I have a confession: every night, the part of my soul that is all id and desire has taken a spirit journey to Japan, where it developed Retro Game Challenge.
Of course that’s not actually true. But with an excellently executed premise that is laser-focused on the childhood dreams of the 20-something game player, it certainly feels true. It’s probably impossible to even review the game properly, as RGC is specifically designed to take the sort of person that would review a game and completely disarm them. I will try, but I wanted you to know going in that in this case, I don’t have any arms.
RGC has been called an 80s childhood simulator, but that’s not exactly true. It’s really more of an 80s nostalgia generator, the way kids of the time remember their favorite games rather than the warty and bug-ridden reality of the era. RGC contains eight games (though two are retreads, bringing the count of original games down to six) that are 8-bit-esque, and it walks a fine line with them: while together they illustrate the progression of 80s console game design, they are individually scrubbed of all the major annoyances that plagued the games of the day. So the games themselves are an enjoyable homage to the shooting, top-down racing, platforming and RPG genres as they existed then. The Star Soldier tribute Star Prince and 8-bit Symphony of the Night/Ninja Gaiden hybrid Haggle Man 3 are particular standouts.
But it’s the presentation of these games that makes RGC a truly charming work. If this were just a collection, it would have come off as some sort of competent but inexplicable NES tribute band. Instead, the game begins by warping you back to the 80s, where you and your buddy must take on the Famicom-based challenges of a mad gaming god. Games are unlocked as the decade progresses, in line with the trajectory of the industry as it actually happened. But it’s your little buddy Arino that really makes the game work. He always, always watches you play, cheering you on or making fun of you at exactly the right moments. He brings you the latest gaming tips from the schoolyard, which you are encouraged to try at your own peril (though they are sometimes true). He talks about how hungry he is, but never actually leaves to feed himself.
And he brings you the gaming magazine GameFan, a tribute print rag that’s loaded with cheat codes, in-jokes, and real world game journalists writing in the exclamation point-fueled style of the era. The bottom screen is devoted to this simulated meatspace, so you can leave up a game manual or magazine page down there, or a notebook page where you’ve written your favorite tips. More often then not it will just show you and Arino, cross-legged on the floor, worshipping the tiny cathode tube for hours.
That RGC actually knows how kids played games in the 80s and lovingly recreates that scenario right down to the parental screaming is what really makes the game something special. If you didn’t live through it, RGC could come across as a whitewashed history lesson, and might have some value if you’re wondering how any human being alive could have ever enjoyed Ninja Jajamaru-kun (we remember it playing more like Haggle Man). But if you’re the person who spent your childhood writing letters to dead tree gaming magazines and dreaming of the day that big in Japan cartridge would finally come to the US, you owe it to yourself to play Retro Game Challenge. You’ve not played games like this in some time, and you might be surprised to realize how much you miss it.
Rating: A
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