RETRO ARCADE ACTION - 84 GAME CONSOLE

I wasn't entirely sure whether to purchase this when I first saw it, as the cheap looking box art and lack of screenshots didn't give much away in terms of games. It was clearly a Famiclone system and I was intrigued to see what the 84-in-1 cartridge contained so I ordered it out of curiosity.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the games were official ones from the old Nintendo Famicom, and if you don't like the 84-in-1 that it comes with then you can use whatever Famicom cartridges you have. (probably none, as the console was a Japanese exclusive and it's Western equivalent, the NES, had different cartridges) You might be able to play NES games off it as well if you have a converter, although I haven't been able to test this. The menu is mostly in alphabetical order, although only properly sorted by the first letter and several games later on are dotted randomly around it. The games on the cart itself are a mixed bag as some of them are absolute classics like Galaga and Dig Dug, while others like Pac-Man and Tetris were not included. There are also numerous games that most people are unlikely to visit more than once, such as 80 Days (its real name being Nagagutsu o Haita Neko: Sekai Isshu 80 Nichi Dai Bouken) and Fire Dragon which is just a Snake clone. As well as this, several games like Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt were hacked, and the HUDs for The Goonies and Spartan X are broken. Other than that though, there are plenty of good games to be found. For those that are wondering, here is the list of the games: (real game names used here)

1. Nagagutsu o Haita Neko: Sekai Isshu 80 Nichi Dai Bouken
2. 1942
3. Arkanoid
4. Magic Carpet 1001
5. Argus
6. Adventure Island (very much like Wonder Boy on the Master System)
7. Penguin-Kun Wars
8. Super Arabian
9. Super Dyna'mix Badminton
10. Baltron
11. B-Wings
12. Boat Race (F-1 Race hack)
13. Bird Week
14. Boom Man (Bomber Man hack)
15. Brush Roller
16. Clay Shoot (The Duck Hunt mode seperated into its own game)
17. Chack'n Pop
18. Circus Charlie
19. City Connection
20. Challenger
21. Dig Dug
22. Dough Boy
23. The Tower of Druaga
24. Devil World
25. Ding Dong (Binary Land hack)
26. Door Door
27. Dynamite Bowl
28. Elevator Action
29. Exerion
30. Formation Z
31. Front Line
32. Fire Dragon
33. Flappy
34. Flipull: An Exciting Cube Game
35. Field Combat
36. Galaga
37. Zunou Senkan Galg
38. Geimos
39. Gyrodine
40. Gotcha! The Sport!
41. Galaxian
42. Gradius
43. Hyper Olympic (The first four events from Track & Field)
44. Joust
45. Karateka
46. The Legend of Kage
47. Lode Runner
48. Lunar Ball
49. Choukijuu Yousai Macross
50. Magic Jewelry
51. Magmax
52. Mappy
53. Millipede (Pretty much Centipede with a different name)
54. Championship Lode Runner
55. Spar (Urban Champion hack)
56. Shoot UFO (Duck Hunt hack)
57. Othello
58. Pooyan
59. Pac-Land (Not to be confused with Pac-Man)
60. Pandamar (Super Mario Bros. hack)
61. Obake no Q Tarou: Wan Wan Panic
62. Route-16 Turbo
63. Raid on Bungeling Bay
64. Road Fighter
65. Feat (Yie Ar Kung-Fu hack)
66. Sky Destroyer
67. Space Invaders
68. Star Gate (Defender II, essentially)
69. Star Force
70. SonSon
71. Spartan X (Broken HUD)
72. Spelunker
73. Spy Vs Spy
74. Sqoon
75. Star Luster
76. Tag-Team Pro Wrestling
77. Tank 1990 (Battle City hack)
78. TwinBee
79. Kinnikuman: Muscle Tag Match
80. The Goonies (Broken HUD)
81. Wisdom Boy
82. Warpman
83. Xevious
84. Zippy Race

As for the console itself, it's obviously based off the Nintendo 64 (designwise) and the build quality is fairly cheap, but I've been playing it for nearly a month and it works perfectly fine. However, inserting and removing cartridges is an annoyance, as much force has to be applied to this. The controllers are of a similar build quality to the console, but they do work perfectly fine for as long as I've used them. As for the lightgun (which is based off the Nintendo Zapper) it only works on a CRT TV so I haven't had chance to try this out. It also comes with AV cables (although there's no stereo sound, only mono) and a plug which doesn't require an adapter. One last point to make is that the package arrived earlier than expected, having ordered it on a Saturday and getting it the Tuesday after.

Overall, I'd say this might be a Famiclone worth picking up if you don't own a Famiclone or any system that supports its games and you're willing to pay the price.

I got this for a little bit of retro fun, I have looked around at many of the "Plug and Play" re-workings of the old classics for a while and after reading reviews of all the ones on offer (especially the comprehensive review and games listing from the other reviewer of this game - thanks by the way) and I decided this one looked like it offers the most games (Plus the duck hunt gun - which doesnt work with my LCD telly, although randomly firing it at the screen can get the occasional hit so perhaps the guns not that great either). But even if you forget about the gun games this is still loads of fun and well worth giving it a try.

Myself and my 8yr old son are having loads of fun with it playing individually or 2 player and I would definately recomend to a friend.

I bought this for my 4yo grandson as he wanted to play games on the computer and PS3 etc but he was finding the computer mouse/button controls too fiddly and the PS3 controllers too big for his hands to operate properly. The handheld controller included is perfect for smaller hands and he enjoys playing with the sytem whenever he is allowed. Games are many although there are a number of similar ones and he is yet to work his way through all of them. Difficulty levels are varied and part of the learning process is to pick it up and try again whenever he is 'killed'. Graphics are basic compared to the latest games of course but are bright and clear. Handheld controller appears to be a bit flimsy but works well enough, time will tell how durable it is.