Antonblast (Switch and Steam) Review

Here at The Retro Joypad we don't usually feature modern day releases, however this new platformer states that it's inspired by the Wario platform games of the past so I felt that this qualified for a review.

Antonblast has just been released on both Nintendo Switch and Steam and straight away let me say this is the best platform game I've played in years and it does indeed tip it's hat to the Wario platformers of the past, it's very much in that style.

The game has a great sense of humour starting with the introductory cut scenes at the beginning and continuing throughout.

Each level is huge and will take a fair bit of time to complete offering a good and entertaining challenge, the graphics are terrific, done in a cartoony style which fit the game perfectly.

In the game your Wario inspired character can smash through blocks, travel to areas of the level further back on the screen (clever!) to name but two features.

As previously mentioned the best platform game I've enjoyed in years, if you're a platformer fan and own a Switch or a Steam Deck this is a must-have game, it's brilliant!

TrimUI Brick Review

For a long time now the Miyoo Mini Plus has been the best mini, pocket friendly retro emulation handheld but now a little known company called TrimUI has launched a new device called the Brick, is it good enough to dethrone the Mini Plus?   Let's find out......

The Brick comes in Black, White, Red and Purple and size wise is about the same height as a Mini Plus but quite a bit narrower.  When I received my black device I was initially surprised at how small it was, more so than I'd expected but it's actually the perfect size to play on and carry around, it feels great to hold.  The quality of the build is excellent and the d-pad, shoulder buttons and face buttons are all nice and responsive.

Performance wise the Brick can play everything up to and including PS1 with ease, currently the custom firmware options are a little limited consisting of MinUI and a pre-release Alpha build of Knulli (not yet fully featured) so I went with MinUI and I'm glad I did as it's an excellent choice and a perfect fit for the Brick.  It's a clean, simple, un-fussy piece of firmware that focuses mainly on getting out of the way and letting you play your games.

The games themselves look fantastic on the Brick's bright and vivid screen, impressive for such a small machine.

The only issue I have with this is that many of the Final Burn Neo games such as the 194x series are displayed vertically not horizontally making them very difficult to play and despite tinkering with every setting going there is no way of rotating them.  This is strange as the two Wonderswan Color titles, Judgement Silversword and Tetris that launch vertically can be rotated the right way up.  Hopefully this will be fixed with a future MinUI update.

Overall this has taken over from the Miyoo Mini Plus as my favourite mini, pocket friendly retro handheld and is well worth checking out.

Modretro Chromatic Review

On a recent visit to the extremely disappointing EGX at London's Excel one of the few standouts was a new GameBoy handheld from a company called Modretro entitled the Chromatic, I had a brief try on one and was immediately impressed by the build quality, the weight of it and how comfortable it was to use.

Well after a few weeks of waiting mine has finally arrived, has it lived up to my initial impressions at EGX?   Frankly, yes!   I can confirm that the build quality is outstanding, it has a really nice weight to it (I'd say it's heavier than the original GameBoy) and feels great in the hand to play.

The Chromatic comes in a range of colours and is capable of playing original GameBoy and GameBoy Color cartridges via the slot in the back of the machine and thanks to it's bright and colourful screen and the fact that the Chromatic offers pixel perfect renderings of these games they look amazing!  As I don't own any GameBoy cartridges I've not yet been able to test these however the two GameBoy Color cartridges I own look stunning!

Modretro have also released a range of new GB and GBC cartridges which are now available to purchase and pre-order through their website.

Like the original GameBoy the Chromatic comes bundled with a new, officially licensed version of Tetris and this is a really great version, it's in full colour, looks sharp and bright on the screen and thankfully they've retained the iconic music too! 

One downside with the Chromatic is that it’s a bit finicky with flash carts, I prepared an EZ Flash Jr. with GB and GBC roms ready to use in it, the cart itself loads fine however at time of writing none of the games will load. I’ve had it confirmed to me by Modretro on Reddit that this is being looked into and worked on so hopefully before too long it’ll be fixed.

This is a really quality device and if the rumoured GameBoy Advance they're reportedly working on is half as good as this we should again be in for something special.

A GameBoy and GameBoy Color for the 21st century and highly recommended.

POCA! Glasgow Review

And now, as they say for something completely different.  I came across this on Kickstarter a few weeks ago and decided it sounded interesting enough to support, and last week I finally received my printed copy.  It is a little pocket-sized book called POCA! which is basically the adventures of a GameBoy Camera of the same name which is switched on for the first time in years, it's owner then makes the camera fully autonomous allowing POCA to go out into the wide world and take their own photos.  

The first volume is set in Glasgow and is a mixture of comic book drawings and the beginning and images of Poca checking out various Glaswegian landmarks, the story is quite charming and highly readable.  The book is of high quality and well drawn.  I am so glad I decided to check this out as it's a very unusual and original idea.

Two more volumes are due to launch on Kickstarter in the future, volume 2 will be set in Honolulu and the final volume will be set in Japan which promises to unveil Poca's origins, can't wait!

Should you wish to purchase a copy of volume 1 for yourself printed and digital editions are now available from the author’s store at https://www.jofamo.com/store

Pokemon Race Mini Review

Regular readers will know that I'm a bit of a fan of Nintendo's smallest console ever the Pokemon Mini, it didn't have a huge amount of games released but what titles that were brought to the device were pretty good and fun.

A number of games were only ever released in Japan including Pokemon Race Mini, an enjoyable title which sees you racing your Pikachu against other Pokemon over a number of different courses to obviously come first.

In Grand Prix mode there are three difficulty levels : Easy, Normal and Hard and three cups to compete in : Rookie, Super and Hyper.  There's also a Time Attack mode, a Challenge mode and a Ditto mode (not sure what that is).

The graphics are really clear considering it's running on such a small device, the music is catchy too and the races are really fun and challenging, although a bit easy on the lowest difficulty, I won every time!

A Japanese language cartridge is pretty rare to come by these days, and when they do appear on eBay they tend to be expensive, thankfully an English language rom is available online which can be added to retro emulation handhelds and is by far the best way to play.

A fun and entertaining little race game for the Pokemon Mini, well worth a look.

AyaNeo Pocket Micro Review - the most beautiful retro emulation handheld ever!

AyaNeo have been responsible for some of the most premium retro emulation handhelds of recent times, producing such devices as the Pocket DMG and the Flip DS, and now they're muscling in on the mini handheld market with the Pocket Micro.  This comes in three colours : Soul Red (my choice, pictured), Magic Black and Retro Gray.

First off I want to say that this is without a doubt the most beautiful, premium and stunning looking retro emulation handheld I've ever seen, it looks and feels just amazing!  The screen while small is bright and sharp and perfect for retrogaming.  It does feel a bit strange playing Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP on such a small screen but you soon get used to it!

All systems up to including Dreamcast, Saturn and PSP are supported and some Gamecube and PS2 games are playable too but not the full catalogue.

It is an Android device so setting up is simply a question of connecting to Wi-Fi, signing into Google and installing whichever emulators you require then adding your roms.  I did run into a couple of minor issues during setup however, I couldn't get any games to load initially on the Yaba Sanshiro Pro 2 Saturn emulator but this was fixed by changing the aspect ratio in the Settings to fullscreen and on the GG Nostalgia Pro GameGear emulator I couldn't add the entire game directory (got an error) so had to add each game individually but other than that it was pretty straightforward as have set up a number of Android devices previously.

The Pocket Micro is made entirely of metal so has a really nice weight to it, this is a substantial unit.  Despite it's boxy, square appearance it's really comfortable to use as well.

AyaNeo have also provided two bits of software of their own : AyaHome, their own Android launcher and AyaSpace, an app for launching your retro games.  I've not tried either as yet as prefer to use ATV Launcher Pro as my launcher but if I do try them I'll come back and update.

Another issue is that if you wish to connect the device to a PC or laptop you have to switch off the controller button from the swipe-down menu before connecting but once that's done a PC or laptop recognises it just fine.

To sum up I absolutely adore this device, it has taken over a my go-to, favourite mini handheld, it is just gorgeous and I love the Soul Red colour.  This is a premium, well built device with great performance and emulation and I've no hesitation in recommending it.

Recent Discoveries…..

For me one of the great things about having retrogaming as a hobby is that I’m constantly learning and discovering something new, whether it’s a game I’ve never played or a new system and recently I’ve not only discovered an excellent sports game I’ve never played but also two new systems which run great on my Steam Deck.

Firstly, the sports game, this I think might be one of the best sports games I’ve ever played, it’s called Beach Spikers : Virtua Beach Volleyball and was released on Gamecube (also available on the Sega Naomi 2 arcade board but more on that shortly), surprisingly for a game like this the controls are extremely simple making it very easy to pick up and play, there’s a serve meter and simply press A when at the desired level and A again to hit the ball over the net and then the A button again to make your shot, it really is that easy!  As you can see from the screenshot above the graphics are excellent and there’s something really satisfying about completing a smash over the net to see it land the other side for a point! This game really is an absolute gem and I highly recommend it!

Next on to the new systems I’ve discovered, there’s two : both arcade boards used by Sega to create some stunning arcade games, Naomi and Naomi 2, and amazingly most run perfectly on the Steam Deck although you need the BIOS files for both systems for the games to work, and there’s some really cracking titles all of which have that trademark Sega style to them, there’s Virtua Striker 3, Virtua Fighter 4, The King of Route 66 - an excellent truck driving game, and my personal favourites, Wave Runner GP - a jet-ski racer (and regular readers will know already that I love a good jet-ski racer!) , Wild Riders - a motorbike getaway game and Spikers Battle - a fighting game unlike any other I’ve ever played, it’s basically a one on three bout in a variety of locations with some very satisfying moves!   The above mentioned Beach Spikers is also available but to be honest I can’t see much difference graphically between this and the Gamecube version, they both look great! There are many more games available for both systems but so far I’ve only tried a small selection of them, if you’re interested Internet Archive is a good place to find them.

With my discovery a while ago of the impressive Sega Model 2 and Model 3 games as well I’m now pretty spoilt for choice for entertaining arcade games on my Steam Deck!  Will be playing a lot of these!