All The Classic Gaming News From The Past Week (September 20th 2026)

Welcome to Retro Recap, a regular feature we run each and every weekend which rounds up all of the best retro gaming news and content of the past week in one place.

A Second English Translation For Sega CD Shadowrun Appears, And It's Also AI-Assisted

A second Shadowrun translation has appeared online, but before you get too excited, it's worth noting that this is also AI-assisted.

"This is a machine translation, with editing, corrections, and playtesting to improve readability and address problems encountered along the way," says RetchE, the developer behind the patch. "It is not an official localization or a professional human translation, and some wording or nuances may still need refinement."

After it was revealed that MadMorigan had used AI in their patch, RetchE posted a message saying they would do the same.

The Making Of Strider II - One Of The Worst Sequels In Video Game History, And I Should Know - I Had To Test It

Former Sega Champ and Tiertex tester Dan Curley had the misfortune of working on Strider II (no, not the PS1 game) back in the early '90s, and lived to tell the tale – which is exactly what he's done in this must-read feature.

Director Of Robin Williams' Iconic Zelda Ads Remembers The Famous Actor & Comedian, 15 Years Later

Speaking exclusively to Time Extension, Julien Seri, the director of the famous The Legend of Zelda ad campaign featuring Robin Williams and his daughter, Zelda, has shared his memories of what it was like working with the legendary comedian.

Hands On: Retro Fighters Brawler64 Pro - A Solid Controller For N64, And More

Retro Fighters has iterated on its core range of controllers so many times I'm honestly in danger of losing track; when the Brawler64 Pro ($69.99) sample arrived in the office, I was certain I'd covered a similar pad not so long ago (and I had – the non-Pro version, of course, which comes in both wired and wireless options).

The big difference with this new model is the design, which opts for a smoother, more ergonomic appearance and comes in a range of 'skeleton' colours, such as Watermelon Red, Extreme Green, Ice Blue, Atomic Purple, and Smoke Black (as well as the usual N64 grey).

As Wave Race: Blue Storm Turns 25, An Ex-Nintendo Artist Shares The Challenge Of Designing The Game's Characters

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the Nintendo GameCube's original release in Japan, which also means Wave Race: Blue Storm is turning 25.

We spoke with Ken Christiansen, a former Nintendo Software Technology and Disney Interactive artist, about a broad range of subjects; this included his work on Wave Race: Blue Storm. Christiansen is credited on Wave Race: Blue Storm under the fairly ambiguous section labelled "Additional Work," but as his online portfolio reveals, he was actually one of the original artists responsible for designing the characters, but left in the year 2000 to pursue a career at Disney Interactive instead.

Toaplan's Zero Wing Is Coming To Neo Geo, Via h0ffman's Homebrew Port

Plaion has just revealed that Toaplan's Zero Wing is coming to the Neo Geo.

The game appears in some photos taken at the Tokyo Game Show, and was spotted by @Project_COE.

This has now triggered speculation that this port is based on the unofficial conversion done by homebrew coder h0ffman, and we now have confirmation.

Fan Project Makes Kid Kirby, The Cancelled SNES Game From Grand Theft Auto Devs, A Reality

A homebrew developer has released an unofficial, pint-sized recreation of a '90s Kirby game that never was. Available now on NovaStar's itch.io, Kid Kirby is an imagining of the superstar's unrealised SNES adventure, which was cancelled way back in 1995.

Kid Kirby was originally conceived as a key title for the Super NES Mouse peripheral, launched by Nintendo in 1992 as part of its Super Mario Paint package. The concept would see a younger version of the adorable pink puffball questing to save the Dream Spring of Dream Land, encountering various familiar locations and characters along the way - including a junior King Dedede.

Solid Snake Returns In New Metal Gear Animation From Mitchell Hammond

It's been two long years since we last heard from Mitchell Hammond, the artist behind the impressive, independently produced "Metal Gear Warhead Activate" animation from 2024. But Hammond has returned, bringing with them a recreation of a familiar scenario from Hideo Kojima's seminal stealth series.

The new clip, titled "Metal Gear Snake Returns", features a moment-to-moment adaptation of a sequence from the original Metal Gear, first released on MSX2 in 1987. The sequence follows Solid Snake in his efforts to escape military prison, including his unarmed encounter with the shotgun-wielding boss, Shotmaker, and subsequent procurement of his confiscated weaponry...

The Curious Case Of Pixar Vs. Nintendo, And The Quest For Answers

A few years before the Dundee-based developer DMA Design created the hugely successful open-world crime series Grand Theft Auto, it produced an offbeat racing game featuring a bunch of sentient unicycles as its main characters, in collaboration with Nintendo.

As the story goes, Pixar took Nintendo to court, where a judge found in favour of the animation company; therefore, a deal was struck — the result of which meant that no more copies could be produced beyond the original 300,000 manufactured. But did that really happen? We try to find out...

Unboxing The £130 Zool Ultimate Archive Edition

A few months ago, we reported on the news that 33 Games was re-releasing Gremlin's classic 2D platformer Zool on the Mega Drive.

One of the SKUs available was the 'Ultimate Archive Edition', which gives Zool fans the chance to properly pledge their allegiance to the 'Ninja of the Nth Dimension' with a lavish, shelf-consuming collector's piece.

33 Games was kind enough to send us a copy of the Ultimate Archive Edition to show off to you guys, but due to an unforeseen production issue, we're missing the limited-edition Zool collector’s coin. Even so, what's included here is pretty impressive – so feast your eyes.