A Bit Special

Sony’s answer to Samba De Amigo with high tempo soundtrack (including of course Tubthumping) but instead of using maracas, players attach sensors to their wrists and ankles. The player then follows the martial moves of their on screen persona gaining points for successfully landing a kick or punch at the correct time. There is also a visual reward for landing the moves on time such as being able to see a fireball travel across the screen. Done with intent the techniques give a good work out and the graphics are nicely done set in stereotypical Chinese situations. Includes a two player mode where on screen adversaries swarm in for the kill and they are dispatched with a deft flick of the wrist.

Sony’s answer to Samba De Amigo with high tempo soundtrack (including of course Tubthumping) but instead of using maracas, players attach sensors to their wrists and ankles. The player then follows the martial moves of their on screen persona gaining points for successfully landing a kick or punch at the correct time. There is also a visual reward for landing the moves on time such as being able to see a fireball travel across the screen. Done with intent the techniques give a good work out and the graphics are nicely done set in stereotypical Chinese situations. Includes a two player mode where on screen adversaries swarm in for the kill and they are dispatched with a deft flick of the wrist.

Contains two real gems from Sunsoft’s back catalogue: Ikki and Super Arabian. In Ikki you must collect the money whilst avoiding ninjas – made far more appealing by Sunsoft’s imagination: daikon and latern power ups as well as the appearance of a rather rough looking geisha of questionable gender to be avoided at all costs. In Super Arabian letters must be collected to form a word and clear the Middle Eastern themed level. Simple, yet fiendish: classic old school material of gameplay over graphics.

Two retro tinged titles from yesteryear get a Playstation makeover but no graphical glitz is required when the gameplay is as pure as this. Puzzle of Atlantis is a definite Super Mario tribute complete with warps and all but the developers have also taken note of the talent behind the level design. Route 16 is a maze based racer where players dip in and out of levels in order to get to the chequered flag. Happy days.

A compilation of Namcos highly treasured back catalogue with four titles in their original form and updated 3D incarnations. The four titles are: Babel, a tower adventure, Star Luster, an Elite style space blaster not quite as cerebral as the BBC Micros masterpiece, Wrestle Ball, a video game take on the cult film RollerBall meets the BitMap Bros Speedball and finally Haou no Tairiku, a strategic intervention into Dynastic China.

Once again hats off to Namco: Adventure of Valkyrie, Pac Attack, King of Kings and Namco Classic II. Valkyrie is an absolute treat with its Kikikaikai style free roaming shooting gameplay and pixel perfect realisation of the fantasy styled world. Pac Attack throws the infamous ghosts into a Tetris style puzzle game and the odd Pac drops down from the heavens too to gobble them up. Namco Classics is a golf game with Neo Geo style kawaii caddy and King of Kings is a little known war sim.

Very well rounded compilation from the original masters of back catalogue categorising containing Cutie Q, Gaplus, Xevious, Grobda, Mappy and Dragon Buster. Bomb Bee is hidden in there somewhere too. The titles are all a very pleasant swim in the retro paddling pool with presentation that is proof of the time and effort put into this series.

A delve into coin ops of old with Galaxian, Pole Position II, Ms. Pac Man, Dig Dug, Phozon and Tower of Druaga. Phozon is a bit of a bizarre and unknown action puzzler where shapes must be attached to you ship in the correct pattern whilst avoiding a big bunch of balloons.