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, I had a great time catching up with some old friends I haven’t seen since my own band last played with them back in 1997 – in fact, it’s been so long it took a while for some of us to even recognise each other, despite being in touch on and off ever since! Anyway, one of the current incarnations of Nosferatu and the recently reformed Manuskript were on at The Lexington in London, and although there’s a bit less black hair dye on display nowadays (mainly as a result of a bit less hair on display in general), the goth crowd will always be the goth crowd, and those two bands were always great live, with the Goth Will Eat Itself energy of Manuskript a great foil for the uber-goth rock of Nosferatu (or The Nosferatu as they’re now legally required to be known). And considering I’ve been to literally hundreds of them over the years, I haven’t been to a gig in London for absolutely ages, so it was just nice to do that again too. Right, time for some games, and this week I’ve got a review for you that covers a whole load of them!

I was thrilled with Activision Collection 1 for Evercade when it arrived at the end of last year (more here), but as surprisingly hit-filled (and favourite-filled) as it was, there was enough not there to make me hopeful for at least one more… And here it is – the brand new Activision Collection 2! It includes another 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 once again, I also think there’s at least one title here they picked-up from acquisitions along the way. I’ll quickly run through the games in a sec, but as usual with these, they’re all on a cartridge that comes in a box with a really nice manual – as I said when I looked at the first collection, originally these games often came with War and Peace despite their general simplicity, and the folks at Blaze have done their usual 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 information 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 games, and will save you a lot of messing around in-game! Which brings us to the games themselves…

I’ll go with the default alphabetical order, meaning we’ll start with Boxing, a simple but surprisingly tactical top-down face‑puncher that’s fun in short bursts if you’ve got a friend to play with, but not so much if not. First 2600 I ever played too! Less glamorous next but I really like Checkers, a bare‑bones but competent digital board game with three computer skill levels or two-player, and you know exactly what you’re in for either way. Cosmic Commuter is the other extreme – a quirky mix of Lunar Lander, Chopper Command and Space Taxi that’s fun for a bit but I’d play any of them first. Dragster was a bit of a graphical showcase at the time, as well as being a lightning‑fast test of timing and precision that only lasts a few seconds but is once again great fun with a friend and less so solo, where you’re playing a two-player game but against the clock alone like a proper sad case while the other car never moves! You don’t often see H.E.R.O. on compilations like this but it’s an undoubted highlight here, giving you a brilliantly ambitious cave‑rescue adventure that’s one of the system’s greats!

Speaking of which, Moonsweeper is a flashy (and flashing), fast‑moving pseudo-3D shooter that mixes space combat and surface rescues with a unique rhythm. One of two games I’d have bought this compilation for alone… Which isn’t necessarily the case for Oink! but it’s alright for an oddball kind of reverse-Breakout take on the Three Little Pigs that’s far more frantic than its cute exterior suggests. Next is Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, another you don’t see a lot of on compilations like this, and is a sprawling, atmospheric platforming quest that pushed the system to outrageous heights, even if I’d rather be playing the more immediate original. I was glad to see Plaque Attack on here too because I’ve never really played it before – bizarre but addictive tooth‑defence shooter that’s way more fun than its dental theme implies! River Raid II is a tougher, more complex sequel to another of the system’s greats that trades some elegance for intensity and challenge, and is another one you don’t see much on these things, so also glad to have it here. 

Onto the last few games now with Robot Tank, a smooth, polished futuristic 3D tank shooter that I’ll always take over Battlezone on the 2600 or anywhere else for that matter. My beloved Seaquest is next, bringing a tight, fast underwater rescue-shooter that plays like single-screen defender and isn’t only that second game I said I’d have bought this collection for, but until fairly recently was my favourite game on the system as well. I’m also very partial to Skiing, a clean, minimalist downhill racer that’s all about shaving seconds off your best run and has plenty of modes to do it in. Spider Fighter is another one I knew but hadn’t played much of, and it’s really good – a relentless, high‑speed, old-school shooter that rewards concentration and reflexes I don’t have anymore! Finally, we’ve got Stampede, a unique cattle‑rope chase that’s equal parts rhythmic, odd and wildly addictive once it hits its stride. Which goes for a lot of what’s on here, and although you could possibly argue you could get one great compilation out of the two we’ve now got, I reckon this is excellent. By my reckoning that’s just about the entire Activision Atari 2600 catalogue now covered too… And surely an opportunity for one of Evercade’s secret games to finish it off! 

I am still plodding through Valkyrie Profile 2 on PS2 as well (more here) but all those nerdy systems and increasingly grating narrative played out through overly long cutscenes are starting to run out of steam for me now! Speaking of Steam, I also came across a demo of an upcoming, insanely addictive idle-clicker called Just Open The Door (pictured above) on there, where you earn money by doing exactly that to buy more doors and hire workers to open even more doors and so on. I had it on the go for days until I completely maxed out what was available in the demo, but I recommend having a look if that’s your thing and I’m really looking forward to the full version appearing sometime this year! And that’s everything I’ve got for this week, but do check back again next Wednesday, when we’ll be heading back exactly 40 years for the very latest in video gaming with Retro Rewind: May 1986 in Computer & Video Games, straight from the pages of the original magazine! Hopefully see you then!

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