Retro Re-release Roundup, week of November 13, 2025

One extra tidbit concerning this week's Switch 2 release of Yakuza Kiwami 2: thanks to the playable games present in Club SEGA, Nintendo's finally, finally getting its first mainline Virtua Fighter series port, as well as the first version of anything Virtual-On whatsoever. Ain't that somethin'?
 

ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2

Galactic Warriors

What's this? A sci-fi themed 1v1 side-view action game, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Konami in 1985 and reissued for Microsoft's Game Room service for Xbox 360 in 2010; players control one of three selectable robot combatants seeking victory in an intergalactic fighting tournament, which can be attained by either defeating a menagerie of CPU-controlled opponents in single-player, or by defeating another human combatant via the versus mode.

Why should I care? You're a geek for the pre-Street Fighter II history of competitive action combat games, someone who enjoys devising exploits and loops in order to combat fighting game-esque CPU or just enjoy playing spot-the-copyright-enfringement at every turn. The femme bot character also sports chest missiles, if that's your thing.

Useless fact: This game's music, composed by Castlevania's primary composer Rie Terashima, belongs to the rather large handful of arcade tunes made famous by being surreptitiously "borrowed" by Japanese morning TV.

EGG CONSOLE

Crystal Chaser: Overlord's Orb of the Sky - Refined (PC-98)

What's this? An expanded version of Wolf Team's fantastical samurai-themed menu-driven adventure game Crystal Chaser: Tenkuu no Mashoukyuu, originally distributed by Brother and Takeru for PC-89 series computers in 1991; this particular version was acquired and expanded by a few of the original developers in 2023 and features additional and heavily revised chapters, additional characters, a gallery of skits/intermissions and more.

Why should I care? The writer of this game would go on to help shape the direction and tone of several of the Tales of... RPGs, and my impression is that Crystal Chaser was their first shot at writing in that sort of earnest, middle-school-y anime-drenched style, so this might give you a glimpse at the roots of that particular corner of the gaming world. If you've played many or any of Wolf Team's other games from this era, you might also enjoy the BGM, which liberally lifted tunes wholesale from other Wolf Team games with little to no alterations.

Language barrier? Absolutely, although it should be noticed that this revised version does include furigana alongside the kanji, which might bring it down a little.

OTHER

Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition

What's this? A10th-anniversary-ish update of sorts to the most recent mainline game in Bethesda's series of post-apocalyptic open-world RPGs. This "new" version amounts to a few different things: firstly, it's an update for existing versions that makes some modest technical fixes and adjustments, including ultrawide resolution support; secondly, it includes the full suite of six DLC expansions; and thirdly, it includes a bundle containing the vast majority of semi-official mod content released for the Creation Club service, which has been phased out alongside this release and replaced by the Verified Creator Program. (There's a Switch 2 version coming next year, too.)

Why should I care? i would advise proceeding with extreme caution: this new package was announced and explained in the most confusing manner possible, to the extent that one has to presume they were deliberately trying to trick people into rebuying content they already own, or overspending on an upgrade for things they may not want or need, and if you already own the very cheap GOTY bundle that's existed forever, this version has virtually nothing to offer. As for the base software upgrade, Bethesda has a reputation for drilling further holes into their already-leaky games with these anniversary updates, but I haven't and won't be trying it, so y'all tell me.

Helpful tip: One unambiguously positive addition is coming in a few weeks: the size limit for mods on Xbox will be raised to 100GB (from 2GB!) by the end of the month, and it may or may not see an increase on PlayStation as well.

Telenet Shooting Collection Launcher

What's this? A PC port of Edia's crowdfunded collection of shooting games from the catalog of the defunct late-'90s-to-mid-'90s publisher Telenet, which hit Switch some years back; this launcher offers basic emulated versions of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games Gaiares and Granada and the PC Engine CD games Avenger and Psychic Storm, sporting simple enhancements like a rewind option and button remapping, but differs from previous versions inasmuch as it's being distributed as a free launcher from which the player must purchase each game.

Why should I care? You want to sample some better-than-average Mega Drive games and some all-vibes, one-and-done PC Engine games for significantly less than they'd cost on Switch, and you're tolerant of the fact that this PC release makes it transparently clear that these packages barely go beyond dropping the games into a pre-existing emulator.

Useless fact: Upon the original Switch release of this collection, several former Telenet devs spoke publicly about their experiences working on these games, with Gaiares' main developer speaking on meeting American "pro gamer" and Gaiares media mascot Jamie Bunker and not being particularly impressed by his skillset...

Yakuza Kiwami & Yakuza Kiwami 2

What're these? Switch 2 ports of the Kiwami remakes of the first two games in Sega's melodramatic crime series Yakuza/Like a Dragon, originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and whose Kiwami are also nearing a decade old; these versions essentially conform to the content seen in the versions released for PC and other consoles, save for the addition of several additional language options (French, Italian, German, traditional and LATAM Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian).

Why should I care? You finally got on the Yakuza train with the Switch 2 launch title port of Yakuza 0 and want to clear the runway for the impending Kiwami 3, you want some sort of resolution, however slight, for some of the threads left hanging in Majima's Yakuza 0 story (revisited in Kiwami 2) or you just want to compare the performance of the old-gen 0/Kiwami engine and the newer Dragon Engine, as utilized by Kiwami 2, on Nintendo's new hardware. (The short answer: Kiwami 2 struggles a little, but mostly for the same reasons it struggles on every platform.)

Helpful tips: Firstly, Kiwami does actually offer an upgrade path from last year's OG Switch port; you can upgrade for $10 or equivalent, but only the digital version is eligible for the upgrade. Secondly, the additional languages and other changes (including Kiwami's licensed music, which was excised from other international versions but restored on Switch), as well as the Director's Cut version of Yakuza 0, will be coming to PS5 and Xbox early next month, with free updates planned for the existing PC versions.

UPDATES & DLC

Atari 50 (Switch, PS, Xbox, PC) "The Namco Legendary Pack" update ($7.99 or equivalent)

The updates for Atari and Digital Eclipse's 50th-anniversary Atari compilation keep on comin', with the latest expansion celebrating and profiling Atari's relationship with legdary Japanese arcade company Namco; if you grab this DLC, you'll be able to play the Atari 2600, 5200 and 800 versions of Pac-Man, Galaxian and Dig Dug, as well as the Atary 7800 versions of Dig Dug, Galaxian and Xevious and, for good measure, the US arcade versions of Xevious and Dig Dug, originally distributed in North America by Atari Inc. (Where's Pole Position, I wonder?)