Retro Gamer

The original Mortal Kombat movie from 1995 is something of an outlier amongst Hollywood adaptations of videogames. As a decently enjoyable watch that represented its source material faithfully, it was considered for a long time to be arguably the bes

How’s your lockdown currently going? As we approach a year of this misery, I have found myself going slowly mad. Or maybe I’m rapidly descending into insanity, who knows? My latest example of potential downward spiral is I’ve been feeling guilty abou

The Nineties. Remember those? Going into that decade, I had little inkling that – for better and sometimes worse – I’d come out the other end having carved out my own small footnote in gaming history. I am of course talking about Digitiser, the daily

» ATARI 2600 » 1983 » ACTIVISION One of the things I loved about visiting Andrew Bacon’s house after school was browsing through his impressive Atari 2600 collection. We didn’t always get to play on the games themselves because the console was in the

The Mega Drive had no shortage of exciting development teams during the late-Eighties and early-Nineties, but in our opinion, few studios could match the technical brilliance and sheer consistency of Treasure. The studio was started by Masato Maegawa

■ Upon forming Treasure, Maegawa split his staff into two teams: one group worked on Gunstar Heroes, the others created this charming platformer. Despite the odd nature of its licence, Treasure Land Adventure proves to be an enjoyable romp and has ju

Few strategy games are as beloved as the Total War series. Rome: Total War was originally released in 2004, but Creative Assembly has now decided to update the strategy classic for a new generation as Total War: Rome Remastered. We spoke to Kevin McD

With the assorted members of the UK press making their annual excursion to sunny Los Angeles for an E3 filled with whooping and hollering, crowds and noise, magazines were looking into their crystal balls to see what might be on the horizon. Or, rath

■ In a world where everyone has been mutated into polarised silhouette or mirage forms, Shyna is the only one who can set things right. Actually, that should be left and right, since her attacks are also polarised based on the direction she’s facing

■ If you could only describe one Treasure game as legendary, Radiant Silvergun would surely have to be it. It’s legendary for its unique design, which ditches power-ups and instead encourages you to enhance a wide range of standard weaponry by shooti

■ Treasure’s first game to be cancelled after announcement was destined for Sega’s NAOMI arcade board. GunBeat made limited appearances at trade shows and location tests, but today only images and video footage remain, with no playable version of the

■ Few people likely expected Treasure to create a sequel to Game Arts’ fondly remembered shoot-’em-up – and unfortunately, this early PS2 effort isn’t quite as memorable as the original, or indeed Treasure’s other efforts in the genre. It was an impr

■ Treasure has never been averse to the absurd and bizarre, but this 3D action game is arguably the company’s weirdest game. Linda’s 12 sisters have been possessed by demons, and she’ll have to fight all of them as bosses in order to save them. Her k

■ This scrolling beat-’em-up might be a surprise to many of you. You take control of Buster Bunny, pick a partner – each with different abilities, of course – and then try to fight your way through a nightmare filled with hostile creatures. It’s toug

■ Set many years after the events of the original game, Sin & Punishment casts you as Isa Jo, son of the original game’s protagonists Saki and Airan, as he attempts to protect a mysterious girl named Kachi whom he had previously been ordered to kill.

■ Unlike Treasure’s other Bleach games, this one was only released in Japan. Rather than battling on a 2D plane as in the DS games, Ichigo and his compatriots now fight in 3D arenas, with an over-the-shoulder perspective that will be familiar to fans

■ Treasure’s first foray outside of the world of boxed games is also the only time the developer has created a second sequel to one of its original properties. Any pretence of a plot is dropped completely here, and if you’re hoping that the HD visual

■ This Japan-only game was intended to be the central pillar of a cross-media franchise, with Capcom publishing the game, and manga and anime adaptations to accompany it. The game itself sees you play as one of the titular gaist crushers, who wear th

The Tribute 64 controller is designed for use on N64 consoles or via USB, featuring ultimate versatility, functionality and comfort GIFT WORTH £20 ●Choose between N64 port or a USB port● Sensitive, accurate, and high-quality analog stick● Dual Z shou

■ As you’d expect the 16-bit versions look impressive, especially the digitised depictions of the Ghostbusters. Graphics are detailed throughout and there’s some nice animation. There’s no in-game music but it does have a solid rendition of the theme

In the early days of console games, simple was often the key to success – and that went for naming the title, too. “I liked the fact it was a oneword name for the game and yet with that single word, you could evoke all these images associated with th

■ A very different game from the 2600 version, this uses a crosshair to direct your fire, features a launchable battle pod to take the fight to the enemy and even has night levels, illuminated by giant searchlights. This is definitely worth investiga

The helicopter has provided plenty of arcade videogame shooting thrills over the years, from the search-and-rescue antics of Brøderbund’s Choplifter to Irem’s Mr Heli and Toaplan’s Twin Cobra. Meanwhile, on the ground, vehicles such as an armoured ca

■ Silkworm is not only one of the best arcade conversions on the Commodore machine – it’s also one of the Amiga’s best horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-ups full stop. With its smaller, yet still detailed sprites, fantastic crunchy sound effects and s

» Atari ST » 1993 » Lankhor I’m not really the sort of person to buy hardware blind, but not long after I started on Retro Gamer, I got the opportunity to pick up an Atari ST and just jumped at it. I made the decision, sent the email and then set abo

■ DEVELOPER: KONAMI ■ YEAR: 1994 ■Tiny Toon’s finest take part in an array of minigames, including basketball, soccer, bowling, an obstacle course race and whack-amole. The title really comes into its own in the basketball and soccer modes, where cha

»MANUFACTURER: NEC » YEAR: 1992 » COST: $299 (launch), £850+ (today, boxed), £300+ (today, unboxed) In 1991, NEC released the PC Engine Duo to the Japanese market, which gave players the option to purchase the system with an integrated CD-ROM drive f

When the original Civilization released back in 1991, there’s no doubting the novelty, innovation and, of course, the compulsive just-one-more-turn appeal that it brought to videogames. It might not have had the wow factor that many games of the era

» ZX SPECTRUM » 1988 » IMAGINE SOFTWARE I was a massive fan of Renegade in the arcades and I was equally impressed with the excellent Amstrad version, which did a fantastic job of capturing the grittiness of the arcade original. When it was revealed

Speed Freaks is surprisingly bonkers. Funcom’s kart racer sees you flying around bright and colourful tracks, one minute using a marooned pirate ship as a shortcut, the next flying through the air while a rollercoaster soars overhead. Speed boosts an

When you try to imagine how the developers behind Blood, one of the most gloriously gory games of the Nineties, first came together, the last thing that springs to mind is a games studio known for titles like Millie’s Math House. Perhaps the placid n

■ While Treasure didn’t make this compilation, Maegawa did oversee it. This compilation includes the Mega Drive and Game Gear versions of Gunstar Heroes, as well as a hidden prototype version of the Mega Drive game. The title of this one is actually

» PLATFORM: GameCube » RELEASED: 2002 » COST: £34.99 (launch), £70+ (today, boxed) £30+ (today, unboxed) While many people outside of the Super Smash Bros community remember the standard GameCube controller as a little bit of an oddity, the WaveBird

Back in 2010, Paul Helman downloaded GameMaker with the idea of making “a quick game”. Almost a decade later, and that reads like the biggest understatement. For a 2D platformer, Horace is cinematically sprawling in scope, jam-packed with ideas from

» System: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Stadia » Year: 2019 » Publisher: Rockstar Games » Developer: Rockstar Studios » Key People: Dan Houser (co-writer), Woody Jackson (composer), Roger Clark (lead actor) » Modern-day Pinkertons sent a cease and desist order

How did you get started in the videogame industry? Well, at first, it was like many other people: I was interested in the computers that were coming out at the time. I’d already been building electronic devices such as home-made alarms and I enjoyed

This month’s topic comes courtesy of our designer Andy, who noted that with Ghostbusters II and Mortal Kombat in the issue, the connection between videogames and movies would be a rather interesting area to explore. With that in mind, we decided to d

This month’s collector may be familiar to you, as she’s very active in the retro gaming community. Chances are you’ll have come across Retro Faith via her social media activity or YouTube channel, where she posts reviews, retrospectives and more. She

The arrival of the Dreamcast in my home was a monumental occasion, and only partially because of the games. You can probably imagine just how excited I was to finally get my hands on Sonic Adventure, but a large reason for the excitement was that I f

Dear Retro Gamer, I’ve been wanting to send an email for a few months now but have kept putting it off. Firstly, am I the only person until now that didn’t realise that columnist Iain Lee is actually the same Iain Lee that was in I’m a Celebrity… Get

AND MUCH MORE, INCLUDING… Impossible Mission, Power Stone, Donkey Kong Jr, Balance Of Power, The History Of Roland, Atari 7800, Monster World IV, David Thiel, NFL 2K, X-Men Legends, Reckless Rufus ■

■DEVELOPER: ■GAME FREAK ■ YEAR: 1994 ■After completing the mangaadaptation, Magical Taluluto-Kun, Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori – soon to become world-famous as the creators of the Pokémon franchise – decided to design an original title together. A

■ Few studios start as ‘big’ as Monolith, with its multi-building office complex, sound studios and rapid acquisition of talent. The studio built up its start-up pot so that it could afford to go in all guns blazing, and that helped it make all the m

» PLATFORM: SNES » RELEASED: 1993 » DEVELOPER: RARE If you’d previously played the first game on any of the machines it came on, you might initially wonder if you had made a good purchase with Battlemaniacs. Its first level is much simpler than befor

» GAMECUBE » 2001 » NINTENDO EAD I still recall buying my GameCube. I decided to buy one the day before launch after watching someone on Cube play Luigi’s Mansion. Amazingly, I was not only able to secure a machine, but I somehow managed to be the se

Neo Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol 1 I’ve been rinsing this over the last few weeks. Great emulation, decent extras and a solid collection of games. Ghosts’N Goblins Resurrection It looks so good and it hurts so bad. Videogame masochism is rarely so

Ghostbusters II on the 8-bit and 16-bit home computers had a problem: It had nothing to do with the film. It began to receive mixed reviews; almost an inevitable situation, given the high quality and popularity of the original supernatural comedy and

This was the first of the two expansion packs, adding in 20 new scenarios – 12 of which were from Microprose and the remaining eight being the ‘Best of the Net’ user-tealcoloured created (scenarios. The expansion pack also massively and completely un

» System: Switch » Buy it from: Online » Buy it for: £24.99 Capcom’s famously tough platformer has risen from the grave yet again, looking better than ever with some gorgeous 2D visuals and wonderful musical themes. The game also offers co-op play, a

» PlayStation » 1995 » Namco Right now, I’m in a situation that I’m sure plenty of you out there have experienced at some time or another, where I find myself constantly fatigued and just thinking, “Man, I need a break.” Whenever I take a moment to p