Retro Re-release Roundup, week of September 19, 2024
Capcom's premier zombie franchise rises from the dead.
Before we get into this week's roundup, here are a couple of games that don't quite fit the purview: Kamaitachi no Yoru x3, a port of the 2006 threequel-plus-digests from Chunsoft's renowned sound novel series, which remains untranslated but stands a not-remote chance of being localized in the medium-to-long-term future, and UFO50, an anthology of full-fat retro games by an all-star collective of developers behind such indie classics as Spelunky and Downwell — imagine Namco decided to drop five new Game Center CX games all at once and you'll have some idea of what's in store.
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Namco
What's this? A crime-fighting sidescrolling action game in the Rolling Thunder/Shinobi vein, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Taito in 1989 and reissued just once before now, via one of the expansion packs for the recent Egret II Mini plug-and-play replica arcade unit; one or two players set out on a cross-city mission to stomp out crime, which is primarily executed via a shoot-from-afar, punch-up-cloxe proximity attack system, as well as the occasional moment of third-person shooting.
Why should I care? You're looking for a game in this particular action subgenre that's a little easier than the typical names, or you just want to mainline some raw arcade shlock: there are ridiculous, awkwardly-translated cutscenes around every corner! You'll probably find yourself commando-rolling into the vast majority of enemies rather than actually fighting them! You can use your gun to write enter your name on the hgh score board in bulletholes! Revel as your character reacts to accidentally losiing a hostage in the same manner as spilling their coffee!
Useless fact: This game stars the player-characters from Taito's popular pursuit racing game Chase H.Q., sans facial hair.
EGG CONSOLE
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $6.49 / ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Arsys Software
What's this? A first-person action-RPG space opera, originally developed by Arsys Software in 1988 and ported to PC-98, Sharp X1 and Sharp X68000 soon thereafter, and later converted for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive in 1990; players are thrust into a galaxy-spanning quest to take on an invading force, which will see them talking to various characters in the cities that populate each planet, fighting enemies inside grounded bases or exploring space and engaging in dogfights with a full six degrees of movement, all rendered via 3D polygons
Why should I care? Star Cruiser was a breakout hit or programmer Kotori Yoshimura, who may be the first Japanese developer on record to produce a game using 3D polygons, and whose work would guide and influence other foundationally important 3D games in the intervening decades — sure, it's an astounding technical feat for a computer that often struggled to handle much simpler 2D games, but it's no mere showpiece; the goofy pulp characters are written with a lot of love, and the 3D allows ffor a tangible sense of grandeur that you weren't going to get from 2D. (I should also make mention of the fusion-esque music, composed by future Treasure alum Toshiya Yamanaka: EGG's audio emulation is a little goofy, resulting in the loss of certain audio channels, but they've already pledged to patch it ASAP.)
Language barrier? Many of the menus pertaining to equipment and ship customization are labeled in English, but most of the other text is in Japanese, and you're probably going to struggle to figure out where to go at points if you're not able to read the dialog.
NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE
September '24 update: Battletoads & Double Dragon, Big Run, Cosmo Gang The Puzzle & Kunio-kun no Dodgeball da yo Zennin Shuugou! (SNES/SFC) plus Angelique (SFC)
What're these? A trio of Super Famicom titles — the original Namco arcade puzzle game port that was originally reskinned for international release as Pac-Attack, a conversion of a Jaleco off-road arcade racing game and the Super Nintendo entry in the Kunio-kun sub-series known in the west as Super Dodge Ball — topped off by the decidedly non-Japanese Battletoads/Double Dragon crossover game. (Japan's NSO update swapped out Battletoads for the first game in Koei's popular and influential otome romance series, Angelique.)
Why should I care? Battletoads Double Dragon is a long-requested reissue that many presumed off-limits due to the multiple licenses involved, and while it isn't an especially reverent DD game, it does offer most of the tried-and-true Battletoads gimmicks with a fraction of the difficulty of the original, and I'm sure many will enjoy it for that reason alone. As for the import games... Kunio-kun's an ever-dependable sTechnos sports game (with more than a few untranslated menus to contend with), and Cosmo's worth playing if only to marvel at how it wasn't a Pac-Man game from the jump. If you're able to form any opinion at all about Big Run, know that you are without peer.
Useless fact: Battletoads Double Dragon originally appeared on Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, NES and Game Boy in addition to SNES, and the Genesis version's generally considered to be the best-playing version of the bunch, so it sure would've been nice to get that version, especially considering Nintendo hasn't updated the NSO Genesis app in well over a year...
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM
September '24 update: Mister Mosquito, SkyGunner (PlayStation 2) , Secret Agent Clank (PlayStation Portable)
What're these? A pair of early PlayStation 2 originals — a PS1 student project turned PS2 steampunk aerial combat game, and a flight action game centred on coverttly drinking blood from unsuspecting humans — as well as a PSP spinoff starring Ratchet's side-piece.
Why should I care? These two PS2 games function well as a pair: each one takes a complementary tack to the mechanics of six-degree flight and trying to balance the verisimilitude of their 3D vistas with the mechanical realities of lookin' at stuff, and it's not hard to imagine wither one making the jump to VR. I got nothin' on Clank, sorry.
Helpful tip: These games were released in tandem with PS Plus, but you can buy 'em all as standalones without being a subscriber, for the equivalent of $10 each.
OTHER
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $49.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Capcom
What's this? A remaster of the original entry in Capcom's long-game zombie-horde survival action game series Dead Rising, originally developed and released for the Xbox 360 in 2006 and ported to PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 a decade later; this RE Engine remaster augments the original game with redone and redesigned models for player-character Frank West and other key characters, new textures for environments and minor characters, modern lighting and other effects, complete (and completely redone) voice acting and enhancements to several of the game's more unforgiving elements, including a substantial reworking of the notoriously unreliable survivor AI, suspend saves and improved map for infinity mode, between-area autosaves, the ability to fast-fobOnerward time at save points and more.
Why should I care? Between the series' early reputation for being unforgiving and punitive, the directionless of later entries and a general over-promotion of capital-W Wackiness, I think Capcom managed to drive a lot of people to dismiss Dead Rising as an also-ran zombie series that limped on purely due to the will of former Capcom bigwig Keiji Inafune, or as something that was generally redundant in the face of Resident Evil, and it's for those reasons that I really hope people give the original game a try — this isn't a survival horror game minus the horror, or a musou by another name; it's a game about thoroughly learning the ins and outs of your environent, strategizing the quickest and most painless way from point A to point B and knowing how to adapt on the fly in order to simultaneously complete multiple tasks and achieve all the game's goals in a single run, like one big 12-hour Crazy Taxi game with zombie-pulverising instead of driving, and you won't find this experience anywhere else.
Helpful tip: Capcom's doing their physical-later thing again; the physical versions will be available in November.
LIMITED-EDITION PHYSICAL PRINT RUNS
Castlevania Dominus Collection (Switch, PS5, Xbox) physical versions from Limited Run Games (take 2)
- Price: $34.99 (standard) / $64.99 (classic) / $199.99 (ultimate)
- Availability: orders end October 13, 23:59 Eastern; ETA February
At the time of last week's roundup, LRG was still being coy about the full breadth of their Dominus Collection physical packages, so I feel I ought to double back with an update, for a few reasons: Jeremy drew the maps for the ultimate edition, for one, and I know some of you specifically wanted a classic edition with NES-style cover art, but I also just want to point out that JONATHAN!/CHARLOTTE! noisemaker keychain — I don't know that I'd pay $200 for it, but I will harbour some small amount of eny towards anyone who does.
