Sunsoft is Back: Retro Game Selection [Review]
Play three Sunsoft Famicom classics on modern platforms in a no-frill package.
Sunsoft is Back. Credit: Sunsoft / Red Art Games
Sunsoft is Back: Retro Game Selection includes three Famicom games previously unavailable in English from the legendary publisher Sunsoft. I discovered these games for the first time and had fun playing them, though I would have preferred that the package wasn’t so barebones. The collection features only 3D renderings of each Famicom cartridge and a few gallery images for each game. The emulation provides three save states for each game, a CRT filter, borders, and a rewind feature.
Sunsoft is Back. Credit: Sunsoft / Red Art Games
Out of the three games, my favorite was The Wing of Madoola. It's a sidescrolling action RPG directed by Kenji Sada (Blaster Master) and features music from Naoki Kodaka (Albert Odyssey, Super Fantasy Zone). Sunsoft released the game in 1986. The gameplay reminded me of Zelda II, but The Wing of Madoola actually predates it. Unlike Zelda II, The Wing of Madoola doesn't have an open world; it's completely linear, with levels that have clear beginnings and endings. You can find different magic attacks and upgrade them individually by finding specific items. Changing attacks is a hassle; you can only have one equipped at a time, and you need to pause the game and press select to cycle through the powers. This extra step made me rarely use them. Combat is challenging due to the short attack range, imprecise hit detection, and formidable enemies. Restorative items are scarce, and if you lose all your HP, it's game over. I had to rely on save states and rewind to progress.
Sunsoft is Back. Credit: Sunsoft / Red Art Games
Ripple Island is a first-person point-and-click adventure released in 1988. Like classic point-and-clicks, you have several commands available, such as look, take, hit, etc., and an item inventory. After selecting a command, you move a cursor on the screen with the controller D-pad to pick targets. Controlling the game like this is quite cumbersome; I would have enjoyed it far more with mouse support or the ability to snap to targets in the images. The latter is too much to hope for since this game is from an age when adventures provided little to no hints. I was impressed by the game's graphics and the fact that it has four endings.
Sunsoft is Back. Credit: Sunsoft / Red Art Games
Firework Thrower Kantaro's 53 Stations of the Tokaido is the oldest game in the bunch, released in 1986. The game is a sidescrolling action adventure, where fireworks maker Kantaro travels from Kyoto to Edo to reunite with his fiancee Momoko. Along the way, he must fight off the henchmen of an evil merchant who wants to steal the secrets of fireworks from Kantaro. Kantaro can throw exploding fireworks in an arc or lay them on the ground, where they explode after a few seconds, as some enemies are impervious to damage from the front or top. This is another one that would have been incredibly hard without the ability to rewind. The movement physics aren't intuitive from a modern standpoint; Kantaro's momentum continues forward when you try to turn around as if he's slipping on ice, and if he walks off a platform rather than jumps, he falls straight down without the ability to adjust his trajectory. Despite this, the action is enjoyable, especially since there is a wide variety of enemies. The game's levels are based on the actual real-life route that Kantaro would have traveled, with certain landmarks having representations in the game. I liked that at the top of the UI, there's a long map representing Kantaro's entire journey, and he advances as he progresses.
Despite the games' clunkiness, the collection is worth the $9.99 asking price digitally on console, especially with the ability to use save states and rewind. It was a treat to experience these classic games in English for the first time.
Sunsoft is Back: Retro Game Selection is available now for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Overall Score: 6/10
Played on: PS5
