Retro Game Challenge (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Carolyn Petit
• Reviewed on: 02/06/2009
• Released on: 02/10/2009
• Originally published on GameSpot: Retro Game Challenge (DS) Review

Video game nostalgia has been packaged and sold in a myriad of forms, but you've never played a throwback to the 8-bit era quite like Retro Game Challenge. It's an unusual concept that succeeds at feeling fresh and delightfully dated at the same time, and if you're old enough to remember the games of those bygone days, or you just have an appreciation for games from a simpler time you'll find a lot to like in this compilation of 8-bit games.

Retro Game Challenge bears the license of a Japanese TV show called Retro Game Master, but you don't need any familiarity with the program to appreciate the game. When you start the game, you're confronted by the bitter Game Master Arino, whose desire to dominate others in video games is matched only by his ineptitude at modern games. To get the best of you, he sends you back in time to his own living room in the 1980s and challenges you to complete a series of 8-bit game contests. You quickly meet the young Arino, who only needs to know that you love games to immediately consider you a close friend with whom he can spend hours in front of the TV. It's a wonderfully bizarre setup that lends itself to many great moments as the young, innocent Arino cheers you on in your quest to defeat his older, nastier self.

The games you'll play on young Arino's unnamed console aren't licensed but rather originals meant to capture the look and feel of games of the mid to late '80s, and they succeed very well. For each game, you're given a sequence of four challenges that typically start out very simple and get progressively more difficult, though they never approach the staggering difficulty of many actual 8-bit games. The challenges range from standard stuff like achieving a certain score or passing a certain level, to more unusual tasks, like getting through a specific level without using any ninja stars, or completing two laps around a track without drifting (which isn't as easy as it sounds). By constantly changing up your goals, the challenges alter how you approach the games and help to keep things interesting. Additionally, in a really great touch, young Arino is constantly buying game magazines that you can peruse at your leisure. They're crammed with all kinds of tips and tricks, such as high score strategies, secret codes you can input for extra lives, stage select options, invincibility cheats, and other benefits you can exploit to help you conquer Arino's challenges.

You'll start off with Cosmic Gate, a space shooter modeled closely on Galaga. Its straightforward insect-zapping gameplay is engaging despite its age, at least in the short bursts you'll spend with the game to conquer Arino's challenges. From there you'll move on to Robot Ninja Haggle Man, a charming side-scrolling action game in which you must defeat rooms full of swarming enemies with ninja stars, swinging doors, and, of course, head stomps, on a valiant quest to rescue a kidnapped princess. Then comes Rally King, a speedy top-down racing game with a fun drifting mechanic. This is followed by Star Prince, an exciting, frenetic thumb-buster of a vertical-scrolling space shooter. Conveniently, a controller with a built-in rapid-fire function (no doubt inspired by the NES Advantage joystick) is made available in-game not long after the release of Star Prince, so you can use that to spare your thumb if you're not hardcore enough to pound the button yourself.

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