Retro Re-release Roundup, week of December 18, 2025


 "Pre-anniversary?", you might ask? That's right: The Outfoxies is the 499th Arcade Archives release, and a precursor to game #500, which was teased to be something monumental... and revealed to be Space Invaders, so, y'know, not quite as exciting as the game that lets you murder a chimp in a top hat with a bowl of hot soup, but important to some, I guess.

ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2

The Outfoxies

What's this? A chaotic assassin-themed 1v1 side-view action game for one or two players, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Namco in 1995 and never reissued until now; players select from one of 7 bizarre assassins and attempt to terminate their opponent via any means necessary, which may include basic melee attacks, wielding any of the many weapons and objects littered around each stage or by exploiting or simply surviving any one of the game's dynamic stage hazards and gimmicks. (One particular perk of the Arcade Archives 2 version is the support for variable refresh rates, which helps to improve the smoothness of the game's rapid and extreme sprite scaling.)

Why should I care? Lemme run down the list: it's a little-played, basically-Japan-only game that was buried during the peak of the (conventional) fighting game boom; it's a game that fans had long speculated was off-limits for a reissue due to various content-related concerns about violence against children/animals, outdated Japanese terminology, etc; it's a game that's featured heavily in Arcade Archives requests lists for several years and, most crucially, it's a unique, forward-thinking and instantly-memorable game with fantastic character designs, a large handful of crazy setpieces influenced by all your favourite '80s/'90s Hollywood action flicks and offers a level of pandemonium to fighting-game-adjacent versus action that wouldn't been seen again until Super Smash Bros. (It's also not afraid to wide-zoom the playfield to the point of inscrutability at times, so wear your glasses for this one.)

Helpful tip: Do note that this game doesn't allow for mirror matches, making the already-lopsided character balance even more severe — put another way, you want to pick Betty Doe as quickly as possible.

ARTDINK GAME LOG

Taiyou no Shippo: Wild, Pure, Simple Life (Tail of the Sun)

What's this? A port of Artdink's peculiar prehistoric 3D action-adventure game Taiyou no Shippu, originally developed and published in Japan for the Sony PlayStation in 1996 and localized for North American audiences as Tail of the Sun by Sony in 1997; players are tasked with building a tower out of mammoth tusks in order to construct a tower tall enough to reach the "tail of the sun", which involves exploring a vast open world in search of animals to hunt, ingesting or sharing various dubious foodstuffs in order to enhance the attributes of your currently-piloted caveperson or develop the standing of your tribe, discovering all sorts of out-of-place artifacts and randomly falling asleep with no warning, with the player's actions and outcomes leading to one of several endings. (Do note that they're specifically only reissuing the Japanese original, not the localization.)

"Artdink Game Log"? Yes, Artdink's kicked off a new line of self-produced, self-published reissues of their back catalog; this is their debut release, and Aquanaut no Kyuujitsu (Aquanaut's Holiday) is already queued up for the near future. This particular game has some basic screen border options and a toggle between original and "remastered" (upscaled) visuals, as well as a save state and a scan of the original manual, and it seems like that'll be the standard feature set going forward. At this point in time, they've given no indication that they'll be localizing any of these releases.

Why should I care? Director Kazutoshi IIda's intent with this game was to make something that flew in contravention of the safer, more codified game design eithos being pushed by the likes of Mario 64 and instead hearkened back to the days of early Famicom and computer games that made no pretenses towards following an established game design vocabulary and instead engaged the player via their opaque sense of mystery... and indeed, this is a game that seems specifically engineered to appeal to those who enjoy the feeling of diving into the unknown, pressing the boundaries of a seemingly-endless world and trying to sniff out the logic behind the game's many underlying systems and mechanics, but there is a logic to it and more to enjoy beyond cheap surrealism.

Language barrier? Many of the crucial menu options are labeled in English; much of the explanatory in-game text, as well as the endings, are in Japanese, but one might question how helpful many of them are in actuality.

EGG CONSOLE

Yuureikun (MSX2)

What's this? A side-view action game starring a floating ghost, originally developed for MSX2 cartridges by System Sacom and published in 1989. Players control an amnesiac ghost on a quest to hell to question the Enmah Daioh on its identity; in addition to being able to freely, but slowly, float through each flip-scrolling horizontal stage or auto-scrolling vertical stage, the player can also attack enemies and bosses with a weaker boomerang-esque forward attack or a stamina-draining backwards-lunging butt slam that can also be used to shatter bricks, which might contain useful items, the money required to purchase said items or stairways to bonus rooms.

Why should I care? You're one of those people who attempts to get through Kirby games with as little time spent on-foot as possible, or you're someone looking for what might be the most explicitly console-esque action game reissued via EGG Console to date — in another timeline, you'd be seeing Yuureikun towards the top of every Master System best-of list. Props to the music, too: if you're a PSG-head, you're in for a treat.

Language barrier? There's a very small amount of story-related text presented in Japanese, but all the necessities are presented in plain English.

NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE EXPANSION PASS

December '25 update: Rayman 2: The Great Escape and Tonic Trouble (Nintendo 64)

What're these? The original version of Ubisoft Montpellier's acclaimed 3D successor to their hit platformer Rayman, originally published for Nintendo 64 and PC in 1999 and heavily ported from thereon after, alongside the Ubisoft Montreal platformer widely cited as the technical "test run" for Rayman 2 but ultimately released just weeks before Rayman 2 due to numerous lengthy delays.

Why should I care? Rayman 2 might've quietly been the strongest 3D platformer of its era that didn't have Nintendo's name on the box, and playing the N64 original might spare you from the endless A/B'ing necessary for determining precisely which of the later ports are optimal. As for Tonic Trouble, I could not tell you how much genuine overlap exists between this game and Rayman 2 in terms of design and technology, but I can say that the similarities are so numerous and so on-the-nose that any Rayman afficionado is going to want to try it out of sheer curiosity.

Helpful tip: For whatever reason, Nintendo has shown a chronic unwillingness to implement Controller Pak support within their N64 emulators — this omission occasionally affects NSO games in relatively minor ways, but Rayman 2's a game that required the Controller Pak in order for players to save their game, so if you want to save your progress on NSO, you'll need to remember to use save states.

PLAYSTATION PREMIUM

December '25 update: Soulcalibur III (PlayStation 2)

What's this? The fourth entry in Namco's era-leading weapon-based historical fantasy fighting game series, originally released exclusively for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and followed by an arcade-exclusive revision a year later; this particular entry introduced the popular characters Zasalamel, Tira and Setsuka and strengthened the series' ever-centric focus on single-player content, including the debut of the character creator feature.

Why should I care? Depending on your perspective, Soulcalibur III might represent one of two things — it's either the peak of the series' brief period as a AAA contender, offering top-class visuals and an expansive suite of varied and deep single-player content that future entries have never matched and few fighting games have ever attempted, or it's the nadir of the series' credibility as a legitimate competitive tool and marks the point where the series fully turned its gaze to the casual audience. To others, it might just be the game that nuked their memory card, and so this might be the opportunity to revisit it with the security that it won't ruin your entire life.

Standalone availability? You can buy this one without PS+ off the rip, for $10 or equivalent.

PLUG-AND-PLAY / "MINI" HARDWARE

Egret II Mini Arcade Collection Part 1 (¥9878)

What's this? The fourth SD card expansion pack for Taito's unkillable Egret II Mini tabletop plug-and-play arcade replica, originally released in 2022; following previous expansions, this package includes an instruction card set and a specially-produced zine with developer interviews and other materials, but the direction of the expansion differs a little inasmuch as it's specifically centered on games from two specific publishers: Technos and Data East.

Which games are included? This expansion includes five games from each participant: on the Technos side, it includes Mysterious Stones: Dr. Kick no Daibouken, Bogey Manor, Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (released globally as Renegade), Xain'd Sleena and Double Dragon, and on the Data East side, it offers Chelnov (released globally as Atomic Runner), Dark Seal (released globally as Gate of Doom), Cliffhanger: Edward Randy, Wolf Fang (released globally as Rohga) and The Great Ragtime Show (released globally as Boogie Wings).

Why should I care? You tell me: the demand for the Egret II Mini, which at multiple points looked to be a commercial failure, seemed to have skyrocketed over the last year or so, and it's not necessarily easy to pinpoint why. Whatever the case, this particular selection of games offers some connoisseur's picks from the catalogs of two publishers whose more obvious hits have been reissued ad nauseum, and you'll never get me to say a bad word about Chelnov.

Helpful tip: The release of this expansion was complemented by reprints of several previous sold-out Egret II Mini products, including a new violet variant of the main unit and "lite" games-only reprints of the previous three SD card expansion packs.

OTHER

Baroque Syndrome, Baroque Shooting & Baroque: Become a Meta-Being

What're these? Ports of three spinoff games connected to the cult first-person roguelike Baroque, originally developed for the Sega Saturn by Sting and published in Japan in 1998, with a PlayStation port released the following year and an eventual third-person remake produced for PlayStation 2 and Wii and published worldwide in 2008: specifically, the 2000 PlayStation visual novel prequel Baroque Syndrome, the 2000 PC shooting game Baroque Shooting and the 2022 Frogger-esque smartphone action game Baroque: Become a Meta-Being. These ports enhance the original games with new high-resolution UIs, art galleries and game-specific tweaks like additional save slots (Syndrome), wallpaper settings (Shooting) and alternate play modes (Meta-Being). Do note that Baroque Syndrome has not been translated from Japanese.

Why should I care? Sting clearly believes there is some small degree of interest for Baroque outside of Japan, and if buying one or all of these ancillary games is what it takes to get them to commit to bringing over the real deal then one may want to just bite the bullet. To be fair, Syndrome does largely maintain the spirit of the original, and the other games are at least competently-crafted genre works, even if their connection to Baroque is minimal at best.

Helpful tip: These ports were produced for a just-released Japanese Switch physical compilation titled Baroque-YA, which contains these three games plus the original Saturn version of Baroque, which Sting reissued on the Japanese eShop several years back; that reissue was realized by an emulation solution that, to my knowledge, is not something they're still able to tweak or otherwise work with, which makes a potential localization or international release somewhat tricky, but if the audience shows up for these spinoffs, who knows what might happen...

Ninja JaJaMaru-kun

What's this? An emulated reissue of the MSX version of Jaleco's big-in-Japan arcade-style action game Ninja JaJaMaru-kun, which originated on Famicom in 1985 and followed by numerous ports and sequels, including the Ninja JaJaMaru Collection of a few years ago and a feature on the Nintendo Switch Online NES app; you're basically just getting the game in the MSXPlayer emulator without a lot of fanfare.

Why should I care? You are particularly obsessive about comparing and constrasting the quality of mid-'80s action games across contemporary home platforms — this is about as straight a conversion as one could expect, so you've gotta go in with an eye for how the character sprites have changed to single colors or whatever, because that's as novel as it gets. (It doesn't hurt that the Famicom original's a rather choppy experience, so the jump to MSX doesn't really hurt the game the way it would most any other Famicom action game.)

Helpful tip: This release is both the first in an announced salvo of Jaleco MSX reissues from publisher Mebius, whose confirmed titles include the MSX versions of City Connection and Formation Z, and part of the just-commenced Ninja JaJaMaru-kun 40th-anniversary initiative which will include, among other things, some sort of brand-new survivor-esque game in 2026.

System Shock (remake)

What's this? Nintendo-system ports of the crowdfunded 2023 remake of Looking Glass Studios' original 1994 first-person cyberpunk immersive sim, System Shock; these versions maintain everything from previous versions of the remake, including later additions like a female player-character option and significant revisions to the final boss, and add some small hardware-specific additions like joycon mouse functionality on Switch 2. (The other console versions offered USB mouse support, so I'd like to think that's also present on OG Switch, but I couldn't tell ya for sure.)

Why should I care? After many years and many twists and turns, this remake bucked the odds by presenting a well-executed take on the original, with a retro-futuristic aesthetic that didn't completely erase the ambiance of the classic game and a surprising deference to the density of choices and player freedom offered by the original; where it sadly met expectations was by its litany of technical issues that were mostly, but not entirely, addressed after many updates, and while I couldn't tell you how the OG Switch version runs, the Switch 2 version's apparently something of a mess, so take from that what you will.

Upgrade path? Nope, so choose wisely.

Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Return Special Edition

What's this? An emulated reissue of the second and final game in Whoopee Camp's exploratory mission-based 2.5D action game series, Tomba, originally developed and published for Sony PlayStation in 1999; running on Limited Run Game's Carbon Engine emulation platform, this version (which specifically seems to be based on the Japanese version but with the English voices/script pasted over the top) offers their usual feature suite which includes save states, rewind and a gallery of high-resolution artwork, design documents, package scans and other ephemera.

Why should I care? The Tomba games remain unique in offering an exploratory side-scroller format that almost parallels the open-objective sandboxes seen in fully-3D contemporaries like Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie more than a Metroid or what have you, and Tomba 2's adoption of fully polygonal visuals allows for more adventurous and dramatic environments and vistas, helping to shake the on-rails feeling without actually eschewing the immediacy or feel of 2D gameplay. Now, this reissue is a mess in the way that so many Carbon Engine reissues have been in the past — generally poor audio and specifically poor implementation of new audio-related features like the English voices; in-game options and configs dummied out in favor of emulator implementations that fundamentally contradict the functionality of the game or simply do not function correctly; noticeable performance issues, etc — and is specifically problematic inasmuch as it only uses the Japanese music in-game and not the more familiar and very different soundtrack produced for the international release, but LRG has at least promised to patch in a soundtrack option, so perhaps they'll someday get around to fixing all the other issues, too.

Upgrade path? Nnnah.

Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku Revival

What's this? A remake of Starlight Marie & Mediaworks' 1997 friendship-building adventure game Yuukyuu Gensoukyoku, originally released for Sega Saturn in 1997, with a port to PlayStation produced a year after and several sequels and cross-media releases in the following few years; this remake has been produced by several of the original developers and features new character redesigns and illustrations by original character designer Moo, new and unreleased music including new opening and ending themes by Aki Hata, redone voice acting by the original cast and changes to the UI and conversation displays to show multiple character portraits at once and other changes that haven't been specified. Additionally, they're offering extra new and remade content as paid DLC, including a remake of the Ensemble fan disc, individual character themes taken from vocal song CDs and a brand new scenario/audio drama, which is free to download before the end of February.

Why should I care? Before the announcement of this remake a few months ago, I wouldn't have been able to answer you, but since looking into this game, I found that it's not quite the throwaway Tokimeki Memorial clone I imagined it to be: rather than dating specific characters, you're aiming to build trust and establish a rapport with an entire town as you work to pay off a debt, which not only presents in a more platonic way but also requires the player to build synergy and aptitude with other characters through assigning and completing menial jobs rather than simply pandering to their likes and dislikes, which seems a little less prone to guesswork than the usual romance sim affair. Then again, they might've made it a lot easier for the remake, iunno.

Useless fact: There's no obvious reason why Taito would choose to involve themselves with a remake of a relatively low-profile romance sim from 30 years ago, but it seems to be some sort of quid-pro-quo with the studio who produced the recent Time Gal Re;Birth, released in conjunction with the recent Taito laserdisc collection.

ROM HACKS & FAN TRANSLATIONS

Cookie's Bustle (PC) English translation patch

Grab this now, before some hyperfixated jackass dedicates the next several years of their life to erasing it from the internet.