After 40 years of gaming, I thought I’d seen everything. Every Capcom Fighting collection, every remaster, every arcade port, I’ve done them all. Or so I thought. And then I get to play Taito Milestones 4 ahead of release, and suddenly, wait, there are games I’ve never even heard of; even now, I’m discovering something new. It doesn’t happen much these days, and when it does, it makes the whole thing more exciting than just another set of familiar titles.
Taito Milestones 4 is the latest retro collection coming to Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, which I played on; it’s a mix of games that, on the whole, are niche and a little random, which makes it all the more interesting. (For more, read my guide to the best retro game consoles.)
A weird trio worth playing
Take Water Ski from 1983. The name says it all – you water ski. That’s it. No hidden tricks, no nonsense, no complex maps, item management, or boss fights, just water skiing. You guide a tiny figure behind a speedboat, dodging rocks, hitting jumps, adjusting the tow line. One wrong move and… splash. Instant fail. And somehow, that simple little setup is way more tense than some over-engineered modern game. There’s a technicality to it, a skill to each move, and stages are pure memory tests, fast-moving vertical mazes of rocks and jumps to avoid and make use of all in the pursuit of a high score.
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Then there’s Cameltry from 1989/90, which, honestly, has a name I don’t understand and actually means nothing. It’s the pola opposite of Water Ski. I swear, it feels… modern. You rotate walls to move a ball through a maze against a ticking clock, while making use of time bonuses, pinball-like physics to bounce off walls, and a jump to avoid hazards. Every dead end, every trap is a test of your reflexes and patience. Frustrating? Absolutely. But addictive, too. Mazes last a couple of minutes, and I find myself going back again and again. Cameltry is a game that makes you appreciate the cleverness in old arcade design, and also wonder what a modern remake could do – more levels, more hazards, more chaos. (It was released on SNES under the name On The Ball.)
Ninja Kids is a scrolling beat ’em-up that’s part parody, part homage, part complete nonsense. The cast of characters – including ninja Hanzo, Sasuke, Kaede, and Nobu – are actually puppets, which gives the pixel animation and design a wonderfully original, slightly wobbly, handmade look. But the cute bug-eyed Muppets design soon descends into gratuitous violence, including beheadings and dismemberments, but they’re puppets, so it’s fine. A ridiculous game of yesteryear I’d never played at the time, Ninja Kids is surprisingly playable even 36 years later.
But there’s more…
Other weird gems caught my eye in the upcoming Taito Milestones 4 collection include ONNA SANSHIRO/Typhoon Gal, a judo brawler that really rewards timing and technical skill; Bonze Adventure, which takes the Ghosts ’n’ Goblins formula and twists it through Chinese ghost stories; and, of course, Arkanoid, the classic wall-buster, is still addictive and satisfying.
There are 10 games in total in Taito Milestones 4, and it’s a collection that isn’t just about pure nostalgia, but proof that even after decades of gaming, there are hidden gems waiting to punch you in the gut with joy, even if you’ve never played that ‘back in the day’. These are not really the games everyone remembers, but the ones you stumble across and suddenly love as if they were just released. If you think retro game collections have nothing new, this one might just make you think twice.
Taito Milestones 4 releases on 26 March (5 May in the US) for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Read more on the Clear River Games website.