So I recently got around to opening this thing up and trying it out. I got it for Christmas unexpectedly, and had no idea what to think of it. The Retro Machine I have has 200 built-in arcade games that are basically knock-offs of various arcade classics. I'm actually fairly impressed with it, it's valued at about $20, it's very portable, takes 3 AA batteries, has a bright and colorful LCD, and there's 200 games. It's crazy to think that back in the 90s, something like this would be Action 52. A $60 game cartridge for NES or Genesis that had 52 games on it - ranging from bad to ugly, and some of which didn't even work. The Retro Machine is a much better product, and for way less money. I'm not trying to say that the games are amazing or anything, but from what I've played so far, they're pretty darn good for $20. Of the 200 games, so far I've tried the first 8. Here are my thoughts on them.
"F-22" - You guessed it, a vertical shoot-em-up. You blast through patterns of enemies, collect power ups, and progress through the stages. A pretty good one.
"Racing Fighter" - This game is kind of bland. It don't get how it's a race if there are no positions. You just drive vertically and shoot other cars, or dodge them. You eventually run out of ammo and fuel and I can't figure out how to replenish either. I don't really get it. This one is not so good.
"Vanguard" - This is a tank game where you're going through levels, blasting enemy tanks and turrets, collecting health packs and better fire-power. Not bad.
"Animal Blockers" - A puzzle game with animal faces on blocks, stacked on multiple levels. You match the faces in the right order to clear each level of blocks. It's okay.
"Magic Jony" - A platform puzzler where you use a piranha plant to eat so many enemies until they drop keys and to open treasure chests. It's not bad.
"Aerial Warfare" - This is a diagonal shoot-em-up with an emphasis on the altitude of the enemies. It's hard to see what you're doing and the graphics don't help. Kinda crappy.
"Crystal Ball" - This game reminds me of Lolo. Your character sort of looks like him, and you go through boards collecting these stones while avoiding enemies that follow repeated paths, and some that just move around erratically. Probably the best one so far.
"Police Dog Lasy" - You watch a criminal bury his loot in a field, but he also buries bombs. Then you go out into the field and dig up the loot, while avoiding the bombs. It's okay I guess.
I'm only a fraction of the way into these games, but so far I'm impressed I found anything that I actually liked. It's surprising that any effort actually went into this. No doubt that many, if not most of the games are direct knock-offs of something, but I don't mind. The music is pretty cool too, it's quite similar to NES music. I could just be really late to this boat, but I've not heard anyone mention this thing around here, so I thought I would. Apparently there's newer models, maybe better ones by now. I dunno. But I think this thing is worth picking up if you like classic arcade style games. For $20, why not?
