DS Reviews - Retro Game Challenge

Retro Game Challenge

I remember seeing this title in the Meijer $20 bin I don't know how many years ago and passed it up. I think this was before Game Center CX was even on my radar. I remember youtubers talking about how great this title was and I had picked it up and looked at it and foolishly thought "I'm not dropping $20 on this." What a fool I was. Not too much longer after this I would fall in love with Game Center CX the show this title is based off of and after waiting over a decade I would eventually buy it for WAY more than $20, how much more is not important it was my birthday gift to myself this year.

The premise is you're a young Japanese child that is transported back in time by Arino's big scary 3D head. To get back to your own time you must complete retro game challenges! The games are obvious homages to existing Famicom games but these are all unique creations for this compilation. Each game comes with 4 challenges of increasing difficulty. As you beat the challenges you unlock the games for free play. To aid you in your quest a younger Arino lets you play games on his Famicom and peruse his game magazine collection. There you can find strategies, cheats and hints. It really captures the magic of playing games before the internet was a thing. At one point Arino even repeats a playground rumor!

From here lets talk about each individual game. The first series of challenges are for the Galaga inspired Cosmic Gate. I love Galaga and naturally love this game. I even opened up the in game manual and learned how to operate the warp gates. That's right there are manuals and you are reward for taking a peak at them. I really enjoyed working through the challenges here and have spent the most time in Free play with this title. There are even fun Engrish style typos such as YOU SHOOTED 30 ASTEROIDS!! The attention to detail and capturing the experience is awesome.

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