This sequel to “Retro Game Challenge” is more of the same, a broader pastiche of the 80s and early 90s of home gaming.
The original Game Center CX game, which I’ve just reviewed, sold well enough in Japan to get a sequel… but not well enough in North America to get localised. Thankfully a hardworking group of fans translated the game—no mean feat—and published a patch online. Their site has gone down but the patch is still available at romhacking.net. The result is more faithful to its Japanese origins, which I appreciated, although being unofficial it’s occasionally slightly lacking in polish.
But as for the game: the concept is identical to the previous instalment, so refer to my earlier review. This time around, it’s not just the Famicom up for homage; a whole new set of games spreads the representation around to an import Atari (or possibly Master System), the Famicom Disk System, the Game Boy and Game Boy Colour, the Super Famicom, and even a Game & Watch-style bonus game!
Again, each game riffs on an existing popular game with parallel-universe twists like the Pac-Man style Wiz-Man, the Tetris-esque block-matching game Triotos, or the Super Mario/Alex Kidd-like Demon Returns (and its 16-bit sequel). You also get a Karateka-like (made in the West, which comes with amusing interviews in the in-game magazines), a 2-part Portopia-like mystery game (full of jokes and cameos from the show), another Compile-style shooter, and an RPG sequel. Not to mention the game shop you can visit, where you can try out special altered editions of the previous DS game’s… games. I’ve been saying that word a lot. Sorry.
On top of this broad, enjoyable set of nostalgic pastiches, there are quality of life improvements. The phone adds another vector for hints and even lets you call the wicked future Arino to skip the current challenge (although they were never difficult or tedious enough that I felt I needed to), and there’s shortcuts for referring to the manual or a magazine while playing. The title screen also lets you play a random daily challenge. Some games support a 2-player mode, where the child Arino takes up a controller and helps you out, or competes against you.
It all makes for a more varied, smoother experience than the first game. Having playable variants of several of the original’s selection almost lets this sequel supercede it; it’s certainly a more rounded package if slightly less focused. And the fan translation is of almost professional quality, which again is impressive given the amount of text in the mystery game alone (also it makes choices I prefer, like leaving in Shinya Arino’s audio vocalisations). Get yourself a flash cart or emulator and try this out!