Retro Re-release Roundup, week of November 20, 2025

I would be remiss if I didn't kick this off without acknowledging the release of Kirby Air Riders, the brand-new sequel to the inimitable GameCube racing toybox Kirby Air Ride — it's not a classic game, of course, but it is one of the only games out right now that's able to successfully maintain that classic knack for being an extremely simple game that somehow confounds even the most wizened of players. Not liking it is one thing, but not getting it is somethin' else.
 

ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2

Bomb Bee

What's this? The second game in Namco's trilogy of pinball-influenced brick-breakers, originally released in arcades in 1979 and last reissued as a hidden title in the second volume of the PlayStation Namco Museum compilation series; this game advances on its predecessor, the recently-reissued Gee Bee, by offering true color output, a revised board layout with new and more involved scoring gimmicks, which notably include a large bumper than can eventually be exploded, hence the "bomb" in the title. As with the recent Arcade Archives Gee Bee release, this reissue allows one to use a mouse to control the paddles, either via a USB mouse or via the Switch 2's joycon mouse functionality.

Why should I care? You're looking to play the most explicitly pinball-coded of these three games, or you were quickly stomped to death by the previous game and want to try the much less brutal do-over.

Useless fact: This game was the subject of Namco and Nintendo's first collaboration — Nintendo licensed a version of this game produced for their own arcade hardware, titled Bomb Bee N.

EGG CONSOLE

Xanadu (MSX)

What's this? The MSX conversion of Falcom's hit 1985 action-RPG Xanadu, released as the last of a string of ports of the PC-88 original to competing Japanese microcomputers; this version features visuals that have been redrawn to fit the more modest specs of the original MSX, several additional pieces of BGM, changes to the inventory system and several other player-friendly tweaks.

Why should I care? This particular port was produced a full two years after the original, and the level of thoughtfulness evident in both the design tweaks made to the game and the effort made to reproduce the game for a platform previously considered off-limits for a port are not just admirable but present a genuinely credible way to play the game (and one that arguably trumps the earlier MSX2 version at that). Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this version over either of the two versions already availably via EGG Console, but more options are always better.

Language barrier? Most everything is in simple English, but you might miss a text crawl or two.

G-MODE ARCHIVES+

Stella Deus: Renkinjutsu no Jikan

What's this? The second of two mobile-exclusive companion games to the Atlus-published PlayStation 2 fantasy strategy-RPG Stella Deus, originally distributed on Japanese feature phones in 2007; this game positions itself as an interquel set between the console game and the previous mobile entry and returns to the puzzle-esque Catacomb of Trials for an original story, expressed via the action-point-based game system of the mainline console game.

Why should I care? You played the previous game and are ready for much, much more — this version is explicitly intended as a high-difficulty experience for returning diehards, and the original games were already nothing to sneeze at.

Helpful tip: This one will be hitting Steam in a couple weeks, too.

OTHER

Cho Aniki Collection

What's this? The PC release of Edia's crowdfunded two-pack of emulated reissues of the first two games in Masaya's infamously unserious buff-dude shooting game series Cho Aniki, which originated on the PC Engine Super CD in the early '90s and have been sporadically reissued since, including a global release via the Wii Virtual Console; this collection includes the original Cho Aniki and its direct sequel, Ai Cho Aniki and offers basic subtitles where necessary, saves states, rewind, button configs, sound and visual galleries and more.

Why should I care? While I don't think this series' reputation as being all-joke, no-substance is undeserved, I will go to bat for the original game insomuch as it's a perfectly cromulent shooting game with a bizarre facade, and not merely a veneer for silliness, so this collection might be the place to both start and end your Cho Aniki journey.

Helpful tip: This isn't structured like other recent Edia PC releases, with a free launcher and individual purchases as DLC; you're buying this one as a two-pack, at the inflated price.

Outlaws + Handful of Missions Remaster

What's this? A remaster of Lucasarts' gunslinger FPS Outlaws and its expansion pack, originally released for PC in 1997; this Night Dive-powered remaster not only brings it to consoles for the first time but also boasts uncompressed, higher-resolution animated cutscenes, higher-resolution character sprites restored from original artwork, support for ultrawide resolutions and up to 4K/120FPS, a controller-friendly weapon wheel, a vault full of development materials, cross-platform online multiplayer and more.

Why should I care? Lucasarts' attempt to wring a little extra grease out of the Star Wars Dark Forces engine didn't really pay off in its day, solely for the fact that it didn't have Star Wars on the box, but the game's blending of animated cutscenes and not-quite-Duke 3D quasi-realistic western shootouts remains unique among both its contemporaries and the current crop of "boomer shooters" while also presenting as a more earnest genre parody, rather than vomiting stolen catchphrases in lieu of personality like so many other games of its ilk.

Helpful tip: As with the Star Wars Dark Forces remaster, Disney's not allowing any sort of upgrade or loyalty discount for owners of the originals on Steam.

R-Type Delta HD Boosted

What's this? A remaster of Irem's 1997 entry in the venerable R-TYPE shooting game series, originally developed and released exclusively for the Sony PlayStation and never reissued before now; developed by City Connection in collaboration with Irem, this version reconstructs the game in high definition and offers both a classic display mode and a widescreen HD mode with high-resolution textures created in collaboration with the original graphic designers, a locked 60FPS (as opposed to maintaining the original's occasional stretch of heavy slowdown), a practice mode and an optional arranged soundtrack produced by series alum USP, Masahiko Ishida and Chris Huelsbeck, among other features.

Why should I care? Shooting game afficionados have long considered R-Type Delta to not only be one of the more attractive and successful pixels-to-polygons transitional game of its era but an absolute top-tier entry in the series, rivaled only by the classic arcade original, so if you're looking to experience one of the exemplars of moody, methodical sci-fi shooting games for the first time or are just nostalgic for low-poly grime, this new version should hit the spot.

Helpful(?) tip: The removal of slowdown in shooting game ports is a contentious issue, not just due to certain customers' insistence on remaining faithful to a game's original performance but also because many games are consciously balanced around either unavoidable or deliberately-induced slowdown, but in this case, the original developers have stated that the original version's slowdown was unintentional and unwanted and that reproducing the game with zero slowdown is in accordance with their true vision of the game.

Tomb Raider (2013) Definitive Edition

What's this? The Nintendo debut of the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, originally developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square-Enix for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC and given a touch-up for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One the following year; these new ports, produced by Aspyr, include all the previous paid DLC as well as the online multiplayer mode, and seem to be rooted in a simplified version of the PS4 version's visuals, with resolution and framerate being the primary differentiator between the Switch and Switch 2 versions.

Why should I care? If you live your life within Nintendo's archipelago and want to experience the next-best thing to Sony's Uncharted series with a sprinkling of shlocky torture porn sprinkled on, this particular Tomb Raider reboot series will give you exactly that (and, in later games, they even got around to reintroducing tombs, but not this one). Now, the technical aspects of this port are, by early reports, extremely suspect, and the Switch 2 version isn't necessarily optimized for the new spec so much as a very basic up-port of the somewhat downgraded Switch version, so there's certainly work to be done in many respects, but Aspyr has a long history of never getting around to doing any of that work, so you might as well buy now if ever because it probably won't improve.

Switch 2 upgrade path? Nope, so choose wisely.

UPDATES & DLC

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC) free update

Capcom's traditionally used low-cost ports and collections to gauge and bolster old series in preparation for revivals or new games, but they've hit a roadblock with Ace Attorney inasmuch as they've basically re-released all of 'em without making it to any sort of endgame, so I suppose they have no choice but to resort to updating the existing ports with new features in order to buy more time for whatever they're cooking that's still not done. Whatever the case, this is a welcome update: not only does it include a music player that adds tracks from existing arrange albums and a selection of quality-of-life improvements including chapter select and a puzzle-free story mode, it also includes a custom scene creator and additional LATAM Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese localization options, which cover both language and voice.