Retro Re-release Roundup, week of June 5, 2025

Do new consoles need new games? Asking for approximately 150 million potential customers.

ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2

Ridge Racer

What's this? The first entry in Namco's groundbreaking and genre-defining 3D series Ridge Racer, originally distributed in arcades in 1993 and famously brought home as a launch title for the original Sony PlayStation in 1994; players can choose from one of three difficulty modes (and one of six background tunes) in a multi-racer challenge to complete the requisite amount of laps within in the time limit, or take on the time trial mode in a one-on-one duel against a rival racer. (This release includes the Japanese and international versions of both the standard arcade version, which used a wheel, accelerator, brake & sequential gear shifter, and the deluxe cabinet, which used a different wheel, accelerator, brake, clutch & 6-speed H-pattern gear shifter, and Hamster's thrown in detailed digital and analogue control configs that should map nicely to racing controller setups.)

"Arcade Archives 2"? In case you missed the news, Hamster's launched a successor line to their long-running Arcade Archives series for the latest consoles, dubbed Arcade Archives 2: these current-gen versions will offer exclusive features and settings that won't be available for the regular Arcade Archives releases, which include online multiplayer where applicable, time attack modes with online ranking, multiple save states, rewind functionality, variable refresh rate support, extended screen settings, saveable controller presets and more. Hamster intends to maintain both ACA and ACA2 for the immediate future, and players who own the ACA version of a given game will be able to "upgrade" to the ACA2 version at a significant discount. 

Why should I care? While this version doesn't offer much in the way of content — you're getting one-and-a-half tracks and a single driveable car, which some will note is even less content than the more familiar PS version —  I cannot imagine that one would struggle to enjoy what this version did and does offer, or to respect just how much this game pioneered; I mean, the drifting's not as refined as newer games, but that's because they basically did it before anyone! Y'know what else they did before basically everyone, too? Textured 3D objects! 

Useless fact: This reissue was not only timed to fulfil the Ridge Racer series' long tradition of launching alongside new home hardware but also to fall on a very portentious date: today is the 7th year, 6th month and 5 day of the Japanese Reiwa era, with 765 being a commonly-referenced number in Namco games and products due to the number-pun reading of na-mu-ko.

EGG CONSOLE

Mugen no Shinzou (PC-88)

What's this? The first entry in Xtalsoft's signature RPG series Mugen no Shinzou, originally released for PC-88 series computers in 1984 and ported to various other computers soon thereafter. The player controls a character who has died in battle and awoken in a purgatorial fantasy land, with the goal of collecting the mysterious "Mugen no Shinzou" within 30,000 in games in order to return to the world of the living; their quest is rendered via both overhead 2D and first-person indoor/dungeon sections, with a unique character upgrade system that involves both basic leveling and purchasing/training skills from townspeople, and features vaguely-automatic menu-based combat.

Why should I care? Mugen no Shinzou was perhaps the most ambitious of the big first-wave Japanese RPGs inasmuch as they kinda-sorta tried to do Ultima and Wizardry at the same time, and very nearly pulled it off; the strange looping overworld and semi-avoidable permadeath system are hostile in their own way, but the open-world quest design is shockingly accommodating for a game of this vintange, and it's all the more amazing when you consider that virtually the entire game was written in BASIC.

Language barrier? Certain nouns and commands are in English, but the bulk of the game's text is presented in katakana.

G-MODE ARCHIVES

mystia3

What's this? The third and final game in Mobile & Game Studio's series of traditional console-style RPGs, originally released for Japanese feature phones in 2006; set sixteen years before the events of the previous game, players guide the parents of one of mystia2's protagonists on the J-est of JRPG adventures, with a few mechanical upgrades over the previous game that include a new air/ground dynamic to battles.

Why should I care? The original intent with this series was to produce something as close in length and quality to a SNES-era JRPG as possible at a tiny price/data point, but two games and hundreds of thousands of downloads later, they were pretty much offering full-fat games, and for this one in particular they added a lot of completionist/post-game content to keep people occupied.

Useless fact: G-MODE got so sidetracked releasing voluminous detective mystery games that it's been roughly four years between the reissue of this game and the previous entry.

JALECOLLE FAMICOM VER.

The Last Ninja

What's this? An emulated reissue of the Jaleco-published NES conversion of System 3's European microcomputer sensation The Last Ninja 2, which originally hit Commodore 64 in 1989 and various other platforms including NES through 1990; in addition to JALECOlle's usual enhancements (save states, rewind, border options, speedrun mode, art/manual galleries and a "Subtitle Guide" that offers overlaid Japanese translations of the in-game text), this reissue includes visible item/weapon gadgets on the screen borders, quick-swap buttons for weapons and items and a "Ninja's Wisdom" feature that will automatically offer one hints on what to do or where to go after a certain amount of time has passed and no progress has been made.

Why should I care? This game is being promoted to Japanese players as an exemplar of classic western-style action/adventure game design: sprawling, confusing and often tedious, and occasionally demanding actions of the player that don't seem to function correctly or are otherwise unintuitive, but still intriguing in spite of everything, and I don't think that's an unfair evaluation. (It's also worth noting that this release is being promoted as a bonus "plus alpha" release from this line, given that it's not a Famicom game and all, which leaves the door open for future reissues of Jaleco-published NES exclusives, the big one being Shatterhand.)

Helpful tip: If you're specifically disinterested in playing the NES port, know that the original, authentic Last Ninja trilogy will be returning to Switch, PlayStation and PC sometime this year via a crowdfunded collection imaginatively titled The Last Ninja Collection+Bonus Games.

NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE EXPANSION PASS

Switch 2 launch update: F-ZERO GX, Soulcalibur II and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GameCube)

What're these? Three marquee games from the library of the Nintendo GameCube, the latest legacy addition to Nintendo's deluxe subscription service, and one exclusive to their new Switch 2 hardware: the Sega-developed swansong to the mainline F-ZERO series, the most popular version of what might remain the most beloved entry in Namco's 3D weapon-based fighting game series Soulcalibur, and the cel-shaded Zelda that once divided fans for reasons we need not relitigate. (Standard NSO GameCube emulator features include save states, button remapping and online multiplayer, and games will rendered at a higher resolution.)

Why should I care? Y'mean, aside from the simple reason that people have been waiting on some sort of digital GameCube library for at least a decade? Two of these games are undisputed classics that could make a legitimate claim for the thrones of their respective genres, even now, and the other has Tingle in it.

Helpful tip: Nintendo's also produced a new GameCube replica controller to coincide with the launch of the Switch 2, and in case you weren't aware, they have made some changes from the version they've been selling for a decade or so, which include improvements to the d-pad and the inclusion of a gyroscope.

OTHER

Sonic x Shadow Generations

What's this? A launch-day Switch 2 port of last year's remaster + expansion of the 2011 Sonic the Hedgehog anniversary title Sonic Generations, originally released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC; in addition to a slightly-beautified remaster of the original game, which reimagined classic stages from across Sonic's history in both side-scrolling and 3D "boost" format, this version of the game adds a new side story starring the ever-popular Shadow, which adds new stages and bosses not seen in the original game as well as mechanics and playfeel borrowed from the recent open-zone Sonic Frontiers.

Why should I care? That last Sonic movie made a billion dollars, and it's because they put Shadow in it. Don't pretend you don't get it.

Helpful tip: Sega hasn't offered any sort of upgrade path, free nor paid, for owners of the OG Switch version of this game, nor does it offer any new features or content beyond resolution/performance boosts (and I have no idea how they may or may not compare to whatever enhancements the OG Switch version might automatically receive when played on Switch 2).

Trizeal Remix

What's this? A port of one-person studio Triangle Service's second(ish) arcade shooting game Trizeal, originally developed for NAOMI arcade hardware and released in Japanese arcades in 2004, with ports to Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 the following year, a refactor for Xbox 360 as part of the Shooting Love 200X compilation in 2009 (released globally in 2015) and a PC port in 2016; this version's mostly identical to the PC/X360 version, save for a new director's commentary.

Why should I care? Trizeal itself is a perfectly enjoyable game with more than a few Raiden-isms and a just-slightly-higher-than-low-poly aesthetic that some will find charming, but its true legacy is that of the game that saved Triangle Service: thanks to the developer's widely-spread "SOS", which offered a self-deprecating but frank assessment of the state of their business, the health of their chosen genre and the dismal prospects of their then-upcoming Dreamcast port, they managed to amass a groundswell of support that allowed them to sell not one but two print runs of their Dreamcast port, bolstered the confidence of other shooting game and post-discontinuation Dreamcast devs and ultimately allowed Triangle Service to survive to this very day. (What will it take for them to finally make a brand-new game, I wonder...)

Helpful tip: While there are still a couple of minigame-esque stragglers, most of Triangle Service's post-Trizeal output is available on Switch via the Japan-only Ge-sen Love Plus Pengo! compilation (which, as the title suggests, includes a port of the 2010's era remake of the Sega-published arcade classic Pengo).

Yakuza 0: Director's Cut

What's this? The definitive-for-now version of the prequel entry in Sega's long-running Japanese crime drama zeries Yakuza / Like a Dragon, originally released for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in Japan in 2015, released globally for PS4 in 2017 and successively ported to PC and Xbox One; this director's cut version offers all the content of the most recent versions (and then some, with the global inclusion of some formerly Japan-only licensed tunes) and sprinkles in an assortment of new content including new additional cutscenes, English and Chinese-language dubs, support for multiple additional languages and a brand-new multiplayer-centric raid mode that promises over 60 playable characters.

Why should I care? After years of barely-modest sales and multiple localization near-misses, the original international release of Yakuza 0 was the one to change the series' fortunes in the west, and it wasn't by mere chance that this specific game managed to hit where others did not: it represents both the ideal onboarding point for Yakuza's signature protagonists and the most refined balance between the series' signature melodramatic crime drama stories and their unabashedly silly and occasionally bizarre subplots, with just enough side-activities to make one feel impressed and immersed in the world of Yokohama without having to bear the accumulated weight of twenty years' worth of minigames that Ryu ga Gotoku refuses to cut. In short, if you're a Nintendo diehard who hasn't been able to experience much of the series thus far, or you simply haven't made yourself acquainted until now, this is the game to start with, and if it hooks you, you can look forward to getting one or two more new ones every year until the heat death of the universe. (The new multiplayer mode looks kinda like Spikeout, so I can only presume it is impeccable.)

Helpful tip: This director's cut is a timed exclusive, so the rest of y'all will be given access to the new content in one form or another at a later date.

GAMES INSIDE A GAME

Street Fighter VI (Switch 2, PlayStation 5/4, Xbox Series X/S, PC) Game Center updates: NES games

As you may or may not be aware, Street Fighter VI's "Fight Club" lobby includes a virtual arcade where players can enjoy various Capcom arcade games, which both cycle in and out but can also be permanently acquired via the game's seasonal battle passes — a neat feature, to be sure, but these are all games that have recently been made available in multiple, more practical formats, so they're ultimately nothing to get too worked up about. This latest update, however, is worth noting: not only have they added a small handful of NES games to the arcade (Bionic Commando, Mega Man 3, Mighty Final Fight and Street Fighter 2010: The Final FIght), they've specifically chosen two games that haven't been digitally reissued in a decade (Mighty FF, SF2010) and a game that hasn't ever been digitally reissued, and was last seen on a little-played compilation for the Game Boy Advance (Bionic Commando). Put 'em on NSO or somethin', sheesh.