We’re back again for another instalment in my 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! I haven’t gone too mad this time though, although a bunch of new (then delayed twice over in some cases) Evercade carts dropping towards the end of last year did keep me very busy right up to Christmas! Speaking of which, apart from a copy of Evil West I’d asked for on PlayStation 4, absolutely nothing gaming-related received at all for a change. Made up for it by buying myself plenty of games since then, but I did actually cancel my preorder for the Intellivision Sprint at the last minute – just wasn’t doing it for me when the early reviews started dropping. Decided to wait for a sale instead, and as I write this in mid-February, I noticed Amazon were already discounting it, so maybe next time! Going back to last time out here though, I finished with a quick note about Silent Hill 2 Remake, which had literally just surprise-dropped on Xbox a couple of days before publication, when I was still way too busy enjoying it to even think about writing about it at that point, so that’s where we’ll start this time… And yes, I know it’s not exactly retro, just like the PlayStation 3 games I’ve now decided to include here as standard too, but my rules so I can break them and remould them whenever I choose!

There were several occasions over its year or so of exclusivity that I very seriously considered buying a PlayStation 5, just so I could get my hands on Silent Hill 2 Remake. The 2001 original means the world to me, not only being a top five favourite game of all time, but I reckon I now know the place almost as well as the town I grew up in, although admittedly there are a lot of similarities! Anyway, I held off and my patience finally paid off when the Xbox Series X version (and I assume Series S too) not only appeared out of nowhere before Christmas, but was 50% off the regular price as well! And it’s a beautiful thing, reverently familiar but elegantly new and exquisitely modernised, and like all good remakes, probably exactly how you’d remember the original in your mind, assuming you didn’t still have a game on the go on one console or the other at any given moment! The groundbreaking psychological horror-filled narrative is relatively untouched though, as you once again take on the role of James Sunderland, who’s returned to he and his dead wife’s special place after receiving a mysterious letter, apparently from her, summoning him back there. The most beautiful fog you’ve seen anywhere since the first time around is obviously there too, as well as the disturbing cast of monsters, seemingly human or otherwise, which of course also includes the iconic (and most disturbing of all) Pyramid Head! The town itself is stunning – as detailed as it is horrific, and the sound design is a whole new level of atmospheric, exactly as you’d expect, and the same for the soundtrack… And believe it or not, even the voice-acting isn’t terrible! The combat is still comfortably unsophisticated though, but is perfectly adequate, while the refreshed puzzles remain varied, challenging and well-crafted, often directing the narrative and dictating the pace, and always complementing the relentless tension and sense of dread. And without spoiling anything, there are moments where both are suddenly turned up to eleven, and the panic sets in, and you realise you’re having the absolute best time, even if it can never quite be the first time again! 

Something else I mentioned last time was that both NEOGEO Arcade 2 and Arcade 3 compilations for Evercade had had their releases delayed by a few weeks to the very end of November, meaning they just missed out on inclusion by a couple of days, so we’ll also get into both of those here instead. As with the first of these around the middle of last year, NEOGEO Arcade 2 contains another six not necessarily easy to come by titles from what Blaze (the Evercade folk) delightfully refer to as “the golden age of pixel-art!” I’ll run through each in turn in a sec, but let’s have a quick look at the overall package first, starting with an actual box to open with an actual manual inside, filled with game histories, trivia, instructions and a few tips on top. And in the case of this one, loads of handy fighting 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 as with the first collection, no DIP-switch settings by default, although I do believe there’s been a patch since. 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.

Turning our attention to the six games included here, we’ll go alphabetical and start with Art of Fighting 2….  I get confused about where this fits with King of Fighters and Fatal Fury but they all seem to be intertwined and often released on top of each other! This one-on-one fighter is from 1994, and while it improves on its predecessor, I can’t say it does anything I wouldn’t rather be doing in one of its SNK stablemates – it’s big and bold in all respects, the roster isn’t huge but offers something for everyone, and it controls fine, but playing single-player is a miserable experience! It’s just too hard, even with the difficulty turned down, and I don’t think the animation is all that great either. We’re not off to a good start here because Crossed Swords from 1991 is next, and is one of those games I know I should like, and I’ve really tried so many times, but it just never clicks! Think medieval Punch-Out!! with some RPG elements and you’re somewhere near, with timing-based combat from a transparent, third-person (so almost first-person) perspective. Nice looking game, pretty unique idea and quite the rarity, so nice to have it here, but still not for me! I often say the last time I was any good at a fighting game was IK+ on the Atari ST, but actually, I did spend quite a lot of time with Garou: Mark of the Wolves a few years back, so we’re finally onto something I was very pleased to be reacquainted with! Does mean that 2D fighters make up half of this collection though, but I’m good with that, and this one from 1999 is one of the best there is! I believe this was the last of the nine Fatal Fury games, and it does feel like one but it feels new too, with a very well-balanced roster, a bunch of complex but achievable fighting mechanics, and the most stylish presentation you could hope for.

Probably worth the price of entry alone but it’s not alone because here comes Metal Slug 2! This 1998 run ‘n gun sequel is much more of the same, with new characters, weapons, vehicles and a bonkers narrative involving Egyptian mummies, aliens and a persistent risk of obesity! The pixel art presentation is still outrageously good though, same for the sound design, and it mostly plays great… Does get a bit too big for its own boots at times though, but even the resulting slowdown doesn’t compensate for some big difficulty spikes – which is why Metal Slug X exists (and can also be found on the NEOGEO Super Pocket)! No worries about difficulty spikes in our next game, Ninja Commando, though because the difficulty is non-stop! This flamboyant oddity from 1992 is a top-down, run ‘n gun, time-travelling adventure that also comes across like both a fighting game and a shoot ‘em up at times, with a selection of both melee and projectile attacks unique to each of the three playable characters, but it’s all very easy to get your head around, and is fast-paced and full of flair, with the different time periods offering plenty of variety to mask what’s essentially repetitive gameplay, although you’ll likely be long since dead before that’s a concern! Which brings us to our last game on here, Sengoku 2, which has a bit more going for it than its predecessor included on NEOGEO Arcade 1, but still isn’t a patch on Sengoku 3, also included on the NEOGEO Super Pocket, making it a shame you’re limited to playing the best of them on there rather than on a big screen with the Evercade VS. Anyway, it’s a side-scrolling beat ‘em up from 1993, still doing time-spanning, supernatural Samurai stuff, but with a bit more character and style than the first game, and it plays a lot better too – actually, it’s pretty fun in short bursts! Overall, I’ll get my money’s worth out of two games on here alone, and will no doubt come back for a dabble with most of the others while I’m doing so, but it’s not really anywhere near equal to the first collection as a whole.

As much as I happily play loads of stuff using emulation, if there’s something I play a lot of on a system I own then I’ll try to track down an original copy… And that’s exactly what I just did with The Chessmaster 3-D for the original PlayStation! This came from Mindscape in 1996, ten years into a series that ended-up with dozens of games on almost as many systems, and the best part of two decades before I had any interest in playing chess in any form whatsoever! From what I’ve played of these Chessmasters, they were always a decent game of chess too, but now you can view the board and it’s pretty surroundings from any angle, and there’s a nice bit of realistic sound accompanying the moves, which are very easy to pull off with the controller (and yes, I am fully aware that I’m talking like it’s some kind of fancy skateboarding grind rather than moving a bishop!) thanks to a semi-transparent hand-cursor-thing, no less! There’s a choice of boards and chess pieces, twelve different computer opponents, and plenty of learning to play stuff, but I know, chess is chess, and there’s not much more I can say about it, except this is a really good place to play it. 

I’ve been listening to the Cane and Rinse podcast for the entire fifteen years or so of its existence but until now had never taken them up on their regular opener inviting the listener to pause the current episode (where you’ll get a deep-dive from a panel of expert enthusiasts on a given game) in order to play it first if you haven’t already. Escape From Monkey Island was the one though, and as a fan of pretty much everything else in the series, was a gap in my PlayStation 2 collection I’ve been meaning to fill for ages! It was originally just one of those things I’d long-since moved on from when it first appeared on there in 2001 though – 3D or not, and LucasArts or not, a point-and-click adventure was hardly a showcase for that powerhouse! It’s been pretty well adapted for a controller all the same, with contextual actions easily accessible, and objects easily interacted with, stored and manipulated, even if the tank-like controls absolutely stink at times, with you constantly ending up in places you didn’t want to be! The interface might be new (albeit evolved from Grim Fandango’s) but the obtuse and generally nonsensical puzzles the series is famous for are back with a vengeance (and so is the insult-based combat), as you once again take on the role of unlikely pirate Guybrush Threepwood, trying to help his new wife get reinstated as Governor of Mêlée Island, in the face of a conspiracy involving some surprisingly familiar faces in some equally familiar locations. That said, there’s plenty new too, but as vibrant as it can all be, I think I still prefer pixel art over polygons in this swashbuckling take on the Caribbean. The mostly returning voice cast does a very fine job though, and the mostly returning soundtrack is on top form too, carrying a typically imaginative and engaging narrative that probably doesn’t need to exist as part of the wider  Monkey Island cannon, but I’m glad it does because, a few utterly stupid puzzle solutions and generally going on a bit aside, I had a good time with it, and I’m glad I finally did. 

Back on Evercade, Activision Collection 1 marks what I hope is just the beginning of a very welcome series for me at least! It’s a collection of fifteen Atari 2600 titles from the early eighties, most of which came from what I think was the very first third-party video game developer, although there’s at least one here they picked-up from acquisitions along the way. I’ll quickly run through the games in a sec, but as we’ve already seen with these, they’re all on a cartridge that comes in a box with a really nice manual – originally, these things often came with War and Peace despite their general simplicity, and the folks at Blaze have done a great job making the instructions digestible! Firing it up will then give you the regular Evercade (sortable) menu experience, with various display and other options on offer, and a button press taking you to an attractive title screen with an overview of each game, controls, stats and direct access to your last save-state. You also get a handy list of different game modes, which was typical of 2600 titles, and will save you a lot of messing around in-game! Moving onto the games, I’ll try and give you a sentence on each in turn, starting with Beamrider, which is a fantastic vector-style 3D shoot ‘em up that borrows heavily from the Juno First arcade game but is an absolute highlight on the system in its own right. Crackpots is probably the only game here I’m not that familiar with, and has you dropping plant pots on insects invading your garden, and while it’s very simple, it’s addictive as heck! I covered Demon Attack in a deep-dive here a while back, and although it’s missing the greatest box art of any game ever, everything else is as wonderful as ever – increasingly frantic single-screen shooter, originally from Imagic, that’s as beloved as it is for very good reason! 

Which also goes for Enduro, the pioneering chase-view 3D racer with days, nights and all sorts of weather in-between, and is probably my overall highlight in this collection, and I could literally keep playing forever once I get going! I’m also very fond of our next two games but they really need to be played two-player to get the most out of them, with Fishing Derby a simple competition to get the biggest fish against the clock (and a giant shark!), while Freeway is like a simplified Frogger where you want to get your chicken across the road as many times as possible before time runs out; loads of game modes on this one too. Grand Prix is a simple but fun side-on racer where you’re avoiding other racers and various hazards to get the best times over four courses, but as primitive as it might seem now, those big cars were something else at the time! Megamania is another excellent single-screen shoot ‘em up that’s a bit Arcadia meets Galaxian, with loads of variety of enemies and it’s just so well executed, and once again, really hard to put down. Pitfall is another of the collection’s big-hitters, and another real pioneer, not to mention a near-miracle on the system, as you take the legendary Pitfall Harry treasure hunting across 255 deadly jungle-based platforming screens. Private Eye reminds me a lot of the much-maligned ET, where you’re driving your detective around a similarly constructed map, looking for clues, evidence and stolen items to return while avoiding Henri Le Fiend’s dastardly henchmen. More depth than most here, full of character and definitely worth getting to grips with!

River Raid might well be the biggest-hitter here, and is probably worth the price of entry by itself as it rarely appears on 2600 compilations – vertically-scrolling shooter with you blasting boats, helicopters, fighter jets and bridges through branching paths while desperately trying to keep your fuel topped-up. It’s gorgeous, it moves great, and it’s an undisputed masterpiece!  Less so Sky Jinks but I’ve always loved this one, with you guiding a plane around pylons, avoiding trees and hot air balloons, over several courses (including a procedurally generated one) against the clock, and it turns out that can be a very compelling proposition! Space Shuttle is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious games ever created for the 2600, and is also where that lovely manual from earlier is really going to come into play! It’s a full-on space shuttle simulation that genuinely took you into space at the time, even if that’s hard to believe now; will also do everything for you if you don’t fancy all those instructions! Starmaster adds a bit more combat to your space flight, playing like a watered-down (in a good way!) take on Star Raiders or its successor Solaris (my favourite game on the system), with you warping about, taking down alien threats and managing your ship’s energy, and it’s a really great time! Last game is Tennis, another pretty pioneering game that did a very good impression of the sport for the time, with a bit of nuance and a competitive back and forth despite being decidedly primitive by today’s standards. I guess that goes for most of the stuff in this collection though, but, assuming it is the first of a series (because there are some big omissions), I wouldn’t change a thing. Nostalgia no doubt helps its cause but great gameplay is timeless and there’s loads of that on offer here too!

Last time out here, I was almost apologetic about including a couple of PlayStation 3 titles in what’s supposed to be a predominantly “retro” feature. However, since then, I did realise it’s actually twenty years old this year, so as we’ll see later, I reckon that makes it fair game now! And in that case… I picked up the Xbox Series X backwards-compatible, 2005 Xbox 360 launch title, Condemned: Criminal Origins, just before Christmas, as I’ve got the sequel on PS3 but had never played this, and it turned out to be the classic, unpretentious, not massively complicated or taxing seven out of ten I was hoping for! It’s a dark and grimy, vaguely supernatural, first-person action-detective game, with you playing an FBI agent working on a grisly serial killer case that not only turns out to be more than meets the eye, but you get framed for it along the way too! As well as battering zombified junkies with planks of wood covered in nails, among a dozen other types of blunt or otherwise objects you can pick up at every turn, there’s a bit of the survival-horror going on too, with plenty of desperate-for-ammo situations, and there’s some light environmental puzzling to enable continued progress, and a more crude, virtually on-rails take on Batman’s fancy detective tools from the Arkham games. It all works fine for what it is here though, and I had such a good time just being taken for ride through a bunch of atmospheric and suitably creepy locations, enjoying the terrifying sound design and Silence of the Lambs vibe. Did not disappoint in the slightest! 

Although I count the original Gauntlet as one of my top ten favourite games of all time, I’d never played any version of Atari’s 1998 arcade follow-up, Gauntlet Legends, until I came upon a copy of the PS1 port from a couple of years later just a short while ago. In fact, apart from knowing it existed, I was pretty much oblivious to it, including how this is apparently by far the least of the conversions when compared to its Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast counterparts. Ignorance is bliss though, and I’ve found it to be a perfectly fun, more or less mindless, more or less top-down (in an inevitably 3D way), fantasy hack and slasher with just enough depth to keep it surprisingly hard to put down! I think the main concession here was the reduction from simultaneous four-player to two-player, but even that’s still twice the number I’ve had to worry about for a very long time, and just like the first Gauntlet, it quickly finds its own rhythm playing solo, as you choose from the classic lineup of Warrior, Valkyrie, Wizard or Archer (plus four more to find along the way), then set off across four kingdoms, looking for various magical bits and pieces that will get you into the Underworld to see off an evil wizard and his demonic horde. And it really is quite the horde, soon ganging-up on you in traditional fashion and giving the PlayStation a proper workout, which also goes for some impressively large dragons and other boss monsters you’ll come up against. Okay, it is all a bit jagged to look at nowadays, but they’ve nailed that Dungeons & Dragons atmosphere while keeping things colourful and varied, and it’s all helped along by a proper epic orchestral soundtrack and some really polished “fantasy” sound effects. All the intensity you want from a Gauntlet game too, but as alluded to earlier, there’s more to it than just masses of nasties to take down, with different facets to level completion, tons to find, shops, power-ups, character-levelling, persistent upgrades, secret levels, those secret characters… It’s almost as much RPG as it is arcade game, in a very immediate way, and, apart from lack of time spent around arcades in the late-nineties, I think that’s probably why I never paid it any attention first time around but have now found it so well-suited here, and best conversion or not, it seems to be just right for me! 

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 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 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, and is hard as nails, it’s a good time 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 above) 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, is even more mind-blowing to try and navigate, and 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 lovingly crafted 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 collected too, and is certainly my new favourite cart on Evercade. And my dear old ZX Spectrum made it on there at last! 

After what was possibly years of being very patient on eBay, just after Christmas I finally picked up a copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX on PlayStation Portable, and although I’m hardly the greatest connoisseur of the franchise, and it also doesn’t have a huge amount of competition in my collection, if there’s a better fighting game on this or any other handheld then I’d love to be introduced! Actually, there is the Darkstalkers game on PSP… Anyway, this thing is yet another miracle, with no less than thirty-seven (and possibly a few more) characters, including the platform-exclusive Ingrid and returning Maki from Final Fight, and a wild number of game modes, with regular arcade and training, a bunch of tag-team and multi-character battles, survival modes, a crazy one-hundred single-round battle mode, boss battles, more team battles, and the globetrotting World Tour, a kind of RPG-lite career mode with custom fighters! There was all kinds of network play for up to eight players at once available at the time of release back in 2006 as well, but good luck getting any of that working nowadays, let alone finding anyone to play with! Despite missing a couple of buttons, the gameplay itself feels great on the PSP, featuring the various combo-nuanced “-ism” fighting styles introduced in the 1998 arcade original, and the overall translation to handheld feels just perfect to an admitted-philistine like me at least! As does the presentation, which my rubbish photography doesn’t do justice to whatsoever, but is so vibrant on this wonderful little screen, and moves so beautifully, and with so much flair and non-stop flourish. There’s a ton of personality in the sound design too, suitably corny as it can be, and although the synth-techno-rock soundtrack isn’t exactly a series peak for me, it’s got plenty of energy and does what it needs to just fine. And I’m just hugely impressed with this! 

The original Medal of Honor on the original PlayStation was one of those games I was convinced I’d bought at the time of release in 1999 but my games shelf tells me otherwise, so I bought myself a new copy just to be sure! Actually, that was around the time I got my first (and last!) gaming PC, and I definitely had later entries in the series on there, so I expect I’m just confused as usual. Whatever, this was the legendary brainchild of the legendary Steven Spielberg, no less, who had the idea for a cinematic World War II shooter while he was making Saving Private Ryan, after watching his son play GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64, and transport yourself back to a time before standardised controls and less jagged textures, and you’ll see that what he and DreamWorks achieved was quite the epic! It’s real blockbuster stuff from the outset, spurred on by a full orchestral soundtrack by Oscar winner Michael Giacchino, as you creep around occupied towns, tunnel networks, forests and fortresses, taking down Nazis, sabotaging submarines, searching for downed pilots and stolen art, and generally being a nuisance to their war effort. Obviously, the visuals are even more dated than the controls, but remain atmospheric and full of PS1 charm, and it all still moves well, while gameplay is focussed, well-paced and as tense as ever… Well, at least I think it is, apparently not owning it after all aside! 

I only fairly recently did a feature (here) on guilty gaming pleasures, but might already have found a reason to update it… As just alluded to, I’ve not had a decent PC for a while, so PlayStation 3 emulation is still very hit or miss for me, but it’s generally good enough to help decide if I like something I’m not familiar with enough to buy it or not, particularly when original copies are now at the pricier end of the spectrum… Case in point, Rambo: The Video Game! I know, objectively it plays like crap, even for a light-gun shooter on a controller, and at best it looks like an early PS2 game, but combine all of that with my love for the franchise, then we find ourselves right in the middle of so bad it’s good territory! I did manage to get it for a relatively decent price too, albeit one that won’t make any defence of the game any less shaky! This first arrived in 2014, which I’m struggling to find much associated context for – the movie series had last been resurrected with Rambo in 2008, and Rambo: Last Blood was still five years away, so there’s no particular tie-in, but the first three films it’s based on are undoubtedly timeless, so we’ll just go with that! What we have is a rail-shooter built on individually replayable, score-chasing chapters, each lifted out of scenes from First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III, with a bit of embellishment for continuity purposes, but all involving you literally going “Rambo” with the misunderstood Vietnam veteran. The visuals are hilariously bad, to the point of Stallone’s face being one of the worst characterisations in video game history, and the muffled sampled dialogue isn’t far off either, but janky as it can be, the simple gameplay loop just works for what it is and what it’s trying to represent, and although there’s no chance I’ll tell the wife how much I paid for it, I’ve had more than enough fun with it to reckon it was money well spent!

Right, one more of these to go, and this time we’re looking at NEOGEO Collection 3 on Evercade, featuring another six titles in a similar fashion to the other one from earlier, so we’ll just fast-forward to the games themselves this time… And although we’ve got a bit more of the same on here, there’s a bit more variety about this one too, starting with Ghost Pilots, a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up from 1991 that’s like a fancy Flying Shark remaster but without the magic, which it then tries to compensate for by throwing in supernatural bosses, although you’ll be flying through a lot of generic environments, shooting generic enemies, before that happens! It’s competent, it’s got the looks and the sounds and some nice special effects, but it’s not very exhilarating, spookiness or not. Better to get back to more familiar SNK territory with The King of Fighters ’97, and its iconic three-on-three 2D fighting action with a huge cast of characters, some very cool fighting systems and super moves, and the most gorgeously detailed characters and beautifully-set dynamic backgrounds. And that cheese-rock soundtrack! Plays as well as it moves too, and for me has always been the series’ high-point. Which might also go for 2000’s Metal Slug 3, although on any given day I’d say the same about the original and X too! It’s run ‘n gun turned up to eleven, it’s wildy creative and ambitious, and it literally takes the NEOGEO hardware to its limits, which will probably go for your eyes too, as they try to take in an impossible amount of action all at once! It’s a stunner, it’s loads of fun, and I’m not sure it’s even the best game on here…

That might be Samurai Shodown II, which is an all-time favourite fighting game of mine, not just for the super-smooth, well-balanced and deep gameplay, but it’s just so good-looking and well-animated, and that battle-ready soundtrack and the sounds of clashing weapons… It’s a weapon-based one-on-one 2D fighter from 1994 that might not have the biggest roster but probably has the most variety, with a crazy bunch of characters wielding every type of blade, stick and more you can imagine, and there’s such a great flow to the combat once you get your head around their nuances. Brilliant game and I hope we see more of the series in future compilations! Which also goes for Super Sidekicks, a very arcade football (or soccer) game from 1992. It’s ridiculously fast-paced and over the top, with no fouls or other interruptions – just immediately intense, easy to pick-up competitive action (and obviously even more so with two players). And while it’s not the prettiest game, there’s just so much energy about everything – the crowds, the commentators, the music, the animations, the cinematic closeups, the super-kicks, and once you’ve adjusted your own energy accordingly, there’s a great back and forth to the games too. Now give me Super Sidekicks 3… Our last game is Twinkle Star Sprites, and of everything on this and the previous two NEOGEO collections for Evercade, it’s the only game I’ve never played at all before, so that’s in its favour already! Not that it needs any help because this thing is fantastic! It’s a kind of vertical cute ‘em up, in the style of Cotton or Magical Drop but in the spirit of Puyo Puyo or Puzzle Bobble or Super Puzzle Fighter or similar, with you competing split-screen in various modes but essentially shooting stuff to send over the fence to the opponent’s side of the screen. There’s loads of characters with their own attacks and specials, and combos to chain, counters and all sorts, and it’s the very definition of whimsical both to look at and to listen too. What a marvellous find, and I think it more or less confirms this compilation being at least on the same level as NEOGEO Arcade 1. It’s another essential for Evercade, and I reckon a good place to end this time! Hope you enjoyed this little selection of stuff I shouldn’t have been spending all my money on over the past three months though, and I also hope to see you for more of the same three months down the line… Just don’t tell my wife!

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