Retro Reviews
Review Super Mario Bros. (Wii U eShop / NES)
Forever running to the right
Mario. Say it loud and there's music playing. Say it soft, and it's almost like praying. Super Mario Bros. was, is, and will always be one of gaming's great masterpieces, and its availability on any additional format is a good thing. It's come to the Wii and 3DS Virtual Consoles before, and now jumps onto the Wii U...
Review Jewel Adventures (DSiWare)
Woo-hoo, glitchy woman
Jewel Adventures is a puzzle game that’s partially familiar due to its match three gameplay, but freshened up by a few extra layers of depth. A sense of story, enemy battles, world (re)building and various gameplay goals are the glue that gives this puzzler a bit more substance than most like it. Much of it is only fluff –...
Review J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings - Volume I (Super Nintendo)
Middle Earth is doomed
Before Peter Jackson came along and turned The Lord of the Rings into one of the most popular cinematic experiences of all time, the video game licence to J.R.R. Tolkien's literary epic was held by the now-defunct Interplay. The company pumped out related games for the Commodore Amiga computer and PC CD-ROM — the latter of...
Review Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Work in progress or fighting masterpiece?
Street Fighter II hit arcades in 1991 but amazingly, by the time 1993 rolled around, players had already experienced three upgrades to the core game: Street Fighter II': Champion Edition, Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting and Super Stree
Review Street Fighter II' Turbo: Hyper Fighting (Wii U eShop / SNES)
The need for speed
Although many will accuse Capcom of flogging the Street Fighter license within an inch of its life, the company wasn't solely to blame for the production line of incremental updates which appeared after the release of the original Street Fighter II. Unscrupulous arcade owners would "hack" arcade boards to increase the speed of the...
Review The Legend of Zelda (Wii U eShop / NES)
A Link from the past
When The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, it was at least as much an eye-opening experience for gamers as Super Mario Bros. had been. Whereas that game expanded and solidified the left-to-right nature of platformers for generations to come, The Legend of Zelda opened sprawling worlds before us, and allowed us to go wherever...
Review Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Wii U eShop / SNES)
The original, but sadly not the best
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was nothing short of a phenomenon. If you're old enough to remember when the game hit the Super Nintendo two decades ago then you may recall it as all you ever thought of or spoke about for weeks on end. The gaming world seemed to gravitate around Capcom's seminal one-on-one...
Review Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (3DS eShop / NES)
Go Ninja, Go Ninja GO!
Chances are that even if you don’t know much about Ninja Gaiden, you’re at the very least aware that it’s a series synonymous with high difficulty. When the original hit the NES back in 1989, we have to imagine it lead to the demise of many controllers – we vividly recall rage-quitting on at least an occasion or two...
Review Solomon's Key (3DS eShop / NES)
You'll need the wisdom of Solomon for this one
In Solomon's Key – an action / puzzler from Tecmo – you take command of a wizard named Dana as he searches for a magical formula that's said to banish all evil from the world. It began life in arcades back in 1986, finding its way to NES a year later, and now it's resurfaced on the 3DS Virtual...
Review Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Depth incarnate
If there's one thing that you could pretty much be assured of when it came to a Koei game back in the day, it was getting a lot of depth to your gameplay experience. Not only were you generally treated to a very high production value visual experience, but the attention to detail and historical accuracy was always of high quality...
Review Summer Carnival '92 RECCA (3DS eShop / NES)
For shoot 'em up experts only
The release of this game on the 3DS eShop is a bit of a strange occurrence. Summer Carnival '92 Recca was, as you might guess from its odd name, created for a shoot 'em up game competition held in 1992, exclusively in Japan. It was only available from those competitions, so the supply was quite limited and, as a result,...
Review Star Soldier (3DS eShop / NES)
I got soul, but I'm not the best Star Soldier
We may as well stop playing games en masse right now, because we all suck. That may sound harsh, but this 3DS eShop release of Hudson Soft’s vertically scrolling NES shoot-em-‘up will either make or break you. Unfortunately, if you play Star Soldier on the smaller screen of an original 3DS, the tiny...
Review Donkey Kong (3DS eShop / NES)
It's on like Donkey Kong
This year marked the 30th anniversary of the initial Japanese launch of the Nintendo Family Computer, more popularly known around the world as the Famicom. Among the landmark console’s launch titles was Donkey Kong, a port of the arcade hit that began Nintendo’s launch into video game history. Now, in the year of the...
Review Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (Nintendo 64)
Oblivion is at hand
Acclaim Entertainment must have always had a good feeling about Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Before the game was even released in 1997, the company announced that it was already working on a sequel. In hindsight of course, it’s easy to see why Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was such a massive success; it released at an ideal time in the...
Review Galaga (Wii U eShop / NES)
That man is playing Galaga!
Galaga is old. It may well state 1988 on Galaga’s NES title screen, but that refers to its European and US release date, the Japanese Famicom conversion was released early in 1985 and they are all based on a port of Namco’s 1981 coin-op. This means that with any Wii U Virtual Console purchase you must consider if you...
To Smurf, or not to Smurf?
Recently we got a little down and smurfy with our review of The Smurfs 2 for the Wii U, and now, we’ve set our focus on the DS version which offers a completely different gameplay experience, despite sharing the same title. Where the former offered up uneventful platforming that should only appeal to novice players or...
Review River City Ransom (3DS eShop / NES)
BARF!
River City Ransom — or Street Gangs as it was known upon release in Europe — is arguably one of the most famous fighting titles for Nintendo's 8-bit NES console. Ported from the Japanese Famicom title Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari, the game combined the pugilistic focus of Double Dragon (which was created by the same company, Technōs...
Review Harvest Moon (Wii U eShop / SNES)
Barnstorming
Early wake ups, extensive hours, back-breaking labour and ever-vulnerable to unpredictable weather patterns – farming doesn't sound like the most tantalising profession on paper. Way back when, however, developer Natsume clearly caught a glimpse of the positive aspects of the job and was inspired to create one of gaming's most beloved...
Review Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Nintendo 64)
A game worthy of acclaim?
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was a wise and lucky move for publisher Acclaim Entertainment. In the late '90s, the company was struggling financially and drastically needed to change its fortunes. Making good on its purchases of Valiant Comics in 1994 and development studio Iguana Entertainment in 1995, Acclaim used the rights it...
Review Cute Witch! Runner (DSiWare)
Magical Nights
With last year's Dress to Play: Cute Witches!, developer Coder Child channeled both Cotton and cosplay into a unique mix of dress-up and side-scrolling flight, a solid concept that we felt was let down by poor execution on the fashion side of the equation. We found plenty to like about the airborne action, however, and that's the main...
Review Kid Icarus (Wii U eShop / NES)
A demonic angel
The popularity of Pit, even before his triumphant return in Kid Icarus: Uprising, was focused around nostalgia for his first two appearances on NES and Game Boy, with the home console original setting the tone with catchy music, quirky mythological enemies and lashings of creativity. This was impressive in the days of the early 8-bit...
Review Shantae (3DS eShop / GBC)
Whip ya hair
Just over 11 years since its original release in 2002, Shantae has finally made it onto the 3DS Virtual Console – and it's the first time that it's been available in Europe too. Despite the long wait, WayForward's tricky 2D platformer is sprinkled with enough genie-magic to keep it fresh and interesting for a modern audience. Shantae...
Review Fashion Tycoon (DSiWare)
Fashion disaster
If there's one thing that Fashion Tycoon truly achieves, it's the way in which it makes you appreciate just how hard retail workers have it at times. Much like in real life, demanding customers, stock shortages and a lack of staff are just some of the problems you find yourself up against in this game — it's a nightmarish...
Review Spelunker (3DS eShop / NES)
Go back to your cave and stay there
Ask a few western gamers about Spelunker and it's likely that barely any of them will have heard of the game, despite it being originally developed by an American company. Ask Japanese gamers, though, and it's a completely different story — the game is very well known to them and is joked about online all the...
Review EarthBound (Wii U eShop / SNES)
An RPG experience unlike any other
EarthBound landed on the SNES in 1995 with a dull thud. While the game didn't exactly light up the sales charts in North America and failed to make it to Europe, it has certainly gone on to become one of the most sought-after games in the second-hand market, selling for upwards of $80 as nothing more than a loose...
Review Donkey Kong (Wii U eShop / NES)
Klassic Kong
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the initial Japanese launch of the Nintendo Family Computer, more popularly known around the world as the Famicom. Among the landmark console’s launch titles was Donkey Kong, a port of the arcade hit that began Nintendo’s launch into video game history. Now, just in time for the anniversary...
Review Rhythm Core Alpha 2 (DSiWare)
Bring life back to music
Musicians both aspiring and experienced have had copious opportunities to break out into song with their DSi thanks to a cornucopia of software suites, including 2010's Rhythm Core Alpha that brought an emphasis on live performances to the table. Developer SoftEgg's sequel Rhythm Core Alpha 2 is the most advanced one yet to...
Review Lost Treasures of Alexandria (DSiWare)
The perfect match?
Lost Treasures Of Alexandria's release on the DSi Shop comes as something of a surprise. That's because it's the first game in a short while to break the trend of poor Match-3 games to which the service has been cruelly subjected. In fact, this latest game rectifies many of the issues that plagued publisher MSL's other recent...
Review Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS eShop / NES)
Sweet dreams are made of these
By now we all know the story of Super Mario Bros. 2: concerns about the Japanese sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. kept it from release in North America and Europe. Different reasons have been given over time, from the game being too difficult to it simply not demonstrating enough creativity to keep gamers...
Review Metroid (Wii U eShop / NES)
By Zebes, it’s Metroid on the Wii U
The NES section of the Wii U's Virtual Console expands by another notch with the addition of Metroid, regarded by many as one of the best entries that amazing series has to offer. The great news is that it's every bit as wonderful as you remember; the bad news is that it's no more interested in holding your hand...
