Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection Reviews
Yet, despite being well presented, Sunsoft is Back! is a bit bare-bones for a collection. While the three games included do showcase the versatility and charm of the studio's output, there isn’t much content to explore.
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.
Sure these games are not going to hold up today. They are difficult, confusing, and a product of their time, but being able to access them on just about anything with a controller is fantastic. I highly recommend checking out this compilation if you have any reverence for Sunsoft. Seeing some of their early work is as much fascinating as it is informative.
It is always good for the preservation of video games that companies provide us with compilations worked with never-before-seen material from development, manuals, etc. In this case, Sunsoft includes all that and encourages more by bringing three games that had never reached western shores, for which for many they will be original 8-bit premieres from the 80s.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection is more about peculiarity than playability. If you're into NES-era oddities, all three games will deliver despite their difficulty. Priced to move, it's a fun collection to experience. Just don't expect that experience to last.
I'm all for game preservation, and it's great that finally got three more Sunsoft classics in the Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection. The emulation is spot on, and the added digital game manuals and artwork are a nice touch. I do wish there were more than three games in this bundle, but the good news is the price is right at only $9.99.
I personally appreciate being introduced to games I’ve never experienced and found a deeper appreciation for the rich history of SUNSOFT. I’ve really grown fond to Ripple Island in particular. For enjoyment however, it can’t compete with the company’s first cartridge on Evercade.
All in all, these artifacts that date back almost forty years are something really special, and this is the only way to play the official English versions. Sunsoft is Back! feels worthwhile for gaming historians and curious spelunkers like myself, and I hope that Red Art considers a physical version at some point in the future for even stronger preservation. Still, as it is, the price tag is right for a time machine to let you see all that was in the world of Sunsoft.
Really when the only complaints I have about this set are that the rewind timer is a bit short, the audio gets briefly weird when loading a save state and that I wish it had something related to the VS version of Wing of Madoola in here, this is just a great set of three fun gems worth discovering for the first time ever.