More On: E3 2008

As I stated in my recap of Valhalla Knights 2, Xseed really impressed me with their overall titles that they had coming out for the handheld consoles. The other game that I’m referring to is Retro Game Challenge, which will be available for the Nintendo DS.

Retro Game Challenge is based off of a Japanese game show in which people go onto the show and attempt to beat a game from a certain point. Taking this theme into consideration, you play as a boy who has a friend that has a few different games that he has yet to beat. The genres of these games are all different, with everything from side scroll shooters to an RPG. The twist to this game is that, in order to have the chance to beat these games, you will need to complete challenges in each game. Doing so will unlock game magazines that your friend collects. You are then encouraged to look in these magazines to see if you can find any cheat codes or hints. While you may not want to use these codes, the game actually wants you to use them in order to beat the game.

As the name implies, these games are all from an older period of gameplay, so they are all 8-bit style. What really impressed me with this collection of games is the amount of depth that it has. While the racing game may not give you much time as a singular game, you will find yourself playing the RPG for up to 40 hours in itself. The RPG is based off of the old Dragon Quest games, so it will look familiar if you played them for your original NES. It’s incredibly impressive to have that amount of depth in one game…and have it simply be one choice in several.

I think the only downside I can really see with this is that it may not cater to everyone. Younger gamers who don’t remember the old 8-bit days may not want to pick this up because they’re looking for something that is fresh and new, but they may also be encourage to give it a try because they didn’t experience the 8-bit days of gaming. Old gamers will have no problem picking this up to relive their younger gaming days.

No definitive release date was given for Retro Games Challenge, but I was told to expect in the fourth quarter of 2008. This is definitely one of my sleeper picks for the show, as I enjoyed playing this quite a bit.