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. Outside of gaming, my highlight was undoubtedly When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors, which had a cinema release this week to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of my favourite band ever! Oh yeah, that reminds me, it was also our twenty-third wedding anniversary this week too, and my wife bought me a very luxurious new book, Night Divides The Day, about The Doors by what’s left of The Doors, which I’m also thrilled with! Nice dinner at a nice restaurant too, and obviously, when I said the cinema was the highlight of the week earlier, I really meant all of that stuff instead! Back to gaming, as mentioned here last week, when I looked at Activision Collection 1 for Evercade, that was one of five new cartridges that all dropped on the same day at the end of November, so I’ve decided to go one by one for the next few weeks… Although in reality I’m still just randomly jumping between stuff on all of them! Anyway, I’ve got the next for you this time, and it’s another good one, so let’s have a look.

I heard it argued that if you own Rare Replay on Xbox then there’s no need to buy Rare Collection 1 for Evercade, but how the hell am I supposed to resist this lot all at once again, especially when it means I can take them all on the go with me if I so choose… I owned most of them first time around too and it didn’t stop me before! Right, twelve titles spanning the glory days of iconic British developer, Rare, previously known as Ultimate Play The Game, and if you were around at the time then those four words will be even more iconic! Before I get into the games, as always on Evercade, we’re getting a cartridge in a box with a full-colour manual (just like if you were around at the time!) and once it’s in the Evercade console of your choice, you’ve then got the usual sortable menu, display and other options, and game info screens with an overview, controls, stats and direct access to your last save-state. Let’s have a look at the games now, and I’ll go in alphabetical order to inject a bit of variety into things, and definitely not because I’m too lazy to change it into anything more sensible! That makes 1983’s Atic Atac on the ZX Spectrum our first one, and what a way to start! Groundbreaking, sprawling top-down (but side-on) adventure set in a maze-like haunted castle where you’re hunting down keys to open doors to find more keys to get out while avoiding tons of enemies. It’s full of character, full of challenge and can apparently hook you in for decades… And I still haven’t beaten it! Forward to 1991 next, with platforming beat ‘em up Battletoads on the NES, and yes, it’s hard at times, but rarely at the expense of having fun, and it’s so vibrant and full of personality, and you’ve got save states all over the place here so stop your whining!

Battletoads Arcade (pictured above) wasn’t exactly a commercial success when it first hit the arcades in 1994, and was pretty much an unconverted obscurity by the time it finally reappeared on the aforementioned Rare Replay compilation in 2015, and that’s a real shame considering it’s one of the best side-scrolling beat ‘em ups ever created in my humble opinion! Takes “so vibrant and full of personality” to a whole new level too, on top of fantastic combat and some very stylish sights and sounds – highlight of the compilation for me! Back on the NES, I’ve always enjoyed Cobra Triangle too, a kind of Micro Machines in speedboats but over twenty-five surprisingly diverse top-down isometric levels, where you’ll be doing obstacle courses, mine disposal and loads more on top of regular combat-racing, and it all controls really nicely and looks the part too. Conker’s Pocket Tales was probably the game I was least excited about when I first heard about this collection – not that there’s anything wrong with it but the series just never appealed. Anyway, this first came out on the Game Boy Color in 1999, it’s a bit like an old Zelda but with squirrels, and you’re looking for lost birthday presents and your kidnapped girlfriend or something, and it all seems well put together, but it’s really not for me! Gunfright is though… The hours I’ve spent being the local sheriff in this wonderfully atmospheric isometric Wild West adventure from 1985 on the ZX Spectrum, and no doubt will do again here! And the same goes for one of the all-time great single-screen, multidirectional shoot ‘em ups, Jetpac, from 1983 and also on the Spectrum, where you’re building and refuelling rockets in the face of relentless swarms of different aliens as you move from planet to planet; for what it is, I reckon this game is close to perfect… Unfortunately, the separate hover and fire controls aren’t – if you’re going to let me edit the controls, please don’t block-off up for hover!

Knight Lore (pictured above) isn’t just another isometric adventure in this collection but is the isometric adventure, as influential as it was pretty much miraculous when it first arrived on the Spectrum in 1984, and if that wasn’t enough, you get to turn into a werewolf too! Lunar Jetman was the sequel to Jetpac, following close behind the same year but this time it’s more of a horizontally-scrolling (albeit familiar) shoot ‘em up meets collect ‘em up meets Moon Patrol, and while it doesn’t quite reach the same insanely addictive heights as its predecessor for me, it’s a fantastic game all the same. R.C. Pro Am hit the NES in 1988, and is an all-out isometric combat-racer, but this time you’re in control of a remote control car, which still feels great to drive and loads of fun to play, and despite being single-player only, the thirty-two tracks will keep you going for ages. Not as long as Sabre Wulf (pictured at the top) will though…  Forty-one years and counting, to be precise! We’re back on the Spectrum in this eye-wateringly colourful, top-down-ish, side-on-ish action adventure that’s not unlike Atic Atac from earlier but set in a jungle, harder again, even more mind-blowing to try and navigate, and it will forever be one of the system’s greats! I forgot to say that was from 1984, and so is our last game, Underwurlde, also on the Spectrum; actually, I also forgot to say Sabre Wulf, this and Knightlore (in that order) form the Sabreman trilogy. It’s a vast, 600 flip-screen, 2D platformer this time though, but maintaining the difficulty of its predecessor and then some, and that’s despite you not actually taking damage from enemies, as you try to escape a gorgeously detailed castle and its caverns… With “try” being the operative word, over and over and over again! Wow, that’s a hell of a set of games. Literally! In fact, if it wasn’t for that pesky Rare Replay, I’d say it’s one of the finest collections of games ever too, and is certainly my new favourite cart on Evercade. And my dear old ZX Spectrum made it on there at last too! 

I am still plodding through Silent Hill 2 Remake on Xbox Series X, but plodding in a good way – exploring every inch of the place and savouring every wonderfully horrific moment, and if my intimate relationship with the original serves me well, I believe I’m on the home straight! However, I covered that plenty here last week, so we’ll call it a day there. In case you missed it last Wednesday though, the start of the month meant it was time for our regular journey back exactly 40 years for the very latest in video gaming with Retro Rewind: December 1985 in Computer & Video Games, straight from the pages of the original magazine! Then next Wednesday, I suppose I’ll have to accept it’s that time of year again because it’s apparently time for the Retro Arcadia Christmas Special, and this festive season we’re going to be counting down my Top Ten Favourite Christmas Games, which amazingly aren’t all terrible either, so hopefully see you then!

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