!Arcade!

My Arcade’s motto, ‘Retro Gaming For A New Generation‘ is pretty much spot on when we think about their product range, like their Micro Player Mini Arcade Machines. We managed to get our hands on two of the My Arcade Micro Players, Bad Dudes (aka: DragonNinja) and Rolling Thunder, which we gave a good old fashioned thrashing.

Let’s first talk about the physical attributes of these cute little machines and their features. The packaging is so great that we decided to keep the units in them when not in use. The game’s story on the side of the packaging is clever too. Once you bust these open, you’ll find the Micro Player and a user manual (remember those!) inside. The Rolling Thunder Micro Player came with an added poster featuring the Micro Player machines range, which harks back to when we used to get posters with our games – a neat touch that we wish that the Bad Dudes unit also came with this inside.

The Micro Players themselves resemble their arcade counterparts, from their cabinet profile down to the artwork on the sides and control panel. Bad Dudes pips Rolling Thunder here with the bezel artwork and Data East logo on top of the unit. The detachable joystick on the D-Pad, the two fire buttons and the Reset and Start buttons are identical on all Micro Players, which ensures a consistent look, feel and play across the range. Speaking of the control panel, we found that we preferred to play Bad Dudes with the D-Pad (sans joystick), however, Rolling Thunder felt better to control with the joystick in place. The best part is that you have options for your control preference that suits your play style. A word of warning, if you like to play without the joystick, you better put it in a safe place, as they can easily get misplaced. The buttons are standard fare and feel responsive enough when playing either game, but they are on the small side, so if you have large or fat fingers, you may struggle a bit. Powering on the Micro Players is as easy as pushing in the coin slot door, which lights up when on – another cool feature which get our tick of approval. On the back of the machines you’ll find volume control buttons, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a battery compartment (for 4 x AA batteries) and a Micro-USB port for powering these little beasts.

For those that like their feature specifications in bullet-point form, here you go:

• 6 inch arcade machine
• 2.75″ full colour screen
• Removable joystick
• Volume control
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Powered either by 4 x AA batteries or Micro-USB

The burning question on everyone’s lips is, how do they play? If you are expecting the arcade versions of the games, then you may be disappointed.  But before you start moaning and groaning, we can tell you that these are NES versions of their arcade counterpart, which isn’t a bad thing. Out of the two Micro Player’s, we definitely preferred playing Rolling Thunder, as the NES conversion was brilliant, translated perfectly on its corresponding Micro Player. As for Bad Dudes, since it is the NES version, you can’t play co-op, which is fine, as the Micro Player only has a single-player control deck. The emulation is true to their source, ensuring that the games play pretty much identical to the NES versions. We did note that Rolling Thunder boots up almost immediately to its title screen, whereas Bad Dudes took a few seconds. This isn’t a negative, it was just noticeable to us when turning on these machines side by side. The screen is bright (there is no brightness or contrast control), so you will have no issues seeing what is going on. Being on the small side, the screen does feel a tad cramped when there is lots action going on, especially on games like Bad Dudes.

So how do you decide which Micro Players to get, if any? Well, if you liked these games on the NES, then you will definitely love playing them on the Micro Players. Out of the two we got to play, we found ourselves going back to Rolling Thunder over and over again, not because we are crappy players (the game is tough as nails!), but the fact that the game is based on a wonderful conversion which was quite faithful to its arcade big brother. Let’s also not forget that these Micro Players are so darn cute and cool, they would be perfect for displaying in your games room or office.

With the Festive Season fast approaching, these would make a great gift for either yourself or that good friend of yours that is into retro gaming.

The My Arcade Micro Player Mini Arcade Machines range is available via Amazon (and reputable bricks and mortal stores, like JB Hi-Fi):

• My Arcade Micro Player Arcade Machines – Amazon (US)
• My Arcade Micro Player Arcade Machines – Amazon (Australia)
• JB Hi-Fi – My Arcade Micro Players

Disclosure: The Rolling Thunder and Bad Dudes My Arcade Micro Player machines were kindly provided by Turn Left Distribution for this review.