super retro-cade

That’s The ‘super hans’ brand of super

We’re always keen to see diversity in the plugand-play market, and Retro-bit’s approach definitely offers that. Following on from last year’s Retro-bit Generations device, the Super Retro-cade doesn’t focus on one console or company, but instead offers over 90 games licensed from Capcom, Irem, Data East and Technos. These are drawn from a variety of systems – you’ll find 56 arcade games, 20 from the

NES, 15 SNES titles and a lone Mega Drive offering.

The Super Retro-cade console itself is relatively small and features 720p HDMI output as well as composite AV output for those of you using standarddefinition TVS. The system also features a standard SD card slot, which is used exclusively to add space for loading and saving games. The package includes two USB control pads, which are comfortable in the hands, but ultimately feel a little cheap. We were able to get another USB controller to work with the system, but the button mapping was thrown off by doing so.

If you’re familiar with last year’s Retro-bit Generations, you’ll know that it had some pretty big issues with emulation, as it struggled to run games at full speed. We’re pleased to note that the Super Retro-cade offers a much better experience in this regard – the Mega Drive, SNES and arcade games all run at a good speed now, and input latency isn’t the big deal that it was before. We’re sure that some differences will be noted compared against real hardware – we noticed some slight audio lag – but that’s something common to every plug-andplay emulation system, and the Super Retro-cade’s performance should be acceptable to the majority of players.

The game selection on offer is appealing, with Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3, Final Fight, Double Dragon,

Burgertime, Strider and Ghosts ‘N’ Goblins being some of the better-known games included. While they don’t have the drawing power of something like the SNES Mini roster, the sheer number of games means that it offers better variety, and you’ll quickly uncover new favourites if you’re not familiar with all of the games. We’ve certainly had a great time with the likes of Super Side Pocket, Magical Drop and Super Burgertime

– they’re not household names, but they’re still a lot of fun to play.

However, the line-up isn’t immune from criticism. For a start, to pack so many games in, some filler has been included. Often this is where both the arcade and console versions of a game are included. Sometimes this works out well, as Strider is very different on the NES, but in other cases it’s somewhat pointless, such as with Bad Dudes Vs Dragon Ninja. Other games are untranslated Japanese releases, though this has been mitigated where possible with sanctioned use of fan translations, and, of course, some games like

Street Fighter 2010 are just bad. But what really confuses us is some of the games that aren’t present. For example, why are Double Dragon and Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone included, but not Double Dragon II: The Revenge? Why do we have R-type III, but not the original game, and why not complete the original Mega Man trilogy?

The system software you use to access the games is littered with oversights. We like that the games can be sorted and you can build a list of favourites, which is essential with so many games to choose from. Likewise, we appreciate the ability to remap buttons, and the button configuration reminder that pops up when you pick a game. However, it’s frustrating that game names are only revealed when you’ve got the game highlighted – while all the games are represented with a title screen thumbnail, some are in Japanese so you can’t rely on that.

Nowhere is this lack of thought more apparent than in the video department. You’re only given two choices – original aspect ratio or stretched full screen, and the latter is the default. This looks bad on most games and utterly atrocious on vertically oriented games like Mercs. More annoyingly, you have to set your preferred screen option for every individual game, and can’t do so from the pause menu. Either way, you’re stuck with scaling that leaves pixel edges looking soft as there are no filters on offer, nor can you add scanlines or rotate the image for vertical games.

So we’re in two minds about the Super Retro-cade. It feels like it’s been sent to market in an acceptable state

– it works fine, but it’s unpolished and missing some features that you’d hope to see, particularly if you’re a picture perfectionist. However, we can’t deny that we’ve had fun with it, because the Super Retro-cade does offer some excellent games across a wide variety of genres. So long as you’re okay with the drawbacks that come with them, you’ll have a great time with the system.

in a nutshell

The Super Retro-cade offers a great selection of games, and at an attractive impulse-level price. But as it stands it’s just decent and could use some better system software.

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We can’t help but think that screen options and a reset game option should have been included in the in-game settings menu.

The main menu is clean, but it lacks information. Thankfully games can be filtered and sorted.

Some games feature untranslated Japanese text, though none do so to the point of ruining the game.

Including the NES version of Bad Dudes when the arcade game is present seems like an odd choice.

The default stretched presentation for vertical games, like Mercs, is truly dreadful.