Anyone who gets happy when they get that old cartridge to work on a dusty NES will surely enjoy this game
If you have ever agreed with any of those complaints, Retro Game Challenge will make you a happier and less grumpy person, for inside the little DS cartridge you will find a very long experience, with enough replay value to keep you playing until the Nintendo DS and PSP become old-school systems and a level of challenge that can be so high you will wonder where all those easy as pie games have gone.
The game starts as a modern gamer is suddenly challenge by a lunatic man on TV. Demon Arino is his name and he transports you to the past where you meet his younger self at his house. There you will play games of the eighties on his system while young Arino cheers for you. Indeed the storyline is a lacking aspect of the game, but games like Donkey Kong and Galaga never needed a deep compelling plot to get us going, did they?
Demon Arino will present you with four different challenges for each of the eight retro games you will play. After you have completed the four challenges he throws at you, time will advance a new hyped game will be released, young Arino will purchase the cartridge and you will have another four juicy challenges to tackle. This cycle repeats itself until the game reaches its end.
A very interesting detail about the eight retro games is that each one of them heavily borrows from a famous game of the eighties. The first retro game you will play will be Cosmic Gate which is nothing but a slightly different version of Galaga, other titles make references and homage to games like Dragon Quest and Ninja Gaiden. This really adds to the value of the game because it is nice not only to try to catch the references but also to remember the amazing time you had with those old titles on your childhood.
The challenges for each game vary from ridiculously simple such as starting the race with a boost on Rally King, to harder ordeals like getting a certain amount of points on Cosmic Gate or reaching a certain level. However, all of them provide a lot of fun and after you complete the first challenge it will be extremely hard to put the game down until you have completely cleared the set of challenges.
Even though all games are deeply influenced by already known titles they still manage to be extremely engaging and original. All of them have simple and responsive controls that will never let you down, as one would expect from such a game, all you will use is the Nintendo DS' D-pad and the X, Y, A and B buttons to perform a variety of actions.
Everything works so perfectly well that the four challenges will never be enough for players. That is why the addition of a Free Play Mode was such a wise move by the developers. While on the regular challenge-beating mode the game will be turned off whenever you complete your task, therefore stopping your further advance. On Free Play you get to experience the games just as if you were on a regular old-school system, with a limit of lives and many levels to beat.
That is where Retro Game Challenge gets its amazing replay value from, because completing the challenges will only take you five hours but the game makes you want to play it even after you have completed its main quest, so you will certainly be coming back to improve scores, beat games and enjoy more retro goodness.
This is where a small flaw of the game is revealed, the lack of online leaderboards for players to upload their best scores. Everybody knows how high scores are important on games like these and if the developers had added leaderboards things could be much better than they actually are. However, such a shortcoming does not affect the overall experience of the game, since the lack of online features never took the fun away from games like Pacman.
The developers of Retro Game Challenge made sure no aspects of gaming on the eighties were forgotten so they added some tiny details that enrich the game. While you are going through the main quest young Arino constantly buys gaming magazines, these virtual journals bring reviews of recently released games that you are playing and upcoming hyped games, they even go as far as having breaking news on game delays and interviews with the developers. Another tiny but noteworthy detail is that whenever a game refuses to work your friend advises you to blow the cartridge, therefore magically making the game run perfectly. Moments like these will surely bring a big smile to your face.
When it comes to the technical aspects of the game, you pretty much already know what to expect. The game doesn't push the hardware of the system close to its limit; in fact it gets pretty far from doing it. This applies to both the truly 8-bit graphics and the beeps that when joined form a very good soundtrack with catchy tunes. This will obviously be a let down to younger players, who have never touched an arcade machine and never played a NES, but Retro Game Challenge caters to old-school gamers and those will be extremely satisfied.
Overall Retro Game Challenge shows the Nintendo DS at its finest, not hardware-wise though. It shows how much originality the constant great releases for the platform have had, and it joins the group of amazing titles for the platform. For youngsters it might not be the most exciting game in the world, even though some of them may end up being interested in the past of video-games due to the well crafted design of Retro Game Challenge. Old-school gamers, though, and anyone who gets very happy whenever they finally get that old cartridge to work on a dusty NES will surely enjoy this game a lot.
Actual Score: 9.3