Before you shell out for the SUNSOFT Is Back! Retro Game Selection, you need to understand exactly what you’re getting. This trio of archaic 8-bit adventures has never been officially localised in English before, so it carries inherent value for that reason alone. But it’s worth noting that these titles are extremely old-school, and we wouldn’t recommend playing them for reasons beyond their obvious educational value.
53 Stations of the Tokaido has a simplistic premise, as you’d expect from a release of the era. As the name implies, you need to navigate the numerous stations of Tokaido in search of your lover. Unfortunately, you’re inexplicably targeted by all sorts of nasties, so you need to throw bombs and fireworks at your foes in order to achieve your overall objective. The gameplay borders on impenetrably difficult, but a rewind function helps alleviate some of the frustration.
Ripple Island is a little more laid back in pace, as it’s a point-and-click adventure – albeit an extremely early example of the genre. Given the text-heavy nature of this title, it benefits most from the new localisation, and it’s arguably the best of the bunch when it comes to this compilation. Large, vibrant sprite artwork complements a classic game system, where you need to trigger different commands to assist the local wildlife.
The final game, The Wing of Madoola, presents itself as an action platformer similar to 53 Stations of the Tokaido – but it has more of a Metroidvania flavour, where you need to hunt for crystal gems in order to reach the various exits. The number of enemies is relentless, and you’re going go to rely heavily on that aforementioned rewind button to make any kind of progress, but its artstyle is much more ambitious overall than the other releases in this bundle.
Across the board, the emulation is excellent, and the package has been enhanced by beautiful 3D renders of the original Famicom cartridges, as well as artwork and high-resolution scans of each game’s manual. This is a well-done and loving bundle, then, but the games themselves are ancient and demand a very specific mindset if you plan to extract any actual entertainment value from them.