This Month in Retro January 2023

Hello all and welcome to the first This Month in Retro of the year! I hope you all had a great switch of the years and have made a bunch of nice resolutions to play even more Retro games. I definitely should at least... given that I can drop all the other games that keep me away from retro goodness. Anyway, enough about me. This month was pretty uneventful in the game industry as a whole, so I'm moving on straight to the games with a short announcement as well.

Going forward, every This Month in Retro will be shorter than we've been used to for the last few issues. I noticed that I've been pushing myself a bit too hard with trying to talk about like what, 15, 20 games? Several of which I'm not even familiar with at all? As much as I would like to talk about every interesting game, I simply don't have the time to do so, given how long it takes to research and write these. Besides, I'm probably not wrong in assuming not everyone has the time to read about all these games either, so it's a win-win situation... probably! Don't worry though, I will still list the more interesting games that I won't be talking about just to give you an idea still of what this month was about.

As for this issue, I'll only be focusing on the western releases. The Japanese-exclusive side was too dry for me to have almost anything to talk about, with the only noteworthy releases being Ganbare Goemon Gaiden: Kieta Ougon Kiseru for the Famicom, and Gaiflame and Atomic Robo-Kid Special for the TurboGrafx-16. As usual, I'll be covering the games with the critic and fan reception, as well as their legacy to this day, and a set if applicable. So without further ado, let's move on to the games!

Western Releases

Today's feature will mostly focus on the NES as most other consoles didn't have too many releases, but I will try to spice it up regardless. There weren't too many big named either, but we do have a bunch of hidden gems that I would love to share with you all of which a lot of are on my play queue as well, such as:

Game
Magic of Scheherazade, The (NES)


Release dates	JP: September 3, 1987
	PAL: January 15, 1990
Sales	???
Average score	N/A

The Magic of Scheherazade is an action RPG developed for the NES, taking inspiration after the Arabian tales One Thousand and One Nights. The amnesiac hero travels through time in the hopes to save princess Scheherazade from the evil wizard Sabaron, and does so in an action-adventure setting with the ability to attack monsters on the overworld, but also having the occasional turn-based battles happen. Reviewers at the time have therefore often called this game as a fusion between both The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Warrior, with a nice touch of the action part having more RPG elements as well. Though funnily enough, this game ended up with a mixed reception due to being compared to both by critics as that was also their main critique due to it not feeling as polished as either to them, but at the same time it was also praised for the gameplay and graphics so... make up your mind critics! Fans were far more positive on the game, so comparing it to other games doesn't always pay off, and it's better to just see it as its own unique product, which it definitely was. A sequel was also in the plans for a very long time, appearing in magazines quite frequently under the title Golden Empire, but this was unfortunately never meant to be, leaving this as a title that would never get its time to shine beyond the NES.

But that's what we are here for! A solid set is available for the game, focusing mostly on the main story but also having some diversions such as obtaining some magic and recruiting all party members to join your cause. It's a fairly lengthy game for the NES, so you'll definitely get your time worth here.

It was not too uncommon for more popular games to have their fair share of "inspired" games, or just blatant rip-offs. Mega Man would see it's fair share of such titles like The Krion Conquest, but Castlevania certainly also had several. On the NES, the most infamous would probably be:

Game
8 Eyes (NES)


Release dates	JP: September 27, 1988
	PAL: January ??, 1990
Sales	???
Average score	N/A

You couldn't try looking closer to Castlevania than 8 Eyes does. The animations and graphics all scream Castlevania, be it from simple things like walking on stairs and jumping. And while it's easy to just call it a rip-off and leave it at that, 8 Eyes does still try to be its own product--mostly when it comes to the story, which funnily enough is different between versions. In the Japanese version for example, we unashamedly take control of James Bond who goes to the Balkans where a dark ritual involving the resurrection of demons is taking place, which was not cool enough for the North American version so have a post-apocalyptic story instead. Both stories do involve the titular 8 Eyes, which are all collected at the end of each level that can be played in whatever order you please. In that regard it also follows a Mega Man structure, as all bosses at the end of these levels have a weakness that is also obtained from other bosses. But what does actually make this game unique is that it allows for multiplayer: one character taking control of the main character, while the other controls his accompanying eagle. The reception from critics was hard to find, but players were overall mixed on it, citing that the original ideas are fun but that it is held back by being unnecessarily challenging and having worse controls than, well, Castlevania. It's certainly worth a look if you're a fan of the inspiration though, and funnily enough this game somehow made it beyond the NES shackles by Piko Interactive acquiring the rights and re-releasing it on Steam as well as on the Evercade.

Talk achievements.