Games Inbox: What is your favourite retro video game format?

The Thursday letters page lists its favourite ZX Spectrum games, as one reader is resigned to the fact there’ll probably never be an XCOM 3.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Regional favourites
With all the talk of Spectrum games and a new Impossible Mission we’re getting dangerously close to reigniting the rivalry of the Speccy and the C64. I was in Sir Clive Sinclair’s corner but I’m just glad to see both are still remembered today. More so than the Amiga, it seems to me, and definitely the Atari ST which almost never seems to get mentioned – even though that’s the one I had.

Does that mean they’re not fondly remembered? As far as I remember it they were popular formats in the UK, much more so than the Mega Drive and SNES, whose games were too expensive.

None of these formats were import to the US or Japan, which is why they don’t get referenced much so I guess the favourite retro format from around the world is going to be those two consoles. I didn’t have either though and only know one person, as a kid, that had one (a Mega Drive).

So for me the best ones were the ones I had and the games I played on them. So here’s to the Atari ST and Stunt Car Racer, Dungeon Keeper, and Midwinter. You might not be globally famous, but I still remember you!
Futterman

Future anticipation
This Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro update is all well and good (I don’t have a PS5 Pro) but is there any sign of when we’re going to see something major on The Witcher 4? They seem to have been working on it for a long time and I’m getting impatient to see what it’s like.

It’s strange for your most anticipated game to be something you’ve never seen yet but I feel that happens more and more nowadays. We’ve barely seen anything more of GTA 6 and none of the Switch 2 games I’m looking forward to have even been announced yet. I don’t know if that says more about me or publishers?
Gomez

GC: There’s a good chance it will be shown this year, possibly at either Summer Game Fest or The Game Awards in December. However, if The Witcher 3 DLC rumours are true that will need to be announced first, perhaps at the State of Play rumoured for next week.

Unofficial info
I’ve said all along that there’s been something off about the marketing for the Switch 2 ever since it was first shown. Not disastrous or insanely stupid just… not as good as you’d expect. It all seems very low energy and minimal effort, which you can only assume is on purpose, but I can’t begin to imagine what benefit that is meant to give.

When I buy a new console, I want to know that there’s a steady supply of exclusives on the way for it, especially if it’s a Nintendo console, and they have gone out of their way to say as little as possible and only announce new entries in their least interesting franchises.

What were they doing for the eight years the Switch 1 was riding its wave? For the first time I can ever remember we know more about their upcoming games through leaks than we do official information, and that’s just plain weird.
Purple Ranger

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Final entry
Appreciated your review of Xenonauts 2 but I can’t get over what’s happened to Firaxis; even the Civilization they made after Midnight Suns was rubbish. That game bombing has had such a terrible effect on the games I like and the worse thing is it was really good!

I don’t see how you can have something like Slay The Spire 2 being the biggest new hit of the year and then something else, with really good graphics, similar gameplay, and the Marvel licence, is a total bomb. Sure, it was more expensive but you could see where the money went!

I also hold out little hope for a new XCOM, or at least not a good one. Even if Take-Two did decide to spend some of their GTA 6 profits on a new one who would they get to do it? Firaxis are a shell of their former self and I don’t know who else has the necessarily experience. A sad state of affairs.
Zeiss

Rare excuse
I didn’t realise there was a place in Japan that was actually called Kantō, although I did know the early Pokémon games were inspired by different areas of the country. It’s a shame that Forza Horizon 6 isn’t going to be on Switch 2 because I would’ve loved to have seen a crossover of some sort. If the game can run on Xbox Series S then I don’t see it having any problem on Switch 2.

Before the Switch 2 came out Microsoft were talking as if they were going to be its biggest supporter but they’ve virtually nothing and aren’t even pretending otherwise anymore. I really don’t know why, especially when they’ve got Rare sitting there and they haven’t even ported Rare Replay or anything like that. Getting rid of Phil Spencer doesn’t seem to have changed anything.
Benjy Dog

Other people’s games
As Switch 2’s primary difference with Switch is that it’s more powerful I don’t think Nintendo had much choice but pointing that out to be at the centre of its sales pitch at launch for the console.

But Nintendo distanced themselves from Sony and Microsoft by removing themselves from the power arms race with the Wii and it’s worked out very well for them.

I don’t think advertising the Switch 2 on it being powerful in the grand scheme of things would be the right move because it’s not. For those who care about power it’s weak sauce.

Also, the Switch 2 is not as unique as the Switch that first nailed the hybrid model and now there’s more powerful PC hybrid consoles that outperform Switch 2.

But the jump from Switch 1 to Switch 2 has raised the quality bar to the point a weight of triple-A games are now possible on a Nintendo console that they haven’t had for a few generations.

Nintendo just need to promote third party games more and get the message out there these games reside on the system now.

Why that’s not happened I’m not sure. I guess maybe Nintendo’s success has been so routed in first party for so long third party is just not as important to them as it is with someone like Sony.
Simundo

Outstanding achievements in the field of excellence
I hope whoever at BAFTA decided to give the boss of Supercell their top award isn’t on the Nobel Peace Price board or Trump is going to walk away with it next year.

How can the boss of the company that made Clash Of Clans (not even the guy that made it, but the exec in charge!) deserve that award when the others that have won it are people like Shigeru Miyamoto and Will Wright? I’m often iffy about BAFTA’s game awards but this one stinks to high heaven. Who’s going to win next year? Bobby Kotick?
Paulie

Six of the best
Following on from Wednesday’s letter about the best Spectrum game, thought I’d throw a few titles out there too (and I’d agree that The Great Escape is up there and definitely in the top 10).

The Lords Of Midnight; a Mike Singleton game that was heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings but that in no way diminishes what it achieved. An open world game before the phrase existed, where you recruited and took control of various characters and armies as you sought to overthrow the evil Witchking. Excellent adventure and strategy hybrid.

Pyjamarama; in my view the best in the Wally Week series of puzzle platformers, where you had to travel through a dream collecting items with the end game of trying to wake your protagonist up. Really enjoyable romp and much better than the more famous Jet Set Willy (although to be fair the latter was more of a pure platformer).

Leaderboard; OK, golf games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and it was a toss-up between this and Match Day 2 for my favourite sports title. But this was such a chill game, great for two player and endlessly repayable, at a time when using pocket money to get a game was only once or twice a year.

Target: Renegade; there were some great scrolling beat ‘em ups on the machine but to my mind this was the best. A pseudo 3D scroller (in that you could move up and down the screen and not just left to right) that felt great to play.

Way Of The Exploding Fist; not quite up there with the leap that Street Fighter 2 gave us on the SNES, and it didn’t have the speed of IK+ on the Amiga, but for its time this was an enthralling one-on-one fighter, most notably because it wasn’t a button masher, as timing and choice of attack was the key to success.

Knight Lore; many people (particularly overseas) wouldn’t be aware that Rare first cut their teeth on the Spectrum and their games were of such high quality they could charge nearly twice as much as the competition for each game. My pick of the bunch is Knight Lore, as it was the first Filmation title which used a 3D isometric model for this action adventure. Reportedly, the developers held back the game a year after they finished it as the graphics were so advanced compared to their other unreleased games, so as not to overshadow them.
TheTruthSoul (PSN ID)

Inbox also-rans
I’d completely forgotten Elden Ring was coming to Switch 2. How can they get Resident Evil Requiem working so well on it but they can’t manage a four year old game that runs on the Xbox One? Weird.
Monk

I don’t know if anyone else has played it but apparently extraction shooter The Cube, Save Us is shutting down after less than a month. Making a live service game seems like the riskiest thing ever.
Residentweevil

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The small print
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