Those 4 little letters, E-P-Y-X, go hand in hand with retro gaming. Back in the 80’s, some of my favorite games at the time (and still today) were made by this company. Epyx had a long list of games they developed for the Commodore 64. Classics such as California Games, Chip’s Challenge, and Impossible Mission, along with many many others. When The Epyx Collection was announced I was more than intrigued to see what games would be included. The gang at Imagine Software and Pixel Games UK didn’t disappoint. In this new collection for your Nintendo Switch, you get Blue Lightning, California Games, Electrocop, Gates of Zendocon, Todd’s Adventures In Slime World, and Zarlor Mercenary.
They recently released a few previous retro collections and they’ve made improvements on each one in my opinion. I think the best thing about all these revived retro collections is the ability to play them easily and quickly (and legally) on a modern device without getting out an old TV, plugging in 30 different wires that don’t exist anymore, and tuning your TV to channel 3. Splashing a fresh coat of paint on this stuff is what collector’s really enjoy. Each game also has Save/Load States, a rewind feature, instruction manual, and a pseudo-interactive box art in the main menu. You can also adjust filters if that’s your thing from Soft, to LCD, to CRT (my personal choice). I’ve been saying this for years, but having instruction manuals, whether it’s the original from when the game first came out or even a new updated one, is crucial to understanding how these games are supposed to be played.
First and foremost, you need to understand that all 6 of these games are Atari Lynx versions, which for the most part is awesome. Now you can play these games on the go on your Switch without carrying around 40-50 spare batteries in your pockets. Speaking of which, handheld is the way to play these games. Yes you can play them on the big screen but because the Lynx screen was built for handheld, these translate really nicely that way on your Nintendo Switch. These aren't remastered graphics or anything like that. It's the same game you'd play on a Lynx, just in 2024. So, let’s dive into the games.
Blue Lightning was a launch title for the original Lynx back in 1989. It’s an After Burner-ish combat flight simulator. While not much diversity in the levels, it’s still fun to play with bright sharp graphics and simple gameplay. With the menu music being such a banger, you’d hope that would continue on to the game itself, but sadly no. All you hear the whole time is the plane swooshing thru the air and your guns a’firin’. Some levels have you shooting enemy planes out of the air. Some have you destroying ‘Equipment’ on the ground, like bases and whatnot. It’s a fun game to pass a few minutes. And with Save States and/or rewind (no shame!) there’s a good chance to finish this one too.
California Games holds a special place in my retro, pixelated heart. Having owned this on my Commodore 64 growing up, if I had to guess how many hours I put into this game it would have to be more than 500 (granted a few hundred of those hours was my Commodore loading the game, but still). It was my go-to game almost every day. I was always trying to beat my (or my brother’s) high scores. While the Lynx version only has 4 mini-games instead of the Commodore’s 6 (this one doesn’t include Roller Skating or Flying Disc, which is fine), they’re 4 of the best mini-games of the time. California Games in general was a huge hit back in the day and was ported to basically every video game machine out in the late 80’s (and was also the Pack-In game for the Lynx which shows you how fun they knew it was). In this package, we get Half Pipe, Footbag, Surfing, and BMX. I remember mastering BMX, Footbag and Half Pipe as a kid. Surfing was fun too, but the other 3 are very addicting (and also sometimes frustrating. Looking at you BMX). As one of my first memories of a ‘mini-game collection’ of sorts, this one still holds up and is a great time.
Electrocop is…something else. I can’t tell whether I love or hate this game, or both. At times I’m like “Oh this is kinda awesome” and other times I yell, “What is happening???” Also, the story is the most 80’s story ever. The President’s (not sure of what) daughter was kidnapped by Criminal Brain (great villain name but Krang would like a word, sir) and is threatening to rule the entire world. If he gets control of Earth, he’ll give the daughter back. Good stuff! There’s a real unique style to this game as you run from corridor to corridor shooting enemy robots and trying to find more weapons and a computer terminal to get some information and unlock doors. It’s fun and weird that while you’re doing all this, you can stop and play a few video games on the terminal just for fun. There’s Meteors (basically a harder, worse Asteroids), Letter Puzzle (one of those annoying sliding block puzzle games), and Out Break (a…wait for it…Break Out clone). Not sure what they do, but hey why not? The President’s Daughter can wait. The game itself has a cool 3D like perspective but it’s zoomed in so much that makes it difficult to know where you’re going or where you’ve been half the time. Still, excellent graphics and a killer soundtrack make it a fun time and really showed off what the Lynx was capable of back then.
Gates of Zendocon is a mostly generic horizontal SHMUP with a sorta cool thing at the end of each level. You need to go thru a gate to end the level. After that, you can land your ship and it looks like you get a new one to start the next level. I’m honestly not even sure if it does anything but it looks cute seeing your little guy run down the ladder and get onto the next ship. I wish there was more to say about this one. I didn’t find it any different than most SHMUPs. And that’s not a bad thing. If you like SHMUPs, you’ll enjoy this. I also just enjoy saying and typing SHMUPs. But also, having a rewind feature (again no shame!) for a SHMUP is incredibly useful so go nuts and go SHMUPs.
What’s not to love just from the title alone of Todd’s Adventures In Slime World? After playing thru a lot of these games, you have to be impressed with the Lynx hardware at the time. Comparing it to a Gameboy just in graphics alone is enough to blow anyone’s mind. Todd is no exception. It’s a quirky, weird little game where you have to traverse screens and screens of caves and slime and enemies. You have a little shooter you can use to eradicate any enemies that try to get you. But you also get slimed on constantly (think “You Can’t Do That On Television”). I found it difficult to know where to go or what was actually killing me half the time. It wasn’t as frustrating as it should be, because it’s a silly game overall but I still wish I knew what I was trying to do or if what I kept picking up was important or even necessary. I traveled around for over 30 minutes one time just going back and forth and trying to shoot things. Didn’t know what I was doing, but I got lost in the game and was having fun.
Which brings us to Zarlor Mercenary, a vertical SHMUP. This game does one thing REALLY well and one thing REALLY bad. The good thing is that most SHMUPs are usually one-hit kills, which sucks. For some reason here though, your ship can really take a beating in this game giving you false hope that you can make it far. However, the bad thing it does is your guns, and even your laser, are severely underpowered. So while the screen is full of enemies that are all shooting at you, sure maybe you won’t die but they aren’t going to either. A lot of ships took multiple hits to kill but sometimes the screen is full of enemies and you’re taking tons of damage. Besides that, it’s fine. Again, it has a Save and Rewind feature, so have at it.
The real stand out here is California Games which I truly believe still holds up today. But you’ll also find some fun in all of these games for at least a few minutes. Is 6 games enough for you to buy it? Hopefully. It has digital manuals, box art, critical features under the hood to play these games today like Save/Load states and Rewind. Plus, if you really wanted to play these nowadays you’d spend a lot of money. All of this in a $12 package makes it worth it, especially if you’ve never played these before but also if you have and want to dip your toes in again to the wonderful world of the Atari Lynx.
The Epyx Collection releases on Nintendo Switch on 4/25/24. A review code was provided.