Nostalgia is a bit of a soul destroyer, really. Lost girlfriends, bad music and weird hair are all part of the flawed mix, often reducing you to tears in the sadder moments of a drunken night out. While games are usually the salvation of those lost eras, it’s emulation garbage like EA Replay that unfortunately take them down a further notch.

Hosting an eclectic mix of 14 EA games from the 16-bit era, EA Replay never feels like a complete experience. The emulation on each game varies wildly, with the obscure Mutant League Football becoming unplayable at certain moments, and a Road Rash experience that is too damned jerky to be anything other than a painful novelty. The games that survive the transition, like B.O.B and Haunting Starring Polterguy, aren’t really worth your time, especially given the depressed feeling that creeps in after you play them (seriously!).

Desert Strike and Jungle Strike are here, of course, and they emulate fairly well despite some control issues. Still, the truth always lingers over EA Replay; a lot of these games are really rather rubbish, a sad fact given how bitchy the price tag is. When there are better emulators out there with more games for a lower price, you should only consider buying EA Replay if you’re an absolute fan of Haunting Starring Polterguy, or Budokan. Let’s face it though, who is?

Samuel Roberts