Reviewed: November 13, 2005
Reviewed by: Matt Gonzales
Publisher
Tecmo
Developer
Tecmo
Released: September 13, 2005
Genre: Arcade
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Everyone
7
7
7
7
7.5
Supported Features
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Tecmo is better known to Xbox owners (particularly those not old enough to drink) as the creator of such green machine stalwarts as the Dead or Alive series and the re-imagined Ninja Gaiden. But there is a rich video game history behind these current chart-toppers that gives them their pedigree and you can experience much of that history in Tecmo Classic Arcade.
Featuring one of the most popular football video games of all time, Tecmo Bowl™, for the first time on Xbox, along with a plethora of other Tecmo Classic Arcade titles such as Rygar™, Solomon’s Key™, Bomb Jack™, Tecmo Cup™, and more, Tecmo Classic Arcade is a must-have video game compilation for retro gaming fans.
Retro gaming - and whoever coined that phrase should haven patented it – was all the rage a year or two ago. And it still shows no signs of stopping as long as there are veteran gamers out there who fondly remember dropping quarters into the hungry machines that glowed enticingly amidst the darkness of the local arcade hangout. Such compilations are myriad on just about every console including handhelds where they seem perfectly suited especially considering the low graphic and audio requirements of these games.
To be honest, I normally play games like these on the PC where I enjoy a large collection of my favorite games of yesteryear. But there’s a closer connection to them on the big TV screen for some reason.
The fact of the matter when it comes to any of your favorite old school compilations is that these games are nowhere near as cool as you remember them. This is simply because the memories associated with these games, while fond, are of moments now gone and most likely replaced by newer, more exciting memories. Such is the way of game culture after all.
The thing is, the retro craze also has an effect on reviews like this one in that the standards of the current generation of games outdistance those of the retro games’ contemporaries. You could fit entire libraries of titles on a CD and have room left over, much less the DVD format currently en vogue.
In terms of gameplay for instance, current games would discuss NPC AI, level design and a host of other topics better suited to the complex three-dimensional worlds that game makers create regularly. The game mechanics of these games employ only a few buttons and don’t require - and in fact are actually made more difficult to control by – an analog joystick. That’s not to say that the games are unplayable, but the improvements in modern games and consoles are not without their difficulties from an old school perspective. Thankfully, Tecmo did its best to match up with the current hardware controllers.
Naturally, load times are practically non-existent, and once you’re in the game itself, it really plays and feels like you’re standing in front of one of those old cabinets of gaming yore. You can take that a couple of different ways depending on whether you’re a big fan of these games in the first place.
The games run the gamut of Tecmo’s arcade history with a selection of shooters, sports titles and even some adventure thrown in for good measure. Rygar is one of the most famous of Tecmo’s line-up, and popular enough to have warranted a beautiful and engaging next-generation sequel on the Playstation 2 recently. It holds up well enough here – like most of the games on the disc - and succeeds in bringing to mind times spent slipping quarters into machines for the standard 3 tries at victory.
Certainly, many of us will remember, or at least have heard of, the legendary Tecmo Bowl football game that pre-dated the current de facto Madden series. And, Tecmo Bowl was a sight to behold at the arcade with its two big screens juxtaposed in a noticeably wider cabinet – one of the first widescreen games before it became a bullet point on a marketing sheet.
There was also a soccer game, Tecmo Cup, that made little impact on most American gamers for obvious reasons but had its good points in terms of gameplay nonetheless with a, easy to pick up and play control scheme.
All in all, the gameplay of each individual game in the collection can stand on its own merits with respect to the standards of the time. But with games like EA’s Madden and FIFA series it’s no contest where it concerns Tecmo Bowl or Tecmo Cup. Suffice it to say that each game is there the way you remember it, good or bad.
Let’s face it, we’re not dealing with advanced geometry here. There’s nary a polygon in sight when you play any game of this collection. Sprites are the order of the day and while there is no chance of seeing any normal-mapped environments, that doesn’t mean the games look shabby even in today’s gaming milieu. Tecmo Bowl actually shows an extended lateral view of the football field on a scrolling screen that was the standard for years before the advent of the pseudo-3D camera views and perspectives of the Playstation.
Certainly for the time, it was one of if not the most advanced-looking football game around. Back then, programmers showed their skills by bringing to life experiences within the limitations of the hardware. Tecmo Cup’s antics had to make use of a top-down view of the field since the now ubiquitous broadcast perspective wasn’t possible back then. And yet it works fine, though a trackball would be pretty sweet.
Every company back then had a Galaga or Defender (depending on your preferred orientation) type of shooter that pitted you against the forces of evil in a spaceship of incredible firepower. Such is the case with Pleiads and Strato Fighter. You can definitely get your shoot-‘em-up fix here, I assure you. There are other games like BombJack, Pinball Action, Senjyo and Swimmer that might spark some faint memory in your gaming-addled mind, but really these titles rely heavily on nostalgia in a world where much more complex and exciting gameplay abound.
Like the graphics department, you won’t find a whole lot to rave about here, but that’s not to say that the audio wasn’t done well for the time. In current games, you can harp on how anemic a game’s constituent parts are and how they lead to an overall poor experience by not placing you in the game. When the AI enemies keep muttering the same overwrought phrase in a bad accent, for instance, that’s a hassle. But when your enemies arrive with a series of bleeps and bloops, it’s all part of the retro experience.
Let’s be honest; the only people who will ever pick up this title are those that already have a vested interest in its contents; elder gamers that grow wistful at the mention of some of their favorite games growing up in a video age. So the real value comes from the presentation. Does it help you go back to that time? Well, the menus do resemble the circuit boards of those old arcade titles and it’s neat to see the animated screens of the various games like an arcade collage.
There happens to be support for HDTV 480p, which is very cool to have, but when you consider the lack of advanced polygonal geometry here, it's perhaps not as exciting as it sounds. But those old school gamers will probably appreciate the bonus content that includes the original manuals for the games as well as the trendy retro posters. Like I said, this is all about the true fans of these games.
The retro thing is still going strong in all industries across the board, so there’s no reason to believe that this collection will not be successful amongst the target audience. Sadly, though, it is a small target audience and most gamers not old enough to remember any of these games have been weaned on the wonders of 3D graphics, cinematic camera angles, orchestral soundtracks and 5.1 sound systems. For a look into current Tecmo games’ pedigree, check this title out. Tecmo Classic Arcade is a must-have collectible for the nostalgic gamer who yearns for the yesteryears of gaming - everyone else should probably skip it.