Retro Reviews

Snake sneaks onto Game Boy Color in his first portable op

Metal Gear is a series born from limitations. Originally intended as a military shooter game for the MSX2 computer system, creator Hideo Kojima found the hardware unable to handle the large amount of on-screen action required for such an adventure. Instead of loud and overt blasting, the...

Battle seasoned

The central combat mechanics of The Legend of Zelda series has seen several iterations over the decades. The classic top-down gameplay of the original was morphed into a faster, action heavy side-scroller in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, only to be abandoned itself for a return to form in A Link to the Past. While the promise of...

A song for the ages

Ever since The Legend of Zelda released some 25 years ago, Nintendo has played the franchise relatively close to its chest. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto has had a hand in almost every release to date, and before the new millennium, Nintendo EAD handled development of each and every Zelda title. But when Nintendo wanted an...

Mario Fore-Stars!

For many, there isn't a sport on the planet more tedious than golf. To these people the term "a good walk ruined" is about as accurate a description as anyone's ever come up with for anything, and they'd probably be able to reel off a list of far better uses for a golf club — window removal, football hooliganism, that...

All the fun of the fare?

SEGA has a brilliant track record in arcade driving games. OutRun, Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, Hang On; many older readers probably have fond memories of dropping coins on quick races on games housed within some oversized cabinet complete with steering wheel and pedals... before subsequently emptying their wallet of many more...

A flipping good time?

Our beloved hero Mario has starred in a multitude of sports throughout his long career: golf, tennis, hockey, soccer, basketball, go-karts, etc. It seems there’s hardly anything the famous plumber can’t do — even going so far as winning a gold medal at the Olympics against his long-time rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. Nintendo has taken us through all sorts of alternative..

Wish you weren't here

Nintendo is a company that's world renowned for its varied cast of versatile characters and Wario is certainly no exception. Since his first playable appearance in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario has starred in a plethora of 2D platforming adventures spanning the Game Boy right through to the DS, each one seeing...

Are those golden eyes wearing rose tinted specs?

Highly revered by countless N64 owners, GoldenEye 007 is often credited with kick-starting the first-person shooter craze on consoles. It not only showed that a good FPS could be crafted for a machine other than a high-spec PC, but arguably also created the multiplayer FPS phenomenon. In fact, if it...

Super Sonic or Super Chronic?

SEGA's attempt to have Sonic the Hedgehog transcend his 2D roots and venture into the realm of 3D didn't go nearly as smoothly as Nintendo's own Super Mario 64, despite Sonic Adventure being generally well received upon its release on the Dreamcast in 1999. It didn't take long for the cloud to lift from the judgement of...

Another kart racing game? Oh, boy!

By the end of the Nineties, UK developer Rareware had established itself as one of the most talented softcos in the world, and along with Nintendo's own in-house output, had helped to placate Nintendo 64 gamers throughout most of the console's life with a steady supply of premium software. Having delivered the...

Rage against the machine (gun)

Multiplayer has been a mainstay in first person shooters since only a few years after the genre's formal debut. Nonetheless, PC gamers had been shooting each other either in LAN setups or online for many years before console FPSes got in on the act. It wasn't until GoldenEye 007 hit the N64 that the idea of getting...

For super players

Back when Super Mario Bros. 2 came out in Japan — the real Super Mario Bros. 2, known here overseas as The Lost Levels — there was a little label on the box that said “For Super Players.” It meant it, too: Super Mario Bros. 2 is a ridiculously difficult game, often using your knowledge of the first game against you while at...

Prime cut

You know the story. By now, everyone does. In 2002, a new Metroid game was released after nearly a decade of silence, and it was done by a little studio in Texas that no one had ever heard of. Oh, and it was 3D. And first person. It shouldn't have worked, but it did, and the ensuing trilogy would secure that little studio as one of the...

Moving to a new beat

Donkey Konga is a pretty average rhythm action title when purely viewed as a piece of software engrained upon a small disc that one slaps onto the GameCube's spindle. Without a "true" Donkey Kong platformer on the horizon Nintendo rather shamelessly took the beloved characters of the franchise and transposed them into a title for the rhythm action crowd in 2004, one..

Spin-tendo

One of the few good things about being old is that sometimes you can glean satisfaction from being in the right place at the right time, where you were lucky enough to have first-hand experience of something special. Nostalgia is the bread-and-butter of retro gaming and throughout its history there will always be moments that stick in a gamer’s mind, with memories of Sonic: The..

A Rare treat, or will it drive you bananas?

For fans of Nintendo kart racers, 1997 has to go down as one of the greatest years in the history of the genre. Not only did it witness the European and North American release of the iconic Mario Kart 64, but Rare also introduced their own challenger to the karting crown with Diddy Kong Racing on the same console. Far from being an inferior clone of..

Perfect powder

As you curl around a banked corner, the lip of a large ramp of snow appears in the distance and your mind begins to race at the possibilities for gnarliness that lie ahead. Slamming the boost and tucking your body forward, you scorch towards the precisely constructed mound, pre-winding your hands, arms and shoulders for maximum rotation upon lift off. As you get closer the brilliant..

Dude, where's our phone booth?

You leap about the screen avoiding enemies and collecting “fragments of time”. Grab them all and your phone booth appears to whisk you away to the next level. With characters and locations from the two films, Bill & Ted's Excellent Game Boy Adventure sees you travel across several time-zones in this simple but addictive platformer. The intro to the game..

Road to joy?

On rare occasion, a game so revolutionary will appear that not only will it receive the usual much deserved critical acclaim, it’ll become responsible for the creation of an entirely new genre. Take Super Mario Kart for instance — the title single-handedly responsible for the birth of the console kart racer. Following its huge overnight success back in 1992, it doesn’t come as..