Why is there no discussion about this game? Everyone needs to go buy it now, seriously.
For those who don’t know, Retro Game Challenge (called Game Center CX in Japan) is a DS game based on a TV show where a comedian, Shinya Arino, constantly plays through old video games, often with little success.
In the game, well… just read the blurb on the back:
[i]All Your Games are Belong to Us.
The evil Game Master Arino has trapped you in the 1980’s - to escape you must defeat his classic gaming challenges.
Experience a wide variety of fast-paced retro challenges, then unlock complete games for free play.
Enjoy timeless 8-bit gameplay: space shooters, racing, ninja action - even epic RPG play.
Search in-game magazines for cheat codes and fun articles. A winner is you![/i]
There’s lots of little AYB quotes and similar anachronisms in the manual and stuff too.
The game consists of a bunch of other games that resemble NES titles. One of them is even a complete Dragon Quest-ish RPG (it’s supposedly about 15 hours long by some reports). Throughout the game you’re given challenges by Arino to do certain things in each game. The first one is easy, just reach Stage 5 in ‘Cosmic Gate’, but they get harder throughout.
There’s also fake game magazines your character can read as well, for hints and cheats on each game.
It’s just pure nostalgia, but it does it all so well. The price tag is only $29.99 too. So go pick it up. Do it!
Oh boy, I read about this before. Good to hear it’s out now, I’ll have to take a look for it!
I would pick this up, but right now I’m still recovering from the literal shitload of games that I bought last month.
But this is definitely on my list.
I’ve heard and read many good things about this game. I’m gonna start on it as soon as I finish Ninjatown (just finally got around to it).
On a similar note, you all should check out the developer’s blog on 1up. Hilarious as hell to read and pretty interesting. I like how they purposely made some of the text nonsensical like back in the day.
I’ve made it to the RPG, and am currently on the ‘get your characters to Lv7’ challenge.
I think the worst part of the game is Rally King, especially since you have to do it twice with the laughable ‘SP’ edition. This is something most of us North American fans would be scratching our heads over since we never really got games like that over here, where a game is repackaged with slightly altered graphics to promote or advertise something. There was a version of Super Mario Bros. in this style as well, the ‘All-Night Nippon’ version, or something like that.
Rally King, though, isn’t too hard since you can cheat your way through the challenges. Thank god.
Star Prince, the second space shooter, is so very awesome. That game is probably worth playing alone, so I recommend blowing through the challenges and unlocking Freeplay for it ASAP.
Haggleman 2 is very similar Haggleman in the same way Super Mario Bros. 2 (the one Japan got, AKA The Lost Levels) is similar to the original Super Mario Bros. There’s very few gameplay upgrades and it more or less resembles the original game, if a bit harder.
Haggleman 3 is the last game, which I haven’t unlocked yet, but it’s supposed to be really awesome, and should mostly resemble a late-NES platformer, and doesn’t really resemble the first two Haggleman games at all. I’ve heard people relate it to the Strider games, actually. I suppose I’ll find out once I’m finished with the Gaudia Quest challenges.
And yes, there are lots of intentionally misspelled words and grammatical errors, especially in the earlier games. I love the ‘story’ to Cosmic Gate, where you have to fight “Humany’s most deadlier enemys”.