Rastan

When you make your first jump over a pit and plunge straight into the water, you hear that distinctive "ugh" — and you instantly know Rastan isn't going to treat you kindly. This 1990 brought an arcade platformer to PC that arcade players already knew well. Taito adapted it for home computers, and the result is a sort of uncompromising struggle with mechanics the creators clearly didn't adjust precisely for keyboard and slower hardware.

You play as a guerrilla named Rastan — at least that's what all those old posters claim — and your goal is to overcome a series of levels packed with enemies, traps, and even more enemies. You solve everything with your sword: thieves, guards, various creatures. You jump across platforms, collect weapons you find along the way, and try to reach the end without unnecessary deaths. Overall, a solid arcade formula that sustained half of the eighties — nothing genius, but all the less sign that anything improved for the home version.

That's exactly the problem. Rastan on PC feels like gutted arcade ports without serious modifications. The controls aren't bad — movement and attack work as they should — but the timing of jumps and swings is like wading through mud. The faults aren't your fault, but the game's. Enemies swarm straight at you in hordes without much room to maneuver. Animations are stiff. The pixel graphics are pretty ugly, even by PC standards of the time they look cheap. Sound? Bleeping PSG chip music that gets on your nerves fast.

Rastan became a cult name in arcade halls, but here, in this 1990 PC version, it remains just a laborious attempt. It brings an authentic feel from that era — when games were ported to home computers without much fanfare — but that authenticity isn't intentionally charming, just raw and unforgiving. The game isn't bad, just frankly dated at first glance.

Today you'll try it mostly out of nostalgia or curiosity about what happened to the arcade version. You'll find it easily in an emulator, play twenty minutes, and understand why we remember the arcade version less than, say, Double Dragon — Rastan was generally a punk hit without depth. On PC it's just a walk through the past without shine.