Blizzard Arcade Collection (Nintendo Switch) Review

Blizzard Arcade Collection offers four Blizzard/Silicon & Synapse SNES games. The vehicular, isometric, combat-based racer Rock n' Roll Racing, the puzzle-platformer The Lost Vikings, plus its sequel, and finally the cinematic platformer Blackthorne. All of them can be considered classics. Major league, flawless classics? Not really. They are all very good, competently-crafted games, enjoyable and all, but they can't really compete with the "real" classics of their time. This is the 16-bit era, after all, so it's hard to compete with the likes of Super Metroid, and so on and forth.

Some titles are better than others, of course. Rock n' Roll Racing for example, is the least exciting of the bunch. Isometric racers with tank controls were born out of necessity, so the only two reasons to try this out are nostalgia, and maybe an interest in gaming history. The Lost Vikings has aged much better, mainly because its concept is more innovative, as you need to escape a variety of locales, using three Viking warriors, with each one having a different set of skills - just don't expect much action. Blackthorne is also a neat title; basically Blizzard's version of good 'ol Prince of Persia.

So, no, while most of the titles on offer have aged gracefully, there are far better games out there - these aren't must-haves. The great thing about this collection, however, isn't what's in the package, but the quality of the package itself. Blizzard Arcade Collection might be one of the best of its kind on the Nintendo Switch - a platform which has already seen many great bundles of old-school fun. For starters, like any self-respecting retro set, it has all the expected buttons and levers for players to push. A time rewind feature, save states, a variety of monitor filters, etc. The real greatness of this collection however, is that it's a very… well, complete collection.

All available games include a variety of versions. Apart from their original, SNES iterations, the Mega Drive ports have been included, which in some cases are even better. Moreover, this includes some updated, brand new iterations, with wide-screen support, better sound or music, or, like in the case of Rock 'n Roll Racing, a 4-player, split-screen mode. The cherry on top is an assortment of extra material, like BTS artwork, the complete OSTs for each title, interviews from the developers, and plenty of photos that will send people back into the distant past of Blizzard; at that time where it was a company comprised of a bunch of nerds who just wanted to make some good games. Kudos to them!