Retro Reviews
Review Pokémon Trading Card Game - A Cracking Adaptation That Still Holds Up
A rare source of fun or just an uncommon?
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. It’s almost surreal nowadays to think that there was ever a time when portable gaming didn’t have Pokémon. When Red and Blue...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Ages - An Engrossing Tale And True Series Classic
A song for the ages
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. Ever since The Legend of Zelda released on the NES, Nintendo has played the franchise relatively close to its chest. Series creator Shigeru Miyamoto has had...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Oracle Of Seasons - An Underappreciated Old-School Adventure
Battle seasoned
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy / Game Boy Color library. The combat 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,...
Review Fire Emblem - The Blazing Blade Is Still As Sharp As Ever
So much to love Lyndis game
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack GBA library. Before Fire Emblem: Awakening kicked off 2013 (the Year of Luigi, you'll recall) with a bang, there was a great deal of concern at Nintendo regarding its...
Review Pokémon Stadium - The Original 151 Brought To Life With Style
Your stadium tour awaits
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. With the Pokémon franchise being as super effective as it was during the late '90s due to its handheld games, trading cards, television anime...
Review Assault Suits Valken Declassified (Switch) - A Great Treatment Of A Mecha Classic
Assaulting the senses
Within a few steps into the world of Assault Suits Valken Declassified, it is immediately apparent that something distinct is going on. That’s because the steps themselves feel different. Compared to traditional run ‘n’ guns such as Metal Slug, for example, the movement in the Assault Suits Valken remaster is...
Review Metroid Fusion - An Infectious, Portable Pleasure
SA-Xcellent
This review originally went live in 2014, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's GBA library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Released a full eight years after its phenomenal Super Nintendo predecessor, Super Metroid, 2002's Metroid Fusion is a well-paced, tense, atmospheric game and...
Review GoldenEye 007 - Aged And Flawed, But Still A Masterpiece Of Game Design
Gold-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 first-person shooter could be crafted for a machine other than a high-spec PC, but arguably also created the multiplayer FPS phenomenon on consoles. In fact, if it...
Rolling the dice
One of the only real criticisms we levelled at the recent Mega Man Battle & Fighters, a re-release of a Neo Geo Pocket Color title included in this new package, was that nobody had bothered to translate the content from Japanese. It was an issue exacerbated by a fan translation already existing online for those willing to go the...
Graft from the past
Atari, and its exuberant founder Nolan Bushnell, were 1970s trailblazers who formed, established, and pioneered the video game industry. Brushing a near-century of mechanical coin-operated gaming aside and barging pinball into a dusty corner, Atari became the focal point of bars everywhere with Pong in 1972. It was the dawning of...
Review Mario Party 2 - Party Like It's 1999 With One Of The Best In The Series
Yes, we know most places got it in 2000
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Since 1998, the Mario Party series has entertained gamers by mixing the play of traditional board games with frantic minigame...
Review Pilotwings 64 - A Real Gem, Sparkling In The Shadow Of Mario 64
Top flight
This review originally went live in 2013, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival in Switch's N64 library via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Releasing alongside Super Mario 64 when the Nintendo 64 launched back in 1996 (1997 if you're European), it was somewhat inevitable that Pilotwings 64 was...
Review Wave Race 64 - A Thrilling Racer That's Still Deeply Impressive
Splash wave
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. Wave Race was not a well-known series prior to its arrival on the Nintendo 64. Actually, it wasn't a series at all, but rather a single release: a top-down racer on...
Review Pokémon Puzzle League - A Thrilling Puzzler And A Heavy Nostalgia Hit
Panel de Pokémon
This review originally went live in 2008, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. For those who have dabbled with Puzzle League, this is obvious information, but please bear with us. Tetris Attack, the SNES game, was a westernized version of...
Review Zero Tolerance Collection (Switch) - A Significant 16-Bit FPS That's Hard To Take These Days
Virtual neutrality
Thanks to ray casting, an early form of graphics processing that allowed the rendering of a 2D map as a pseudo-3D environment, Zero Tolerance, a true First-Person Shooter, arrived on Sega’s Mega Drive in 1994. What makes Zero Tolerance Collection significant — particularly for fans of the original — is its boast of...
Review Pokémon Snap - Photo Fun That's Over Too Soon
Candid Camera + Pocket Monster
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. There are moments during Pokémon Snap where — upon finding a hidden path — the game ditches the first-person perspective to show your...
Review Rival Turf! - Jaleco's Brawler Is No Match For Final Fight, Two-Player Or Not
Two isn't always better than one
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Super NES library of games included with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. When approaching Jaleco's Rival Turf! (known as Rushing Beat in Japan), it's important to understand...
Review Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards - Kirby's First Brush With 3D Is Still A Charmer
Kirby Sixty-phwoar
Like many of Nintendo's properties during the transition from the SNES to the N64, Kirby underwent a shift from a flat 2D sprite to a fully rendered polygon rendition of himself. Rather than taking Kirby down the route of Mario and Link, however, the pink mascot stuck closer to his origins — mechanically, Kirby 64: The Crystal...
Review Mario Golf - Strait-Laced Fun On The Fairway
Mario hits the links
This review originally went live in 2008, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the game's arrival on Switch as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack. After Mario's forays into non-platforming genres — you know, the Karting, the Picross-ing, the Dr. Mario...ing — Nintendo realised something: put Mario...
Review F-Zero X - The Best The Series Has To Offer
X gonna give it to ya
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the release of F-Zero X on Switch, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. The original F-Zero on the Super Nintendo really blew gamers away with its stunning use of Mode 7 visuals, colourful graphics,...
Review Taito Milestones (Switch) - An Oddly Meagre Collection Of Coin-Op Classics
A muted celebration of an important developer
A small "Powered by Arcade Archives" message sits in the corner of Taito Milestones' dual-purpose title/game select screen, a subdued seal of quality there to let players know the emulation within is of the same standard we've come to expect from Hamster's prolific series, with all the usual features...
Review The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Magnificent, Unique, And Worth Revisiting
Okay, campers, rise and shine
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the release of Majora's Mask on Switch, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. The Zelda games have a lot of fans and there's also been plenty of opportunities over the years to revisit...
Review EarthBound Beginnings - A Charming Curio That Mother Fans Will Cherish
Everybody's gotta start somewhere
This review originally went live in 2015, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of EarthBound Beginnings in the Nintendo Switch Online NES library. If you were an early adopter of EarthBound fanaticism in the West, you likely caught wind of a previous title made for the Famicom. Translated...
Review EarthBound - A Quirky, Cosmic Adventure Bound To Warm Your Heart
Mother!
This review originally went live in 2016, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of Earthbound in the Nintendo Switch Online Super NES library. Fuzzy pickles! Back in 1995, this second instalment of Shigesato Itoi's much-loved Mother series (as it's known in Japan) only received a western release in North America, where...
Review Banjo-Kazooie - Peerless Platforming Perfection, And Now Available On Switch
Kazooie, we're home
This review originally went live in 2009, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the long-awaited return of Banjo-Kazooie to a Nintendo console, available as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack N64 library. Back in the days of the N64’s prime, there was one firm that managed to stand out from the rest:...
Review Paper Mario (N64) - A Well-Crafted Creation That Stands Up Beautifully
Historical document
This review originally went live in 2017, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the addition of Paper Mario to the other N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. Can we take a moment to appreciate just how gloriously wacky it is that a game like Paper Mario exists in the first place? This is an idea that followed in the...
WinBack, baby WinBack, that's where it's at
It’d be easy to dismiss Winback without a second thought. Developed by Omega Force — nowadays famous for the long-running Dynasty Warriors series and associated Musou spin-offs/crossovers — and released for N64 back in 1999, it’s probably the least well-known of the Switch Online service’s...
Mini Review Dr. Mario 64 (N64) - Diagnosis: A Bit Rubbish
One to strike from the Medical Register
There's a sort of... B-tier of Nintendo puzzlers, isn't there? Stuff like Yoshi's Cookie and Wario's Woods. We'd argue, perhaps fruitlessly, that Dr. Mario slots into this little group rather better than the truly A-grade stuff. On Switch, in particular, there's an embarrassment of puzzling riches that we'd...
Review Blazing Rangers (NES) - A New NES Game In 2021? Youbetcha, And It's A Good 'Un
Toasty!
Gaming is not short of NES-like experiences these days; titles filled with 8-bit-style blocky pixels, beepy music, and some controllable character for you to take from the left side of the screen to the right. These games tend to chase the past from a comfortable distance, the harsh technical restrictions of almost 40 years ago something to...
Review Mario Tennis (N64) - The Game That Gave Us Waluigi
Ace
This review originally went live in 2010, and we're updating and republishing it to mark the arrival of N64 games on Nintendo Switch Online. When Mario Golf was released back in 1999, it was already known that Camelot was working on another Mario sports title for the N64, and following a decent title released for the sadly ill-fated Virtual...
