Crisis after crisis.
For those lamenting the second butchering of R-Type III, allow me to point you towards two brand-new entries in classic shooting game series that happened to release today: Psyvariar 3, the first numbered sequel in Success’ bullet-grazing danmaku series in some two decades, developed by Brazilian studio Banana Bytes, and FZ: Formation Z, a polygonal revival of Jaleco’s mid-’80s arcade/Famicom transforming-mech shooter Formation Z, developed by the team behind the recent R-Type Final 2/3.
ARCADE ARCHIVES / ARCADE ARCHIVES 2
The Big Pro Wrestling! (Tag Team Wrestling)
- 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 / Technos
What’s this? A wresling game with a unique menu-based attack interface, originally developed by Technos Japan and distributed in arcades by Data East in 1983, with home ports produced for Commodore 64 and Apple II and an adaptation produced for Famicom and NES in 1986; players control one of two tag partners and fight in a succession of matches, with combat requiring one to initiate a grapple and upon winning the tie-up, quickly selecting and confirming a variety of moves from a menu displayed in the status bar; players can also manually switch tag partners by moving to their partner’s corner. (Do note that, contrary to the title used on the storefront, this release only contains the Japanese ROM, meaning that the menu options are not displayed in English.)
Why should I care? It might be basic and strange and functionally contrary to pretty much every other wrestling game out there but it was literally the first one, so one might want to cut it some slack on that point alone.
Useless fact: In addition to exclusively containing the Japanese ROM (presumably due to the English version remaining the property of one of the inheritors of the Data East library), this Arcade Archives reissue removes some of the BGM, which recreated the theme music of real-world Japanese wrestlers in chiptune form — shelling out for licensed chiptunes is a luxury reserved for Mr.Do!, it seems.
CONSOLE ARCHIVES
Toujin Makyouden: Heracles no Eikou (Famicom)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Data East / Paon-DP
What’s this? The first game in Data East’s Greek mythology-themed RPG series Heracles no Eikou, originally developed and published for Famicom in 1987 and reissued just once, via the Japanese Project EGG service for PC; players control Heracles on a quest to rescue the goddess Venus from the clutches of Hades, which sees them embarking on a variety of trials that very loosely recall the twelve labors of legend. (This is yet another Japanese-only game with no in-game English text option, so buyer beware.)
Why should I care? You remember Glory of Heracles, that one random Nintendo-published DS RPG that released to an apathetic and bewildered global audience some fifteen years ago — that game was actually a revival title for an RPG series that, by its Super Famicom entries, had become a series beloved by genre afficionados and one whose personnel would be specifically sought out to contribute to the likes of Final Fantasy VII and Mother 3. That said, this first entry exhibits very few of the strengths of those later games and is itself an ambitious but woefully-balanced game sporting Data East’s usual complete indifference to seriousness or verisimilitude, but it does stand out among its contemporaries (and even its own follow-up) for seeking to do more than merely eating Yuji Horii’s lunch. (One aspect that it does share with early Dragon Quest is the reliance on passwords, so do remember to manually save via save states.)
Useless fact: Savvy player might be able to locate both Karnov and Karnov’s alleged sister, so keep an eye out!
EGG CONSOLE
Laydock 2: Last Attack (MSX2+)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $5.54 / ¥660
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / T&E Soft
What’s this? The third and final mainline entry in T&E Soft’s Laydock series of shooting games, originally developed and published for the MSX2+ in 1988; this entry maintains the signature nominally-RPG-ish subweapon upgrades (now with on-the-fly switching) and two-player ship-docking systems and uses the change of target platform to incorporate features that include FM audio, massive bosses and extremely smooth scrolling across both horizontal and vertical formats.
Why should I care? Previous entries promoted themselves via their technical prowess (that is, showing off advanced scrolling techniques on MSX2, and then pulling out every stop to mitigate the poor hardware-level scrolling of the original MSX), and in moving to the next evolution of the MSX hardware, they managed to produce a game that a layperson could intuitively enjoy on its own merits without having to be schooled on the ins and outs of the limitations of the hardware… or, put another way, it’s a game first and a tech demo second. What an idea!
Language barrier? Not at all.
PLAYSTATION PREMIUM
May ’26 update: Time Crisis (PlayStation)
What’re these? the PlayStation port of Namco’s hit arcade lightgun series Time Crisis, originally released in 1997 and ported to PlayStation 2 via a Japan-exclusive Point Blank-centric Gunvari Collection Plus Time Crisis collection in 2002. Players are tasked with shooting and taking cover through intense, time-limited stages; in place of the original GunCon peripheral are newly-implemented gyro controls, which seek to emulate the lightgun experience as closely as is possible without an actual lightgun.
Why should I care? You appreciate that somebody’s thinking more than not at all about how to bring these classic PS gun games to modern hardware, and while the gyro controls are not ideal (both conceptually but also in execution — there is a lot of drift, and a lot of it seems to manifest directly after recalibration), they’ve gotta start somewhere, right? (I will say that they’ve inadvertently fixed one of the issues inherent to the PS port: the on-screen reticle was offset from the actual GunCon shot location, but this implementation lets you safely shoot where you’re pointing.)
Standalone availability? Surprisingly, yes: you can buy this one outright for $10 or thereabouts.
OTHER
Myst & Riven: the Sequel to Myst (remakes)
- Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation VR2 (worldwide; both games), Xbox (Riven)
- Price: $34.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Cyan Worlds
What’s this? PlayStation 5 ports of the recent, virtual-reality-first 3D remakes of Cyan World’s classic mid-’90s CD-ROM adventure games, which are derived from Oculus Quest versions initially released in 2020 and 2024, respectively; these version completely recreate and reimagine the games in full, free-roaming 3D powered by Unreal Engine 4, and the PlayStation ports support PSVR2 as well as PS5 Pro and power-save modes, and offers the latest rendering enhancements including raytracing.
Why should I care? My understanding as a pure spectator is that being into VR in 2026 ultimately requires one to force themselves to care about any and every game that still bothers to support it.
In case you missed it: Riven’s also out on Xbox: the Myst remake’s been on Xbox for a while, so you may not have been aware that Riven was MIA.
R-Type Dimensions III
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $34.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Tozai / ININ / KRITZELKRATZ 3000
What’s this? A polygonal remake of Irem’s horizontal sci-fi shooting game R-Type III: The Third Lightning, originally developed by Tamtex and published for Irem across Super Famicom and SNES in 1993/4, with an infamously poor Game Boy Advance port released in 2004 and sporadic reissues since, including a cartridge reissue in 2018; following in the footsteps of the now-ancient R-Type Dimensions remake of the first two games, this new version allows players to switch between the modern and classic visuals/audio at the press of a button and adds new features including full two-player co-op, an infinite lives function, an optional exaggerated camera setting and more.
Why should I care? Ask again in however-many months when they’ve, ideally, fixed the many significant and obvious issues with the remake: from the technical to the visual to the level of accuracy and fidelity to the original game, this remake’s currently beyond busted and not worth your money or time.
Ya gotta wonder… The Japanese release of this remake isn’t happening until a month from now, and the more cynical among us might be inclined to believe the rest of the world’s received it early so as to bug-test the game before it reaches its largest and most discerning market, as if those players don’t have access to, like, Steam, or Youtube.
Rugrats Retro Rewind Collection (May 22)
- Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam (worldwide)
- Price: $19.99 or equivalent
- Publisher: Limited Run Games / Mighty Rabbit Studios
What’s this? An emulated collection containing six games based on the popular late-’90s Nickelodeon/Klasky-Csupo cartoon Rugrats, originally published by THQ between 1998 and 2001; these games are presented with Limited Run and affiliates Mighty Rabbit Studios’ usual suite of features, which include save states, rewind, screen filters and visual and sound galleries.
Which games? This collection includes the PlayStation game Rugrats: Search for Reptar, the Game Boy and Game Boy Color versions of The Rugrats Movie, the Game Boy Color game Rugrats: Time Travelers, the PlayStation game Rugrats: Studio Tour, the PlayStation and Game Boy Color versions of Rugrats in Paris: The Movie and the Game Boy Advance game Rugrats: Castle Capers.
Why should I care? Respectfully, I have no goddamned idea.
Useless fact: There are enough lingering Rugrats games from this window alone to produce a second comp, should they feel the need.
UPDATES UPDATES UPDATES
Darksiders Warmastered Edition update and/or current-gen upgrade (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox)
Nine years after the last patch, Embracer’s updated their remaster of the original entry in THQ’s edgelord Zelda-like action-adventure series Darksiders to add motion controls and a photo mode, among the prerequisite performace issues on the latest consoles. Do note, however, the price differential between PS5 vs. elsewhere: the update and/or upgrade is free for existing PC/Xbox owners but costs $10 on PS5, and they’ve jacked up the base price of the existing game to boot.
Raiden Fighters Remix Collection (PlayStation 5, Switch, PC) major update #1
MOSS’ recent, issue-fraught collection of Raiden Fighters arcade games has received the first of two promised major updates, with the most significant addition being an option to run the games at something approximating their native 64Hz refresh rate, as opposed to forcing these already fast, reaction-critical games at the slightly higher speed of 60Hz. Do note that this mode uses an occasional frame-doubling rather than utilizing any sort of VRR enhancement, but it’s better than nothin’. (Update #2, scheduled for next month, promises fixes to button configs, replays and more, as well as support for PS4 peripherals on PS5, but there’s currently no word on whether they’re still seeking to reduce input lag…)
