One word of advice to anyone thinking about cutting a deal to release Cooly Skunk outside of Japan: maybe think about proposing a change of title...

ARCADE ARCHIVES

Juno First

• Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
• Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
• Publisher: Hamster / Konami

What's this? A vertically-oriented fixed-screen shooting game, originally developed and distributed in Japanese arcades by Konami and globally by Gottlieb in 1983, with ports produced for the MSX, Commodore 64, Atari computers and IBM PC. Each task challenges the player to clear the screen of enemy waves; the player is equipped with both a shot and a limited-use evasive warp, 

Why should I care? You're looking for a game that splits the difference between Space Invaders and Defender, and you're someone who can stomach the combo of ship inertia and charmingly primitive but possibly disorienting faux-3D parallax.

Useless fact: 

EGG CONSOLE

Super Zenon Gamma 5

• Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
• Price: $6.49 / ¥880
• Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Kure Software Koubou

What's this? A mecha-themed, vertically-scrolling shooting game, originally developed by teacher-turned-dev Eiji Kure for a Dempa Shinbunsha programming contest and published commercially for PC-88 in 1986; players control the Gamma 5 robot on a mission to destroy an alien bomber set to destroy the earth, a process that involves finding and utilising a wide variety of projectile weapons and deciphering the conditions required to transition to and from the game's many stages.

Why should I care? Seeing what was essentially a hobbyist game going toe-to-toe on a technical level with the commercial arcade conversions of the day was noteworthy in its own right, and this particular style of overly-cryptic adventure/shooting hybrid was so short-lived that anyone who likes this particular sub-sub-genre probably understands that they're not spoilt for choice.

Language barrier? Virtually all of the small amount of in-game text is in simple English.

NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE

March '25 update: Donkey Kong & Mario's Picross (Game Boy)

What're these? Two games that should've been available from day one: Pax Sofnica's 1994 puzzle-action reimagining of Ninendo's arcade classic Donkey Kong, and the original entry in Nintendo and Jupiter's decades-running nonogram puzzle series, both of which were last reissued on the 3DS Virtual Console. (As per usual, these games dropped a day or so after last week's roundup, and I look forward to Nintendo dropping some more NSO games after this one.)

Why should I care? Picross is a format that ultimately transcends platform, and Donkey Kong's massive variety of stages, vastly expanded moveset for Mario and balance between puzzle-solving and brute-force athleticism not only directly informed the mechanical design of Mario games from then on but is still considered the high watermark of the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series spawned in its image. 

Useless fact: The Nintendo and Pax Sofnica folk behind Donkey Kong went on to make the all-original Game Boy overhead puzzle-action game Mole Mania, released in 1996/7 to absolutely no fanfare, and I can only presume it'll show up in the next NSO GB update because, for as obscure as it might be, they're running out of low-hanging fruit.

OTHER

Castle of Shikigami 3

• Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
• Price: $29.99 or equivalent 
• Publisher: Cosmo Machia

What's this? A port of the third and currently final mainline game in Alfa System's Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro series of character-centric vertically-scrolling danmaku shooting games; the game was originally released for Taito Type X hardware in 2006 and ported to PC later that year, with ports to both Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii the following year, with the Wii version localized and published in North America by Aksys Games. Produced by Cosmo Machia as the result of a successful crowdfunding campaign, this version is a fresh port directly based on the original arcade game with the primary purpose of making the entire trilogy available on PC; for a variety of reasons including licensing/rights issues, this version lacks most of the extra features and modes seen in the console ports, including the Aksys localization and dub, but certain modes are planned to be reinstated via future updates.

Why should I care? While the port itself is rather basic as of this writing, the game itself holds up: the game systems and character-specific gimmicks, both solo and in tandem, are as diverse as ever, and this sequel's new Hi-Tension Max system, reminiscen of the hyper system seen in various Cave games, adds an extra layer that makes the game more engaging across all levels of play, and maybe a little easier for newcomers, too. Now, iin terms of narrative, I could not begin to tell you what the game's about, but interested parties will certainly find all the dialog they could possibly want, translated to a standard that some might venture to describe as "adequate".

Useless fact: Cosmo Machia went and got clearance from Taito to fully reproduce two of the game's more referential characters: Reika Kirishima, an interpretation of sorts of the heroine from Taito's laserdisc game Time Gal, and Nagano Ise, a character who prominently sports a Bubble Bobble-branded backpack.

NEW CARTRIDGES FOR OLD GAMES

Cooly Skunk (Super Famicom) cartridge release from CROSSx (from March 15)

Completed by developer Ukiyotei in 1996 before ultimately being heavily retooled for the PlayStation and released globally as Punky Skunk, this unreleased Super Famicom action-platformer was miraculously recovered from a Satellaview "demo" in 2020 and, through twists and turns that include the rights to original publisher Visit being acquired by a Japanese Youtube personality, is now available for purchase on SFC-compatible cartridge. The game remains entirely in Japanese and the current storefront has gone back-and-forth about whether it will or won't sell globally but should you not want to gamble on an eventual official global release, you can grab a copy from March 15 while orders are available.

R.C. Pro-AM II (NES) and Battletoads & Double Dragon (Game Boy) cartridge runs from Limited Run Games & Retro-Bit

• Price: $44.99 (Battletoads), $59.99 (RC Pro-AM)
• Availability: orders close April 13, 23:59 Easters; ETA late October

RC Pro-AM, I forgot existed. Battledoads & Double Dragon on Game Boy, I volunteered to forget.

Sigma Star Saga DX (Game Boy Advance) cartridge run from Limited vRun Games

• Price: $49.99 (standard) / $99.99 (collectors edition)
• Availability: orders close April 6, 23:59 Eastern; ETA late November

This cartridge reissue of WayForward's Namco-published homage to the cult NES adventure/shooting mashup The Guardian Legend is noteworthy for three reasons: firstly, WayFoward's making several changes to alleviate the game's many design issues; secondly, LRG's cut some sort of deal with Bandai-Namco to make this release happen, which potentially bodes well for future Namco reissues; and lastly, it might suggest that the long-verdue Shantae GBA release is really, truly almost done.