Retro Release Round-up, week of September 7, 2017

It's been eight long, grueling months but the drought is finally over: Hamster's delivered another Arcade Archives title to not-Japan with the long-anticipated release of Taito's triple-wide audiovisual showpiece, The Ninja Warriors  (and as always, you can count on a trickle of Turbografx-16 leftovers and Neo Geo oddities to bring up the rear).

ARCADE ARCHIVES

The Ninja Warriors

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What's this? An ultra-widescreen single-plane brawler starring Terminator-esque robotic ninjas on a mission to unseat an oppressive dictator, developed and released to arcades by Taito in 1987 using the same three-monitor hardware developed for Darius. Famous for, among other things, an incredibly catchy soundtrack by Zuntata alum Hisayoshi "OGR" Ogura.

Why should I care? The Arcade Archives release of The Ninja Warriors is the first emulated arcade re-release of the game and the first home version to allow players to experience the game at the original 864x224 resolution; despite the best efforts of all involved, none of the contemporary home ports were able to do the game justice untill now.

Useless fact: The Natsume-developed SNES game of the same name is not a port or conversion of the arcade game but a loose reimagining of the same concept in the vein of more modern brawlers like Final Fight — it's a fantastic game on its own merits but a poor representation of the arcade original and one that still divides fans to this day.

ARCADE ARCHIVES NEO GEO

Blue's Journey

What's this? A Mario-esque platformer game with light adventure elements, developed by Alpha Denshi and released during the early days of the Neo Geo.

Why should I care? Blue's Journey is one of the few launch-era Neo Geo games that wasn't tuned to steal your money, and you can play it co-operatively with a friend.

Useless fact: Poor ol' Blue will have his marriage proposal rejected if you don't beat the game with a high score, so no slacking off.

VIRTUAL CONSOLE

China Warrior (Turbografx-16)

What's this? A side-scrolling action game with impractically large sprites, developed by Hudson as an early showcase for the PC Engine's hardware capabilities.

Why should I care? NES games tended towards small sprites. China Warrior has big sprites. Buy a Turbografx today!

Useless fact: The sprites are, like, really big. Please, let me stop.

Detana!! Twinbee (PC Engine)

What's this? A port of Konami's cutesy arcade vertical shooter from 1991; this was the first true arcade followup to the original game and the first to feature the Ghibli-inspired visual stylings of popular illustrator Shuzilow.HA.

Why should I care? Twinbee was Konami's premier vertical shooter series during the golden age of shooting games and the PC Engine port of Detana!! Twinbee acquits itself quite well, despite some missing content. (It's also much, much easier than the notoriously brutal arcade version.)

Useless fact: "Detana" translates to "here it comes!"

SALES & MISCELLANEA

Capcom x Sega x Atlus Sale

Microsoft's multi-publisher promotion slashes the prices a multitude of retro-rereleases across Xbox One and Xbox 360, including recent XB1 legacy releases (Mega Man Legacy Collection, Disney Afternoon Collection), ports and remasters (Guardian Heroes HD, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, Crazy Taxi, Daytona USA, Sega Bass Fishing, Virtua Fighter 5), backwards-compatible legacy releases (the complete 17-game Capcom Arcade Cabinet bundle, Streets of Rage & Golden Axe Vintage Collections, Final Fight Double Impact, Street Fighter 3; Third Strike) and modern retro revivals (Strider, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2).

SNK Steam Sale

Just in case you don't own every one of these games five times over, here's an opportunity to grab several SNK titles on the cheap, including a bundle of Neo Geo classics and a couple HD repackages of fan-favorite Kings of Fighters games. (With regards to the technical quality of the re-releases, a quick rule of thumb: Code Mystics = okay, DotEmu = proceed with extreme caution.)