Retro Recap: All The Classic Gaming News From The Past Week (September 6th 2026) 1
Image: Lego / SCE

Welcome to Retro Recap, a regular feature we run each and every weekend which rounds up all of the best retro gaming news and content of the past week in one place.

The Zelda-Influenced NES Classic 'Battle of Olympus' Is Being Remade By Its Original Husband-And-Wife Team

It has been revealed that the 1988 NES title The Battle of Olympus is being remade on Steam.

The game was designed and programmed by Yukio Horimoto, with Reiko Oshida, who would later become Horimoto's wife, responsible for the story and graphics. It was also ported to the Game Boy.

How Kingdom Hearts Almost Paved The Way For A Smash Bros-Like Fighter From Disney & Activision

Back in 2013, publications like Siliconera and Nintendo Life both published articles about a number of Disney projects that never came to life.

The inspiration for these articles was a series of images posted to the former Disney Interactive concept artist Ken Christiansen's portfolio website, which documented some of the ideas that were being worked on behind closed doors. This included, among other things, a pitch for a Smash Bros-esque fighting game featuring various action figures of Disney characters facing off in battle.

At the time, Christiansen never publicly commented on any of this work, but recently, Time Extension got in touch with the artist to go over his amazing career in gaming. During this chat, he shared a little more insight into what this project was, crediting Kingdom Hearts with opening the floodgates to a number of ideas about Disney properties crossing over with one another.

Why Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl Never Got A Proper Video Game Tie-In

There has been no shortage of stories over the years about the development of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film and the lack of confidence in the movie from Disney executives. But perhaps nowhere is this more apparent (to me, at least!) than Disney's reluctance to release a proper video game tie-in for the film.

Late last month, Time Extension interviewed Ken Christiansen, a former concept artist at Disney Interactive, leading to some articles about some of the video game pitches and projects he was involved with at the company. During this conversation, he gave an insight into why the initial Pirates games turned out the way they did, stating that the thrown-together nature of these titles was the result of Disney focusing much of its attention on creating a game to tie in with the 2003 Eddie Murphy project The Haunted Mansion.

Be Honest, Did You Know About This Mushroom-Saving Super Mario Bros. Trick?

The global gaming community is collectively squinting at screens and rocking back in their chairs after the spotlighting of what is, apparently, one of the most obscure tricks in the history of classic gaming. Demonstrated on X by user @tyousameYSK, the trick in question pertains to the original NES release of Super Mario Bros. and its quintessential power-up: The Super Mushroom.

Hollywood Actor Tim Curry And The Mystery Of The Game Boy He Was "Furious" To Lose

The last few weeks have seen the passing of many famous celebrities, including, notably, the legendary actor, voice actor, and musician Tim Curry, who passed away last month at the age of 80.

Initially rising to fame for his role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show stage show, Curry would go on to have a tremendous career, both on stage and screen, famously appearing in the 1975 film adaptation of the musical, before landing memorable roles in a range of productions such as Legend (1985), Clue (1985), It (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), The Three Musketeers (1993), and Muppet Treasure Island (1996).

As we covered upon his passing, though, his work wasn't just limited to film, TV, or theatre, with the actor also famously providing performances for several video games throughout his career.

While working on The Three Musketeers, Curry was famously pictured with a Game Boy, suggesting he was something of a gamer himself in his spare time. This was supposedly backed up by an interview he did with PC Format in July 1995, where he stated he was "never without his Game Boy," claiming that he was "furious" when somebody stole it.

The $179.99 LEGO PlayStation Might Be The Closest We'll Get To A New Ape Escape

Some of you watching this week's State of Play stream might have been bewitched by the reveal of the LEGO Sony PlayStation, which made its official debut in all its brick-building glory. Sony has since released additional details, announcing that the cool-looking nostalgia box will go on sale October 4, priced at €159.99 / $179.99.

Made up of 1911 pieces, the LEGO PlayStation is considered an adult collectable and is thus rated '18+. Explicit'. The completed model is 10.5 inches wide, making it just under 1:1 with the original console, which took the entire gaming scene by storm way back in December 1994.

Anbernic's RG DS Plus Comes With Its Own Capacitive Stylus And Has Higher-Resolution Screens

Anbernic has revealed an upgraded version of its existing RG DS emulation handheld, which, as the name suggests, is inspired by the Nintendo DS.

Via its dual 4.3-inch, 1,024x768-pixel screens, the console boasts pixel-perfect 4x scaling compared to the DS resolution of 256x192, while the hinge has been entirely redesigned with a 'dual alloy' mechanism.

The hinge has a "stepless" position feature, meaning you can angle it exactly as you want, rather than being limited to set positions.

The Evercade Nexus Feels Like A True Evolution Thanks To A Great Display And Dual Analogue

The first thing I thought to myself when I picked up the Evercade Nexus for the first time was that it's nowhere near as big as I expected it to be.

When Blaze announced its new handheld earlier in the year, the promotional images had me assuming it would be a Switch 2-sized monster of a portable, but, in reality, it's closer in size to the Switch Lite – and in my eyes, that's a massive positive.

The Activision Super Pocket Is Bursting With Games, But I Feel Like I'm Not The Target Audience

Blaze – via its HyperMegaTech sub-brand – has released a series of Super Pocket devices, each themed around a different video game publisher. This range includes Capcom, Data East and SNK devices, and they come pre-loaded with a curated selection of classic titles and are compatible with the Evercade family of cartridges.

I've spotted a pattern with these systems, as I would imagine many others have: when pre-existing deals with publishers are in place for multiple Evercade collections, you can safely assume that a Super Pocket handheld is on the cards, too.

That's certainly the case with the recently released Activision Edition Super Pocket, which comes pre-loaded with a whopping 34 games (more than the Capcom and Taito editions, but short of the 50 games included with the Atari Super Pocket).