By Ned Jordan

Retro Game Challenge is a clever, interesting, and enjoyable tribute to NES gaming in the 1980s. The premise of the game is that a mysterious Japanese gaming guru has sent you back in time to the mid 1980s. In order for you to earn the right to return to your own time you must complete a series of gaming challenges, all of which involve 1980s style console games. I use the term "1980s style" because all of the games in Retro Game Challenge are completely original and were created just for Retro Game Challenge. Despite their newness, though, each of the games could easily have appeared on the NES. The developers have done a great job of capturing every aspect of these games including the graphics, sounds, music, and secret Easter eggs. If you didn't know any better, you'd think that each of the games was first released on the NES in the 1980s.

The main mode of play follows the same basic pattern. You receive your next game challenge and then play the designated game until you meet that challenge. Retro Game Challenge adds more to the play than simply playing the same game over and again until you complete a challenge, though. The game puts you in a friend's living room with a TV and game console which serves as the main game hub. From here you can pop a cartridge into the console to go for your next challenge, read the manual for a game to pick up some gameplay tricks, or read a gaming magazine to learn some extra tips and even some cheat codes. The game magazines are a clever touch, and contain more than cheat codes. You can also read previews of upcoming games to get a glimpse at the next game you'll unlock once you complete the challenges for the current game. And if you were into gaming twenty years ago, you'll appreciate all of the inside jokes and references to 1980s gaming culture.

The games themselves form a nice collection that touches upon a number of genres and provides a good cross-section of a 1980s game library. There are eight games in all, including racers, platformers, a Galaga clone, and even a full-fledged RPG that will invoke memories of the first Final Fantasy game. Completing four challenges for a game will unlock the next game, and make the current game available for free play. The quality of the games is high enough that you will actually want to play them once you've completed the challenges and each game could easily have been a hit on the NES. In a nice extra touch, the game will track your stats in each game played in free play such as number of enemies killed.

There's no shortage or retro gaming collections out there, but just about all of them just group a bunch of games together and call it a day. Retro Game Challenge is the first to actually capture the spirit of a bygone era of gaming and is highly recommended to anyone with even the smallest nostalgic streak who can remember blowing on a game cartridge.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 88%. Retro Game Challenge is a great way to relive your NES days, or to see what the NES days were like.