Retro Re-release Roundup, week of March 6, 2025
Chinese mythology, from America and Japan.
Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill, Metal Gear, Suikoden and soon, in Japan, Tokimeki Memorial… what might Konami attempt to resurrect next? Goemon? Something from the Hudson catalog, like Bonk? Bloody Roar? Grad — yeah, okay, let’s not get too ridiculous.
ARCADE ARCHIVES
VS. Mystery Tower (Babel no Tou)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Namco
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql8E761y5eQv
What’s this? The Nintendo VS. System conversion of Namco’s Famicom puzzle-action game Babel no Tou, originally released in 1986 and succeeded by a Game Boy port, an arranged Namco Anthology version, feature phone conversions and reissues via the Japan-only Namcot Collection and various iterations of Nintendo’s legacy lines, including a recent international reissue via Nintendo Switch Online. Players are tasked with stacking and moving L-shaped blocks in order to reach the goal of each stage, which may also require negotiating enemies and /orcollecting various items to open the exit or earn points; this arcade version differs from the home version in several ways, with the biggest changes being a slightly revised set of 64 stages and the abolition of the limited-moves system in favor of a timer.
Why should I care? Namco banged out a fine little thinky-movey game that acquits itself well next to the likes of Lode Runner or Solomon’s Key, and while I do think it was perhaps a little too cerebral for arcades and that the timer (and accompanying get-off-the-machine enemy) might make it difficult to contemplate certain stages to the degree necessary to solve them, the appeal of the game system shines through nevertheless. It’s also nice to see that Namco’s now reissued pretty much every VS. System game in their catalug: there are a few others that were published but not owned by Namco that are presumed off-limits, and some baseball games that have their own licensing wrinkles, but all their first-party stuff is available to peruse.
Useless fact: The “BABEL” title logo seems to have fallen afoul of modern copyright, as Namco’s had to replace it with a new “THE TOWER OF BABEL” logo for recent reissues including this one, and the chosen global localized title doesn’t mention Babel at all.
EGG CONSOLE
The Legend of Heroes Saga / Eiyuu Densetsu Saga (PC-88)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $6.49 / ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Microcabin
What’s this? A command-selection adventure game with a broad Nordic fantasy theme, originally produced and published for PC-98 series computers by Microcabin in 1984 and quickly converted for PC-88 and other hardware. Players control a warrior on a quest through an enchanted forest in search of a girl who has been given as tribute to a loathsome dragon; navigation essentially follows the format of a 3D maze, with each area and character/enemy encountered with a lush manga-style visual. (Just to clarify, this game has nothing to do with the later, similarly-named Falcom RPG series.)
Why should I care? Microcabin’s place in the early pantheon of Japanese adventure games was one of style over substance, with games that quickly and increasingly prioritized visuals and narrative over mechanics or challenge; that said, they hadn’t quite reached that realization during the production of this game, so you might not want to endure the tedium of mapping the maze and deciphering the quasi-puzzles in order o bask in the visuals… but they really did do a fanastic job of converting all those illustrations to digital graphics, especially on PC-88.
Language barrier? All the commands are presented in English, but the primary text is all in Japanese.
G-MODE ARCHIVES+
Toudou Ryuunosuke Tantei Nikki vol.6: Zakuro no Tenkyou ~Kisshou Chuushuusai Renzoku Satsujin Jiken~~
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: ¥1200
- Publisher: G-MODE / Althi
What’s this? The sixth entry in a Taisho-era detective mystery series originally developed by Japanese adventure game pioneers Riverhillsoft for Japanese microcomputers, and the fourth entry originally developed and released for Japanese feature phones. In this volume, Ryuunosuke receives a letter from an acquaintance who’s fearful for their son, so they travel to the writer’s hotel to investigate… (This reissue also includes a spin-off/bonus epilogue chapter produced in 2008, a couple years after the initial release.).
Why should I care? Look, I’m slowly catching up on the multple other episodic detective games being reissued by G-MODE, but I’m way behind on this one, so I can’t offer a first-hand appraisal, but I can say that these games are broadly more buttoned-down and logic-based than those alternatives, and were definitely seen as classic (in a non-derogatory way) compared to their contemporaries.
Helpful tip: G-MODE’s quite particular about providing help guides for this particular series that offer various degrees of assistance for each character, which you can check here at your own discretion.
OTHER
Age of Mythology: Retold
- Platform: PlayStation 5 (worldwide)
- Price: $29.99 or equivalent (standard edition) / $49.99 or equivalent (premium edition)
- Publisher: Microsoft
What’s this? A remake of Microsof and Ensemble Studio’s fantasy-themed spinoff of the popular and enduring Age of Empires series of real-time strategy games, originally released for PC and Mac in 2002 and remastered for Steam in 2014; now using the latest version of the 3D engine produced for the recent well-received Age of Empires III remake, this version boasts obvious visual enhancements and a new symphonic soundtrack on top of a myriad of gameplay changes, rebalances and modern interface/quality-of-life tweaks too numerous to details, as well as a thorough reworking of the extensive scenario editor. (The standard edition contains content based on the original game’s three factions plus the new faction from the Titans expansion; the premium edition offers several additions via eventual DLC, the most significant being two extra campaigns, with the first, the China-themed Immortal Empires, released just this week. Do note that Immortal Empires is not directly based on the China-themed campaign produced for the Steam remaster and is essentally a do-over/apology for the crumminess of that campaign.)
Why should I care? Anecdotal, I know, but in my experience, there are a lot of folk who casually enoyed AOE or AOE2 in their heyday but have AOM mentally filed away as a black sheep or failed experiment, only to attempt to reacquaint themselves with the series via the actual black sheep, AOEIII, so to anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation, do not dismiss this game as a strange dalliance, or its remake as Microsoft scraping the barrel for more AOE content to dredge up: if any game ever succeeded AOE2, it was this one. That said, I’ve never so much as thought about playing it with a controller, so good luck with that, PS5 owners.
Useless fact: This isn’t AOE’s first foray to Sony platforms: Konami, of all studios, produced a PlayStation 2 port of AOE2 way back in 2001. As it happens, the most recent version of AOE2 is being queued up for a PS5 release later in the year, too.
Suikoden I&II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars
- Platform: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $49.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Konami
What’s this? A remastered two-pack of the first two games in Konami’s long-dormant, East-meets-West Chinese fantasy RPG series Suikoden, originally released across PlayStation, Sega Saturn and/or PC from 1995 to 1998; these remasters present the backgrounds and battle environmens in high definition and add modern visual effects during combat, multiple difficulty settings, fast-forward and auto-battle options, higher-quality source audio for the music and new high-fidelity sound effects, the ability to disable the time limit for previously time-limited dialog choices and more, including brand-new localizations for both games. (Do note that the Switch version is limited to 30FPS.)
Why should I care? I’d encourage people to check these out as a show of support to Konami but they’ve already played their hand with regards to the resurrection of this seres and it includes a mobile gacha game, so in that regard, it might be best to just let go. That doesn’t mean these games can’t be enjoyed on their own merits, of course: these games deftly adapted the high-scale, multi-faction stakes of classic Chinese literature to the format and specific melodramatic parlance of the ’90s JRPG, and if this overly-processed remaster is what’s required to get the second game re-localized without text bugs at every turn, so be i.
Rest in peace to…: Yoshitaka Murayama, the chief creative steward of the classic Suikoden games, who left tthe series under somewhat acrimonious circumstances prior to the release of Suikoden III, and who sadly passed away in February of last year, before both the revival of heir signature work and the release of their own crowdfunded spiritual successor, Eiyuuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.
WELL GODDAMN
Unleashed Recompiled, an unofficial PC port of Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360)
One migh wonder whether the broader gaming community ought to be excited for a PC port of Sonic Unleashed, given its long-standing reputation as a promising blueprint for future games that’s ultimately bogged down in nigh-endless non-Sonic filler, but that’d be the wrong takeaway, for two reasons: one, this game, both in totality but also specifically the combat-heavy werehog sections that constitude the lion’s share of the game, are certainly not beyond fixing, and two, the suite of tools used to produce this PC version have kicked open the doors for recompilations of all manner of X360 games, thus ensuring the coninued relevance of countless hundreds of games that would be otherwise destined to die with their original hardware or left ignored and forgotten by their corporate owners. Do note that you’ll need a X360, a copy of the game and other equipment in order to procure he necessary data to recompile the game on PC.
