Taking place over the course of eight games released in the mid-to-late 1980s, on an unnamed console, Arino’s challenges are wholly entertaining. Unfortunately, they often require a great deal of repetition, too. Completing challenges usually returns you immediately to real life with no opportunity to save (and these games are from the eighties, most don’t allow you to save anyway) which means when the next challenge orders you to go slightly further in the game, everything previously done must be done again.

Despite their moniker, these challenges are rarely challenging, though throughout there’s the feeling that the story mode is just a means to an end. It's a way of unlocking the eight games for play in 'freeplay' mode, and so any difficulty spike that prevents the unlocking of the next retro game wouldn’t be in the spirit of the game. That’s not to say there aren’t other issues with progression. During Guadia Quest the game grinds to a halt (get it?) with a challenge that requires masses of random battles to gain enough power and money to defeat a fairly powerful boss. Frustrating, given the quick-fire nature of previous challenges, and more so if unlocking the games quickly is your aim.

Each game has four challenges (initially) and all four must be beaten to unlock the next game. There’s variety and imagination in the tasks that keeps each new challenge fresh and exciting. There are predictable challenges, sure, like scoring a certain amount of points, or completing a level, but others are more interesting. Kill two enemies without touching the floor, kill 100 enemies, use two warp gates, amongst others. Challenges are further enhanced by sometimes being deliberately vague, giving you an instruction without explaining what you must do to achieve it, forcing the player to read the in-world instruction manuals, or the ever-building collection of GameFan magazines that Kid Arino collects, crammed full with hints, cheats, reviews, and news on the latest game announcements. Kid Arino can also be talked to at any time for tips, a commentary on the state of gaming, or to moan about his mother.

A final note on challenges goes to the final challenge, something dreaded yet entirely expected at the same time. It’s disappointing in that the game is set up to encourage cheating through this final challenge, and it simply doesn’t do the retro games justice to be played this way. Cryptic.

Challenges schmallenges. It’s the retro games, of course, that make or break Retro Game Challenge.

It begins slowly, with Tomato’s 1984 game Cosmic Gate, a fairly simple fixed shooter with few quirks, the most notable being the ability to skip levels if enemies are killed in a certain order. In 1986, however, Tomato surpassed Cosmic Gate in every area with Star Prince, a vertically scrolling shmup with a wonderful amount of depth. While the game can be completed by simply holding auto-fire and destroying everything in sight, subtleties in scoring offer an excellent incentive to replay levels for higher scores. There are hidden items offering bonus points, bonus points for destroying things in the right order, bonuses for killing bosses quickly, there’s a huge compulsion to find the perfect route through levels and beat your high score. It’s an ambitious game and shows it in places with some occasional slowdown. A shame, but it doesn’t detract much from the overall package which remains excellent.

The less said about the two Rally King games, the better. Seriously. Okay, fine. A couple of top-down racers. Boosts are available by drifting, Mario Kart-style, but the poor viewing distance mean these often result in a crash, damage, and ultimately destruction. Aside from these boosts though, there’s nothing to the game at all, save for holding accelerate; the games are weak.

Gears released all three games in the Robot Ninja Haggle Man trilogy in the eighties, and all make an appearance here. Platformers Haggle Man 1 and 2 are very similar in execution, with the differences being increased level size and difficulty for the sequel. The aim is simply to kill all the enemies to complete each level. Enemies can be jumped on in order to defeat them, but there are also coloured, alphabetised doors around each level that can be used. Entering a door grants bonuses and special moves, and also flips every door of a corresponding colour. Enemies caught in the vicinity of a flipping door are killed. The game plays out like some kind of feudal, Japanese Noises Off. Both Robot Ninja Haggle Man and its sequel take some getting used to, but are a lot of fun when everything clicks, and they’re a real pleasure to play.

For Robot Ninja Haggle Man 3, Gears went back to the drawing board, and came up with something utterly magical. Gone are the doors, replaced by massive levels spanning a huge number of screens, new enemies, an epic story, equipment, massive bosses, collectables, and a focus on exploration and stunning 2D platforming. It’s a true classic and as good today as it would have been 20 years ago.

That leaves Guadia Quest. Coelacanth’s RPG was finally released in 1987 after numerous delays, and sold over a million copies in its first few weeks on sale. It’s an RPG as retro as they come, and while, two decades after its release, that makes many aspects of the game cumbersome (notably shopping), it still remains a fantastic game. The dungeons are epic, the NPCs are humorous, and the battle system is simple but has some nice extra layers, too. Weapons each have a range of 'marks' that determine how often they miss or score critical hits, making equipping them more than just selecting the one with the highest attack – a lovely touch. Certain enemies can also be recruited (if you can prove your worth) and will help in later battles. It’s brief, but it packs an awful lot into its short life.

There are some poor games in Retro Game Challenge, but they’re vastly outnumbered by the good ones, the quality of which more than makes up for Rally King. The setting and the story surrounding the games are full of both humour and fond memories of more innocent times, and are the perfect accompaniment to the collection. It's yet another unique DS experience, yet another game that simply must be played.