I'm usually averse to mentioning GOG releases in these roundups, what with their repeated flirtations with transphobic "humor", but I'm making a quick exception in order to let people know about their out-of-nowhere re-up of Obsidian's secret-agent immersive shooter-RPG Alpha Protocol — not just because it's the true inheritor of the Deus Ex legacy, and a game whose ties to Sega mean it's unlikely to ever be revived in any meaningful way, but because it's been a quiet week and I gotta mention somethin',
ARCADE ARCHIVES
Surprise Attack
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Konami
What's this? A sci-fi side-view action game, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Konami in 1990 and never reissued until now; players control an agent on a mission to thwart a terrorist organization that has infiltrated a moon base, which they do by shooting 'em dead and disarming bombs across a variety of multi-planed stages, with the occasional upside-down zero-gravity section and incongrous quiz minigame thrown in for good measure.
Why should I care? Once Namco established a particular format with Rolling Thunder and Sega flipped it into a global hit with Shinobi, all the big arcade makers had to take a crack at this particular style of side-scrolling action game, and Konami acquit themselves pretty well with this one: it controls well, it's generally quite fair, the setting is a mix of self-aware pomposity and pure 007-in-space shlock and the music, composed in part by Gradius' Miki Higashino, is among some of the very best vintage Konam music you've probably never heard.
Useless fact: You might recognize the accdentally-patronizing U DID IT pop-up graphics from the emote selection of a few different retro streamers...
OTHER
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $59.99 or equivalent (trilogy)
- Publisher: THQ Nordic / Pieces Interactive
What's this? A "love letter" to Infogrames' formative 1992 survival horror game Alone in the Dark; developed by Magicka series studio Pieces Interactive and written by SOMA / Amnesia writer Mikael Hedberg, this version offers an extremely liberal reinterpretation of the original game (including characters from and nods to several of its direct sequels) that adopts a contemporary behind-the-shoulder format and a wide array of assist options to allow the player to sand the edges off exploration and puzzle-solving, which include a sub-objective system that'll introduce mini-quests intended to breadcrumb the player to the solution to puzzles rather than spelling them out.
Why should I care? AitD has suffered to many ill-fated and ill-conceived swerves and reboots that the dollar-store-Resident Evil 2 Remake direction taken with this version doesn't read as shameless or bandwagon-y so much as... sensible.
Helpful tip: Included with the deluxe verson, and as standalone paid DLC, is a classic costume pack that'll let you play the game with charmingly low-poly untextured models styled after the original game.