Retro Endurance 8bit

Amazing. It's like ufo 50 but it has it's own way of intertwining the games and the primary gameplay loop is incredible.

Retro Endurance has a simple main gameplay loop of playing something like five games each letting the player play one of the games for a few seconds before switching another one, then cycling through each game a few times before showing how well (how many points the player earned). The player also earns levels to unlock additional games that get shuffled in. As well as coins based on how well they did to eventually buy 'free play' versions of some of the games that allow the player to just play that game. Every so often there will be a boss fight that uses the mechanics of the latest set of games as a backdrop. To be perfectly honest, I don't cycling through the games and the Warioware shuffling. It is rather disorientating almost every time, and some games are the sort you want to be disoriented and do well. However, I understand why. These are tiny and shallow game experiences on their own. The horizontal shoot 'em up is maybe a 1/3 of something like NES's Lifeforce. The Skiing game has about as much as much going on as the Atari 2600 Skiing game. The Excitebite, Rad Racer and Battletoads Turbo Tunnel-like racing games are one to maybe three stages. Basically every game is a tiny fraction of various permutations of 8 bit games. Which is fine. While tiny and shallow, I still found the games enjoyable enough that I wanted to just play through whole stage with out flipping to another game seconds later, or even without a tight timer for something like Dungeon, a stripped down Legend of Zelda single dungeon clone. Sure, the game allows for purchase of 'free play' versions of some of the games, but there is a bit of a grind involved. The controls range from okay to a bit odd. They're functional enough, but something like the Super Mario Bros. clone game, the jump feels a little off to me. Though, the horizontal Shmup and Arkaniod clone controls feel pretty tight. Because Retro Endurance 8bit is so cheap, I can recommend it. Even if I don't like the general way the game wants the player to play, the games are good enough to overcome that. And I still have a bunch I haven't had added into the rotation after an hour of play time. I find it interesting to see where the creators culled ideas from actual 8bit games and put them in this. However, this game is certainly not going to be to everyone's liking. If you don't like retro gaming, like NES and even Atari consoles, this game is not going to change your mind. You might get an hour out of it before never playing it again. But if you like simple retro video games and don't mind a kind of irritating way to play them, for the price, Retro Endurance 8bit gets a recommendation from me.

It's a bite-sized version of a UFO 50-type retro throwback compilation, with all the games thrown in a blender and thrown out at you in rapid succession. It's sort of like WarioWare, where every game is simple but fast enough to really test your skills.