Retro Re-release Roundup, week of April 23, 2026
Hayabusa's final NES outing makes a long-awaited return.
I wasn't quite sure how to classify one of this week's releases, so I'll just mention it here and leave it to y'all to decide: Kingdom's Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster, a hybrid action side-scroller/town-building game in the very broad Actraiser mold from Inti Creates, which is said to be a remake of a Japan-only social game from fifteen years ago but in actuality seems to be a completely different game assembled from pre-existing assets. Say what you want about Inti, they found their way off the licensed contractor treadmill and they'll do whatever it takes to stay off.
ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2
Street Smart
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X (worldwide, ACA2) / Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide, ACA)
- Price: $9.99 / €8.99 / £7.39 (ACA2), $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29 (ACA), $2.99 / €2.99 / £2.49 (ACA-to-ACA2 upgrade)
- Publisher: Hamster / SNK
What's this? A head-to-head brawler, originally developed and distributed in arcades by SNK in 1989, with a remixed adaptation produced for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1991 and multiple emulation-based reissues, including an appearance in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection; one or two players choose between controlling the gi-wearing Karateka or the wrestler Crusher and take on a succession of oppenents inside small, open-plane arenas, with the two-player mode focusing on co-operative play punctuated with versus "grudge matches" to determine who gets the end-of-stage bonus.
Why should I care? You have an interest in the genealogy of the pre-Street Fighter II fighting game, and you want to go hands-on with an early melee action game that very nearly offers what players today would consider to be combos.
Useless fact: SNK's later, more conventional fighting games have made references to Street Smart here and there, including reusing one of the tunes as Fatal Fury's versus BGM, and later games in particular used move names and other minor details to riff on the popular speculative theory that this game's Karateka was a young Takuma Sakazaki from Art of Fighting but, to my knowledge, the game's not officially connected to the broader canon of South Town.
ARTDINK GAME LOG
Aquanaut no Kyuujitsu (Aquanaut's Holiday)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $19.99 / ¥2420
- Publisher: Artdink
What's this? A first-person ocean exploration game, originally developed by Artdink and published by Sony for the original PlayStation in 1995 in Japan and 1996 elsewhere, with a minor revision released in Japan and a digital PS Classic reissue released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable in 2008; the player is given control of a submarine and left to their own devices to explore, catalog and otherwise observe the vast ocean as they see fit, with little in the manner of concrete goals or objectives. (Reminder: while these releases are distributed on international storefronts with English descriptions and localized titles, they only contain the Japanese versions of their respective games and are not localized.)
Why should I care? One could argue that this game represents the epitome of right-time, right-place: not only was it a critical darling that launched the profile of game designer Kazutoshi Iida and sparked a wave of popular discussion around the evolution and breadth of non-traditional gaming experiences, it also sold incredibly well, especially in Japan. Three decades and approximately eight zillion extra polygons later, the wow factor certaily isn't as present, but one might find some comfort in furnishing their digital library with a game that's omnipresent in every self-respecting physical collection, if for no other reason than being a bargain-bin staple.
Useless fact: It's probably obvious from five seconds of footage, but the AI abuse is strong with this remaster...
CONSOLE ARCHIVES
Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (NES/Famicom)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Koei-Tecmo
What's this? The final entry in Tecmo's era-defining Ninja Gaiden trilogy of NES games, originally developed and published in 1991, with a contemporary port to Atari Lynx, a conversion as part of the Super NES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy and emulated reissues for Wii and 3DS Virtual Console; set between the events of Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II, this entry maintains the snappy, precise platforming entry of its predecessors set amidst a scenario that's a little less magic fantasy and a little more biotech, with new mechanics that include overhead grappling and powerups that augment Ryu Hayabusa's standard sword attack.
Why should I care? While the slight shift away from always-push-forward design and the refreshed aesthetic might not be to everybody's preference, there are still very few sidescrollers of this vintage that can compare and, for a game and series as popular as this one, it hasn't been as readily available over the years as one might presume. It's also worth mentioning that this release lets you switch between the NES and Famicom versions, with the Famicom version being significantly less challenging — this was the original intended experience, as the developers wanted this game to be more forgiving than the preceding games, but as was the style at the time, they jacked the difficulty right back up again for the American market.
Useless fact: This game was not only designed and written but wholly directed by Masato Kato, a lead designer on the previous game who'd later see fame as a scenario writer for games like Chrono Trigger and Xenogears.
EGG CONSOLE
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $6.49 / ¥770
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Compile
What's this? A Dragon Quest-style RPG, originally developed by Compile and distributed in the 1989 spring issue of their Disk Station compilation for MSX; players control early Compile mascot Randar on a quest to save a kingdom from a demon via straight-down-the-line turn-based battles with random encounters, dungeon exploration and towns with shops.
Why should I care? You didn't know that blue creature from Zanac and/or The Guardian Legend had his own game, and you don't mind that it's more programming exercise than anything else.
Language barrier? Virtually all of the text is written in hiragana/katakana; to my recollection, there aren't any progression-critical quests, meaning you could probably kludge through the menus if you really wanted to, but don't quote me on that.
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM
April '26 update: Wild Arms 4 (PlayStation 2)
What's this? The fourth entry, and second PlayStation 2 entry, in Sony and Media Vision's vaugely Wild West-themed JRPG series Wild Arms, originally released across 2005/2006; this entry offered significant changes from the preceding entries, including a more contemporary anime vibe, a new hex-grid-based battle system, the introduction of platformer-esque side-scrolling sections and much more. (They've also released this game as a standalone purchase from the jump, for the equivalent of $10.)
Why should I care? Personally, I tapped out after 3, and all the diehards I know tend to complain about 4's very conspicuous compromises in terms of volume, structure and tempo that were apparently forced by a reduced schedule and never-released anime tie-in, but I have also been given the very charitable take that the game is, if nothing else, supremely well-paced, and I choose to believe this isn't a backhanded compliment.
Helpful tip: The original international release of this game inadvertently broke the player's ability to unlock all of the achievement-esque "Ex. File" rewards, but this reissue remedies that issue by unlocking the problem files from the beginning.
OTHER
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Studio Frontier
What's this? A single-player remake of the Japanese feature phone quasi-MMO RPG Mahou Gakuen Avilion, which launched in 2004 and, after many twists and turns, ceased operation in 2013; this remake, produced by several of the original developers for smartphones last year and now ported to Switch, has been rebalanced and remixed as a fully offline, single-player experience, offering new enhancements like larger storage capacity and the implementation of graphics cut from the original due to storage limitations, retuned character skills and growth rates and much more, as well as a wide selection of virtual player ghosts for rent in order to preserve some of the multiplayer feel of the original.
Why should I care? I cannot speak to this game's general integrity as an RPG nor a massively-multiplayer experience, or to the quality of this new solo interpretation, but I do know it's a title that holds a lot of nostalgia for a specific generation of Japanese phone gamers, and one whose developers have been through literal decades of neglect at the hands of the game owners and struggled mightily to do anything at all with their game, so I at least hope there are enough people who look back wistfully at these primordial network games to reward them for their perseverance.
Helpful tip: This remake currently only covers chapters 1 through 7 of the original game, with the addition of the subsequent 8 chapters being dependent on demand (or in other words, sales).
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $5.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Shinyuden / Ratalaika
What's this? An emulated reissue of Nihon Telenet's 1992 RPG Traysia, originally published for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive in 1992 and localized for Sega Genesis by Renovation; this game's presented with Ratalaika's usual suite of enhancements which include button configs, save states and rewind, various screen settings, a cheats menu and art/music/packaging gallleries.
Why should I care? Telenet put out a lot of stinkers in their day, particularly in the RPG space, but one could typically identify some ambitious but woefully underdeveloped concept, or a neat aesthetic conceit, or rationalize their other failings as obvious victims to time and budget — and on that note, Telenet owners Edia recently put out a compilation of RPGs that was explicitly promoted as offering interesting but flawed experiences. Traysia was not on that collection, because it's just plain uninteresting, but at least the parties involved know better than to charge any more than they're charging.
Useless fact: You wouldn't know it from looking at it, but this game features world and character designs by Mahiro Maeda, animator and designer on several Studio Ghibli classic, Neon Genesis Evangelion, The Animatrix and many, many more highly-acclaimed productions.
