Retro Re-release Roundup, week of August 27, 2026
Snakes, bees and dragons.
Lemme kick off this week's roundup with a heads-up on one of the spicier revival titles in recent memory: Super Real Mahjong Venus Returns, a brand-new, crowdfunded entry in SETA's classic horny arcade mahjong series, now in full 3D and with optional VR support; the developer insists they've been extremely diligent in ensuring the game won't fall afoul of Steam's increasingly aggressive and arbitrary policing of adult content, but one has to presume it's living on borrowed time...
ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2
SATAN OF SATURN
- 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 fixed-screen, sci-fi shooting game, originally developed and distributed in Japanese arcades by SNK in 1991, with an international release distributed by Taito under the name Zarzon; players move their ship left and right to shoot at the SATAN spaceships launched from the SATURN UFO, and cycle between a few difference sequences of defending the planet and taking the fight directly to SATURN on a new screen.
Why should I care? You might enjoy spotting the graphics and gimmicks that were both borrowed from and loaned to other early-era SNK arcade games, or you might also simply appreciate being made aware of the game title SATAN OF SATURN.
Useless fact: Hamster and/or SNK saw fit to edit the stage-clear jingle, which originally borrowed from the famous theme of a certain starfairing war film series, but their rendition of the French national anthem remains intact, presumable to its undeniable and inextricable ties to Satanism.
CONSOLE ARCHIVES
Bubble Bobble (NES/Famicom Disk System)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Taito
What's this? The most popular home conversion of Taito's classic, genre-defining fixed-screen action game Bubble Bobble, originally released in arcades in 1986 and converted for Famicom Disk System and NES, among many, many other platforms, from 1987 to 1990 depending on territory. One or two players control bubble-blowing dragons on a quest through a secret-filled, 100-screen lair in order to save their girlfriends from the evil Baron von Blubba, a task achieved by defeating all of the enemies on a given screen; the dragon's bubbles can be used both to trap enemies, which can then be defeated by being touched and will drop fruit-themed score items upon defeat, and to serve as temporary platforms that allow for greater traversal and secret-hunting. (This one dropped a day earlier than usual, to coincide with Bubble Bobble's 40th anniversary and the fictional birthday of ol' Bubblun.)
lWhy should I care? Bubble Bobble's a game that one could argue was better-suited for home play, due to its abundance of secrets, lengthy clear time and incentives towards co-op play, and is certainly a game that found great success across its many home conversions, with the Nintendo version in particular serving as one of the defining multiplayer games of the system, so it's not hard to imagine many people have been specifically holding out for this version. Now, would I recommend it over the Arcade Archives release of the authentic version? Probably not, but it's not an especially poorly-made or compromised conversion, so more casual players ought not sweat the different.
Helpful tips: Firstly, the brand-new Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons (which, in case you missed it, took the format of a single-player roguelite) just received a substantial "Boosted" revision that might potentially make it more palatable to traditional series fans; secondly, Sugar Dungeons comes bundled with the only commercially-available console/PC reissue of Bubble Symphony (specifically, an emulated version of the Saturn port); and thirdly, the Sega Mark III conversion Final Bubble Bobble, which famously features an expanded assortment of items and a second loop with 100 brand-new stages, is available for standalone purchase on the Japanese Switch eShop after years in limited-time Amazon Prime promo gimmick purgatory.
EGG CONSOLE (MAYBE)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $7.19 / ¥990
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Compile / Sega
What's this? A reissue of the PC-98 port of Compile's classic-in-Japan competitive falling-block puzzle game Puyo Puyo, originally developed for arcades in 1992 and ported or adapted for roughly eight thousand different platforms then and since; the most obvious difference between this port and others is that the character portraits, between-stage sprites and other assets were redrawn to take advantage of the PC-98's "high-resolution" 640x400 display mode. (You may recall that this exact release hit Switch almost a year ago to the day, only to be immediately pulled due to supposed issues concerning EGG's unauthorized inclusion of MS-DOS.)
Why should I care? You don't already own the Sega Ages reissue of the authentic arcade version, or have access to the Japanese Mega Drive version, or the Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Genesis reskin, or the Kirby's Avalance SNES reskin — all of which are available via Nintendo Switch Online — or the EGG Console reissue of the original MSX2 version, or even the Game Gear version of Mean Bean tucked away in Sonic Origins Plus, or maybe you just want the version with the secret drunk Arle ending.
Language barrier? Virtually all of the text is in Japanese; much of the text is non-critical character dialog, but the menus themselves are listed in Japanese and the hints/commands presented in the puzzle-centric exercise mode are something one would want to be able to read.
TOAPLAN ARCADE GARAGE
Flying Fire Shark!!! (August 29)
- Platform: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch (worldwide.
- Price: 434.99 or equivalent (standard), $19.99 or equivalent (DLC)
- Publisher: M2 / Clear River Games
Which games are included? The base digital collection includes Hishouzame and its international variants, Flying Shark and Sky Shark, as well as the sequel Same!Same!Same!, the rare 2P variant and the international version Fire Shark. An optional DLC pack, included as part of the physical version, adds the NES version of Sky Shark, the Mega Drive and Genesis versions of Same!Same!Same! / Fire Shark and, for no particular reason, the Japanese, North American and European versions of Toaplan's action-platformer Wardner no Mori / Pyros, as well as the Famicom Disk System conversion. Additionally, as with every existing and upcoming Toaplan Arcade Garage release, owning this collection grants you a free digital version of Toaplan's falling-block puzzle game Teki Paki. (Most of the additional features like the on-screen gadgets, challenge mode and super-easy arrange are exclusive to Hishouzame, Same!Same!Same! and Teki Paki, and the additional games and region variants are presented far more simply.)
Why should I care? While consoler-goers might have gravitated towards certain other titles, these two games represent Toaplan's shooting game zenith in the arcade space, both financially, design-wise and in terms of being directly inflential on a great many other series, some of which went on to even further success (Raiden!), and this collection both presents them in a more accurate light than other comparable Toaplan collections and equips them with the tools and information required to truly master them (and in the case of the notoriously brutal Same!Same!Same!, you'll need all the help you can get).
Helpful tip: According to the original developers, the Genesis/Mega Drive conversion of Same!Same!Same! more accurately reflects their intended level of challenge, so people might want to start with that version, or just simply compare and contrast in order to envisage a world where the average player might've been able to see past the third stage in arcades.
OTHER
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $19.99 / €19.99 / £17.99
- Publisher: ININ / Apidya
What're these? A remake of the insect-themed horizontally scrolling shooting game Apidya, originally developed by German studio Kaiko and published by Blue Byte subsidiary Play Byte for the Commodore Amiga in 1992; this version was produced by veteran Apidya superfan Stefan Becker in collaboration with several of the original developers and draws numerous elements from the unreleased Super Nintendo adaptation, with both classic 4:3 and modern widescreen modes with touched-up "24-bit" visuals, studio-recorded music arranges by original composer Chris Huelsbeck, a fully-fledge local two-player mode, various difficulty settings and options, faux-CRT visual effects and more.
Why should I care? You respect the fact that not every shooting game made by European developers for a popular-in-Europe computer was a "euroshmup" — Apidya was originally developed in the classic arcade format by a team that damn near tried to trick people into thinking they were Japanese, and whether or not you might feel it lives up to the design pedigree of R-Type, Gradius or the other games it's mimicking, one should at least recognize that it wasn't for lack of trying. (You might also need to be willing to accept claims that they didn't use generative AI for their new character illustrations/demos in good faith...)
Helpful(?) tip: TheNorth American Switch listing seems to have been pulled for some reason, and I couldn't hazard a guess as to why, but I presume it won't be too long until it's back up.
DoDonPachi Resurrection Reignite
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $24.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Cave
What's this? A brand-new revision of the fourth mainline game in Cave's venerated danmaku shooting game series DoDonPachi, originally released in arcades in 2008 and variously revised in arcades and via ports and conversions to Xbox 360, smartphones, PC and mostly recently via a now-delisted Nintendo Switch port; this version was produced in-house by Cave and offers a new final stage, a new character and updated character art by designer Kouji Ogata, newly-arranged BGM by Bemani collaborator Ryu☆, various assist features, a 10-player online battle royale multiplayer mode and more.
Why should I care? The prospect of Cave returning to hands-on home shooting game development, even if only via a revision, is an exciting one, and the royale multiplayer mode is an interesting addition and one that's refreshingly forward-thinking given this genre's usual rigidity. Unfortunately, the additions made for this revision come at the expense of the substantial assortment of extras and features present in the existing PC port and other versions — which include the Black Label version and other revisions, additional arrange modes, a training mode and more — and so it's hard to recommend this version as anything but an indulgent side-dish to the prior home ports, but if you ever want to experience the royale mode with another human being, it's probably now or never.
Useless fact: Tsuneki "IKD" Ikeda, a Cave co-founder who programmed and designed a large bulk of Cave's shooting games and forever steered the trajectory of the genre towards bullet hell, recently retired from the company at short notice; there are certainly other very capable veterans at the company, but as management pivots towards generative AI and other inglorious pursuits, it's hard to maintain hope that they might ever be enabled to recapture their former glory...
- Platform: PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $9.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Ubisoft
What's this? A re-release of the original PC version of New World Computing's popular fantasy strategy game Heroes of Might & Magic III, originally published by the 3D0 Company for Windows PC in 1998 followed by two official expansion packs that were reissued as a bundle with the main game in 2000 and an official, Dotemu-produced "HD" version for Steam and smartphones in 2015; this release is essentially a raw reissue of the original complete PC version with official support for the fan-made Horns of the Abyss HD expansion.
Why should I care? For as low-effort as this reissue might sound on paper, it needs to be noted that the 2015 Steam release was missing the expansion packs and other significant features and content due to the technical limitations of the "remastering" process, and that the existing dedicated fanbase has been asking for something along these lines for many years, so it's nice to see this long-running request fulfilled, even if it took being promo for an extremely shaky-looking remake to make it happen.
Useless fact: I almost didn't include this release in the roundup due to an ever-so-slight blunder on Ubisoft's part that saw them launch the game on Steam minus any of the game files, but they caught and fixed that era just a moment after their user rating had completely and utterly tanked.
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol.2
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $49.99 or equivalent (complete collection), $29.99 or equivalent (standalone MGS4), $19.99 or equivalent (standalone Peace Walker)
- Publisher: Konami
What's this? A second volume of Metal Gear series remasters, following from the successful first volume released in 2013; this set offers both the 2008 entry Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, originally and famously developed exclusively for PlayStation 3 and never ported until now, alongside the 2010 co-operative multiplayer-centric entry Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, originally developed and published for PlayStation Portable and given an enhanced high-definition port to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2011, from which this remaster is derived, as well as the first-ever reissue of the 2000 Game Boy Color entry Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel (and specifically, the PAL-region release that includes all the codec content that was excised from the North American version). These remasters display the games at up to 4K & 60FPS per platform and include the MGS4 Database companion app, originally released as a PS3 standalone, as well as the inclusion and/or reimplementation of the vast majority of crossover/collaborative content found in both games, optional remastered Peace Walker cutscenes, full mouse and keyboard support on PC, digital strategy and content omnibus books and more. (Two points of note: firstly, Ghost Babel is exclusive to the fuller Master Collection set and cannot be purchased standalone; and secondly, while Peace Walker retains online multiplayer and local Switch/Switch 2 multiplayer, MGS4's Metal Gear Online 2 mode and Ghost Babel's link cable modes have not been reproduced.)
Why should I care? Nobody's going to argue that any of these games are as essential as the three games presented in the first Master Collection, but Peace Walker's mission-heavy, quasi-Monster Hunter take on MGS remains distinctly enjoyable when compared to its obvious descendent (Metal Gear Solid V) and the sheer narrative hubris of MGS4 still feels as audacious as ever and is bound to polarize a whole new and much wider audience of people who couldn't and didn't ever expect to have the means to play it for themselves (and yes, I know there are a hundred million PS3s out there, but y'all know what it be). I also have to imagine many of you will be most excited for Ghost Babel, an absolute standout among third-party Game Boy software and one that essentially reimports many of the ideas from MGS back to the MSX/NES Metal Gear format with far more variety, volume and care than any dinky little handheld companion game was liable to receive in eras past.
Switch update path? OG Switch owners won't be offered a free or paid upgrade to the Switch 2 version, but they will apparently be able to download a patch on Switch 2 that allegedly uncaps the Switch build to allow it to offer similar performace specs to the official Switch 2 version, which is... odd. Additionally, save data from the OG Switch version can be transferred to the Switch 2 version, but not vice-versa.
