Retro News Update

Wow. The retro and indie gaming scenes have exploded over the past fortnight, with a ton of releases more than worthy of your attention yet sadly not enough hours in the day for us at RGCD to cover them all in detail. So starting with the modern indie scene, here's what we've been playing for the past few days.

Nitronic Rush (PC)

Mmmmmm, this looks just a bit like Tron, doesn't it?

Despite the 'classic' film and remake/sequel/whatever both being complete pants in regard to actual story quality and science, no one can argue the fact that Tron looks bloody gorgeous. And as you can see, the same applies to Nitronic Rush - an AAA quality Tron-meets-Wipeout futuristic stunt racer developed by a group of students at the DigiPen Institute of Technology.

When I first saw a video of Nitronic Rush in action I initially dismissed the game as being yet another title that wouldn't run on my aged desktop, but surprisingly it runs at full speed with all the settings maxed out, so don't pay too much attention to those recommended system specs. The game itself is without a doubt the best indie racer I've played for years, and I actually feel guilty playing it for free. If it had multiplayer support (or at least other AI controlled cars to race against other than 'ghosts') then it would be perfect, but as it stands it's still a contender for freeware game of the year. Avoiding giant neon buzzsaws in a flying car has never been so much fun.

Super Star Shooter Advance (GBA)

Recently playing High Level Challenge's indie-hit Blade Buster didn't only remind me of the classic Hudson Soft Star Soldier franchise, but also of a more recent 2003 homebrew offering, namely Super Star Shooter Advance from Magic Touch/The Dotmap Brothers.
  
Based on the X68000 original, this relatively unknown GBA conversion hasn't lost any of it's charm or playability over the years.  The screen obviously feels a little cramped in comparison to the X68K version, but if (like me) you still have a GBA or DS and a flashable cartridge available then there's still a lot of fun to be had with this little game.

World Reborn (GBA)

[Originally reviewed by T.M.R in RGCD Issue #05, March 2009]

In the not so distant future, mankind has been reduced to barbarism and most of society has collapsed whilst the world is turned into a free for all battle. In order to restore order, the powers that be create the Judge4101, a powerful judicial computer that essentially takes control and drags everybody back on track, kicking and screaming as they go. All goes well for a year until without warning the Judge4101 stops talking... and that isn't such a bad thing because, when it starts again, it declares mankind to be in contempt of court and promptly dispatches an army of "biotech" weapons in order to carry out the sentence! Enter our heroes to be, Perrin and Thiel are both children of the Judge4101's regime but brave and, when tooled up with the mobile base they discover near their village and the battle craft within, something for it's honour to worry about.