Retro Re-release Roundup, week of May 22, 2025
A relic of the survival-horror crossroads returns to the modern era.
Alright Capcom, if turn-of-the-millennium remasters are going to become a weekly occurrence, can you throw us a bone and at least have one of your people mouth the word "Maximo" in the general direction of a camera?
ARCADE ARCHIVES
Ryukyu
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Success
What's this? A poker-themed falling-block puzzle game, originally produced as a contest-winning entry for the LOGiN computer magazine and published by ASCII for various Japanese microcomputer versions, with this Success-developed arcade version developed for Sega's System-16 arcade hardware and distributed in Japanese arcades in 1990 and FACE-developed conversions released for Game Gear (released internationally as Solitaire Poker) and PC Engine that same year, not to mention an out-of-nowhere sequel released in Japanese arcades by Success just a few months ago; players are tasked with selecting and dropping playing cards into the 5x5 playfield in order to form as many horizontal, vertical and/or diagonal poker hands as possible, with point quotas for each stages and successive gimmicks including bonuses for lines assembled in specific areas of the well.
Why should I care? You're looking for something a lot less frantic than the typical falling-block arcade game, with a space-maximising process loop wholly different from the likes of Tetris.
Useless fact: The creator of this game went on to design and/or collaborate on several other puzzle games of note, including Nintendo's Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack, the cult arcade game Star Sweep and, more recently, the Threes-meets-city-builder hit SubaraCity.
EGG CONSOLE
Hydlide II (MSX2)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $7.16/ ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / T&E Soft
What's this? The MSX conversion of Tokuhiro Naito's reluctant sequel to his hit bump-combat action-RPG Hydlide, originally developed and published by T&E Soft for the PC-88 and other Japanese microcomputers and reissued in original PC-8801 form via EGG Console a year or so ago; this conversion received an unavoidable resolution downgrade but offers its own perks, which include PSG music/sound and a relatively smooth Zelda-esquie flip-scrolling transition between screens.
Why should I care? Hydlide II ratchets up everything a notch or two from the original: new systems like a basic character creator, a good/evil alignment system, magic and a more conventional equipment system were presented with axiomatic increases in the scope of the map and the complexity of the sub-events, ultimately resulting in even more inscrutable and arbitrary progression-blockers that are even harder to identify, but if you're playing micom RPGs in this day and age then I have to imagine you have a perverse itch for some degree of tedium.
Language barrier? Quite a lot of the game's text, including critical item/equipment nouns and stat indicators, as well as basic story text, are presented in English, but you'll still be confronted with simple Japanese text at points, particularly when interacting with storekeepers and other NPCs.
G-MODE ARCHIVES+
Psycho Mystery Series vol.8: Izanami no Hanamuko
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: $7.99 / ¥800
- Publisher: G-MODE / And Joy
What's this? The eight entry in Genki/And-Joy's Psycho Mystery series of paranormal mystery adventure games, which spanned roughly a dozen volumes, as well as radio dramas and e-books, from 2005 to 2007; Haruka received a letter from her childhood friend Yuki, who has married into a family said to be cursed and is now worried about the strange occurrences befalling her five-year-old son...
Why should I care? Until now, I've been at least vaguely aware of the public sentiment towards every volume of this series that G-MODE has reissued, but I couldn't tell ya anything about how this one was received or whether it meaningfully connects to prior or future volumes. Ask me if and when I ever clear out my galakei adventure game backlog, i guess.
Heavy-handed literary/historical reference? Back to the Kojiki for this episode, I believe.
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM
May '25 update: Battle Engine Aquila (PlayStation 2) plus Stalker: Shadow of the Zone trilogy (PS4/5) and Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (PS5)
What're these? For those on the premium tier: a reissue of a sci-fi FPS/tactical wargame hybrid, originally published by Infogrames for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2003, ported to PC in 2004 and reintroduced to Steam in 2020; for those on the standard tier: the recent remasters of GSC Game World's highly influential eastern-block post-fallout FPS survival trilogy, as well as the 2023 remake of the 2004 entry in the slow-life farming series formerly known as Harvest Moon.
Why should I care? I'm usually perplexed by Sony's habit of side-stepping every classic PS game anyone's ever wanted in favour of bottom-of-the-barrel cruft or forgettable IP games that nobody is asking for but, to their credit, Battle Engine Aquila looks to be a perfectly cromulent take on the underpopulated first-person/RTS sub-genre as codified by Battlezone, and one that at least a few of you might appreciate being thrust back into the spotlight, however briefly.
Useless fact: Aquila was borne from one of the many studios formed in the wake of Electronic Arts' acquisition of Bullfrog Productions and was, in small part, rooted in ideas for a potential successor to Black & White.
OTHER
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Battle Destiny Remastered
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $39.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Bandai-Namco
What's this? A high-definition remaster of Bandai-Namco and Artdink's PlayStation Vita action game Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Battle Destiny, a Japan-only release that coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Gundam SEED anime in 2012 and is now being revived to cash in on the success of the recent sequel film Gundam SEED Freedom; remastered by B.B.Studio, this version offers a first-ever localization and global release and a bevy of enhancements which include 4K resolution/uncapped framerate on PC (~900p/~30FPS on Switch), significantly improved textures and shaders, various tweaks to game difficulty and balance, multiple new control and camera options, a new tutorial, clearer indicators of branching paths during faction-related missions and much more.
Why should I care? For one, it's exceedingly uncommon for Bandai-Namco to reissue or remaster any of their old IP games, no matter how popular they may have been, so one might be inclined to celebrate the revival of each and every one of 'em on that point alone. As for the game itself, it's part of a long-running Artdink-developed handheld subseries that spans multiple PSP/Vita games (including a few Macross games that very conspicuously used the same system) and is predicated on a a voluminous mission-based structure with plenty of volume and grind to match, but this remaster seems to have made major changes to lessen the grind and other restrictions around unlocking new suits, which should hopefully make it more enjoyable in longer bursts. (Do note that this won't be an especially effective means of catching up on SEED Destiny's story, nor have they made any changes or additions related to Freedom.)
Helpful tip: Missing from this remaster: any of the original's multiplayer and/or connectivity features.
Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (May 23)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $29.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Capcom
What's this? A remaster of the second entry in Capcom's horror-tinged Japanese fantasy action series Onimusha, originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002; touched up by NeoBards, this version sports high-resolution textures and a real-time 16:9/4:3 toggle, quality-of-life features including skippable cutscenes, auto-saves and immediate access to several unlockables, a new one-hit-kill "hell mode", small changes to the combat system including quick weapon switching and more.
Why should I care? Onimusha 2 established the series' trend of swerving in directions players weren't necessarily hoping for, and this remaster doesn't attempt to "course-correct" or bring the game more in line with the original, so if you didn't like being jerked between multiple playable characters or being expected to manage a convoluted character relationship system that the game seems to struggle to accommodate, this remaster's not going to do a lot to sway your sentiments, but if you're an aficionado of sequels that swing wildly for the fences and very nearly achieve something amazing, this'll give you something to chew on.
Helpful tip: They've thrown in some OG Onimusha-themed unlocks for anyone with save data from the first remaster.
UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Legends of the Zone Trilogy: Enhanced Edition update (PS5+Pro, Xbox, PC)
Released for PS4, XB and Switch last year, these remasters now sport current-gen upgrades that include improved lighting and illumination, massively increased draw distance and environmental detail and a variety of performance settings targeting 30/40?60/120FPS. (One other change that some might deem controversial: the removal of Russian voice acting and other Russian/Soviet iconography.)
