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. Thankfully, a bit less stressful than last week too, despite being back at work again… Lucky I’m not into birthdays though because that’s now two in a row that I never want to repeat again, but hopefully there’s always next year! Anyway, last time out (here), I closed with a mention of some recent Xbox Game Pass releases I’d given a go, so as I’m still playing them, this week we’ll get into those in a bit more detail, but first. I’ve got something a bit older I just got hold of that’s given me a surprisingly good time over the past few nights…

I always think of my Wii as something of an unloved system in our house, despite it having survived all this time under the main TV in the living room, unlike every other one I own apart from the “current” Xbox Series X and my Evercade VS! I suppose the main reason is I don’t actually own it, so it wasn’t mine to move – we bought it for our young son in its heyday, although he showed barely any interest at the time, let alone now! I do occasionally still buy the odd game for it though, which is how I’ve ended-up with a copy of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. It was originally released in 2007, and is one of those light-gun rail-shooters that have always played better on here than other “modern” consoles (such as the PlayStation 3 in this case) because actual light-guns don’t generally mix well with modern TVs, but no such problems with a Wii Remote! The game is a bit of a greatest hits revisit and retelling, picking up some of the key zombie-infested encounters that shaped the early series, like the express train from Resident Evil Zero, the Mansion from the original, and what’s left of Raccoon City from Resident Evil 3. It adds a new chapter too, Umbrella’s End, getting into the collapse of the corporation that was only really hinted at elsewhere. You jump between familiar characters too, like Rebecca and Billy, Jill and Chris, Ada and Wesker, who are all played as campy and amateur dramatic as you’d expect, over some nasty (in a good way) sound effects and a typically theatrical score. The Wii’s typically soft visuals suit the gloomy environments very nicely too! Gameplay is effortlessly point, fire and flick to reload, more forgiving than something like Time Crisis but more methodical than the otherwise quite similar House of the Dead, with a right old menagerie of undead enemies that stagger and moan and turn to goo convincingly as stuff splinters and explodes all around them, and desperate, screen-filling boss fights. There’s branching routes, secrets to find and alternate scenarios to unlock and come back to as well, and once you find its rhythm – a few dodgy checkpoints aside – it can still very quickly put a smile on your face and keep it there for the duration. I’m messing around with a first-person rail-shooter top ten at the moment, but despite this coming from one of my all-time favourite game series, it’s one I’d never played before. That said, I reckon is already in with a real shout of finding its way onto the list!

Aphelion is a third‑person sci‑fi action‑adventure that launched onto Xbox Game Pass a couple of weeks back, and involves a mix of environmental exploration, climbing and leaping, light puzzling, light stealth and simple combat, set across a series of alien mountainscapes, abandoned research outposts and derelict industrial facilities on the frozen planet you and your astronaut partner have crashed into and then been separated on. It’s all a bit sparse but atmospheric enough, aided by a low-key orchestral-synth soundtrack and a reasonably well-voiced narrative, even if the characters are such that you probably won’t worry about leaving them to their fate if you decide you’ve had enough mid-story! Gameplay itself is straightforward, often more or less walking-sim-like, as you move through each very signposted zone, piecing together bits and pieces of whatever’s gone on there, and trying to survive whatever’s still lurking there. Movement is a bit stiff and a lot janky, and not unlike going back to the original God of War or something when you’re expected to do something energetic, and yeah, it does come complete with (annoyingly regular) quicktime events too! Rough around the edges as it is though, it’s also oddly compelling, nicely cinematic, and the sort of AA-ish project that I always like finding on Game Pass, where “I’ve paid my subscription so I’m going to try it” curiosity carries it further than its polish (or lack of) ever could. And as such, although I’m not sure I’ll ever see the ending, I kind of like it for as long as it lasts.  

I really like this though… I didn’t know a thing about Trepang2 when it also appeared on Game Pass a few weeks ago, but what a wonderfully stupid good time it turned out to be! Also turned out not to be a sequel to anything I’d never heard of like I first assumed either, although having just finished F.E.A.R. 2 on PlayStation 3 (more here), it could easily be a modern entry in that series! It’s a supernatural first-person shooter but with all the faff stripped out and the carnage dialled up to eleven, as you play Subject 106, an amnesiac super‑soldier who escapes an evil mega-corp black‑site then goes total Rambo through decadent paranormal research facilities, cult-occupied castles and haunted underground lairs to uncover (and violently take down) the sinister organisation that seemingly created and imprisoned him. And it’s fast-paced, ferocious chaos all the way, with exaggerated slide‑kicks that send heavily armoured soldiers tumbling like skittles, meaty-feeling shotguns that detonate entire rooms into clouds of dust and broken glass, and bullet-time machine-gun bursts leave every encounter in this explosion of sparks and debris and dozens of bloody limbs. Behind all the spectacle, it might not be the best-looking game ever, but it moves great and it’s backed by a bombastic but also surprisingly thoughtful soundtrack… And a whole orchestra of loud bangs as well, obviously! There’s loads to find and do here too if you want it, but the main story mode certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome, just focussing on being big, dumb and stylish, totally over the top and giving you a load of fun for a mindless few hours! 

Although I’ve now played through what must be most of it, I’m still not sure about Replaced! By now, you won’t be shocked to hear it also arrived on Game Pass a few weeks back, and is yet another methodical, moody, 2.5D pixel-art-and-then-some puzzle-platformer that keep on coming, that I’m not sure does much new but it looks so good I’m not sure that matters either! It both plays like and has the general vibe of Delphine’s classic, Flashback, but a whole other level of drop-dead gorgeous, hyper-detailed, neon-drenched and beautifully animated dystopian cyberpunk-noir. And for every time I think the combat is annoying or the platforming is too fiddly or where to finish some side-quest isn’t well signposted enough (in stark contrast to Aphelion just now), I’m suddenly in the best-lit, most atmospheric dirty old alleyway ever, and just have to keep on going to see the what’s at the end of it! Decent if slightly overblown narrative too, set in an alternate, post-apocalyptic 1980s with you playing an AI trapped in a human body by another nefarious corporation who’ve also turned what’s left of the city into a corrupt stronghold full of morally complex characters to meet and secrets to gradually uncover. Nice dark-synth soundtrack playing everywhere you go too, and everywhere you go is surprisingly varied for this kind of thing, and speaking of surprising, there are a few set-piece special effects that come out of nowhere and are simply breathtaking! And as said before, that’s kind of why I’m still playing it, as superficial as that sounds, but for another game I just came across on Game Pass, that’s also fine for as long as it lasts, as well as why I’m glad they finally saw sense, dropped the price, and allowed me back in again. 

It’s been a while since I said it last, but good old Game Pass! Which reminds me, I did fire up new indie darling Mixtape on there too last night, and yeah, it’s as good as everyone’s saying, but as short as they’re also saying it apparently is, unfortunately I didn’t have time to get through it all yet and gather my thoughts, so I’ll save that for next time. Before then, do check back next Wednesday, when we’ll be well on the way to the end of Spring (not that you’d know it if you’ve been outside here this week), which makes it time for my regular seasonal Retro Arcadia Gaming Pickups Spring 2026 Recap, covering all the retro games and related stuff I shouldn’t have been spending money on over the past three months, including the game we just began with here! Hopefully see you then!

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