Be Excellent To Each Other

Holy crap, but Retro Game Challenge is awesome
I got a ("review copy" - ed) and basically, this guy takes you back in time to the 80s so he can set you challenges in retro games.
For example, the first game is a Galaxian clone, and you have to reach stage 5, then open two warp gates, then kill a big asteroid, etc. Once you've passed five challenges you go onto the next game.
Because it's played like an RPG, you've got the game on the top screen and on the bottom screen is your character and the guy that challenged you, but both as kids (as you've been sent back to the 80s), and your mate will shout encouragement when you're doing well and go "ahh" when you die. And you can read gaming magazines that the guy has bought to get hints about the games you are playing.
This comes highly recommended.

yup, love the structure and reading the magazines and stuff, the games themselves are not all that great, but hey

Totally missed this thread at the time, but I saw this game mentioned somewhere else recently so procurred myself a copy.

It. Is. Awesome.

It's also the first game I've had for my DS that I haven't got bored of within minutes of inserting the card. It's clearly designed for us nostalgic thirtysomethings, but is so cute with the two kids sitting round the TV shouting encouragement to each other, or when one of them buys a new game and goes on about how excited he is about playing it. Reminds me of being 8 years old again, huddled round my friends C64 when it was just as much fun watching the other person play as it was to have a go yourself.

I've not had a huge amount of time to dedicate to it, so I'm only a few challenges in on the second game, but I have very much enjoyed what I've played of it so far. So I joing Grim... in strongly recommending this one to all and sundry.

I was rather surprised at its average review in N-Gamer. My copy only arrived yesterday so I've only skimmed through it but I think it only got something like 60/100.

Unless it all nosedives horribly after finishing the second game, that review can't be right. Anyone who was actually into videogames in the 80's should love this, if only for the nostalgic element (even if all the actual games on it never really existed).

Its fun , and after you've done the challenges the full games compare well with real games from that era , the presentation with the magazines and everything else just makes it all look and feel that much nicer.

There is a Japanese only (at the moment) follow up out which you can try out and play 3 games before you hit a text heavy game , but it isnt quite the same since you miss out on the rest of the presentation.

Has anyone watched the TV show its based on ? , i've seen some torrents floating around which were subtitled but havent grabbed any of them.

From the summary of the review -

Big fan of retro arcade games.

Thought I'd love this.

Assumed there would be about 15-20 games when I first heard about it. Apparently there are 6 ? (including an ...ugh... RPG ?).

Quite liked the retro shooter that came first. Not as much fun as the original classics though.

Hated the long and childish cut-scenes and dialogue.
I'M A RETRO ARCADE FAN - I DON'T WANT CUT-SCENES !!

Didn't think much of the platform/action game that came next.

Decided to quit at this point with the realisation that playing genuine classics on emulators (for DS or otherwise) is far more enjoyable.

Not a fan of this game (despite hoping I would be)....