and sounds department, there’s no escaping the shallow and stodgy combat, so I’ll be sticking with Sengoku 3, which comes on the NEOGEO Super Pocket and I reckon is a masterpiece! Last game is Shock Troopers, a top-down run ‘n gunner from 1997 that might have been late to the genre but is as polished as it ever got, playing fast and smooth, and it’s literally stuffed with cartoon violence. There are loads of characters, different routes, a perfectly set heavy metal soundtrack reflecting the non-stop carnage, and it’s another highlight in what’s a real highlight in the Evercade’s library to date, and that’s despite two of the relatively small total of six games not really being for me one way or the other!

I’ve recently made my way through all the original Battlestar Galacticas for the first time since they were originally on TV, but couldn’t really remember any games associated with the show, so I did some digging, and although there aren’t many, I did come up with Sierra’s Battlestar Galactica from 2003, a 3D space combat prequel to the 1978 series for the PlayStation 2. It’s set forty years earlier, in the midst of the First Cylon War, and has you playing a young fighter pilot called Adama, long before he became Lorne Greene’s iconic white-haired commander of the titular space battleship-carrier thing! That’s still in it though, as are other familiar nods (not least voice-acting by the original cast), but authentic as it remains throughout, it’s generally its own thing in its own unique timeline. And that’s about all that stands out, so unless you’re a fan, I’m not sure there’s much here for you – it’s very stylish but ultimately shallow arcade dogfighting from a third-person viewpoint, set over a bunch of ranked missions (supported by some functional cutscenes) that are pretty linear but hide a few decent unlocks and are certainly not short of spectacle, making another go at being awarded a better medal worthwhile. Maybe! It’s plenty of fun though, and really immersive too, with a big orchestral score and loads of special effects and cool-looking cosmic backdrops for a cool-looking array of ships to explode against! I’m not quite done with it yet but – like its source material – as much as I did like it, it’s probably not something I’ll be coming back to that often once I am.

Unlike Cosmic Ark on the Atari 2600, which has been a favourite of mine for years, and even made my Top Ten Favourite Multidirectional Shoot ‘Em Ups countdown, but I’d still never owned my own copy, having never owned the console itself until I got the modernised Atari 2600+ last Christmas. I do now though, and all that emulation guilt has simply melted away! Seriously, I’m thrilled to have picked it up at a decent price because although I did go a bit mad creating an instant collection of original cartridges during the first half of this year, this was one I really wanted from the outset. It’s Imagic’s 1982 follow-up to Atlantis on the 2600, with you in control of the ship you see flying off with what’s left of its population at the end of that, which is now crossing the galaxy and rescuing locals from other doomed planets. This takes place on two separate screens, with the shooting happening on the first, where you’re fending off meteors coming from all sides, after which you head down to the surface in your little shuttle to try and grab a couple of survivors with its tractor beam while avoiding any screen-spanning laser defences in place. This is all against the clock and you need to be back in your mothership before the meteors return for another pummelling, and then you’re off to do it all over again! As primitive as it might seem now, the variety on offer was pretty special when it first came out, and so was the beast of a ship you’re in control of in that first stage, taking up most of the screen in front of this shimmering starfield that started out as a glitch but soon became a closely-guarded hardware trick! Gameplay itself begins fast-paced and demands fast reflexes from the outset, then becomes more of a tense game of cat and mouse when you’re down over the planet, and that second screen is a looker for the time too. Also love the shrill sci-fi sounds, and as simple as that might all be by modern standards, it’s precisely why it still stands up today!

I really didn’t need a copy of 2006’s NFL Street 3 on PlayStation Portable, having only picked up its predecessor on there a while back (more here), which I’ve played loads, I think is great, and I’m still nowhere near done with. But it was cheap and I thought I’d have got to it eventually anyway… I don’t think I like it though! For starters, most of the pitches are so dark – especially to my colourblind eyes – which is why you’ve got an emulated screenshot here rather than the photo of it running on my PSP that I usually try and get. Not that the visuals are all that regardless, but my second disappointment with the game is either the controls are less responsive or the opposition is way more aggressive. Or both! Otherwise it’s more of the same – fully-licensed but hugely exaggerated arcade American football on urban pitches spread all across the USA, although in reality they could be anywhere. When you can see them! It’s still fun when it all comes together though, with the new aerial moves and modifiers, and the enhanced high-impact Gamebreakers, all adding a new level of flair and drama, if not a lot more strategy. There are still loads of game modes and match types too, including a cool new Playbook Elimination game where you gradually lose plays to choose from. A new Respect the Street career mode also wraps them all together, offering tons of variety and longevity, as I expect all the multiplayer stuff does as well, if you can still get it to work and then find someone to play with. Some great industrial, hardcore and nu-metal on the soundtrack too, which I wish I could transport back to NFL Street 2 because that’s realistically where I’ll be transporting myself back to before long, because however many other positives I give you, I still can’t see the thing properly!

We’ll go with the very recent Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Namco DLC next, which I picked up on Switch… As though this wasn’t the best compilation ever already! That’s said, while there’s some great stuff here, it is 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 here) and Xevious, but no complaints that it was those that made the cut! Xevious then only got as far as 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 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 also-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 ports included, but there’s really not much to choose between them – both very close approximations and more or less identical emulated, 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 these 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 this package!

Back on the PS2 now with a game I’ve had on my eBay wishlist for so long that I’m not entirely why it was there anymore! It’s Devil Kings (aka Sengoku Basara) by Capcom in 2005, and is apparently the first in a long series of games that’s been popular in Japan pretty much to this day, together with spin-off movies, TV shows and even a stage play! Not so popular here though, which mostly seems to be down to its localisation. It not only featured a completely different “Western-friendly” dark fantasy storyline but also had significantly different gameplay, with playable characters removed, modifications to the combat, and was made way more difficult too! What we’re left with is no longer anything to do with Japan’s Sengoku period, and all the cool Samurai warriors and ninjas and stuff that generally entails, but a hack and slasher involving “Devil Kings” fighting to become the top Devil King or some such nonsense! It’s effectively Dynasty Warriors meets a watered-down Devil May Cry, which is no coincidence as it’s from the very same devs as the latter. But despite all of that, I still reckon it’s really cool! You’ve still got a bunch of uniquely skilled characters to choose from (and unlock), each with their own unique storyline, cutscenes and sets of stages too, which are typically a selection of five or six from a total of twelve battlefields, and they’re all varied and atmospheric in a very PS2 way. The combat is simple but with nice combo-charging mechanics for some spectacular violence as you encounter big groups of enemies and rival warlords, and there are a few RPG-like elements and more weapons and stuff to find, which is probably going to take a few runs through each level, so plenty to keep you going. It all moves well too, and the characters look good, and there’s a big, bombastic soundtrack to get the blood pumping (and flowing), and the voice-acting is just as hammy as you’re probably imagining! I might not be sure why I bought it but it turned out to be well worth what I paid for it all the same!

On top of everything you read about in these features, I pick up PlayStation 3 games all the time, but because I’ve decided they’re not retro enough yet, I’ve never included them. What the hell though, I’m going to break my rules with something (kind of) brand-new later anyway, and this is a special one because I spent way too much money on it… When the PS3 was first around, by necessity I always had to sell the games I was done with to be able to buy new ones, which I’ve been trying to buy back again over the past couple of years, as and when the urge takes me. I’m generally still well in profit on them too, but there are a couple of games that selling has retrospectively bothered me – mainly because they’re worth a bit now – and even though I wasn’t that fussed about them at the time, I just want them again now out of principle! A prime example is Lollipop Chainsaw, Suda51 and James Gunn’s politically incorrect hack ‘n slasher from 2012 about a zombie apocalypse, a zombie-hunting cheerleader, and her decapitated (so he’s not a zombie) boyfriend, whose head she hangs from her tiny miniskirt… Speaking of which, I know there was a recent remaster but I wanted this thing as nature intended, trophies for looking up said miniskirt and all, not some snowflake reimagining, which I assume it is! Anyway, as well as finally getting it for a kind of reasonable price, I also had less pervy unfinished business here because I not only never saw the credits first time around, but got so frustrated that I binned it off less than halfway through. I’m not even sure why now either, although mindlessly fun zombie massacring aside, it’s hardly aged well, and I’m not just talking sub-American Pie smutty one-liners! It’s very PS3 in every respect, from the formulaic combat mechanics to the QTEs to that almost clinical cel-shaded sheen to everything, including the protagonist’s very prominent cleavage and backside! It’s also just fine though, with loads of imagination and ludicrous spectacle, and a cool soundtrack to boot, so also being a product of my time, I’m over the moon to have been reunited with it!

Gorf on the Commodore VIC-20 is probably the earliest game I ever owned that I’d consider an all-time favourite today… As reflected in my Top Ten Favourite Fixed / Single-Screen Shoot ‘Em Ups countdown! That said, apart from a comparatively weedy last stage mothership and a few simplifications, the Atari 2600 conversion isn’t that far behind in terms of gameplay at least, and now I own that too! I should also say there’s a reason why I’m talking ports as favourites, rather than Midway’s multi-stage, genre-hopping 1981 arcade original, and that’s my aforementioned colourblindness, and in particular the problems it causes with the weird blue background in the opening level – it’s not a total showstopper but all the pioneering synthesised speech in the world can’t change that! Apart from the robotic taunting (or any sound beyond white noises!) though, and the missing Galaxian level that’s missing from all ports (for Namco reasons), this is very good! The not-blue first level here is Astro Battle, and it’s a take on Space Invaders, and actually this version is also missing the bonus aliens and destructible parabolic shield spanning the entire screen but no big deal. Next is Laser Attack, where you’ve got a formation of enemies, one with the laser attack while the rest swoop, and the challenge seems to have been ramped up here to compensate for the absent second formation. Space Warp next, which plays a bit like Gyruss down a not very 3D-tunnel, albeit two years before that. Finally, we have that Flagship level, where you need to penetrate its structure to blow it up, with the resulting “explosion” also very underwhelming compared to the VIC conversion. Beat that and it loops, and the further you go, the more you get out of it, with every stage performing well in its own right, and ending up a very addictive more than the sum of its parts. Fun as it is though, if we’re talking Gorf ports, then it’s still VIC-20 all the way, while if we’re talking 2600 ports of alarmingly similar games, then it’s still Phoenix all the way, but I’m glad to have this one in the growing collection too.

I was convinced I had a copy of WipEout Fusion on PlayStation 2 when it came up in a recent Cane & Rinse podcast on the series, but my game shelves apparently told me otherwise, so I ended up buying it instead… And having now played a load of it, I’m still convinced I already had a copy! Whatever, it first came out in 2002 and was the series’ only original outing on PS2, although a port my old PlayStation Portable favourite Pulse did make it there in 2009, which would explain why I didn’t own that one because I’d long since moved onto the PS3 already, and that had its own game by then as well. Back with Fusion, it’s set in 2160 and has you competing in the corporate world of the F9000 anti-gravity racing league, comprising ten tournaments of three to seven races with sixteen competitors in each. There are also single races, super-weapon challenges, crazy-speed survival and more regular time trial modes, plus various multiplayer modes, and in total you’ve got forty-five tracks, thirty-two ships and twenty-six weapons to play with, including the incredible Seismic Field, which sends a black hole down the track in front of you! I’m not sure there’s much other (more figuratively) groundbreaking stuff here though – it’s a pretty accessible take on Wipeout (or WipEout) that’s certainly easier to control than some of its PS1 predecessors, it’s got the big techno soundtrack that isn’t my cup of tea at all, it looks great (if a little muddy at times), and it moves at a wild pace. Other racer AI is pretty mean-spirited but not really to the point of frustration, although you shouldn’t expect to be even finishing, let alone winning any races for a while, but learning the tracks is fun and they’re all very fit for purpose – which is mostly total chaos – and I’m glad I definitely now own a copy!

A new bit (literally!) of hardware next with the BurgerTime Super Micro Keychain Gamer from the makers of Evercade, an approximately 6 x 7 x 2cm handheld featuring what I think are the NES ports of Data East’s BurgerTime, Karate Champ and Side Pocket. As such, it’s more of a £20 stocking-filler than anything you’ll be hanging off your belt and taking very far with you for serious sessions on the go, both in terms of awkwardly small form-factor and what aren’t exactly definitive versions of any of them! It’s well put together though, with a vibrant-enough 2” screen and clear-enough sound, which you can turn up and down on the side, while there’s a decent d-pad, two action buttons plus Start and Select nicely positioned below the screen on the front. Battery life seems good but it takes three AAAs in the back, which honestly I think should have been something rechargeable via USB at this price. That might have allowed for firmware updates too because I reckon the sound on Karate Champ isn’t emulating right and could do with one to eliminate the in-game hum, although you’ll probably be too concerned about the dodgy collision detection to notice! It’s not a terrible way to play a game I have huge nostalgia for though, and the game modes on this port of Side Pocket work well here on top of it being a fun conversion, and I’ve always liked this version of BurgerTime too, even if the inherently finicky controls are pushing their luck on a tiny screen! I’ll get my money’s worth out of all of them though, even if it will probably have been consigned to a drawer long before any stockings actually need filling!

Right, I’ve made a decision… Having broken the seal with Lollipop Chainsaw earlier, I’m including PS3 games in these things now, retro or not, so there! And that game was what put me in mind of another Suda51-related game on there I’d also got rid of not long after it originally came out back in 2011, Shadows of the Damned, which I honestly was far less impressed with than I’d hoped to have been at the time, but fancied giving another go now all the same, especially as it wasn’t quite as expensive to buy again as I’d anticipated. It’s a supernatural third-person action-shooter-type thing that has you playing a Mexican demon hunter (accompanied by his friendly demonic sidekick) slaughtering his way through the City of the Damned to rescue his crazy girlfriend from the clutches of the Lord of the Demons. It’s all very stylish too, in a hellish, super-crude, relentless dick jokes and gratuitous sex and violence kind of way, which obviously is still the main attraction for me, as it was the first time around, and apart from some stiff animation (to match some stiff, er, controls), it still looks (and sounds) really good. Loads of variety too, and loads of bosses and upgrades and levels called things like The Big Boner, but it is all still masking a bit of an average and sometimes frustrating game! I had fun with it though, and at least it’s now my own bit of an average and sometimes frustrating game again!

Just like NFL Street from earlier, I could not get a decent photo of NBA Live 10 in action on my actual PSP so I’m afraid it’s another emulated screenshot, although I’m not sure why it always bothers me on PSP, where it’s never easy at the best of times, when it doesn’t seem to elsewhere! I’ve been playing this for ages on emulation anyway, but thought it time I did the right thing and picked up a proper copy, albeit if for nothing else than to experience it as it should be, in your hands on a small screen with that lovely analog nub! It really feels built for the platform too, rather than cut down from the PS3 version, with so much attention to detail squeezed in, right down to the fully-licensed player’s tattoos, and you’ve got all the teams and courts, which have aged far better than some of the of-their-time player likenesses – all vibrant and shiny and filled with what seems like genuinely engaged crowds. Everything moves great too, which also goes for the realistic back and forth of the games you’re involved in, and that’s as much down to such fluid passing, shooting and blocking controls that offer accessibility but also all the complexity you could want to grow into. And there’s tons of modes, with a full-on Dynasty Mode where you’re in control of everything on and off the court forever, plus my preferred season mode, which runs up to eighty-two games, then there’s a Be a Pro career mode, various tournaments, mini-games and multiplayer too, for when such things were more practical on a PSP than they are nowaday, as well as a ton of stuff to unlock. I’m not massively into the hip-hop-heavy soundtrack but it’s right for the game and all adds to a very atmospheric overall sound design, and a very atmospheric, authentic and fun game of basketball that I think will keep me going on here for years to come!

As threatened earlier, I’m breaking more of my self-imposed rules about what to include here with my final game, even if it has got some serious retro credentials… I’d never even played the 2004 PlayStation 2 original until around a year ago, as I made my way through the entire series and its spin-offs for the very first time, and having now done so, while it didn’t end up being my absolute favourite, it was up there, and I’ve been looking forward to its Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake ever since! And never was the word “remake” more appropriate – if you’d played it twenty-one years ago, I imagine it’s exactly how your rose-tinted brain would remember it being, and I’m not just talking the exquisitely current-gen visuals, but literally every aspect of (the absent) Kojima’s outrageous ambition, his ropey storytelling, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the mechanics, all the nooks and crannies and tricks and quirks, and, of course, the returning David Hayter’s gravelly delivery! You can even revert to original controls if you like but don’t do that because, like the densely atmospheric environments you now inhabit that in reality are on a whole new level, the modern third-person shooter controls take the original’s gameplay to a whole new level too, so slick and polished and easy on the fingers! Proper overhaul of those pioneering but ultimately cumbersome inventory, camouflage and healthcare systems too, giving you more time to try and keep up with the bonkers series prequel narrative, set in the Russian jungles of 1964, where you, Naked Snake, are trying to rescue a rocket scientist, destroy a super-weapon and kill your defector former boss. And a bit more besides, played out through hours and hours of unnecessarily self-indulgent but equally slick and polished cutscenes! It might be missing the impact of the original but that’s all – it’s  been  as reverently modernised as could be, and as such, is a remake done absolutely right. 

Speaking of which, by the same logic I should probably also be talking about Silent Hill 2 Remake (pictured above) here as well, which surprise-dropped on Xbox Series X (and probably S) mere days before this feature went live, but honestly, I’m still enjoying it way too much to even consider writing about it yet, so I’m going to save that for next time! Which is also going to be the case for the new Activision, Rare and Llamasoft compilations for Evercade, all scheduled to arrive at the very end of November, just after my regular publication slot, as well as those two NeoGeo carts from earlier… Which gives us loads to look forward to already, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this little look at the stuff that did arrive in time for me to cover it here, and as always don’t tell the wife!

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