Gamecenter CX, the DS game based off of the hilarious Japanese television show Retro Game Master, is truly an experience that every gamer should play. The show consists of Japanese Comic Shinya Arino playing a variety of video games (usually retro games) and his trials and tribulations of either completing them by himself, with help from one of his assistants, or failing all together to complete the game. In the game based off of the show, you play as a young child of the 1980’s being issued challenges by Arino in order to progress through the game and unlock “new” games to play.

These new games actually represent jumps in technology as you progress from the early arcade shooters and racers to fleshed out RPG’s and platformers. While it may not seem like an amazing idea, it actually makes you think back to the time when you were a kid and watching how fast the video game industry has grown over the past 20 years. The game introduces it’s own franchises and updates upon them as the years go by, leading to interesting shifts in gameplay and graphics.

The game retains much of the humor that the television show is known for and does a great job at playing off certain aspects of the early video game era. For example, one of the first games is a top down driver game that any child of the 80’s that stepped into a pizza parlor would recognize. After a different game is unlocked, your character goes and buys a Special Edition re-release of the game which is essentially the same exact game with the color palette swapped, albeit this time with a corporate sponsor selling you Ramen in between races.

Throughout the game you begin collecting video game magazines, which adds another layer of depth to the experience. Cheat codes, secret item locations, enemy strategies as well as previews of upcoming titles can be found within these magazines. While the challenges are far from impossible, frustrating moments can be expected. However, Just like Mega Man 9, sometimes it is good to remember how difficult and arbitrary some games used to be.

Although I was playing an import copy, amazingly this game is coming to America later this fall and should not be missed by anyone with a DS, and a sense of nostalgia for the 1980’s. Now if only some channel would syndicate Retro Game Master we would be all set; but then again we would have to hope that it would not suffer the same cruel death as that of Iron Chef.

-Eric Wall

Tags: Game Design, Nintendo, nostalgia, Retro, review

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