Retro Re-release Roundup, week of December 5, 2024

A little heads-up for anyone expecting to read up on Under Defeat, the City Connection-published port of the HD remaster of G.rev's cult NAOMI-based helicopter shooter Under Defeat: the international release was delayed into next year at the last second, and it seems the Japanese Switch/PlayStation versions no longer offer English text support, so many of you might just have to wait it out until the international publisher's ready... or, if you own an Xbox, you might consider grabbing the Japanese version there, as I believe they haven't bothered to remove multi-language support from that particular version. Publisher politics, huh...

ARCADE ARCHIVES

City Bomber

What's this? An aggressive vertically-scrolling overhead driving game with shooting game elements, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Konami in 1987, with its only other reissue being an Xbox Game Room release. Players control a thief on a getaway run from a casino they just robbed; in their rush to reach each checkpoint in the alloted time, the player can not only nudge other cars off the road but can also jump over obstacles, fire projectiles and make use of a variety of powerups in order to clear their path.

Why should I care? You want a game that splits the difference between Konami's own Road Fighter and other vehicular action games like Bump 'n Jump and Spy Hunter, or you're a sucker for the sound of Konami's SCC wavetable chip — yes, they bolted their MSX audi expansion hardware onto a few arcade games, and this was one of 'em.

Useless fact: The English flyers on this game claim that the player's taking on a criminal game, but the Japanese paraphernalia and what few in-game cinematics exist position the player as having robbed a casino (that they pointedly emphasise is a corrupt casino, which makes it all okay).

EGG CONSOLE

Riglas (PC-8801)

What's this? A fantasy action/adventure game with light RPG elements, developed and published by Enix contest beneficiaries Random House in 1985. The player-character May embarks on a quest to uncover the truth of a legendary secret that is prophesised to free their oppressed caste from subjugation; players are tasked with exploring and navigating the large world, talking to and deciphering the needs of the game's many friendly and not-so-friendly characters and engaging in very simple sword-based action combat.

Why should I care? While the combat is something one will merely tolerate rather than enjoy, the extreme openness of both the world and the potential approaches to the "quests" or "puzzles", which can include simply killing NPCs and taking their items, are interesting in a Takeshi's Challenge-played-straight kinda way, and the belt scroller-esue perspective is both novel and surprisingly well-execute for a game of this vintage, running to this spec.

Language barrier? Virtually all of the in-game text is delivered purely in hiragana, and while character dialogue is surprisingly voluminous and quite often attempts to provide relevant hints or clues, the terseness of each line ultimately renders a lot of their comments as rather vague.

G-MODE ARCHIVES+

Spica Adventure

What's this? A side-scrolling action game starring the umbrella-wearing space explorer Nico, originally developed and distributed on Japanese feature phones by Taito in 2003 and adapted for the Taito Type X arcade board in 2005 and the Nesica networked arcade hardware in 2011 (and, possibly, Switch and PlayStation in 202X); players trek through 32 stages across the planet Spica, with their trusty umbrella affording them a steadily-increasing suite of actions including melee attacks, blocking/deflecting projectiles, riding updrafts, floating across water and more.

Why should I care? It's not hard to see why this game was afforded a second shot in arcades: the very of-its-era pop art style is immediately appealing, the stages offer an ever-expanding array of gimmicks and one-off obstacles with an eye towards score attack and the multi-purpose umbrella feels like an extension of the Taito arcade legacy of versatile primary actions as typified by the likes of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands. It should also be noted that the arcade version was not 1:1 to the feature phone version in terms of level design or scope: this original version has more of an eye towards acquiring new moves and replaying stages to grab upgrades or other collectibles, as opposed to the straight action of the arcade version, so one game doesn't supersede the other.

Useless fact This is Taito's first G-MODE Archives+ offering, and Taito does have a good handful of interesting feature phone originals in the vault — almost every one of those games, including Spica Adventure, was spearheaded by Reisuke Ishida, who'd later go on to lead more modern Taito classics like the Groove Coaster series and Space Invaders Infinity Gene.

NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE

December '24 update: Donkey Kong Land 3 (Game Boy)

What're these? The Game Boy companion title to Donkey Kong Country 3, originally developed by Rare and published by Nintendo in North America and PAL territories in 1997, with a colorised Game Boy Color version released exclusively in Japan in 2000; where the first DK Land was a largely original game and the sequel a relatively faithful conversion, this one sits somewhere in between, offering an adherence to the themes and motifs of DKC3 but wholly unique level designs and a progression structure largely inherited from the previous game. (Naturally, the Japanese NSO app has the Japan-exclusive colorized version, so try that version for a little something different.)

Why should I care? This game essentially marries DKC2-style stage design with DKC3 aesthetic, and I imagine there are a lot of people who specifically want a version of DKC3 that plays less like DKC3. You might also be someone who grew up with DKC3's Game Boy Advance port and can therefore appreciate this game for retaining the original DKC3 tunes, chipified as they may be.

Useless fact: Nintendo's dropping all these DKC-adjacent games on NSO as a hype-building measure for the imminent Donkey Kong Country Returns remaster, and they have plenty more in the tank if they choose to continue: not only the three DKC conversions for Game Boy Advance, but also the oft-forgotten Game Boy Color port of the original DKC, as distinct from Donkey Kong Land.  

OTHER

Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic

What's this? The long-awaited Switch version of Chris Sawyer's classic amusement park construction sims Rollercoaster Tycoon, originally developed for PC in 1999 and 2002, respectively; this particular version is based on a smartphone/PC refresh from 2016, initially developed directly by Chris Sawyer, that essentally offers all the levels and content packs from the first two games running in a version of the RCT2 engine, with UI tweaks made to accomodate both touch and controller inputs

Why should I care? Forget any of the bad things you might've heard about Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic based on the previous versions: yes, there was a point where these ports weren't much to sniff at, but the current porting studio has been steadily improving on them for years, to the point where they've long offered a perfectly cromulent experience. As for whether this specific version is worth getting over the older smartphone/PC releases, which are regunlarly, if not permanently, priced much lower than this one, I couldn't tell ya, but I can say that Classic represents a far more engrossing and authentic RTC experience on Switch than the alternative, which is essentially a port of a simplified smartphone original with a name change.

Useless fact: Devoted fans have been petitoning Atari, Chris Sawyer and anyone else who'd listed about a Switch port of these gamese since before the Switch was even out.

The Escape Room Chronicles ep1: The Mysterious KumaDonalds

What's this? A remaster of the first 3DS eShop entry in D3 Publisher's SIMPLE Series escape room game series THE Misshitsu kara no Dasshutsu, which began life on DS in 2007 and ultimately spawned over 40 games across DS, DSiWare, 3DS, WiiWare, Wii U, PlayStation 3, feature phones, smartphones, Switch and now PC, including several that transcended the SIMPLE Series branding; in this particular entry, the player finds themselves locked inside a chain restaurant after-hours and must devise a way to escape... (Aside from adapting the game to a single screen and touching up some of the 2D assets, this is a fairly straight remaster.)

Why should I care? This series has a reputation for being strangely difficult but this particular entry's a little easier than most, and the KumaDonalds mascot ended up becoming a popular recurring character after this game, so I can see why they chose to lead with this particular entry. It's also worth noting that this is the first direct SIMPLE Series release for Steam, which potentially opens the floodgates for all sorts of oddball junk.

Helpful tip: There are three more remasters from this series scheduled to drop over the next few weeks, culminating in a Japan-only physical compilation due out in February.

LIMITED-EDITION PHYSICAL PRINT RUNS

Chouyoku Senki Estique (FC) / Changeable Guardian Estique (NES) cartridge orders from Broke Studio

First teased well over a year ago, the inaugural release from Cat Hui Trading is finally upon us: Changeable Guardian Estique, a flashy transforming-mecha shooting game for NES/Famicom that boasts a smorgasbord of flashy production tricks and contributions from an all-star assemblage of veteran developers across programming, game design, graphics and audio, including Jemini Hirono, PAC & Daigattai Kodama (ex-Compile), Shinichi Sakamoto (ex-Westone), Shinji Hosoe & Ayako Saso (SuperSweep, ex-Namco). The two versions are largely identical save for the cinematic sections and certain graphics, so grab whichever version you feel has the cuter cartridge, I suppose.

P-47 II MD (Sega Mega Drive) cartridge release by City Connection

Originally developed for the Sega Mega Drive by Jaleco in 1990 but shelved due to political reasons, this unannounced and unreleased consolized remix of NMK's hit arcade WWII shooter P-47 is finally leaving the vault, courtesy of Jaleco custodians City Connection. This release boasts new key art by famed model kit illustrator Tankro Kato and will be exclusive to cartridge for the foreseeable future.