Retro Re-release Roundup, week of June 19, 2025
Atlus revives a sub-sub series for Switch 2 and beyond.
"Remaster"? "Remake"? "Revamp"? I'm resigned to having to relive this debate every other week until the end of time.
ARCADE ARCHIVES
Strategy X
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Konami
What's this? A vertically-scrolling overhead tank shooting game, originally developed and released in Japanese arcades by Konami, with an international release distributed by Stern and little-played ports for Atari 2600 and Japanese feature phones, as well as a sole emulated reissue via the X360 Game Room service; players are tasked piloting a tank through vertically-oriented player-scrolled stages, which requires them to manually rotate their turret in order to precisely aim at foes or other shootable objects, while also navigating various annoying and/or lethal terran and replenishing their fuel reserves.
Why should I care? You want to play a game with a surprising degree of complexity from its era and one that arguably pioneered the independent aiming/shooting military game format often credited to Taito's Front Line, or you're just surprised to see a Konami game of this vintage that isn't, like, Frogger.
Helpful tip: This game was released during an era where arcade operators would cram their games into whichever cabinets they already owned using whichever controller panels were most easily available to them, which means that it was commonly played with all manner of different control schemes — unique justick-with-a-button-on panels; twin-stick setups, button-only panels, etc — with no clear indication of which one was official or intended, but this release seems to suggest that "two joysticks, one with a button on top" was the official control setup and offers an approximation of that setup as a controller config (after configs optimized for controller or standard arcade stick).
EGG CONSOLE
Tritorn (MSX)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $7.16/ ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Xainsoft
What's this? The MSX conversion of Xainsoft's "real-time role-playing", originally developed for the PC-8801 in 1985 and reissued on Switch via EGG Console in original form around this time last year; this game sees the player exploring a large flip-scrolled world and defeating enemies with real-time sword-swinging combat, with progression gated by experience, items and upgrades that can be acquired or discovered by solving the hidden and not-so-hidden puzzles present in many of the games' screens.
Why should I care? Aside from the the technical and audiovisual changes that typically accompany conversions of this vintage, this version's unique for offering altered boss behavior and a smattering of additional tougher enemies; now, many have said that the specific appeal of Tritorn was that the action component was significantly easier than that of its contemporaries and that raising the difficulty (and/or robbing the player of the ability to cheese most of the challenge) strips the game of much of its appeal, but the beauty of EGG's port-em-all approach is that they're giving you options. Maybe you just like PSG chiptunes, I don't know.
Language barrier? What little text is present is all in English.
G-MODE ARCHIVES+
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan), PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: ¥1100 (Switch) / $10.99 or equivalent (PC)
- Publisher: G-MODE / From Software
What's this? From Software second mobile-specific entry in their long-running mecha combat series Armored Core, originally developed and released for Japanese feature phones in 2005; unlike the original mobile game, which reinterpreted Armored Core combat in a top-down format, this game sought to replicate the fully-3D, third-person mecha action of the originals, with a focus on 1v1 arena battles and the series' signature mech customization.
Why should I care? You respect the chutzpah of the original developers for not only incorporating the bulk of the console version's actions and movement tech but also expecting the player to execute all of these commands on a friggin' keypad, and you want to experience just how utterly unequiiped the CPU opponents are against a human player who's now able to pilot their mech with a semi-sensible control scheme.
Helpful(?) tip: This game's very finnicky about saving and/or remembering your loadouts; to my knowledge, that's accurate emulation of what was always a somewhat buggy game.
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM
June '25 update: Deus Ex: The Conspiracy (PlayStation 2)
What's this? The lone console conversion of Ion Storm's highly influential and critically-acclaimed first-person cyberpunk "immersive sim" Deus Ex, originally released for PC in 2000 and ported to PlayStation 2 in 2002; this version sports conspicuously smaller and/or more segmented map designs and simplifications to several game systems including the inventory system and the damage models for characters, but boasts its own enhancements which include improved character animation and lighting and a controller-optimized interface. (Do note that this emulated version runs at a steady 60FPS, which is a significant improvement over the sometimes-30FPS seen on original hardware.)
Why should I care? While there's no pressing reason to specifically seek out the console port of this game, it's a perfectly adequate option in the event that one can't play on PC, and a game one should experience no matter the version: Deux Ex's commitment to offering layered reactions to the player's actions and not just accommodating but actively bolstering any and every decision is something many of its many pretenders continue to live up to, and JC Denton's disaffected patter is the stuff of legend.
Helpful tip: Non-subscribed folk can buy this standalone for $15 or so, but there doesn't seem to be an option for owners of the PS Classics PS3 version to redeem the new version.
OTHER
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: ¥1980
- Publisher: Mebius
What's this? The MSX2 version of the first part of an ambitious two-part multi-scenario RPG, developed and published by Riverhillsoft for PC-88 series computers in 1989 and ported to Pc-98, MSX and FM Towns soon thereafter, followed by separately-produced conversions for PC Engine CD, Mega CD and Super Famicom, as well as a recent reissue of the original PC-88 version via EGG console; this game not only set itself apart via unique systems like visually representing various stats as orbs rather than numbers and by having characters learn skills by carrying books and "training" as they walk, but also via the many famous collaborators involved in its production, including Saint Seiya's Shingo Araki and Michi Himeno on character design and illustration, the all-female rock back SHOW-YA on music and Last Armageddon creator Takeo Iijima handling story and game design. This Mebius-published reissue is being emulated via MSXPlayer, the official emulation option produced and provided by the current owners of the MSX brand, and offers a few enhancements including screen/wallpaper settings and save states.
Why should I care? The legacy of Burai has, in some circles, been reduced to "that one game that came on a thousand disks and had a half-hour intro", but it was hardly an exercise in overindulgence or sheer excess — you're getting a multitude of playable scenarios with characters that offer unique individual mechanical gimmicks and more than enough content to make one understand why they had to chop the game in two. (It should also be mentioned that the second part of this game was not released on PC-88, so if you're someone who tries to stay platform-consistent, you may want to specifically stick with MSX2 for this game.)
Helpful tip: This is the first reissue in an apparent series of MSX reissues for Switch, produced by Mebius; how they're picking and procuring the game and how frequently they intend to release them has yet to be clarified.
Cho Aniki: Bakuretsu Rantouhen
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: ¥4290
- Publisher: Edia / Extreme
What's this? The fighting game-esque 1v1 versus spinoff of Masaya's infamously silly ultra-macho shooting game series Cho Aniki, originally released on Super Famicom in 1995; this reissue was funded as a stretch goal for the recently-released Cho Aniki Collection and features Edia's usual suite of enhancements (save states, a manual gallery, etc) alongside screen borders that display character move lists. (This single game has also received a retail release, hence the price; I have to presume the eventual international version will be cheaper, but who knows.)
Why should I care? Cho Aniki's the epitome of "play it once with a pal and never again" games, so the versus fighting-esque format is perhaps the ideal way to experience the bulk of what this series has to offer.
Useless fact: For no particular reason, this game bears the exact same title as the Ranma 1/2 fighting game made by most of the same team (the one localized as Ranma 1/2 Hard Battle).
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $29.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Limited Run Games
What's this? An emulated collection of the PlayStation versions of the three games in Crystal Dynamic's '90s-ouroboros mascot platformer series Gex, last reissued as PS Classics for PlayStation 3 roughtly fifteen years ago; these versions run in Limited Run's Carbon Engine and offer the games in 16:9 widescreen with a resolution bump and newly-added true analog controls for Gex 2 & 3, alongside save and rewind functionality, basic screen settings and a media gallery including TV commercials and a new interview with Gex's US voice actor, comedian Dana Gould. (The collection was just patched to include the European PAL versions, should you prefer to play with the European voice actors, but do note that they haven't been optimized for 60Hz, so there will be some stutter.)
Why should I care? I'm someone who has historically defended Gex — when others dismissed the series as also-ran mascot games that were completely carried and/or killed by their incessant pop-culture references, I've put forward Gex 2 and 3 as the finest Mario 64 substitute for any PlayStation diehards who want a game in that specific model, and not the model put forth by Rare or Insomniac or whoever else. Now, is that still a necessary function, or one that stands up to scrutiny? Probably not, but this crap ain't Bubsy so iunno, live a little.
Helpful tip: As of right now, the Switch version of this collection isn't working on Switch 2, but a patch is said to be in the pipeline as of this writing.
RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $49.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Sega / Atlus
What's this? A new version of Atlus' mystery-centric 2006 action-RPG Shin Megami Tensei spin-spinoff Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, originally released for PlayStation 2. This version is being advertised as a "remaster" but boasts so many changes that one would classify to call it anything but a remake, with those changes including significantly remake or reworked visuals, including the complete replacement of pre-rendered 2D environments with fully-modeled 3D equivalents, all-new voice acting, a significantly different and more complex battle system that essentially replaces the original with that of the sequel, a completely reworked encounter system replacing random battles, heavily marked quests and objectives and many, many, many more alterations.
Why should I care? I have to imagine that anyone who disapproves of the changes made to this "remaster" is doing so out of a desire to see older games being authentically preserved, or as a push-back against catalog holders who feel they need to screw with their games every so often in order to recommodify them, or as a semantic argument about the misuse or overuse of unhelpful nomenclature, and not because they think they make the game less enjoyable — Raidou's mix of adventure game-esque detective work and action combat within the framework of turn-of-the-century-Japan-but-also-demons was always intriguing, and now a great many more people are going to be able to experience and appreciate all of those elements in harmony with each other, without the presence of one making them resent the others,
Helpful tip: As with all of Sega's Switch 2 games thus far, they're not offering an upgrade path from Switch to Switch 2: ya gotta buy one version and/or the other, so think before you spend.
