Retro Re-release Roundup, week of February 7, 2019
Crackin' & Drakkhen.
Confession time, pals: many of games featured in today's update came out last week but went completely unnoticed by yours truly due to the simple fact that Steam's a busy, busy storefront that condemns countless games to virtual obscurity every day. Never fear, though: if you thought I'd let the spawn of Drakkhen languish unseen in the pits of Steam, then... okay, I was tempted.
ARCADE ARCHIVES NEOGEO
Puzzle Bobble 2 (Bust-A-Move Again)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Taito
What's this? The second of many, many Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move games from Taito, now featuring an expanded single-player campaign with Darius-style branching paths, plus a new vs. CPU mode; Puzzle Bobble 2 originally hit arcades in 1995 and was subsequently ported to every platform under the sun, with this Neo Geo conversion being released in 1999.
Why should I care? You're looking for a Neo Geo puzzle game that's a little more laid-back and a lot less moe than Magical Drop or Money Puzzle Exchanger.
Useless fact: The MVS version of Bust-A-Move Again contains all the cutesy Bubble Bobble trappings one would expect, unlike Taito's own F3 arcade version which scrubbed poor Bub & Bob and adopted a more neutral, vaguely sci-fi aesthetic.
OTHER
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $4.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Piko Interactive
What's this? The SNES-only sequel to the influential pseudo-3D RPG/adventure game Drakkhen, released in 1994; Drakkhen's fantasy prose and first-person overworld remain but many of the core systems have been completely replaced, most notably dungeon traversal, which now follows the format of a side-scrolling action-RPG as opposed to... whatever the hell Drakkhen did.
Why should I care? You remain intrigued by Drakkhen but won't hesitate to lose some of the weirdness for something a little more console-conventional — think of it as an extremely Euro-filtered take on Zelda II, if you will.
Useless fact: Dragon View's action leanings and console exclusivity are a consequence of the game being developed entirely by the Japanese studio Kemco, rather than the French team at Infocom that developed the original computer versions of Drakkhen.
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $5.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Piko Interactive / Legend Entertainment
What's this? A parodical fantasy adventure game, released on PC by interactive fiction stalwarts Legend Entertainment in 1993; the plot follows the adventures of an incompetent, in-over-his-head knight sent on a quest to rescue a princess and foil the succession plans of her evil stepmother.
Why should I care? Eric the Unready represents one of the more forgiving and immediate parser-based adventure games of its era and while the humor can be overly referential, it offers a credible interactive fiction counterpart to contemporaneous LucasArts fare like Monkey Island.
Useless fact: If you're the type of person who continues to be entertained by games that acknowlegde the entry of curse words then Eric the Unready might just be the game for you.
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $5.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Piko Interactive / Legend Entertainment
What's this? An FMV-packed sci-fi adventure game, developed and published on PC by Legend Entertainment in 1995; players are tasked with maintaining and exploring a Star Trek-esque spaceship by solving simple puzzles and occasionally playing simple and mostly-optional action minigames.
Why should I care? I'd not seen nor heard of this game until half an hour ago but I can safely say that if you enjoy grainy FMV of mid-'90s flat-shaded CG then you are going to have a field day with Mission Critical.
Useless fact: Much of the period coverage of Mission Critical seems to either massively emphasize the fact that Star Trek actor Michael Dorn has a part in the game, or warn against buying the game due to the fact that Michael Dorn's barely in it.
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $5.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Piko Interactive / Beam Software
What's this? A first-person point-and-click adventure game in the film noir mold, developed by Beam Software in conjunction with Vixen Films and released on PC in 1995; the game mixes still scenes and FMV in order to enact the real-time investigation of a missing-persons case that balloons into something much more.
Why should I care? You've been waiting your entire life for a Tex Murphy knock-off full of Australian actors doing terrible Maltese Falcon accents.
Useless fact: While the final product was eventually released only for PC, there are allegedly completed versions for both Mac and the Philips CD-i sitting in a vault somewhere.
SOFTWARE UPDATES
Atari Flashback Collection features and fixes
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
- Price: free update
- Publisher: Atari / Code Mystics
Y'know what, the image pretty much says it all.
SALES & MISCELLANEA
- Platform: Xbox One, Xbox 360 (worldwide)
- Price: free, but for how long?
- Publisher: Microsoft
Crackdown 3 is actually, finally coming out next week, believe it or not, and to remind you why you should give a damn, Microsoft's made the original city-cracking sandbox game free to download for a limited time — until Crackdown 3 is released, presumably — for both X360 and XB1. (In case you missed the memo, Crackdown's also one of a select few backwards-compatible titles with enhancements on Xbox One X, which include a resolution upscale to 4K, improved texture filtering and forced v-sync.)
Free shipping on Mondo Records vinyl
- Format: vinyl (worldwide)
- Price: free shipping until February 12
- Publisher: Mondo Tees
Just as the title says, Mondo's offering free worldwide shipping on all vinyl until February 12; where retro VGM is concerned, that includes the likes of Katamari Damacy, Portal, Streets of Rage 3 and a whole lotta arcade Sega, Contra and Castlevania records.
