Retro Re-release Roundup, week of July 11, 2024

If the glut of super-poppy games in this week's roundup aren't to your taste, make sure to at least click the trailer to Ancient Roman and I guarantee the taste of all that bubblegum will be washed away right quick.

ARCADE ARCHIVES

Tinkle Pit

What's this? An overhead fixed-screen action game produced to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Namco, originally developed and distributed in Japanese arcades by Namco in 1994 and never ported until now. One or two players are tasked with collecting various hidden items and clearing each maze of familiar and not-so-familiar enemies, which is achieved via the manipulation of their "tinker ball" weapon; holding down a button will place a ball on the spot and generate a tether that trails along behind the character, and letting go of the button will retract the ball along the line, taking out any enemies it touches along the way.

Why should I care? Tinkle Pit was a fairly obscure game even in Japan, where it was manufactured in very small quantities and almost completely relegated to Namco-owned arcades, but those who played it held it in high esteem as both a tribute to a simpler era of arcade gaming that already felt antiquated, a reasonably deep scoring game and a constant cavalcade of references to classic Namco games and characters.

Useless fact:  Ms.Pacman is one of the many cameo characters that can be made to appear under certain conditions, but she's been de-bowed for this reissue due to the external ownership of the character and Namco's subsequent campaign to erase the history of the company rather than pay a single cent to Atgames.

EGG CONSOLE

Popful Mail (PC-8801mkIISR)

What's this? A goofy, anime-esque side-scrolling action-RPG, originally developed and published for the PC-88 series of computers by Nihon Falcom in 1991, with ports produced for both the PC-98 computer and PC Engine CD console, followed by a SIMS-developed remake for the Sega CD (localized and published in North America by Working Designs) in 1994, as well as a Super Famicom remake developed by Falcom themselves. The player controls the brash and gullible elven bounty hunter Mail as she unwittingly finds herself embroiled in a plot to resurrect a trio of demon lords; on your adventure, you'll eventually be able to switch between Mail, the apprentice magician Tatt and the monster Gaw as you explore dungeons, defeat enemies bosses via Falcom's signature bump-combat system and converse with various townfolk, with different conversations depending on your selected player-character.

Why should I care? I expect most players are only familiar with the Sega CD version of Popful Mail and are subsequently disappointed that the version reissued by EGG is not that one, but I'd urge them to give the original a fair shake — not only would I posit that the original game's bump combat is more interesting and well-tuned than the console remakes' quasi-Monster World action, but this game was made as one of Falcom's very last PC-88 games and they pulled out all the stops to offer a premium experience for the hardware, and it really does come very close, both technically and design-wise, to a turn-of-the-'90s console action/adventure game.

Language barrier? The vast majority of the text is in Japanese, and while you may not find yourself progression-blocked if you can't read anything, the dialogue is most of the appeal.

NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE EXPANSION PASS

July '24 update: Densetsu no Starfy, Densetsu no Starfy 2 and Densetsu no Starfy 3 (Game Boy Advance)

What're these? The first three entries in the five-game Densetsu no Starfy series of lighthearted, low-intensity side-scrollers, which were originally conceived and developed by TOSE and published by Nintendo exclusively in Japan in the early '00s and are now making their global debut, completely untranslated.

Why should I care? You played the one game we did get back in the day (the fifth and final game, released on DS and localized as The Legendary Starfy) and you want to experience the origins of the series, or you just want to throw a bone to TOSE, the usually-anonymous contract studio that's really going through it at the moment —in their four-decades-and-change secretly making games for all of the world's biggest publishers, Starfy is the one series that's genuinely theirs, and you have to wonder whether this somewhat unglamorous NSO drop might be an interest check for a new game.

Useless fact: The third game features a not-insubstantial cameo by a fairly high-profile Nintendo character that I shan't spoil...

OTHER

Jigsaw World

What's this? A PC port of the first entry in a series of competitive jigsaw puzzle games, originally developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the Sony PlayStation in Japan in 1995; this new port presents the game in 16:9 with keyboard and mouse support and with filtered visuals, and remains completely untranslated.

Why should I care? You want to experience the first game Nippon Ichi developed and published under their own steam, and one they'd return to multiple times in the future... or perhaps you have fond memories of Pieces on SNES and would be happy to learn that it was developed by the team that later became Nippon Ichi, and that there are a whole bunch more Pieces-likes out there for you to discover.

Helpful tip: Nippon Ichi already has multiple PC ports of their early-era PlayStation games queued up for Steam, including Jigsaw Island, the Jigsaw World that was eventually localized (read: gutted) by XS Games in 2002 as Jigsaw Madness; all of these ports remain untranslated, and the language barrier may severely hamper the playability of the non-jigsaw games.

Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III

What's this? A mostly-fixed-screen action game promoted as the direct successor to Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, originally developed by Taito for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 in 1991 and subsequently ported to the NES, Game Boy, Amiga and Atari ST by Ocean Software in Europe. This Ratalaika-emulated reissue solely contains the TG16/PCE versions, prepared with all their usual enhancements (save states, rewind, cheats, control configs/tweaks and various filters and screen settings).

Why should I care? Most of Taito's console-exclusive games in this vein feel somewhat directionless or otherwise inferior to the power duo of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands, but Parasol Stars's multidirectional, multi-utility parasol gimmick and plethora of scoring tricks did offer a respectable stab at the versatility and depth of those arcade greats, so it's nice to see it reissued, especially in those parts of the world that didn't share Europe's infatuation with this particular game format.

Helpful tip: I cannot guarantee a reasonable delivery time, but if you're willing to roll the dice, Strictly Limited Games still has plenty of physical and collectors' copies of Parasol Stars up for order.

Princess Maker 2 Regeneration

What's this? A new updated version of the most popular and influential entry in Gainax's series of childrearing social sims, originally released for the NEC PC-98 computer in Japan and subsequently converted for PC Engine, 3D0, Sega Saturn and even DOS, with an English version produced but never formally released due to the collapse of its publisher. This new version is based on the 2004 remake Princess Maker 2 Revive (ported and localized for PC in 2016) and sports a new localization, new and redrawn event graphics, a new opening animation and other subtle and not-so-subtle tweaks.

Why should I care? Your respect for the lineage of Japanese relationship sims allows you to overlook some of the extremely dubious situations that might be presented to your "daughter". (The games before and after this one aren't nearly as questionable, for whatever that's worth.)

Useless fact: If you do choose to look further into this game, know that the vast majority of the discussion around this particular version is centered on the PS4 version's removal of the endings that allow the titular princess to marry her father figures.

ROM HACKS & HOMEBREW

Ancient Roman - Power of Dark Side (PlayStation) English patch by SnowyAria & co.

Already done with Dawntrail and want to play something that's almost as bad? SnowyAria & co. have you covered with their new translation patch of Ancient Roman, perhaps the most notoriously and bafflingly bad Japan-exclusive PlayStation games in existence — it's a game that blends pure technical incompetence with an utter lack of ambition, and you ought to try it purely as a show of gratitude to the hackers and translators for all the brain cells they burned while wrestling this game into submission, because lord knows it could not have been easy.

LIMITED-EDITION PHYSICAL PRINT RUNS

Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition (Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC) physical versions via Limited Run Games

Okay, I get that these boutique publishers dropped all their pretenses about game preservation and servicing underresourced devs many moons ago, but... Ubisoft? Really?