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Retro Game Challenge Preview
Written by Robert Falcon on Saturday, February 7, 2009
No need to dust off your NES for 80s bliss. Retro Game Challenge has you covered.
Hide the leg warmers, get out a can of Crystal Pepsi, turn on the Max Headroom reruns and dream of owning your own DeLorean. The 80s are back with the release of Retro Game Challenge, a compilation of over 30 8-bit games. The best part is that all of these games are brand new.
There's actually a story you have to follow in Retro Game Challenge. You control a young boy pitted against the evil Game Master Arino. He hurls a variety of game challenges your way, testing your skills in every imaginable genre, including shooters, racing, action and a huge Zelda-like role-playing game. Along with your gaming skills, you're able to turn to classic 80s magazines for help. They'll provide you with cheat codes such as temporary invincibility, power-ups and level warps. Complete the games and you're on to the next challenge and that much closer to shutting down Arino for good.
The magazines actually feature a huge supply of information. Along with cheat codes to help you beat the games, they also contain news stories relating to events that happened in the 80s, including the launch of game consoles, new developments and even details as to what really happened with the 1983 video game crash. There are fictional stories as well, keeping the 80s tongue-in-cheek theme. Don't be surprised if you see some ridiculous advertisements. No, we don't need heated leg warmers, but thanks for asking.
Then there are the games themselves. Once again, over 30 are available, including a variety of shooters and racing games. These include the space shooter Cosmic Gate, the platform ninja game Haggle Man, the racing game Rally King (developed by SimpleSoft) and several others.
Beating Arino (who bears a spooky resemblance to Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto) unlocks games for free play. However, these are no easy pushover challenges. Some require you to reach a certain score, while others force you to beat a certain level. Once you do, however, you can pop the games on for play at time. They'll take a bit of work to complete, but earning these games for your virtual library is worth it. Virtual instruction manuals are also available, in case you get stuck.
We're eager to play Retro Game Challenge. Be sure to check back next week for the review. Pop in that Duran Duran CD and get ready to warp back in time.
