RETRO REVIEW: SUMMER ‘92 RECCA (NES, 3DS 1992, 2012) Let’s Make Life HARD.

Now that Nintendo World Championships has arrived on Switch (my overpriced deluxe set is in the mail courtesy of ebay), I thought it was time to take a look at another odd and highly elusive piece of tournament software: An extremely obscure little shooter called Summer Carnival ’92 Recca. Developed by Naxat Soft (?) for the original NES, this speedy little bastard was originally created specifically for some Japanese gaming festival you’ve never heard of back in 1992. As such, not very many copies of the actual cartridge exist and it has since become a highly sought after collector’s item for nerds. Well, it managed to make it’s way onto the 3DS virtual console back in 2012 and I of course instantly scooped it up at the time and whooo boy, this game is cray cray.

So the word “Recca” actually translates to “Blazing Fire” which is appropriate because the shooting system and overall swift nature is not unlike Blazing Lazers for the TG16. A game that I have a borderline sexual affection for. There are multiple blaster options and backup weapons that appear as little floaty orb things that you can mix and match which adds a nice level of variety, not to mention horror and tension. There’s nothing worse than attempting to avoid millions of bullets only to lose your favorite primary blaster by picking up one that sucks. Well, maybe aside from being trapped deep inside of a flaming multi-car pile up.

Maybe.

Like any good shooter, there’s a near zen-like level of pleasure you reach after a good chunk of time spent spitting and screaming. And with an anxiety inducing soundtrack like this (that has also been printed as a rare CD release to further torment collectors), that’s really saying something. Upon pressing start, Summer Carnival ramps up so goddamn fast it feels like you’ve just been tossed into the final stage of the hardest game of all time mid-level. I almost slammed the 3DS shut and threw it across the room after the first second out of pure survival instinct. But getting into the groove with it after a while reveals an incredibly well made top down shooter on a portable system that really didn’t have many of those. That’s a pretty big plus it has going for it.

As far as the visuals, well that’s arguably what this game is most infamous for and probably alone makes it worth experiencing. It is a jaw-droppingly impressive technical feat to see so many sprites running this smoothly at holy SHIT speed using 8-bit hardware. There is a lot going on and with such little flickering happening, it is quite frankly in a league of its own.

So yes this is highly recommended if you happen to like shooters, rare pieces of Nintendo history and instant death. Unfortunately though now that the 3DS is selling at bonkers prices on auction sites not to mention the fact that the eshop officially closed a while back, once again this thing is long gone.

Oops.