Missile Command was one of Atari’s biggest arcade hits in the 80s, so to celebrate the game’s 40th anniversary, now you can play a new iteration on mobile devices (reviewed on iPad here). This free-to-play version features updated neo-retro graphics, power-ups, and more modern features.
If you liked Peggle, and a lot of people did, you may want to check out Roundguard. It’s a lot like the classic pachinko-styled game, just with more RPG elements in a fantasy setting. It’s available on nearly pretty much anything you can play a game on, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Two big game crazes, one from the 80s and one from the 90s, have come together in one weird combo! Pac-Man Tamagotchi! Yeah you heard that right. Only because Pac-Man maker Namco and Tamagotchi creator Bandai have merged is this whole thing possible! Of course you all know I’m a huge Pac-Man fan, but I also have an interest in the virtual pet key chain Tamagotchi, too. So you know I had to get this!
I…freaking…love…Bubble Bobble. I don’t really remember seeing it in arcades, but boy I sure rented the HECK out of the NES version. Many years later, when my little brothers were old enough to play games, Bubble Bobble was one of the first games I introduced them to, and they loved it as well. And the main spin-off game, Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, is one of my top three favorite puzzle games of all time. So I was super excited to find out about a new Bubble Bobble game for Nintendo Switch. Is it as good as previous titles? Well you’ll just have to read the review to find out.
When I was little I used to read Highlights magazine. One of my favorite pages in it was the Hidden Pictures page. Years later I remember the Where’s Waldo books getting popular. I was a little too old to get into them then, but I sure do remember seeing them everywhere! I wonder if those books are still around? Well, if you liked those books, you may want to check out Hidden Through Time, an object finding game very much like Where’s Waldo. It’s available on all current game consoles, PC, and mobile, but reviewed on PS4 here.
A few weeks ago I reviewed Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo, a collection of scrolling 2-D shooters from the 90s and early 2000s. I liked it so much that I got the physical copies of both Alpha and Bravo, which only come as special editions with extra stuff. So let’s take a look at them!
Hey kids! Are you ready for a video game history lesson? Sure you are! Anyway, back in the mid-80s, game maker Technos created one of the first brawlers featuring a character named Kunio. He’s a hot-blooded high school student who sometimes gets into fights, but always stands up for his friends and against bullies. His first arcade game was a hit in Japan, and they brought it to the US under the name Renegade. A few graphical and name changes were made. The character now sported a sleeveless leather jacket instead of a Japanese school uniform, and instead of locations like an outdoor train stop, you fought in places like an underground subway station. It was a modest hit in the US and got a version on the NES, but it was nowhere near as big as the original game in Japan. The bosses at Technos wanted to recreate that success in the US, so they tasked the team to make another brawler that would really appeal to overseas audiences. So they created Double Dragon. Needless to say, that was a huge hit with countless arcade sequels and ports, a cartoon, and even a live action movie (it was famously bad, but fun in a B-movie sort of way). And now you can play almost every NES and Famicom version of the Double Dragon and Kunio-Kun series in a collection on the PS4 and Switch (reviewed on PS4 here). It even includes Renegade’s ‘sequel’ River City Ransom, as well as sports spin off titles like Super Dodge Ball! Yes! Super Dodge Ball was my favorite sports video game until Wii Sports came along!
In Code Shifter, you play as Stella. She works as a programmer at a fictional video game company testing codes and deleting bugs. When a malicious virus threatens the company’s latest release, Stella is on the case with a program that lets her avatar “Sera” defeat the bugs in a 2-D platform jumping cyberspace world. But the cool part is that at certain moments in the levels, you can switch to 8-bit pixel versions of characters from other Arc System Works games and licenses they own. These include games like Guilty Gear, BlazBlue, Double Dragon, River City Ransom, and more! Code Shifter is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
I’m such a staunch console gamer now that you might be surprised to learn that when I was a kid, I started out playing home games on computer. Our first PC was an Apple ][+, and outside of arcades, that’s where I played most of my games until I got an Atari 5200. One of the games I remember playing on that old computer was Boulder Dash. It was an action puzzle game that was kind of like Dig Dug in that you dug through the earth, collecting gems while trying not to get squished by falling boulders. And now you can celebrate its revival with Boulder Dash 30th Anniversary. At first I was like, “Isn’t Boulder Dash more than 30 years old?” And yes, it is. This Switch version (reviewed here) is just a port of an older version that was released a few years ago on PC and mobile when it really was Boulder Dash’s 30th anniversary. If you’d like to read more about the history of Boulder Dash, please click here. Just make sure to read my review first!
Meet the Sable family. Mom, Dad, an elementary school kid, a baby, and a dog. When they get sick, it’s up to Vita-Boy and Mina-Girl to pilot a vitamin capsule inside their bodies to stop a bacterial infection…and maybe even save the world in the process. Vitamin Connection is a Switch exclusive for one or two players. You’ll use your Switch JoyCon controllers in unique ways as you steer the vitamin capsule through microscopic mazes while avoiding obstacles and defeating bacteria with your Vita-Blaster! It kind of reminds me of a cross between Life Force and Irritating Stick, with some WarioWare style mini-games for good measure.
