Konami Classics: Arcade Hits

Ok Konami, we get it — you have a huge library of classic arcade titles, and you’re willing to use ’em. We get it, honest, but if you’re going to port them to every platform under ths sun, it’d be nice if you made sure the gameplay would feel right on each platform. Case in point – the huge pack of games in Konami Classic Series for DS. For the most part, the collection is a good one, but there are some games on here that are so hard to play, that it saps the enjoyment from some of the better titles.
Case in point, Scramble, a game that may not have ever won an award, but was certainly a ton of fun to play. The visuals are so scrunched down for the DS display, I could’ve sworn I was playing it on a cell phone, not a handheld with a bigger screen. It’s almost impossible to discern the building types and other elements of the game, it’s all just 4×4 pixel color blobs. Since you can’t see your 1×1 pixel laser blaster shots, you’re never sure if you’re actually firing on anything. Same goes for Time Pilot, which plays well enough, but feels mostly like you’re playing “shoot the colored blob before it shoots you.” Don’t even get me started about trying to play Track ‘n Field with the DS’ tiny buttons, either.
But, for every Scramble, there’s a Yie Ar Kung Fu or a Rush ‘n Attack that makes up for it. There’s such a huge collection of arcade titles (I don’t use “classics”, because some of these are far from it), that you’ll easily get your money’s worth with this collection. When you’ve got Contra, Gradius, Time Pilot, Scramble, Rush’N Attack, Horror Maze, Pooyan, Roc’N Rope, Track & Field, Circus Charlie, Basketball, Road Fighter, Yie Ar Kung Fu, RainbowBell and Shao-lin’s Road on one cart, you can’t go wrong, and with the ability to send a demo of any of these to a friend, you’re likely to become the neighborhood king of retro, should you buy this. It’s a solid package for retro fans, even if there are a few troublesome titles, and a few less-than-classic games in the mix.

— Craig Falstaff