Has anyone else picked this up? Retro Game Challenge is a new game by Namco for the Nintendo DS loosely inspired by Game Center CX, a popular Japanese television show about video games. Since the show doesn’t exist in the United States, the localization introduces the show’s host, Arino, who plays a major role, just as a man who is fed up with the games of today. He zaps you into the '80s, where you and Arino as a child must beat challenges in classic Famicom games to make your way back to the present.
The thing is, though, these games aren’t real- well, they are real, but they’re newly-made fictional games meant to emulate the best features of old-fashioned video games. To progess through the decade, you must defeat challenges in games such as a Galaga-style shooter, a basic platformer, a racing game, another shooter with a Star Soldier feel, an RPG, and others. Since the Internet didn’t exist, your only source for help is a stack of game magazines with hints and, if worse comes to worse, cheat codes.
The game does a very good job of giving the feel that you are a kid in the old days, with only magazines, manuals, and friends to help you out. Do you cheat, or do you try to finish the quest the legit way? There are also clever and funny references to gaming culture of the '80s, including the tried-and-true method of blowing on a cartridge to get it to work and game pop culture icons such as The Wizard. My only complaint is that I wish there was more. Hopefully the upcoming sequel will eventually get an American release.