Retro Re-release Roundup, week of November 28, 2019
Start your Black Friday with an Oreo Tangerine.
I'd like to state upfront that today's update does not bring a comprehensive list of game sales for Black Friday — in short, everything's on sale, all of it — but I would like to draw attention to the fact that the Sega 3D Classics are on sale again in North America and, to be frank, I imagine the window of relevance on the 3DS is just about shut for a lot of people, so maybe grab them while you can still bring yourself to do so (and while the eShop's still active).
ARCADE ARCHIVES
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Konami
What's this? The sequel to Konami's famous multi-event arcade athletics game Track & Field, released in 1984 to coincide with the Los Angeles Olympic Games; the original six events have been replaced by seven new ones: archery, long horse, pole vault, skeet shooting, swimming, triple jump and weightlifting.
Why should I care? The new set of events are marginally less reliant on mashing the run buttons really fast, and even the mash-heavy events are friendlier on the joints.
Useless fact: Konami announced a new Hyper Sports game for Switch at E3 of 2018, but it seems they and everyone else immediately forgot it existed because there's been nary an update since.
OTHER
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $4.99 /€4.99 / £4.49
- Publisher: Starfish-SD / Tommo
What's this? An out-of-nowhere port of a turn-based versus puzzle game originally released for NAOMI arcade hardware, Nintendo DS and PSP in the mid-'00s under a few different names, including Kameleon and Chameleon: To Dye For!; players take turns strategically changing the color of their tiles in order to claim over 50& of the board and thwart their opponent (almost invariably a busty anime lady) from doing the same.
Why should I care? I've never played this game with another player so I can't attest to its longevity, but if you have an itch to play the most made-in-2006 game in the world, this might just be it.
Useless fact: Chameleon;s game system is derived from a PC-98 game by Hot-B called The 7Colors, which was a conversion of an Infogrames Amiga/DOS title of the same name, which itself was an adaptation of a DOS game called Filler designed by the Russian programmer Dmitry Pashkov, back in the post-Tetris era where being Russian gave one a ton of unearned credibility. The PC-98 version has tunes by Hitoshi Sakimoto but I have a hunch this version doesn't,
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Masterpiece ~1995-2001~
- Platform: PlayStation 4 (Japan)
- Price: ¥4,950
- Publisher: Sega
What's this? A collection of the three arcade entries in Sega's cult all-terrain 3D mecha fighting game series: Cyber Troopers Virtual-On, Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram 5.66 and Virtual-On Force. These new ports are largely derived from the somewhat Japan-exclusive Xbox 360 remasters and feature widescreen HD visuals, customizable controls and online multiplayer, with the addition of a color edit function and new matchmaking and lobby tools including tournament and league modes, as well as support for a crowdfunded twin-stick controller that replicate the authentic arcade control scheme. (Unfortunately, whatever options for local multiplayer that existed in previous ports, be they LAN/system link support or split-screen, are not present here.)
Why should I care? For one, this is a franchise that has struggled to maintain an audience in Japan and consistently flopped overseas, so the odds of this collection being localised are slim to nil. Beyond that, Virtual-On pioneered a subgenre of frantic, evasion-focused and projectile-heavy fighting games that have been furthered, but arguably not superseded, by franchises as diverse as Bandai-Namco's Gundam Extreme Vs., Nintendo's ARMS, Square-Enix's Final Fantasy Dissidia and even Masahiro Sakurai's Kid Icarus Uprising, and this particular collection allows you to jump straight into the action without the content locks of other similar games (or even previous versions of these ones).
Helpful tip: The Virtual-On community has prepared an extensive guide for the most-played game in this collection, Oratorio Tangram, in preparation for an influx of new players, so if you're one of those new players or a lapsed player from long ago, give it a once-over.
LIMITED-PRINT PHYSICAL RUNS
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade & Console for PlayStation 4 and Switch by Strictly Limited Games
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (Europe)
- Price: €39.99 (Arcade) / €4.99 (Console) / €139.99 (collectors edition)
- Availability: almost sold out, ships early 2020
Given its somewhat hefty price and niche subject matter, one would have been forgiven for thinking Taito and M2's recent Darius Cozmic Collection was going to remain a Japanese exclusive, but not only is it coming overseas via German publisher Strictly Limited Games but it's also coming to PS4 as well as Switch. The initial Japanese release locked much of the content behind an expensive limited-edition release but the overseas version splits the content into "Arcade" and "Console" discs, which rather obviously contain either the arcade or console entries, respectively; you can also opt to buy the collector's set which includes both collections and a ton of extra items, including two arrange soundtracks, a series history book and a replica arcade board box. (The game lists for each collection are on their respective pages; no, they didn't add G-Darius.)
Fu'un Super Combo PS4 disc release by Limited Run Games
- Platform: PlayStation 4 (wordwide)
- Price: $29.99 (standard) / $59.99 (classic edition)
- Availability: 10AM & 6PM Pacific, November 29
Of all the PS2-on-PS4 games to reissue, this one's an odd choice — a Japanese two-pack featuring the obscure SNK Neogeo fighters Savage Reign and Kizuna Encounter, neither of which was emulated well and which suffer further by being emulated again on PS4 — but those old-school Fangamer shockboxes sure are neat. (Both games share the Fu'un moniker in Japan, hence the name.)
BLACK FRIDAY FLASHCART SALES
20% off Everdrive products from everdrive.me & giveaway
- ends December 1
Just as the headline says, Everdrive's offering all of their many flashcarts (including special xmas-themed variants of select carts) for 20% off, and retweeting this tweet will put you in the running to win an Everdrive 64 X7. (The manufacturer is also selling directly via Amazon, but as of this writing those discounts are not live.)
- ends 8PM December 1
Stone Age Gamer has discounts on hardware accessories of all sorts, including Everdrives for Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, SNES, Mega Drive, Turbografx-16, NES, Master System,Game Boy and Game Gear, as well as SD2SNES and the new Sega CD FGPA cartridge, the Mega SD. (Full catalog here.)
Terraonion Black Friday sale & raffle
- 17% off stock from from Friday 29th November GMT+1 to Monday 2nd December 23:59 GMT+1
Not only is Terraonion discounting their hotly-demanded Mega Drive, Turbografx/PC Engine and Neogeo flash carts, they're also running a Mega SD giveway, simply follow and retweet their Twitter account to be eligible.
