Retro Re-release Roundup, week of May 14, 2026
Arcade Archives is Very Active!
Do note the one-day delay on the usual weekly ___ Archives schedule: this week's games have been delayed to coincide with the anniversary of Arcade Archives, which has now been running for twelve years. To think, it's been over a decade and still no Blood Warrior...
ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2
Mr. Do! (May 15)
- 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 / Universal
What's this? A terrain-tunneling maze action game, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Universal in 1982 and ported and cloned for a multitude of home platforms in its day, including Atari 2600, Colecovision, Apple II, Commodore 64, Super Nintendo and Game Boy, with emulated reissues via the Wii Virtual Console Arcade and an expansion pack for the Egret II Mini. The player is tasked with digging tunnels through each stage in order to collect the cherries arranged within, to flee from or pursue roaming enemies and/or to dodge the apples that will fall if pushed or dislodged into empty space; the player is equipped with a ball weapon that will bounce along the tunnels created by the player, and the player can clear a stage by either defeating all regular enemies, spawning and collecting all of the E-X-T-R-A scoring items or attaining the rare diamond item. (This reissue includes three different revisions of the original arcade game, including the extremely rare, possibly-not-formally-released "OLDEST" version that features a snowman-esque player-character in place of the more familiar clown character, different music and other changes.)
Why should I care? You're looking for a game that arguably bettered its obvious inspiration (Namco's Dig Dug) by way of a number of cleverly-interweaved gimmicks and scoring systems that let the player think on their feet and offer a multitude of avenues to reach big scores, rather than locking one into overly-strict routes as many games of its vintage were wont to do. You might also want to take it for a spin as a salute to its most famous and vociferous ambassador, the late Jeff Gerstmann of guard.bike fame.
Helpful tip: This is the first game from Universal's classic arcade catalog to reach Arcade Archives; in addition to the various sequels to Mr.Do!, their library includes a few other relatively well-known titles including Space Panic and Lady Bug and quite a few other lesser-known games, many of which are historically significant for being direct or indirect clones or imitations of competing games of the day.
CONSOLE ARCHIVES
Master of Monsters: Akatsuki no Kenja Tatsu (PlayStation; May 15)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 (worldwide)
- Price: $11.99 / €10.99 / £9.89
- Publisher: Hamster / SystemSoft / Toshiba EMI)
What's this? The 1997 PlayStation entry in SystemSoft's monster-summoning hex-grid strategy series Master of Monsters, which originated on Japanese computers in 1988 and was most known overseas by the Renovation-published Sega Genesis version; whereas earlier entries were primarily system-centric, this version sought to attract a broaded audience through the adoption of contemporary anime-style character designs and a fully-fledged story mode with event scenes between each map. (Do note that, despite the use of the localized subtitle Disciples of Gaia, this reissue only include the original Japanese version.)
Why should I care? You're willing to kludge your way through what's essentially fantasy Daisenryaku (itself a more involved precursor to Advance Wars, to make a reductive comparison) without being able to read any of the story that differentiates this version from other, more accessible options. (Just based on prior Console Archives releases, I would presume the menus and UI are translated in the front-end manual, at least, but I may very well be wrong.)
Useless fact: Master of Monsters is one of the series that has seen modern, ultra-low-budget entries in the modern era by successor studio and Nippon Ichi subsidiary SystemSoft Beta; the most recent entry hit Steam last year, and as with most of their releases, it has not been localized.
EGG CONSOLE
Meurtre d'un Clown / Doukeshi Satsujin Jiken (PC88)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $5.54 / ¥660
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Thinking Rabbit
What's this? The second game in Thinking Rabbit's "Disk Mystery" series of adventure games, originally developed for the PC-98 in 1985 and quickly ported to PC-88 (as seen here) and Sharp X1, with an enhanced Sharp X68000 version released in 1988 and a full remake developed and produced by Riverhillsoft for Sega Saturn, PlayStation and PC in 1997; set in southern England, players assume the role of a Scotland Yard detective as they investigate the murder by stabbing of a clown from a traveling circus, with interaction conducted by a command-input text parser.
Why should I care? you weren't aware that Sokoban creator Hiroyuki Imabayashi had more than one trick up his sleeve: he wrote quite a few adventure games in the mid-to-late '80s, and despite being a little behind the ball in their day — that is to say, being some of the last high-profile adoptees of the text-parser system, which was already seen as outmoded in favor of the command-selection system popularized by Yuji Horii's adventure oeuvre — the mysteries themselves drew great acclaim.
Language barrier? Yep: while the text parser does accept English noun/verb input in addition to kana, the bulk of the in-game text is written in Japanese.
NINTENDO SWITCH ONLINE EXPANSION PASS
May '26 update: Jack Bros., Space Invaders, V-Tetris, Vertical Force & Virtual Bowling, plus Virtual Fishing (Virtual Boy)
What're these? Six more games from Nintendo's promised cavalcade of Virtual Boy reissues, including a nominally Shin Megami Tensei-adjacent overhead maze game, dimensionally-enhanced reduxes of arcade-style staples and the Virtual Boy bowling game that isn't Nester's Funky Bowling. (For whatever reason, Virtual Fishing is exclusive to the Japanese NSO app, so you'll have to double-dip if you want to try that one.)
Why should I care? I mean, why buy the hundred-dollar Virtual Boy shell if not to play these games, irrespective of longevity or immediate quality? Vertical Force does have neat music, I'll give it that/
Useless fact: Jack Bros., of all games, was the first SMT game to ever get an official global release.
OTHER
Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype Definitive Edition
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $14.99 or equivalent (free upgrade from Switch version)
- Publisher: Sidequest Studios
What's this? A Switch port of the second and currently-final entry in Sidequest Studios' popular horizontal euroshmup series Soldner-X, originally developed and published for PlayStation 3 in 2010, with a port to PlayStation Vita in 2015 and a "definitive edition" port for PlayStation 4 in 2020; this version, now available on Switch, combines the game and its DLC expansion and offers retuned visual effects, rebalanced difficulty settings, a gallery mode and more.
Why should I care? I cannot claim to have much appreciation for, or understanding of, the appeal of the euroshmup, but I have been told that this sequel did at least attempt to steer its game design in the vague direction of "arcade-style" gameplay... now, the multi-hour all-clear videos I'm swiping past suggest otherwise, but y'all tell me.
Helpful tip: This port's also available in a "complete collection" bundle with the original, in case you missed that earlier, somewhat recent Switch port.
