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PSP Retro Collection Round-Up
Written by Philip Jones on Monday, November 13, 2006
Did you know there are over ten (!!) retro compilations on the PSP? We rundown which ones are worth your dough, and which aren't...
...Continued From Page 1 Gradius collection
Mmmm, horizontally scrolling shooters. There were literally hundreds of them during the late 80's up until the mid 90's but now most of them lie unloved, in a huge pit somewhere. The only ones that are still fondly remembered are the R-Type games and the Gradius series (Cue a legion of Thunderforce fans weeping into their Genesis controllers). Now, the Gradius series is truly one of the all time classics, from the days when just shooting the same old stuff would do you for an entire evening. What made Gradius was its wealth of powerups and the cool system you accessed them with. This collection sees the original arcade game, its sequel Vulcan Venture, Gradius III and IV, With the original Playstation title Gradius Gaiden rounding off the package. Seeing as only the first Gradius and Gradius III came out over here (On the NES and SNES respectively) this collection is a right treat for anyone who has fond memories of the good ol' days.
With all the other collections we've seen, they share in common that they have generally good quality "16-bit" style graphic. A style we still see on new GBA and Ds releases. This collection from Activision serves to remind us that there was a time before pleasant graphics. A time when man made do with lego brick, primary colored shapes to bring the fun. Simpler visuals didn't necessarily mean bad games though, with many classic titles such as River Raid, Kaboom! H.E.R.O. Pitfall and Beamrider. They're a bit before even my time but they're an interesting history lesson and with its selection of 80's hits as its background music, this is a lovely collection for those teary eyed 30-something nostalgics among us. Just not for me.
Awwwww YEAH, now THIS is a collection worth getting. Rather than skimp on the quality, Capcom decided "let's chuck a whole load of goodness in". It's collections like this that make you realise exactly how awesome the company's history is. There's a few fillers in the collection but the stars for me are Strider, Bionic Commando, Black Tiger, SideArms and 1941. Awesomeness in disc form! The other games on the disc are a mixture of classic and.... strange. Final Fight nestling next to Quiz & Dragons, say what? One little surprise for me was Varth. Capcom is famous for its 19XX series of shooters but not many others found much in the way of acclaim. Varth I had never even heard of! Turns out it's quite the shooting treat, with some lovely graphics and gameplay. A hidden gem, rightfully brought to our attention by a company with a history worth shouting about. I just hope they get to do a second edition with more 19XX games and say, Commando and Mercs! Bang!!
There's plenty of shooting in these retro collections isn't there? Well I for one ain't gonna complain. To me, the first Metal Slug game will go down as one of the all time classics, bringing over the top action to the sidescrolling action platform genre. It's a game I sure as hell would love to be able to whip out whenever I like but I'm thinkin' that the upcoming GBA conversion will be doing that for me. That little cartridge is gonna be permanently welded to my GBA micros cartridge slot. This collection is still cool though, as the other games in the series, while repetitive, are still great fun! If you've never played a Metal Slug game at all then you really have missed out. They're insanely detailed, with excellent animation, huge boss battles, humorous happenings and lush backgrounds. The non stop run 'n' gun action on offer is quite literally a blast. I'd recommend it for sure.
The Genesis (or MegaDrive to us foreigners) was home to an astounding collection of arcade quality action games, this collection is intended to bring some of those into your sweaty palms. I can't help but be disappointed though with the content of it. I'm sure some of you will go nuts for the Phantasy Star games contained within but Sonics aside, the games here are a mix bunch of oddities, reasonable games and their sequels. Depends on whether or not you liked Ecco the Dolphin I guess. I mean, where's Streets of Rage? We have Shadow Dancer and Shinobi 3 but where the hell is Revenge of Shinobi???
The only thing I can think of that's possible put a stop to certain games appearing on this is that there are some ludicrously obscure licensing problems that have cropped up. That or Sega's holding back a bunch of titles for a second future collection. It's not that the games on this collection are in any way bad. I played loads of them, I loved Flicky and Kid Chameleon, and I used to enjoy Decapattack (but in its Japanese guise, the incredibly named Magical Flying Hat Turbo Adventure). It's just that it's missing the games that in my opinion really made the Genesis a contender, this... will not do!
EA must surely have one of the biggest back catalogs of any games publisher ever? So, what have they brought to the retro table? This collection features an interesting mix, with the classic Road Rash battling for space with Wing commander, Syndicate and even an Ultima title. Aaaaaaaannd some games that frankly, I can't even remember at all? Haunting starring Polterguy? Mutant League Football? Sorry, can't remember those at all. Virtual Pinball? Nope, missed that one. Problem is, the main game I was interested in, Road Rash, has aged REALLY badly. Syndicate is still cool, but the PC version with mouse control was far, far better. Bah! B.O.B. and Budokan are thrown in for good measure but they're not quite enough to save this collection in my eyes. It just feels like an attempt to cash in on the whole retro craze with something... Anything!
There's bound to be more of these lovely collections coming our way in the near future. Konami has confirmed two more shooting collections for the PSP, this time featuring the Salamander games and the deliciously insane Parodius games. What tickles my nostalgia gland though is that the Salamander collection features XexeX, which has nothing to do with the Salamander games but is a legendary game that just happened to have never been released on any home system ever. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that one for sure.
If you'd have told someone back in the day that in the space year 2006 you'd be able to stuff a video arcade and a bunch of home systems into your pockets. Well, I don't doubt they wouldn't have believed you but I'm pretty sure they would've been quite impressed by the notion. Which is exactly what I am. Woohoo!
posted November 15, 2006