Retro Re-release Roundup, week of May 17, 2018

A relatively sedate update this week, but rest assured, there are plenty of heavy hitters scheduled for the next few weeks, particularly on Switch... trust me, when Legend of Kay HD drops you'll be glad you rested up.

ARCADE ARCHIVES NEO GEO

Baseball Stars Professional

What's this? One of the first titles for SNK's Neo Geo MVS arcade hardware and a followup to their popular Baseball Stars title for NES that trades the home game's detailed career mode for flashy arcade graphics and the de rigeur assortment of rival teams that lightly parody various pop-culture tropes and celebrities.

Why should I care? You don't feel like waiting around for Baseball Stars 2 and you can't stomach the moderate wackiness of 2020 Super Baseball.

Useless fact: Baseball Stars Professional marks the first appearance on Neo Geo for SNK voice actor (or more accurately, "the one native English speaker at the office") Michael Beard, a man whose distinctive tones would graze over a dozen other Neo Geo games across the years, both as an announcer and character actor.

OTHER

Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Super Burgertime 

What's this? One of the little-known, little-manufactured followups to Data East's oddball arcade hit, developed by Nichibutsu and released in 1990; this version retains the original's signature burger-assembling mechanic but adopts a format suspiciously similar to Taito's Bubble Bobble, with a variety of pop-chic stages, additional weapons, boss fights and two-player co-op.

Why should I care? You have time to kill and money to burn before Bubble Bobble shows up on Arcade Archives. (I'm starting to sense a theme to this week's update...)

Useless fact: Despite the massive success of the original Burgertime way back ni 1982, Super Burgertime's total worldwide arcade allotment is said to be less than 100 units.

SALES & MISCELLANEA

Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa 7" vinyl by Ship to Shore PhonoCo 

Ship to Shore PhonoCo.'s successful Konami Kukeiha Club Museum Series continues with its deepest cut yet, a vinyl run of the music from the Japan-only but heavily-bootlegged-everywhere, baby-trotting platformer Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa—specifically, the music from the Famicom Disk System version, which is a little fuller than the music you might recall from the "Baby Mario" game you rented that one time thirty years ago. (Full disclosure, should you demand it: Herr Jeremy contributed liner notes to this release.)

Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap 1st Anniversary Sale 

It's been a year, give or take, since the release of Lizardcube's superlative HD remaster of one of the Master System's marquee titles and in that time it's made several appearances in this column due to various retail reissues, but in the event that you still haven't got around to giving it a whirl, it's half-off for the next week on the platform of your choice (but not necessarily the region of your choice, so look sharp.)