What’s old is new

>> Retro gaming is alive and well and
now available for nostalgia buffs

by ERIK LEIJON

With three decades of history to capitalize on, the retro gaming craze has become a formidable cash cow for every major gaming company. Still, it can be hard to identify a game that’s aged well, a game that’s lost its lustre and the ones that were never much to begin with. Also, finding an old Atari 2600 or Neo Geo to play these games on isn’t as simple as dusting off a VHS player, but thanks to pay download services and portable game systems, the best old classics are playable in all their emulated glory once again.

Bomberman Live
(XBLA/Microsoft)
The absolute best multiplayer game of all time is Super Bomberman 2 for the Super Nintendo. Sure, Goldeneye 007 and Mario Kart 64 ushered in a new era where multiplayer became a required feature, but the difficulty in acquiring a multitap and four controllers made Bomberman that much more explosive an experience. The SNES Bomberman supported four-players, while the XBox Live Arcade version supports eight-player mayhem. Saturn Bomberman allowed for 10 players, but let’s not be picky here.
Cost: $12 (requires 800 Xbox Live points)

Castlevania: Dracula X
Chronicles
(PSP/Konami)
Like Bomberman Live, it’s not a straight-up port of a classic. Chronicles is based on the Japanese-only Dracula X game from 1993. The graphics have been improved, similar to the visual makeover the Square RPG’s received on the PSP. The Castlevania series remains among the most fun and difficult side-scrolling 2D platformers. Also included in the package is the Playstation One game Symphony of the Night.
Cost: $30

Elevator Action
(Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless/I-play)
Naturally, this would require a decent phone, and to be a Bell or Rogers subscriber. This 1980s classic is the right kind of game to enjoy on a miniscule screen with bunched-together buttons. Provided you don’t have long nails (which makes playing cell phone games impossible) or wasted your monthly data on uploading blurry pictures, Elevator Action is a hectic action game starring a pencil thin spy who must go from floor to floor of a nameless building, collecting documents and evading gunfire. I’m not sure if newer game franchises such as Call of Duty and Rainbow Six work well on a cell, but they’re for sale too. I’d also recommend Xevious if you have a Telus phone.
Cost: $5 on Rogers, $6 on Bell, Xevious $7 on Telus

Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel
(Wii Virtual Console/Nintendo/Konami)
The two most memorable hockey games of the eight-bit era. Anyone who owned an NES certainly remembers loading up their hockey team with fat players, or the horribly distorted announcer yelling, “Fight!” Both are downloadable on the Wii Virtual Console service.
Cost: $6 each (or 500 Wii points each)

Jet Moto
(PS3, PSP/SCEA)
Available from the pay download Playstation Store (accessible via your PS3), one of the Playstation 1’s most impressive thrill rides remains wet and wild over a decade later. Developed by Singletrac in 1996, Jet Moto was your typical racing game, except the vehicles were souped-up futuristic Sea-Doos. It’s possible to drive on land and water, and each course is filled with obstacles and bloodthirsty competitors. Jet Moto 2 is also available, and equally fun.
Cost: $7

Myst
(DS/Empire)
A port of the original Mac OS (!) game from 1993, the still-frame graphic adventure was essentially a text adventure for the illiterate. I partially jest—it since became one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time—although it is slightly ironic that the original box the game came in could fit about a dozen Nintendo DSs inside and the novel adaptation, entitled Myst: Book of Atrus, was about five times heavier. Myst was a CD-ROM title back when you actually had to make the differentiation, and now it can be played with a stylus pen. The game comes out in March.

Street Fighter 3: Third Strike
(GameTap/Capcom)
Arguably the finest 2D fighting game ever created. If you don’t believe me, ask the typically silent and remarkably focused experts who frequent the SFIII machine at the arcade on the corner of Ste-Catherine and Crescent (my unshaven mug included). It’s available in inferior, graphically weak forms on the Xbox and Playstation 2, but recently the emulated Dreamcast version was released on the GameTap network (which requires a monthly subscription). Actually, the GameTap is home to the best 2D fighters from SNK’s Neo Geo and from Capcom’s arcade years. Samurai Showdown 1 and Street Fighter II: Championship Edition are free downloads for frugal fighters. An ideal way to practise for the upcoming Street Fighter IV.
Cost: $10 a month, $60 for the year (doesn’t support Vista 64-bit)