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. Not a huge amount going on otherwise – wife away with work so life entirely dictated by exercising our Welsh border collie (with typically endless energy) at least three times a day, which we usually split between us but when you’re on your own it seems like an endless cycle! At least it stopped raining for a while though, and that also meant I was left alone in-between to enjoy something I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time, but before we get to that, last week here I promised to try and get past my general bewilderment at what was going on in this old relic I’d just bought…

Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600 is ambitious way beyond its means, although in this case, that doesn’t seem to have done it as much harm as it did certain other well-known movie tie-ins on there! This one was just a few years ahead of its time, playing across multiple screens, introducing inventory management and item combination, trading and timed events, and generally predicting The Legend of Zelda all the way back in 1982… Not least demanding you read the manual inside out! I have to admit though, despite the manual coming with the original cartridge I picked up a couple of weeks back, it still took me a while to appreciate any of that, with just moving my little Indiana Jones across the desert sands enough of a challenge before even thinking about wrenching a second joystick around at the same time to manipulate anything I’d managed to pick up! Yep, you read that right, two at once, which is as much of a puzzle as any actual puzzle you’ll come across in the game later! And those puzzles are so obtuse, but then so are some of the regular screens you’ll attempt to negotiate to get to them, with those clunky controls further compounded by some infuriating design and visual cues that are more unrecognisable than they are simply primitive! You’ll possibly recognise a “rendition” of the theme tune though, and persevere a while (and read that manual again!) and a logic starts to emerge, and a rhythm, and experimenting with everything – almost Monkey Island-style – starts paying off, and its movie-adjacent, relic-hunting narrative starts to take precedence in your imagination over the of-its-time-and-place presentation. And it’s suddenly not just impressive for what it’s trying to achieve, but is a pretty decent adventure too, even if I would still rather be playing E.T. –  gets far more hate than it deserves, that game! 

Sticking with the 2600, but in more familiar, arcade-like territory, I want to give a quick shoutout to what’s developing into a very cool new homebrew title on there! It’s a perfectly-suited chase-view racing game called GP Rally, and it’s been put together by a clever chap called Alberto, who goes by the username jab on the AtariAge forum where you’ll find it. The setup is as simple and effective as the presentation, with you racing two laps of its single track against your own best time. And that’s it, except for left, right and fire to brake! The illusion of 3D motion works fine, it all moves smoothly, and I’m not sure how much the extra-blocky road and city skyline are style over necessity, but they work too. Same for the bold colour choices, the minimal sound effects, the enjoyably loose friction between your the road, and just the surprisingly addictive, thoughtfully designed whole thing, which you can try for yourself right here: https://forums.atariage.com/topic/388396-gp-rally/

I’ve been toying with the idea of a favourite video game series countdown for ages, and although I haven’t done the maths yet, there’s no doubt that Resident Evil is going to be up there at the business end with the likes of Silent Hill, Metal Gear and Castlevania… Which is why a new entry in the series is always such a huge deal for me, this time in the form of Resident Evil Requiem, which came out a couple of days ago and I’ve spent every spare minute playing it since, so here are some first thoughts on my first time around so far! It’s a return to Capcom’s well-trodden brand of tense, resource-limited survival-horror with plenty of blockbuster action (not to mention blockbuster bosses) on top, taking you back to the equally well-trodden streets of what’s left of Raccoon City, as dual-protagonists Grace Ashcroft, a new-to-the-series FBI agent, and old friend Leon S. Kennedy (now a federal counter-bioterrorism agent) investigate ongoing mysteries seemingly tied to the original outbreak there.

Abandoned or not, the place (and everywhere that gets you there) looks absolutely stunning too, densely packed with grim, gore-drenched environmental detail, and the most atmospheric lighting, cinematic menace and wild special effects, while everything living, dead or otherwise inhabiting the place is as naturally (if sometimes a bit waxily) realistic or the utterly grotesque opposite as required, with so much flourish and seamless polish everywhere you look. It’s truly spectacular from start to finish! In fact, I reckon the opening in particular (see a couple of screenshots above) is as good-looking as gaming currently gets, and it’s making a play for as good as proper horror in gaming gets too, as terrifying as it is exhilarating through its joyfully self-indulgent, intentionally ludicrous but mostly coherent narrative, which shifts you between Grace and Leon, and their unique gameplay styles, pacing, camera perspectives and “investigative” strategies… And plenty of perfectly hammy voice-acting, which is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fan-service!

Elsewhere, the visceral, raucous and generally meticulous contribution of the sound design is almost on a par with that of the visuals – lights off, isolating headphones on, and after those singing zombies you’ll never sleep again! From what I can tell so far, there’s the usual suite of modes, upgrades, collectibles, extras, cosmetics, replay-unlocks and other reasons to keep going back for more too, and I definitely will be going back the second I’ve seen the credits roll (which can’t be far off now), so look out for more on the post-game and New Game Plus bits and pieces here in the next week or two. In the meantime, I need the dust to settle a bit after all my initial excitement to see where this sits alongside its predecessor, Resident Evil Village (covered here last week after my latest run in anticipation of this), which I’d previously counted second in the series only to my top three game of all time, Resident Evil 4. One thing’s already for sure though – if this isn’t my Game of the Year in December, then 2026 will have been a very special one!

And we’ll keep hoping that’s exactly what’s going to happen, but for now, that’s everything I’ve got you this week, although I might also have started Batman: Arkham Knight too, just before I obviously then got totally distracted by Resident Evil when it arrived, so will save that for next time. Do check back next Wednesday though, when the start of yet another month means it will be time once again to head back exactly forty years for the very latest in video gaming with Retro Rewind: March 1986 in Computer & Video Games, straight from the pages of the original magazine! Hell of an issue too – finally the 16-bit era making the grand entrance we’ve been waiting for, and just look at that cover! Hopefully see you then!

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