Retro Review - Jackal (Arcade / NES)

4 Wheel Shmup Action

Jackal (or Top Gunner as it was known in North America) is a classic Konami arcade shoot-em-up that often gets unfairly overlooked. Not only does it feature the developer's wonderful, and instantly recognisable, style of visuals and sound of the time, but it also offers some great blasting action and some original ideas in a genre usually swamped in predictability. Essentially a vertical scrolling shmup, Jackal has one significant difference that separates it from your standard Fireshark, 1943, or Raiden affairs - the ability to explore the stage at your own pace. After being dropped via parachute onto a beach, your two man team set off in their military jeep and, as you move vertically upwards, the screen scrolls with you. You can stop and move around at your leisure, with the screen following you to the left and right for a short distance should you move off the central path, and even backtrack a little way.

Retro Review - Mopiranger (MSX)

The strangely titled Mopiranger is classic top down, arcade style game clearly based on the exploits of a certain yellow dot-munching circle. Coming out on the slightly obscure MSX system back in 1983, Mopiranger was one of many Konami titles to grace the platform, and contains the developer's usual high level of charm and playability.

Classic Game - Super Castlevania IV (Super Nintendo)

Since I spent the last feature article bashing the crappier side of the Super NES platforming genre, I feel I should rain some positivity down on the 16-bit wonder console. And what better way to do than so than to sink my teeth into two of the finest games for the system, Super Castlevania 4 and Zelda : A Link To The Past? I have recently reacquired both titles and am currently playing through them again. Firstly I will look at the whip cracking, bat whacking adventures of Castlevania.

GAME ROOM on Xbox 360 - Why it is still Great!

So here we are, 2 and a half years after the launch of Microsoft and Krome's GAME ROOM. A service that promised retro gamers their very own arcade. An arcade they could fill with all their favourite arcade games and relive the glory days of dingy, smoke filled rooms (smoke and dinginess not supplied) awash with the sounds of coin-op gaming. But alas, twas not to be, and as the Atari 2600 and Intellivision games started flooding in so did the doubts. The disappointment began to set in, and then Venician Blinds was delivered to the service. It was like a slap round the face to all the people who had been supporting it and they began to flee like rats from a sinking ship.

So what has GAME ROOM got to offer now. The answer is plenty, but you have to overlook the fact it will not be updated, and avoid all the dross clogging up the store. You could even have a group of chain smoking teenagers stand behind you while you play, shouting instructions like a back seat driver. Thus perfectly recreating the arcades of our youth. Maybe your mother could come in half way through and drag you away from the game, complaining about 'wasting money' and 'bad influences'.