ROM CHECK FAIL

Why do we play games? We've all got lots of reasons. Some of us want to relax. Others wish to put their wits against their peers. Some of us are simply addicted. And others, myself included, simply want to have our heads messed with.

Link has a nasty case of Asteroids.

A hallmark of lazy journalism is to say that X is like A meets B – on acid!. However, is there really any other way to describe ROM CHECK FAIL? A wonderfully conceived piece of retro-gaming sacrilege, ROM CHECK FAIL plays with the idea that that the ROMs of various games have got good and messed up. Anyone who's played with a Nintendo emulator and renamed some save files just to see what's happened will be all too familiar with the event.

So, let's take some classics of the coin-op and NES: Arkanoid, Gauntlet, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Super Mario Bros., Defender, The Legend of Zelda, Pac-Man and Spy Hunter. Take the player and enemy: sprites, style of movement and attack modes and all, and mix them up separately. Ever had to pit Link against Goombas or Mario against asteroids? But that's not all, folks. It gets better.

Mario versus deadly Arkanoids blocks! Can he outrun them?

Back to the game's central conceit. The ROM is messed up. Every few seconds there's a burst of horrible electronic music, and then everything changes: the music, the hero, the enemies; all are changed at random. Link, who could quite happily wander all over the screen dispensing stabbity death with his sword, may be replaced by Pac-Man, unable to harm anything until he's had his power pellet. Or worse, at the top of the screen, he could turn into Mario, and suddenly be affected by gravity. Worse yet Link could be replaced by the laser cannon from Space Invaders, able only to move from side to side. While a load of ghosts from Gauntlet come at you from behind. There's a heavy element of pot luck to the game, and a quirk of chance could bugger you up good and proper.

Mario faces off against Space Invaders in the Pac-Man maze! That ain't right.

In terms of gameplay, it's, ah, novel. Let's call it that. It sounds generous. I'm rarely able to get past the tenth wave. Play that changes drastically at random pretty much scuppers any hope of the game being, well, playable. But – and this is a very large but – it is still fun. The random changes in gameplay from shooter to chaser to platformer take frustration to new, previously unreached for levels, and that's the point, really. The complete disparity in power between some enemies and heroes is bloody hilarious. Consider a Defender spaceship against some Arkanoid blocks, or the aforementioned ghost / laser cannon scenario.