As a retro fan, I have been obsessed with digital re-releases of arcade games. I have seen many over the years and most end up having something good to offer on their own but never truly recapturing the arcade experience. When I played Johnny Turbo’s Arcade: Gate Of Doom on Switch however, I was blown away. First, I should give some background on Johnny Turbo. Johnny Turbo was an attempted mascot for the Turbo Grafx 16, and appeared in comics but the system still didn’t catch on. The character has survived since the end of the system’s run and now Flying Tiger Entertainment has revived the name as a brand for their arcade re-releases.
Gate of Doom is a fantasy hack n slash game, in which you play as one of four possible classes. Each character class has their own strengths and weaknesses, and while some may feel better than others, it depends on how you play with the characters. I would compared it to a much more advanced version of Gauntlet, or even an ancestor game to Diablo. Its fun but it didn’t really capture my attention as it did in the arcade days. Multiplayer is great, but unfortunately I didn’t have enough opportunity to fully judge that. I am not saying the game is bad, as I feel I may have built it up in my mind too much since the days I played it originally, as it is still a fun game with a somewhat unique style. I do love that the music is dynamic in the game and corresponds to your actions, which is something I love in gaming. In fact, the audio in this port is extremely faithful to the actual arcade experience, and that did help the nostalgic feelings.
What I really want to talk about though, is the port itself. This is one of the best arcade ports to modern systems I have ever seen, with the production values being extremely high and customization options numerous. You can adjust to a variety of screen styles such as RGB and VHS among others, scanlines and no scanlines and even adjust the aspect ratio. Other emulations have done this also but this port allows you to test it right away and makes it far more convenient. In fact, customization is made extremely easy by the options, while still giving a classy feel the whole time. I may not have been blown away by the actual game, but the port was nothing short of awesome. High quality border art available, perfect recreation of multiple arcade looks, and further adjustment options all to make things perfect.
I want to see more from the Johnny Turbo’s Arcade series, as I feel it will be a major contender in the retro re-release market. I would love it if they could re-release some licensed games such as Robocop, as I would love to see what they could do with it to keep it as faithful as possible. This is the true revival of the arcade experience for me, and I hope others try this as well.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided.