Retro games that never were

Chris Kohler, author of our Retro Gaming Hacks, reviews a new game for the Nintendo DS that is full of games inspired by–and mostly as good as–some of the best retro games from back in the day:

Retro Game Challenge is composed of several smaller games that feel strangely familiar. You never played Robot Ninja Haggleman or Guadia Quest on your old 8-bit console, but these games sure feel like they belong on the shelf right next to Mario Bros. and Dragon Warrior. The old-school pixel art looks perfect, which belies the fact that the gameplay is even better than the ’80s titles that Retro Game Challenge is parodying, thanks to the fact that these games were created with 20 extra years of design know-how under the belt.

Were Retro Game Challenge simply a collection of retro games that never were, it would be worth playing. But the games serve as backdrops for an overarching plot in which you, the player, have been turned into a child and trapped in the 1980s by the Game Master, Arino…

Review: Retro Game Challenge Reheats the 8-Bit ’80s

Retro Gaming Hacks
Whether you’re just discovering Tetris or you’ve been a Pong junkie since puberty, Chris Kohler’s Retro Gaming Hacks is your indispensable new guide to classic games. Kohler has compiled the how-to information that used to take weeks of web surfing to find and presents it in highly readable Hacks style.