Retro XP

Past meets present: Carbuncle Pi D4's ProjectEgg is adding Compile's Disc Station games to its library, so now you can solve platforming puzzles with Carbuncle.

D4's EggConsole is releasing Compile's Disc Station games now, games like Carbuncle Pi, which is a variant of another Disc Station game of theirs, Nyanpi. None of those words are in the bible sure but they are in today's Retro XP.

Past meets present: Carbuncle Pi D4's ProjectEgg is adding Compile's Disc Station games to its library, so now you can solve platforming puzzles with Carbuncle.

D4's EggConsole is releasing Compile's Disc Station games now, games like Carbuncle Pi, which is a variant of another Disc Station game of theirs, Nyanpi. None of those words are in the bible sure but they are in today's Retro XP.

Retro spotlight: Knuckles' Chaotix Knuckles' starring role on the 32X didn't do quite as well as his big-screen debut.

Knuckles Chaotix' wasn't supposed to be a 32X game, but the add-on needed titles and this one, originally slated for the Saturn, was just going to have to do. It's a shame it's not a better game, because it does have some fascinating bits!

Retro spotlight: Wario's Woods The final game released for the NES is notable for more than just that.

Wario's Woods is more than just the answer to a number of NES-related trivia questions. It's also a fine game in its own right, even if, for whatever reason, reviewers from its release reviewed it like they were bored with the concept of puzzles.

Retro spotlight: Wario's Woods The final game released for the NES is notable for more than just that.

Wario's Woods is more than just the answer to a number of NES-related trivia questions. It's also a fine game in its own right, even if, for whatever reason, reviewers from its release reviewed it like they were bored with the concept of puzzles.

Past meets present: Scurge: Hive The answer to the question, "What if a Metroid were isometric?"

Scurge: Hive originally released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS back in 2006, and was brought back on modern platforms in 2025. The isometric metroidvania wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but a rock-paper-scissors combat mechanic and constantly ticking infection meter make it stand out

Past meets present: Scurge: Hive The answer to the question, "What if a Metroid were isometric?"

Scurge: Hive originally released on the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS back in 2006, and was brought back on modern platforms in 2025. The isometric metroidvania wears its inspirations on its sleeve, but a rock-paper-scissors combat mechanic and constantly ticking infection meter make it stand out

It's new to me: Megapanel A Japan-exclusive Mega Drive game from Namco, featuring sliding puzzles, strategy, and pin-ups.

Namco, through its home-console arm, Namcot, released the sliding block puzzle game Megapanel on the Mega Drive in 1990. It includes a whole bunch of pin-up art to reveal, explaining the bunny girl on the box art, but you need to be wired for 15 puzzle (and patience) to unlock any of them.

It's new to me: Megapanel A Japan-exclusive Mega Drive game from Namco, featuring sliding puzzles, strategy, and pin-ups.

Namco, through its home-console arm, Namcot, released the sliding block puzzle game Megapanel on the Mega Drive in 1990. It includes a whole bunch of pin-up art to reveal, explaining the bunny girl on the box art, but you need to be wired for 15 puzzle (and patience) to unlock any of them.

XP Arcade: 10-Yard Fight One of the first football game released in arcades, as well as the first on the NES, took a very games-oriented approach to the gridiron.

In 1983, Irem used their arcade sensibilities to design a football game where every first down was the difference between winning and losing even more so than in actual football. And it's a hook that still works over four decades later.

Retro spotlight: Kid Icarus Kid Icarus is a good game, so long as you can stomach failure.

Kid Icarus sometimes plays like it has no interest in your success, and that's because it doesn't. You have to take that initiative on your own, to concern yourself with what's needed in order to progress, and it's that refusal to budge on what it is that makes it so intriguing nearly 40 years later

An angled side-view! Dribbling! Stealing the ball! A computer opponent that simply did not miss! This game had... well, not everything. But Atari's Basketball had the most to that point.

But it should have. It really should have.

Re-release this: Ganbare Goemon 3: Shishi Jūrokubē's Mechanical Manji Hold The third Mystical Ninja game on the Super Famicom goes in a different direction. Again.

You're never going to believe this, but Konami switched and blended genres for Ganbare Goemon 3. It's an action-adventure game now. With mechs! And time travel! And Yae turns into a mermaid!

Ranking the top 101 Nintendo games: No. 28, Sin and Punishment Sin and Punishment was meant to make up for the paucity of a specific kind of game in the N64's library, and it ended up being one of the absolute best titles on the console.

Happy 25th to Sin and Punishment, a killer collaboration between Treasure and Nintendo. Play it with the controller it was designed around, and your mind will be blown.

Re-release this: Bonk's Adventure (GB) A portable Bonk with the same name as a different, non-portable Bonk.

Bonk's Adventure on the Game Boy is not a port of the Turbografx-16 game called Bonk's Adventure, but Hudson Soft loved to be intentionally confusing with this stuff when publishing outside of Japan. If you're open to the smaller portable worlds of normally console platformers, you'll dig Bonk.

It's new to me: Mega Man IV It took a few tries, but Capcom finally released a Game Boy Mega Man game that is good without any asterisks.

Mega Man games on the Game Boy are, more often than not, Not Good. Mega Man IV, though? That's a solid video game right there. It's not the best Mega Man you'll play, but you might even enjoy yourself while getting through it, which was novel for this portable subseries at the time.

XP Arcade: Super Sprint A mid-80s refresh of an original Atari concept, one that persists into the present.

Atari made a number of innovations in the 70s, and they all led to one place. Well, lots of places, sure, but also the one being highlighted here: Super Sprint.

That's how you know it's ahead of its time, the world still hasn't caught up

Retro spotlight: Castlevania The Dracula-fighting action game that started it all plays much differently than future Castlevania titles, but is still loads of fun decades later.

Well, duh.

Retro spotlight: Dead Space: Extraction EA made a lot of weird decisions for this prequel to their instant horror classic, but none of them dinged the quality of Extraction.

We're overdue for a Dead Space: Extraction reevaluation, mostly because barely anyone paid attention to it in the first place.

Reader request: Zombies Ate My Neighbors Well, they did.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors is also full of zombies and using anything you can find as a weapon and a mall, but it's very different than Dead Rising.

Retro spotlight: Dead Rising The first Dead Rising was one of Capcom's initial truly next-gen HD offerings, and, not to make you feel too old or anything, but that was 18 years ago.

It's Halloween, so, let's share some fitting games. Dead Rising is loaded with zombies and was well ahead of its time.

Retro spotlight: World Series Baseball The game that changed everything for baseball video games, on multiple levels.

World Series Baseball arrived at a time when arcade-style baseball games were the norm, with exaggerated animations and sound effects, where realism was optional and often ignored. Sega's effort here changed the game in more ways than one.

Retro spotlight: Gradius: The Interstellar Assault Unlike Gradius' first Game Boy outing, there is a whole new game here.

Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is a from-the-ground-up Gradius game for the Game Boy, one where Konami decided to show off in a bunch of ways with graphical and level transitions that make it stand out on the platform all these decades later.

Retro spotlight: Gradius: The Interstellar Assault Unlike Gradius' first Game Boy outing, there is a whole new game here.

Gradius: The Interstellar Assault is a from-the-ground-up Gradius game for the Game Boy, one where Konami decided to show off in a bunch of ways with graphical and level transitions that make it stand out on the platform all these decades later.

It's new to me: Klonoa: Empire of Dreams Portable Klonoa made its international debut on the Game Boy Advance.

Klonoa: Empire of Dreams wasn't the first portable Klonoa, but it was the first worldwide release of a portable game in the series. And it's a great one, too, a puzzle-platforming-oriented game that adds layers of complexity as it goes, without straying from the series' two-button approachability.

It's new to me: Klonoa: Empire of Dreams Portable Klonoa made its international debut on the Game Boy Advance.

Namco's Game Boy Advance title, Klonoa: Empire of Dreams, was recently added to Nintendo Switch Online, and if you've never played, well, here's why you should get around to doing so.

Past meets present: Mamorukun ReCurse! Another G.Rev shooter gets a (very welcome) modern update and re-release.

G.Rev's Mamorukun Curse! is back in the present, in a much wider release in more ways than one, with Mamorukun ReCurse! Between the various modes, soundtracks, widescreen and twin-stick support, this is the definitive edition of a niche shoot 'em up that deserves your attention.