Welcome to the Retro Gaming Club! A place to relive some of those nostalgic memories from the halcyon days of gaming, or to discover a game or two that you may want to experience. This column isn’t just about reviews, but also interviews, video reviews, or experiences that myself or other writers have had with the retro genre.
While pondering on what I should start off this column with, I wanted to dive into games that I haven’t played. It’s easy to talk or write about a game you’ve played several times, so I switched it up and went with something new but retro! On my Nintendo Switch, I pay for the annual Nintendo Online subscription so I have access to the NES and SNES library of games that come with the membership. I thought that would be the best place to start, aside from my NES or PS1 mini that need to be dusted off and played again. I put some time into three games from these collections, so let’s talk about them.
Journey To Silius
I have never seen this game before, so it was the first one I wanted to tackle. It’s a simple NES platform shoot’em up, that can get difficult at times. You play as a guy with a gun that shoots similar to Mega Man and you go through various stages fighting through robots and other enemies, until you get to a boss fight and then move onto the next stage. I have not beat it yet, but so far I’m enjoy the challenge, music and graphics. It definitely is not a cheesy NES game!
One feature that has been saving me a lot of time is the rewind on the SNES/NES from the Nintendo Switch. This helps me go back a few seconds when I lose a life or my life meter depletes, because I do not want to be repeating the same levels over and over.
Watch the long play here.
Donkey Kong 3 (Donkey Kong Jr.)
If you weren’t aware, there are quite a few Donkey Kong games out there. Sure, it got very popular with the Donkey Kong Country series, but the franchise started with the original Donkey Kong on the arcade. It was created by none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, father of the Mario and Legend of Zelda series among many others. This one I had never played, nor am I familiar with the originals, so I wanted to give this a try. It’s very short, easy and feels like it’s made for an arcade. You play as Donkey Kong Jr. who climbs his way up the stage to save his gorilla dad, Donkey Kong from Mario! Give it a try if you want to see what the original Donkey Kong games are like.
Watch the long play here.
Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
Out of the three games here, this was certainly the most difficult. If you have never played the few games in this franchise, get ready because it’s merciless. You play as Arthur, the knight who goes to rescue his princess from the Emperor Sardius and fights off hordes of demons and other monsters to save her. Typical cliche story, but it works for this game. What has saved me time and again is the rewind feature on the Switch, without it I don’t think I would continue this game. The graphics and sounds work perfectly and it certainly is a classic! It’s my favorite of the three games I covered in this post.
What retro games have you been playing lately? Have you played any of these? Let me know in the comments or on social media. Looking forward to chatting with you!