Welcome to our weekly newsletter, all the latest retro gaming news in one place.

Halloween has been and gone, which can only mean one thing… Christmas is just around the corner!

Can you remember a game or console that you got at Christmas that has stuck with you forever? I’ll never forget the day that I opened Donkey Kong 64 for the N64 and got the Expansion Pack with it, sitting on the floor in my pyjamas and playing it all day long with my mum and dad watching behind me from the sofa.

As we move slowly towards the festive season, we’re starting to think about some of the things to put on our own Christmas lists too. Undoubtedly we’re all sticking lots of cool Switch games and Pokemon cards on there, especially with our sister site Card Gamer launching recently and us seeing so many cards that we’d love to have in our collection.

But, let’s get back to the here and now; what’s been going on this week?

Well, Theo went to a double decker bus to hold a massive prop sword and scare some onlookers, we’ve had some new LEGO announced, and the team pulled it together long enough to write down the scariest games we’ve ever played.

Don’t get too excited about that last bit – most of us are massive scaredy cats!

There’s also some great news for Zelda and Sonic fans popping up further down this newsletter too!

Missed everything from the lat seven days and are wondering how you’re going to last another day without catching up? Don’t worry; we’ve got you. Here’s the official Retro Dodo week in review!

What are We Playing?

Rob: Video Producer

This week I’ve been running and jumping my way through Super Mario Bros. Wonder which has been an incredible return to form for the side-scrolling Mario games. After being disappointed by the last few New Super Mario Bros. games, I was a little bit sceptical as to whether there was anything left to explore with 2D Mario, but oh boy was I wrong!

The originality of the level design blew me away and each and every stage offered a brand new gameplay style which keeps the pace at a breakneck speed and genuinely gives you an experience you won’t have had with any previous game in the series.

I’ve also been re-visiting a lot of my favourite games from older systems as I test out a whole bunch of handheld emulators. Expect to see video reviews on the Anbernic RG405V, PowKiddy RGB30 and Pimax Portal coming soon!

This past weekend saw MCM Comic Con return to the Excel Centre in London and the event provided the first opportunity for gamers in the UK to go hands on with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for the first time.

These games would have hit the spot just perfect a few weeks ago to give us time to enjoy them for the holiday. But I guess it is better late than never. Check out the new selection here!

More articles to follow the upcoming weeks!