Retro Game Challenge for Nintendo DS Reviews by Gamers

There are eight total games spanning several genres including: rpg, platformer, shmup and racing on this little DS cart. You would be hard-pressed to come across a game that provided better value for your money. If you owned a NES or played video games in the eighties, this is a must purchase.

While some of the games on Retro Game Challenge are better than others, I wouldn't say that any of them are bad, and sheer variety ensures that you'll never get bored with any one game. You unlock these games by beating their associated challenges; each game has four challenges. Although most of the story is from a Japanese perspective, there's enough recognizable aspects to connect with an American audience. You'll also have a wide array of gaming mags at your disposal if you're searching for cheats or just want to read an article. There are various little surprises throughout, but I'll let you have the joy of discovering them on your own.

Pros: Great variety, all the games are solid, and the story is original.

Cons: Some of the voices can get on your nerves at times, and not all of the challenges save individually; sometimes you'll have to play through a series of challenges in one sitting, which isn't as bad as it sounds. Thankfully you won't have that problem with the rpg challenges. As much as I love this game, it's pretty much designed for old-school gamers like me, so not everyone may like it.

Final Verdict: Make some space on your GameQ.

This game is a perfect example of how titles can lure you in. This game sounded really great at the start. A game that's composed of classic games, how can it get better than that? But I should've looked up what games were in there, or at least rented it first. But this was before I had GameFly. GameFly, I just gave you some free advertising. I was expecting to play Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Excitebike, Ice Climber, Donkey Kong, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and all those other Nintendo classics. However I didn't realize until after I bought it that it wasn't actually made by Nintendo, so none of those games I was hoping for were in there. I haven't even heard of a single game in there until I played this game. And not only that, I didn't think there would actually be challanges in it. I guess I should've seen it coming because of the title, but my first thought was that it was only an effort to make the title cool. The idea of challanges isn't so bad at first, but later on in the game the challenges get rediculous. They start off with simple things such as reach a certain level or get a certain amount of points, but later they become more and more impossible and you just want to get it out of the way and move on to the next game. At least you get to play the game normally after you complete all the challenges for it, but by that time you just get sick of it. Not that you actually wanted to play that game in the first place. If somehow you've actually heard of any of these games, than I guess you might like this. But if you haven't, don't waste your time.

The hilarious premise of being transported back to the days of retro gaming is great, and the mechanics of the game will first amuse you, and then eventually become just one more aspect that distracts you from success. Those of you with younger siblings in the '80s will feel right at home.

Notice the word that is capitalized in the title? They aren't joking. You have to succeed at...uh...gameplay very much LIKE "Galaga" (but not "Galaga" itself, you understand)...in fact, you have to be pretty proficient to get past game one and move forward. But for all the silliness, this is in fact more "challenge" than "retro."

The cheats - as always - are not always reliable, but even with the ones that do work, you won't be waltzing through this package quickly. Lots of fun, with perspiration required.

Retro Game Challenge takes you back to the 80's to play some classic games. Or at least knock-off's of classic games. There's a paper-thin story but you won't pay any attention to it. You're given one game at a time to play and four challenges for each of them. They're usually along the lines of "get a high score" or "get to level four". Once all are beaten, you move on to the next game. Repeat until bored.

Thankfully, once you beat a game you unlock it for freeplay so you can go back any time and just enjoy yourself. Sadly, the games themselves are rather repetitive. There's a shooter, a racer, a platformer and an RPG... and then there's a shooter, a racer, and two more platformers. The problem is that you're given games like Haggleman (the platformer) and then later you have to play Haggleman 2. Then Haggleman 3. The unlocked games are mostly just 'upgraded' versions of their counterparts.

It would've been really nice to have eight different games, instead of five games with multiple sequels for each. This can be really awful if you don't like one of the games, such as the racer, which is forced upon you twice.

Overall, it's not a bad game. The presentation is top notch and really gives you that eighties gaming vibe. It's just that the games themselves are repetitive after the second or third iteration.

Good:
+Presentation
+The shooters

Bad:
-Too many sequels
-The racer

I'm not very good at the challenge part(especially shooters, which is the first set you have to complete). However, even without completing challenges, there are 3 action, 2-3 racing, 2 shooters, and even one RPG to play in free play mode. I concentrated mostly on the RPG(guardia quest), which seemed very similar to dragon warrior II. Even the graphics are the same. Guardia quest concentrates more on dungeon exploration rather than overworld and storylines. It's easier in some ways, because of the ablitiy to save whenever and wherever you want. You also have a warp spell that allows you to warp to wherever you have already been, including dungeons. When you need to revive your characters(if you didn't loose the whole party) you just return to the castle town and talk to the magician and he'll do it for free. Eventually there will be a spell that you can use as well. If you like the old school level up and explore type of RPG's, you should like this game. If you don't, maybe you will like one of the other ones.