Retro Re-release Roundup, week of July 17, 2025
America's grizzled arcade survivor, commemorated on consoles and PC.
So, Incredible Technologies arcade emulation is on the menu, huh? Y'all know where I'm going with this, right?
ARCADE ARCHIVES
Super Basketball
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Konami
What's this? A vertically-oriented basketball game, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Konami in 1984 and reissued via the Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits compilation (as simply Basketball) for Nintendo DS in 2007; players are challenged to mount a succession of comebacks across one-minute games that begin with increasingly disadvantageous score counts in the opponents' favour.
Why should I care? You want to try a game that very obviously laid the foundation for Double Dribble, or you just want to see what passed for state-of-the-art basketball simulation in 1984.
Useless fact: This game was promited in Japan as the next evolution in the Konami sports series birthed by Hyper Olympic/track & Field, but it seems the line did not continue any further, and that a promised arcade hockey game in this same line never came to be.
G-MODE ARCHIVES
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: ¥1000
- Publisher: G-MODE / Studio Runba
What's this? A sequel to the popular short-session RPG Maou ga Ochiro Hi, originally developed by Studio Runba and released for Japanese feature phones via the Jaleco Garesso portal in 2008; as with the first game, the player is given one year to prepare and train for the fateful re-emergence of an all-powerful demon lord, and in that time they are challenged to acquire and select from a wide array of potential party members, fight hyper-condensed battles and trigger and negotiate numerous events in order to achieve one of many endings.
Why should I care? I cannot offer first-hand experience on how this game differs from the original — G-MODE claims it's bigger and better, and given how often that's tended to be the case with other galakei sequels, I don't doubt it — but I can say that the reissue of the original Maou ga Ochiru Ni was and remains a personal favourite of the G-MODE Archives series to date, and I think the super-compact format that's never more than thirty seconds away from a branch or ending is one that was not only well-suited to the phones of yesteryear but could just as easily be adopted by the games of today.
Useless fact: You might recognise Studio Runba by visuals, if not by name: they worked on some of the more visually-distinctive Jaleco phone adaptations, including City Connection Rocket and Momoko 1200%.
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM\
July '25 update: Twisted Metal 3 & Twisted Metal 4 (PlayStation)
What're these? Mainline entries #3 and #4 in Sony's once-popular vehicular combat series Twisted Metal, originally developed by 989 Studios for the Sony PlayStation in 1998 and 1999, respectively; I'm pretty sure Rob Zombie's "Dragula" is in one of 'em, but I couldn't tell ya which one.
Why should I care? See above, I guess. Look, mine was a Vigilante 8 family, okay?
Does anyone know... if that Twisted Metal streaming series is above-awful? I mean, I heard it's getting another season, which one might choose to interpret as a sign of popularity, if not quality, but I know better than to take a streaming platform at its word.
OTHER
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam (woldwide)
- Price: $29.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Atari
What's this? A collection of eight games from Incredible Technologies' long-running trackball-powered Golden Tee arcade golf series, spanning 1995 to 2001 and mostly exclusive to arcades, barring the occasional smartphone adaptation or dedicated plug-and-play unit; emulated here by Digital Eclipse, this collection presents all eight titles with virtual trackball controls that can be manipulated by a variety of inputs, including the Switch's touchscreen, the PlayStation controller's trackpad and mouse or trackball on PC, as well as a practice mode, a mulligan option to redo shots and more.
Which games are included? This collection includes Golden Tee 3D Golf (a de-branded version of Peter Jacobsen's Golden Tee 3D Golf, I presume), Golden Tee ’97, Golden Tee ’98, Golden Tee ’99, Golden Tee 2K and Golden Tee Classic, as well as the bowling game World Class Bowling and the shuffleboard game ShuffleShot.
Why should I care? Golden Tee is a series that has persevered over decades in North America and is quite possibly the last remaining bastion of successful, traditional arcade gaming coming from the US amusement industry. Now, as a non-North American who's spent maybe five minutes with one game one time, I cannot speak to their value beyond that of being a capital-I Institution, nor can I speak to the games' value as interactive experiences sans trackball or whether Digital Eclipse's control options are in any way satisfactory, but perhaps that's a verdict best determined by the residents of your local nursing home.
Helpful tip: there's a physical version teed up for October, in case you'd like to gift this collection to someone who hasn't caught up with the digital revolution.
PLUG & PLAY / "MINI" CONSOLES & ACCESSORIES
Egret II Mini Arcade Collection vol.1 & Arcade Memories vol1/2/3 + base unit reprints, on sale now
Defying all odds, Taito's Egret II Mini desktop plug-and-play arcade replica unit is not only more popular than ever (in Japan, at least) but has seen an obscene surge in aftermarket prices for the base unit and its various expansion modules and peripherals, hence why I'm mentioning these now and not when they officially launch later in the year — none of these products get huge print runs and the demand is at an historic high, so if you want the new expansion pack or need to grab any of the older ones, I'd advise doing so sooner rather than later. (The next expansion pack, announced hours ago, will offer five games apiece from the catalogs of Technos Japan and Data East: Mysterious Stones: Dr.Kick no Daibouken, Bogey Manor, Xain'd Sleena, Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun, Double Dragon, Chelnov, Dark Seal, Edward Randy, Wolf Fang and The Great Ragtime Show.)
