Retro Re-release Roundup, week of July 10, 2025

Hot Water Music out, Turnstile in... I see the vision, but that one hurts.

ARCADE ARCHIVES

Super Dimension Fortress Macross II

What's this? A horizontally-scrolling shooting game based on the Macross II: Lovers Again OVA, originally developed by NMK and distributed in arcades by Banpresto in 1993; controlling either Silvie Gena or Nexx Gilbert, players are challenged to shoot, bomb and occasionally transform their way through a user-selected course of fast-paced stages, with progression gated not by lives but a timer and score quota that requires the player to earn a certain number of points in order to clear a stage. (Unlike the first ACA Macross reissue, this one's getting a global release.)

Why should I care? While it's not an especially Macross-y Macross game, for better and worse, Macross II is not just a relatively easy and immediate horizontally-scrolling shooter borne in an era where most horizontal arcade shooters were anything but, it's also a very rare example of an arcade game structured and optimized entirely around the caravan-style score-attack format typically seen on consoles, and one that can very easily be enjoyed in quick sessions.

Useless fact: This game was developed in collaboration with the popular Japanese arcade game magazine Gamest, whose involvement is proudly advertised at multiple points in-game; there was some conjecture that Hamster would have to remove mentions of Gamest due to ownership queries surrounding the company name and logo, but it's present and accounted for with no particular accreditation.

EGG CONSOLE

Zanac EX (MSX2)

What's this? An enhanced version of Compile's company-defining vertically-scrolling shooting game Zanac, which originated on the standard MSX, was heavily arranged for Famicom Disk System and NES and converted for MSX2 across 1986; positioned as a sequel to the original MSX version, Zanac EX is essentially a back-port of the Nintendo version to MSX2, with near-identical content but certain visual and performance-related differences in accordance with the strengths and weakness of the MSX2.

Why should I care? Zanac might've been the NES' most popular original shooting game in its day, and it's a game that one might imagine is a staple of NES-heavy reissue lines like Nintendo Switch Online, but it's been absent from the global re-release library for almost two decades; that said, there are now three alternate versions of Zanac available on Switch that aren't the NES version, and of all of those, this is the one that most closely matches the NES version, albeit with some very obvious slowdown and flicker.

Language barrier? There's virtually no text in the game, and it's all in English.

OTHER

Griffin

What's this? A sci-fi overhead tank shooting game, originally developed and published by Telenet/RIOT for the Sega Game Gear and published exclusively in Japan in 1991; presented here by regular emulation house Ratalaika, this version offers rewind and fast-forward, save states, cheat options, music and art galleries and various screen filters (including a monochrome filter for any Game Boy junkies).

Why should I care? Griffin's sole claims to fame are its cheesecake between-stage images of the main pilot and its hefty aftermarket price, and now you can dodge one in order to experience the other.

Useless observation: Sega offered on-and-off emulated reissues of select games from their Game Gear catalog, and companies like M2 and D4 Enterprise have reissues Sega-adjacent games like Madou Monogatari and Aleste with Sega's cooperation, but I can't think of any other emulated Game Gear reissues from outside those circles offhand... would anyone care to correct me?

Patapon 1+2 Replay

What's this? A fresh remaster of Pyramid and Sony Japan Studio's rhythm-centric side-view real-time strategy games Patapon and Patapon 2, originally published for the PlayStation Portable in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and given emulation-based remasters for PlayStation 4 in 2017 and 2020; these new versions, published by Bandai-Namco and produced by Theatrhythm co-developer sAs, offer both games at a higher resolution with additional features such as difficulty selectors, the ability to toggle a permanent on-screen rhythm indicator and, perhaps most crucially, an option to manually calibrate visual latency in accordance with input timing. (The local multiplayer functionality from the original games is exclusive to the Switch version, and only functions via local multi-system play.)

Why should I care? Not only do these games offer an inventive and intuitive application of tappity-tap rhythm mechanics within a format that one would presume could not accomodate them, they encapsulate both a bold embrace of chic 2D design during an era when 2D was considered retrograde and the twilight of Sony Japan's willingness to finance and push all manner of original games. This particular release also stamps Sony's shifting position on their back catalog and bridging the platform divide: that is to say, they're allowing Namco to advocate their legacy for them, which is... bittersweet, I suppose.

Useless fact: Many of Patapon's original developers are currently working on a crowdfunded successor game titled Ratatan — the initially-stated early access release, originally scheduled for the end of this month, has been postponed, but you can still try the demo if you'd like.

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster

What's this? An enhanced port of Looking Glass Studio's cult sci-fi first-person immersive sim System Shock 2, originally developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios and published by Electronic Arts for PC and Mac in 1999; Nightdive's usual suite of resolution, aspect ratio and framerate bumps are in place, alongside with online co-op with crossplay, new and additional voice acting and expanded localization, new console-friendly controller configs and a large array of higher-res textures, alternate character and gun models and tweaked or added missions sourced from popular fan mods and elsewhere, among other changes. (This remaster actually dropped on PC a couple weeks back, out of sync with this week's console drop.)

Why should I care? Does "from the makers of Bioshock" mean anything to anybody anymore?

Helpful tip: I can't speak for the other console ports but the PlayStation 5 version seems, uh, troubled.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4

What's this? A remastered two-pack of the third and fourth mainline games in the venerated Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise, following 2020's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2. Produced by Iron Galaxy, this set of Unreal Engine remasters recreates all the original maps, with a few extra for good measure, with THPS4's campaign, which was originally more open-ended, now retrofitted into the classic timed 2-minute format of the classic trilogy; other additions and changes include several additional playable skaters (and the removal of most of the wackier and/or licensed bonus characters), expanded character and map editors, a new game+ mode, new tutorial functionality and more. (The deluxe edition adds Doom-themed music, decks, skins and more, including a playable Doom Slayer.)

Why should I care? I cannot speak to the concatenation of THPS4 present in this package but, speaking on the originals, I can say that the casual recollection of the THPS series as "1, 2 and whatever else came afterwards" has been extremely unfair to a lot of very good games, and anyone who might've dismissed or simply forgotten about these particular entries ought to give them a shot, not least of all because some of the little mechanical enhancements that served as the icing for the last remasters were introduced by these very games. THPS5 Remix next, perhaps?

Soundtrack report: In contrast with the first remasters, which retained the majority of the original tunes, this set only retains a small handful of songs from the original soundtracks, with most of the music replaced with either songs from contemporary artists or different songs from artists traditionally associated with the series. Tony Hawk was directly involved with curating the new soundtracks and allegedly advocated for picking deeper cuts from familiar artists, but you can also attribute many of the changes to the music industry's ever-shifting stance on song licensing (plus, y'know, budgets).