Another compilation of ‘new retro’ games, the Sydney Hunter Collection for the Evercade has four games from indie developers Collectorvision – with one that doesn’t even feature the titular Indiana Jones-esque character.

At first glance, you might not notice how gory that cartoony cover artwork is. Go on, take a second look – surprising, right?

And definitely fitting. These games are really challenging; you’ll likely be making lots of use of those Evercade save states to make progress, or die horribly trying – over and over again!

First up we have Intellivision title Sydney Hunter and the Shrines of Peril. As clandestine android Ash says in the original Alien: “I admire its purity.”

This is as basic an arcade style title as you can get, running from left to right on flick screens, avoiding enemies and obstacles (for some reason touching skulls or other inanimate objects is just as fatal as running into a snake) on the quest to collect treasure.

It’s a great game to just pick up, jump in and play – though there are definitely some really confusing aspects as to what does and doesn’t constitute deadly scenery. Or why.

It’s a shame it doesn’t really obey any sort of obvious logic, because that aspect can really be frustrating and does mar what is otherwise still a challenging, but fun, Pitfall-esque adventure.

Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe is an 8-bit platformer, originally for the underrated Sega Master System. It’s an absolutely beautiful game given the limitations of the hardware it’s designed for – but Sydney’s annoying method of jumping and the sometimes pixel perfect requirements to progress can be irritating.

It’s very open and feels quite non-linear though, which is quite a triumph given its 8-bit roots. I did enjoy this one, though could have done with the difficulty and the sideways jumping being dialled down a notch!

16-bit adventure Sydney Hunter and the Caverns of Death has some great level design – and the boomerang weapon mechanic is incredibly satisfying – but just like the 8-bit prequel, the spacing of platforms and timing required can be more frustrating than is strictly necessary.

There’s also another mechanic that causes annoyance: some parts of stages being mostly dark aside from the glow around your character, which can obscure enemies entirely until it’s too late.

This renders the game more of a memory test than a true test of skill and that’s unfortunate.

Multi-screen, 8-bit maze game Jester is the final game on the cartridge and, despite lacking the the collection’s character, might just be my favourite game included.

It’s full of clever little touches; it’s one of those great indie retro homages that feels simultaneously old school and modern.

Jester is still hard as nails, but it does seem a lot fairer than the Sydney Hunter games can sometimes feel.

With a map, clear status bars and obvious goals and enemies, it’s a perfect example of how to bring classic gameplay into the modern era while keeping to the same, old school style.

So, should you buy the Sydney Hunter Collection?

Though I’d never heard of these games before, apparently they have quite the fanbase and were oft-requested for the Evercade’s library.

Which makes me feel as if I’m missing something, because as addictive as the games could be, I often ended up being more frustrated than entertained with most of them except Jester.

Your mileage may vary, however – if you’re hankering for a real platform challenge that feels as if it spans multiple early eras of video gaming, the Sydney Hunter Collection may just be right up your street.

You can purchase the Sydney Hunter Collection cartridge from Amazon here.