Retro Re-release Roundup, week of April 25, 2019
Fire! Fire! Psycho Soldier!
Not a whole lot here this week, folks, but if today's morsels don't satiate you and you're feeling impatient, you can always grab Sega Ages Virtua Racing from the Japanese Switch eShop; it should officially reach us soon, but at the rate Sega's moving, it may end up being less of an Easter miracle and more of a Christmas gift.
ARCADE ARCHIVES
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / SNK
What's this? A followup of sorts to the popular arcade game Athena, released worldwide by SNK in 1987; this game stars the descendant of the original Athena, a 16-year-old would-be idol with psychic powers, and her pal Sie Kensou as they travel a post-apocalyptic world in an autoscrolling run-and-gun action game that bears an unmistakable resemblance to Capcom's Sonson.
Why should I care? Sonson was a simple game in need of a more fleshed-out sequel, and this is it: it's much prettier and the quasi-RPG item collecting element adds something resembling depth. Beyond that, Athena sings while you play! Ain't that precious?
Helpful tip: The Arcade Archives version of Psycho Soldier currently only contains the Japanese version of the game, but they've pledged to add the English version (with English vocals!) in a future update. (As has and will continue to be a running theme for the next little while, you can find both versions on the recently-released SNK 40th Anniversary Collection.)
HACKS & HOMEBREW
Super Mario Land DX colorization patch by Toruzz
- Format: .ips patch for Game Boy ROM
- Price: free!
- developer: toruzz
From the creator of last year's excellent Super Mario Land 2 DX colorization patch comes a color conversion of the original Super Mario Land, a Game Boy launch title that's been made over in commemoration of the Game Boy's 30th anniversary; in addition to the obvious addition of color, noticeable edits have been made to several character sprites, most notably Mario himself, in order to better accomodate the colorization process. We've all played this game to death, and now we have an excuse to take it for another spin, brief as it may be.
- Platform: Sega Mega Drive/Genesis (worldwide)
- Price: $39.99 (cartridge-only) / $49.99 (cartridge/case/manual)
- Publisher: Mega Cat Studios / mix256
Less than a year after running a modestly successful crowdfunding campaign, the breakneck surrealistic Mega Drive action-slasher Tanzer is now available as a bonafide cartridge, in either Genesis or PAL Mega Drive variants. If you're after a game that mixes the tonal whiplash of Strider with the aesthetic of Roger Dean and the unadorned rawness of a late-'80s console sidescroller, or you just want something new to play on your Mega SG, here it be.
SHHHHH
SHHHHH. (Context: SHHHHH.)
