X-Out Resurfaced Review (Switch)

Recently, we have been seeing the Amiga back catalogue brought back to life. The Evercade has had several Amiga carts released and a handful of other games have made it to modern consoles. Now, we have a remake of 30 year old X-Out, a side scrolling shooter in the style of games like R-Type.

X-Out has a few things that try and set it part from other side scrolling shooters. In terms of it’s design it is set under water so everything has an aquatic theme to it. The other key thing is that you have the option to buy your ships and equipment at the start of each level. This creates a unique risk and reward dynamic where you need to decide if buying one super ship is better than having three or four less equipped ones. And it is a key decision because once your last ship is down it’s game over. There are no continues.

On that note, it’s a real surprise that X-Out Resurfaced doesn’t really cater for new gamers in any way despite being rebuilt from the ground up. There are none of the concessions that most retro remakes now have. You can’t save, there is no rewind function, and you can’t alter any settings such as lives or money. While it’s refreshing to see something stick to its roots, it also makes the game crushingly difficult. Your ship has a life bar but will explode instantly on impact with anything so some of your playthroughs may last minutes to begin with.

The fact there’s no continue option or level select is also frustrating. It’s true that each time you play you’ll likely progress a little further, but it can take seconds to lose all your craft and then you are right back to level 1 again. It’s something that seems unnecessary, especially with a game that isn’t always the most fluid to control. A lot of these shooters at least have level trainer options once you reach certain stages, but not here. 

Overall, X-Out Resurfaced is a strong but crushingly difficult game. Fans of games like R-type will feel at home, but the game really needed some options to try and get new players to connect with it. Anything past the first level is a real challenge and it’s likely a lot of players will spend most of their time in the early stages before feeling they can’t progress. While we are glad to see the game on the Switch, is could have been a lot more fun with more options for players to tinker with.

Overall 6/10

 

Taito Collection 3 Review (Switch)

 

The first two Taito Milestones collection were a bit of a mixed bag. The first collection had ten games on it but lacked for the price that was being asked. The second collection fared better, having The New Zealand Story and a unique version of Darius 2 on it. While still limited to ten games, the third collection is arguably the strongest set of games so far.

Before we get into what’s on here it’s important to say that you now get all the expected game-based bells and whistles retro collections have started to accumulate. Save states, display settings, the ability to tweak in game options and online rankings are all here along with in game manuals. There isn’t much in the way of museum or archive material though.

Headlining this collection are the classics of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. Both are highly regarded arcade games that you’ll no doubt have heard of. They both play as excellently as you remember as well with their different takes on platforming still feeling fresh and fun, while also influencing so much that came after them. 

The Rastan games are also here.  The impressive Conan the Barbarian inspired sprites still hold up and the arcade style hack and slash will keep you playing longer than most arcade games have a right to. The second game is even more visually impressive with some excellent set pieces and huge graphics, but it lacks in terms of how it plays and will likely be skipped over after the initial wow factor has warn off.

The rare, third game in the Rastan Saga has also been included. Warrior Blade is Taito’s attempt at producing something like Golden Axe. It’s not been the easiest game to get hold of so it’s nice to see it here and it does a good job at creating a swords and sorcery hack and slash game. It has a pretty wide range of moves as well and three different characters to pick from so if you get tired of just hammering the attack button there are options to mix things up.

Championship Wrestling is an interesting choice, it’s a relatively fun take on the sport which looks great but lacks a few moves. It runs at a decent speed and all the different characters are visually different. They also have a few unique moves between them. As there’s a real lack of decent wrestling games on the Switch it could gain a bit of a cult following. It’s certainly fun in small bursts.

RPG/ Hack and Slash crossover Cadash has made the cut as well. You start by picking from one of four characters and then must press on against the clock in a side on adventure. Occasionally you’ll level up and have to continually find gold. It’s not a game that has aged massively well and will likely just become a curio as players look for something a bit easier to deal with. The same can be said for Runark (otherwise known as Growl), which is a fairly average belt fighter with a few cool elements and an interesting theme.

Luckily, Thunder Fox is much more interesting. It plays like a sort of cross between an updated version of Rush ‘n’ Attack and the arcade version of Shinobi. Levels are varied and it’s responsive and good fun. It has the basic structure of walking through levels and hitting enemies but the bosses are decent and occasionally you get to drive vehicles and blast things in jets. As an arcade experience it works well.

The collection is rounded off with Dead Connection a cool action game set across a single screen where you break into gangsters’ dens and shoot everyone. Levels are set up like a club or a restaurant and you must eliminate a certain number of targets to progress. Much of the environment is destructible and interactive as well which adds to the chaos. It’s a continual good time and a much-welcomed addition.

Overall, The third Taito collection is the strongest in terms of overall selection of games yet. There’s a good mix of well recognised titles and curios and most of them are at least fun to play in small amounts. There are of course always things we would have liked to see added. In this instance we would have loved to have more of the Bubble Bobble games on here, Bubble Symphony seems to never want to come out on anything again. The price may still be too much for some but in terms of quality you can’t really argue.

Overall 8/10

Irem Collection Volume 1 Review (Switch)

Irem have been one of the most notable companies to not fully exploit its back catalogue yet when it comes to retro collections and the exploitation of its classic franchises. The approach they have now taken is to release a selection of small volumes starting with this three-game collection of shoot’em ups. Here you get Image fight 1 and 2 and X Multiply, perhaps not the most well-known games from the company’s history but all of them are well worth playing. The big question is if these three games are worth the pricey sum of £19.99 when you compare them to other collections available.

One thing in the collections favour is that multiple versions of each game (Where available), are included. X Multiply has both the ‘World’ and Japanese arcade variants and Image Fight has all the Arcade, NES, Famicom and PC Engine versions available. The PC Engine CD version of Image Fight 2 rounds out the package. This means that while the package may seem a bit mean in terms of content and price it also means that it is far cheaper than trying to track down the original versions of the game to play on the original hardware.

In terms of options, they are deceptively extensive. You get multiple difficulty settings and the usual ability to create save states. There’s also a host of things to do in the arcade games such as calibrating how the sticks feel and various video options. There is also a section where you can enable cheats as well, so you are well served no matter how you want to play the games.

Image Fight is the most well-known game here and one that was an early pioneer in the world of the vertically scrolling shooter. It’s also crushingly difficult. It’s a game you’ll really need to memorise in order to make it through with the smallest of mistakes often leading to death. It’s a good thing those cheats are there for the more casual player. Of course, when you die you are stripped of your well-earned power ups as well which makes things even harder. T

he powerup system itself is complex with a mixture of pods that can be launched briefly before returning, and force like add-ons which bolt on to provide secondary weapons. Just make sure to pick the right ones or you will die. Often.

Just when you thought Image Fight was hard the sequel comes along and is perhaps even more difficult. Bigger bosses and more intense action coupled with players needing to build their powerups back up at the start of each stage mean this is really one for the hardcore gamers out there.

X Multiply is a horizontal scrolling shooter that initially recalls R Type. It is, perhaps, even more organically grotesque in its design. The concept is that you are making your way through a human body and need to rid it from a microscopic alien invasion. It’s a lot faster and more action intense than R Type for sure and a game that many have likely not encountered before so it’s great to see it get a spotlight here.

Overall, it’s difficult to judge where the first Irem Volume lands. The three games here are great and the emulation is rock solid. But there’s a lack of general finesse in terms of the presentation and the asking price for a collection of three games is steep. When you consider Irem has more volumes already lined up it’s obvious there could have been something put out that would have appealed to a much wider audience. In the end it’ll come down to just how much you want to play three great shoot’em ups.

Overall 7/10

Ray’z Arcade Chronology Review (Switch)

These retro collections are getting out of hand. As much as we are absolutely delighted that the Switch has become an Ark in console form for the great games of yester year, I’m not sure we need quite so many versions of each release. The Ray’z series has three different versions available for gamers to buy which is two too many. You can get just the HD versions of Raystorm and RayCrisis, a limited physical version which has the prototype R-Gear on it or this version which contains the original version of Rayforce and the original and HD remasters of Raystorm and RayCrisis.

Still, it is very nice to see the series making its way to modern machines as the games are certainly great fun to blast through. What we have here is five versions of three games ported wonderfully by M2 and presented beautifully. Raystorm and Raycrisis in particular utilise the layout of the Switch screen to the fullest so there’s no feeling of needing to tip everything around into a TATE mode as although the games scroll vertically, they are meant to be played wide screen. Indeed, the remasters are of a quality that the original version become pretty much redundant as anything other than a curio.

The main shoot’em up gimmick of the games is that they operate on two levels. You can blast away at flying enemies but also have a lock on laser which can pick up multiple targets on lower levels. When you release the lock on button your lasers will home in and hot anything you have tagged. This creates some interesting boss set pieces as well as they are normally attackable across both the higher and lower plane.

Unlike the later two game which utilise polygons, Rayforce is from the pixel art camp. The environments and enemies look awesome and the fact the levels work in a constant segway from one to the next create a feeling of constant adrenaline that doesn’t really let the player have any room to breathe. It helps to keep things intense and is a clever design decision. The other games don’t segway in the same way but all are filled with impressive set pieces and huge bosses.

In terms of fire power, you are a bit limited compared to many shooters but these games are more about learning to use what you have. Rayforce only gives you the standard lower level laser lock on and your main gun. This can be upgraded a bit but there’s no smart bombs to save you so you will have to get used to dodging bullets quickly in order to progress. Raystorm and RayCrisis give you a bit more to play with as you can pick from different craft and a super attack is brought in but on the whole, you will be taking on the enemies with the same weapons your craft started with throughout.

The third game is the series, Raycrisis does break the mould a bit when it comes to shooters as it’s first three levels come at you in a randomised order. It’s also the biggest of the games with 42 maps in total and a number of a different endings. Repeated plays allows the player to start sequencing the levels. It’s also the most manic of the three games. As a result things become almost too busy at times and it can be tricky to take everything in. Chances are though you’ll be having too much fun to really care.

Overall, this is another excellently put together compilation of classic games than more than deserves to be experienced by the vast audience that the Switch has. If you are into retro gaming, shoot’em ups or just trying to build a library of classic titles this is a must buy. It’s three excellent games exactly as you remember them, and possibly a little bit better in the cases of the HD remasters.

Overall 8/10

Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle +Hell Review (Switch)

Of all the retro collections and revivals doing the rounds we have to say that the Ninja JaJaMaru series wasn’t one we were expecting to see. This is a brand new game in the series looking to take a sort of Pac-Man Championship approach to the franchise. There are also various versions of the game you can pick up which contain a collection of the original Ninja JaJaMaru console games and even the obscure RPG games. It’s a bit confusing about which collection has what in it so make sure to do your research before deciding. It would certainly have been easier to put everything into one package.

For those unfamiliar with the franchise, it’s a sort of one screen arcade game. You, as the ninja, have to clear the level of bad guys as they enter from the various doors around the level. The other games in the series expand the gameplay in different ways but this new game very much follows the formula laid down in the first NES title.

There’s something about a single screen arcae game which adds a level of focus to what’s going on. We’ve seen it recently with Donut Dodo and again here it proves to be exactly the right way to go. The original premise is built upon with much more responsive controls and a more breakneck speed as you zip around throwing shuriken’s at the various demons and monsters. You can chain the kills for high scores and there’s also a host of temporary powerups to help you through. One of which includes turning into a huge version of a character from another of the companies games such as a massive baseball guy who bats enemies off screen or a space ship.

It starts out simple but each level adds in new monsters, which all act in different ways. You’ll also get giant versions of some of them at various points as sort of mid-level boss creatures. There a load of different enemies as well so there’s always something new entering the game. Each of the levels are also have had a lot of thought put into them so players can scout for the best routes to high scores.

At the end of each of the three acts you’ll also take on a boss monster. These can be frustrating as your health from the last level you were on travels with you and bosses are real heavy hitters in terms of damage. It would have benefited from a checkpoint before taking each one on but it’s a small problem with what is a consistently fun and enjoyable game.

As you progress, you’ll also continually gain coins which are then used to unlock a continual collection of music and characters you can play as. There are various coloured ninjas as well as pretty much all of the monsters which will eventually unlock, twenty-five in total. Each character has different health and damage stats and also different attack patterns and other characteristics such as flying or jumping higher. It gives an extra level of depth to the experience as it adds a ton of different ways to try and take on the levels.

Overall, This is a successful return for the franchise and by far the best game in the series. Not only that, it’s also a successful updating of the original format to the modern day. The arcade roots are still very much intact but the added bells and whistles put the game in the same sort of category as Pac-Man Championship Edition in terms of how successfully it’s been updated. It also works perfectly well  for those .who have never played one of the games in the franchise before. An excellent arcade hit.

Overall 8/10

Store Link – https://www.iningames.com/games/ninja-jajamaru

Wonderboy Anniversary Collection Review (Switch)

Written by Dan Gill

When I received the Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection, I was initially a little confused. Hadn’t this come out a few months ago? Imagine my embarrassment when I realised, I was thinking of the Wonder Boy Collection which was released in the sweltering summer of 2022. I should have known really, as the selection on games on offer here is quite different from that collection. Well, OK, not so different. It seems that the difference between the Anniversary Collection and the plain old vanilla Collection is that the former contains a comprehensive selection of Wonder Boy titles, spread across several different versions each of 6 games from the Wonder Boy/Monster World series.

If you’ve purchased any kind of retro collection in the past few years, you’ll know the drill, classic games with modern conveniences. The WBAC has the usual bells and whistles we’ve come to expect including save states, concept art, promotional material from the time and various settings to emulate a CRT. The number of games on offer is generous, as the 6 different games have platform and region variations, bringing the game count to 21. Emulated systems range from the original arcade version through the Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive/Genesis. It’s a package to cater for every Wonder Boy fan, as you’re likely to pick your favourite version. You want the Game Gear version of the original game? You’ve got it. You want to play Monster World IV as it was on the Japanese Mega Drive? Fill your boots. This is as comprehensive a package for Wonder Boy as you can get, at least without chucking all the Adventure Island games in there too.

The games themselves are great. The original Wonder Boy is showing its age now, but it’s the foundation on which the series is built and proves to be an interesting curio for those that want to see what platform games were like in the wake of Super Mario Brothers. Wonder Boy in Monster Land shook things up by introducing some RPG-lite elements, while Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair combines platforming with shoot-em-up sections. Probably the most revered title is Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, due to its Metroidvania style of gameplay. Monster World III and IV continue in a similar vein, playing out like an ARPG. Each game is still worth playing since their influence can be seen in so many other games.

However, here’s the problem. If you forked out for the previous collection, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little seen off. This is the definitive collection for these titles, and the old collection’s paltry collection of four games feels decidedly stingy in comparison. The release of the newer package so soon after the old one feels like a poke in the eye for early adopters, as they’re now left with just a few tasty scraps rather than a sumptuous banquet.

Is it worth your money? Based on what’s on offer here, yes. The games themselves are great, and the variety of ports is excellent. However, if you’ve already shelled out for the previous collection, you’d likely feel stung by having to hand over money twice over to complete the set of games. The price of the collection (£45 in the eShop) isn’t exactly small change, so you’d either need to be an avid fan or wait for a sale before picking this up and leaving yourself with a redundant collection that’s not even a year old. For everyone else, the package comes highly recommended. A bit more spit and polish in the presentation department would have been appreciated, but the amount of gameplay on offer here is generous and is pretty much essential for any Wonder Boy fan.

8/10

Turrican Anthology Vol 1 and 2 Review (Switch)

 

“Retro gaming” has almost become a redundant title in recent years. The restoration and archiving of old titles have become common practice; with classic games being reissued, forgotten titles being treated to widespread release on new hardware, previously region-locked gems getting lovingly crafted remasters, and even canned titles finally get to see the light of day. The Turrican series falls into the much-loved at the time yet forgotten catagory, the series starting out as a showcase for the then-aging C64 as a technical marvel. Better versions followed, of course, but it’s odd that the original has been omitted from both volumes of the Turrican Anthology.

With the word “anthology” in the title I’d have expected a comprehensive selection of games, at the very least the original version of the first game should show its face, but not here. Each anthology includes three titles (four if you include one director’s cut in each) and what is effectively a demo version of a game from the other collection. The first volume has the Amiga Versions of Turrican and Turrican 2, and Super Turrican and its Director’s Cut from the SNES, and while volume two has Super Turrican 2, the Amiga’s Turrican 3 and its Mega Drive equivalent, Mega Turrican, also with a Director’s cut. While the games are the best the series has to offer, the price of admission (£29.99 each) feels a little steep, but with the rights to the series being spread over so many parties it’s understandable that costs need to be recovered.

The series has its roots in the platforming/shooting genre and may look like a Metroid homage on first glance. The levels – while large - are linear, so the similarities only go as deep as Turrican’s morph ball. The first game’s primary influence was obscure Data East title Psycho-Nics Oscar, and it really does fall into the run-and-gun genre; blast stuff, power ups aplenty, and big bosses. The games really throw enemies and hazards at you, but the use of a health bar rather than a one-hit kill gives the player a bit of breathing room compared to something like Contra. The pace is slower overall, but things can get frantic at times.

All the games stand up as well now as they did back in the 90s. The first two Turricans offer a decent 16-bit shooting through some cavernous levels. The SNES titles combine elements of the first two and slap more colours and some Mode 7 trickery over the top to offer a prettier experience. The real star of the show however is Mega Turrican. While it’s essentially the same game as the Amiga’s Turrican 3 in terms of graphics and levels, it plays much better. I often felt the two were inseparable, but having compared them side-by-side, the Mega Drive’s blast processor really allowed the game to run at a brisk pace, and the Amiga game seems to stutter in comparison.

The games themselves have been given a lot of attention, with perfect ports and a plethora of features to please the time starved and hardcore, through the ability to enable or disable features such as rewind, save states and the like. There’s also a lovely CRT filter if you really want to relive the halcyon days of playing on a 14-inch TV. Each title runs like a dream, and it’s a joy to be able to play Amiga games without faffing with emulation (Factor 5 host files for the Amiga game on their site for free legal download) or original hardware.

The price is the only real downer, as you’re still paying £60 for a handful of 16-bit games, but you could still justify it as a saving on buying the originals. As it stands, these anthologies offer the most reasonably priced way to play these titles (just check out the prices for Super Turrican 2 on eBay), and the emulation is top-notch as always. It’s nice to see Amiga titles making an appearance here (more of this, please), and the addition of modern conveniences is always appreciated, even though it’s pretty much a given these days.

Aside from the pricing, my other minor complaint is the omission of other versions of the first two games. While I’m sure even getting this many games together was a herculean feat of rights-wrangling and publisher schmoozing, it would have been great to have the option of playing the home computer or console ports of the first two games. Having the option of playing the reskinned Turrican 2 in the form of Universal Soldier would have been the cherry on the cake, but this would’ve been a big ask just to satisfy this old obsessive-compulsive collector.

If you’re only going to pick up one of these collections, I’d say Volume 2 is the one to go for, as Mega Turrican is the pinnacle of the series. Of course, you can also pick up the previously released Turrican Flashback, as this includes the first two games, Super Turrican and Mega Turrican. Whichever you choose will provide plenty of solid run-and-gun action, whether you’re a grizzled 90s gamer or a newcomer to the series. And if this is your first time playing, “welcome to Turrican. Hahahahahahaha!”.

8/10

Cotton Fantasy Review (Switch)

 

We’ve covered about 8000 Cotton games recently as the cult shoot’em up franchise has been meticulously ported and released on the Switch over the last few months. Now though there is a brand new one to play around with and it could well be the best of bunch.

Cotton Fantasy is a bright and colourful game that runs along at a great pace and rarely falters in terms of its performance. The levels are also highly distinctive in their look and enemy design and each time you complete the game you will unlock another level which can then be played in the story mode. In terms of looks this ticks all the boxes and the added longevity from the drip feed of new levels keeps the game fresh and gives players alternate routes to take through the game. In terms of other ways to play the game, progression is reduced to Normal or Hard difficulty and the Extra mode which has every enemy blasted turning into bullets.

The bosses a highlight and varied in style with a mixture of big bad screen fillers and smaller more agile foes to take on. Doing this also has to be achieved within an unknown time limit or the boss will fly away losing the player a ton of points. 3D bonus levels giving a nod to Panorama Cotton are another nice touch.

Another thing that greatly adds to the fun and longevity is the character roster. Each of the characters plays very differently. You have the standard approach of someone like Cotton herself who picks up crystals and powers up accordingly, but you also have a character who works by utilising the ‘buzz’ mechanic made popular by Psyvariar and another who runs on a timer with seconds being replenished each time you pick up a crystal. They all have different weapon load outs and special attacks as well. With 6 initial characters to pick it means there’s a lot of ways to play with the only downside being that some levels don’t quite gel as well as they could with certain character styles.

We aren’t hardcore shoot’em up players here at Retro 101 but we found that Cotton Fantasy walked the line between being approachable for newcomers and offering high score chasing for the pros well. Depending on your character there are numerous ways to start racking up huge scores while newcomers supported by having infinite continues and a level select training option to aid progress and practice their skills.

Overall, Cotton Fantasy is among the best the series has to offer. There’s very little more any fan of the franchise could really ask for. It’s just a whole load of fun with a decent amount of variety throughout and numerous extras that add longevity. A great return for a franchise that deserves a far bigger audience.

Overall 8/10

Taito Milestones Review (Switch)

Retro collections and arcade releases are become more and more common on the Switch and each new one seems to try and push the bar higher in terms of what’s included. We’ve had Sega, various Konami collections, Capcom and SNK just to name a few giving us wide ranging collections of their back catalogues with a vary degree of options and museum elements. Now Taito are entering the market with a group of ten arcade games and it’s not really what we had hoped.

Taito has been releasing its games on the Switch for some time in the form of Arcade Archives branded stuff which generally come with regional variations and a few other options. By comparison what we get here is about as bare bones as possible. The title screen simply has the games displayed for players to pick and that’s it. No museum extras, no regional variants, nothing really which shows these games off or explains why they are so seminal to company. When you put that against efforts from the like of SNK it simply it’s up to the same standard. There are online leader boards at least.

While the ten games do cover a wide range of genres, they aren’t exactly the iconic titles you might be hoping for. Alpine Ski, Wild Western, Front Line and Space Seeker are really very early arcade representations of the teams work and just don’t have the hook that a lot of gamers will be hoping for as they handle very stiffly.  Halley’s Comet is an ok vertically scrolling shooter and the Ninja Warriors is a quite poor side scrolling brawler which is a million miles away from the quality of the SNES/Switch sequel already available on the system.

It's not all bad though as Elevator Action and The Fairyland Story remain as fun and addictive as ever (even if you can buy them separately already). Qix may well get a second lease of life because of this collection as well and remains an underrated puzzler where you must try and fill in blocks of colour before the baddie floating around in the middle of the screen catches you. Chack ‘N’ Pop is the last game on the collection and again proves to be a fun single screen platform/maze distraction.

Unfortunately, this is a collection burdened by what isn’t here. If you want Space Invaders, you’ll need to go and buy that collection separately. Darius? The same and there’s no sign of iconic games such as Phoenix, The New Zealand Story or Bubble Bobble. Even games already on the Switch from the correct time period are missing such as The Legend of Kage. Considering most of these games made it onto a bumper collection on the PS2 (https://www.retro101.co.uk/2012/10/taito-legends-review-ps2.html), it really is baffling.

Overall, this is a highly disappointing effort. When so much care and attention is put into the individual releases of the games this just seems completely misjudged. So many other companies have now set the standard for what to expect for this kind of price that ten bare bones games just aren’t enough anymore. Yes, there are some high points here, but the fact Taito has so many other collections and retro releases available just makes this seem like a cynical attempt to push some titles together they didn’t really have a lot of faith in.

Overall 5/10