Update (Fri 15th Sep, 2023 14:45 GMT): The publisher City Connection has announced that Granzella's reboot of Jaleco's Formation Z will be arriving on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Steam) in 2024.

The news came ahead of this year's Tokyo Game Show 2023 (taking place between September 21st to September 24th in Japan), and seems to imply that the PlayStation 4 version of the game that was initially announced has been abandoned in favour of more modern platforms.

To accompany the announcement, City Connection and Jaleco also released a new trailer for the game, which you can view above.

Original article (Mon 24th Oct, 2022 10:00 BST): Publisher City Connection is working with R-Type Final 2 studio Granzella to resurrect Jaleco's 1984 coin-op Formation Z (also known as Aeroboto).

Project Formation Z will take the basic 'transforming robot' gameplay of the original and bring it up to date with 2.5D visuals and modern production values.

The release is slated for "202X", and PlayStation 4 is the only confirmed platform so far – although additional platforms will be announced in due course.

The original arcade game was notable for its morphing robot craft and was ported to the MSX and Famicom in the '80s. It later came to Hamster's Arcade Archives collection on Switch.

Here's some Google-translated PR from the game's official Japanese website:

Ready yourself for an intense robot shooting raid battle like never before!

Here’s one of the most emblematic titles from Jaleco, Formation Z. Take the form of a humanoid robot or the form of an aircraft to defeat your enemies in a brand new game with updated graphics and sound design. Soldiers, in formation. A shivering and exciting return awaits us!

You can view more gameplay footage in the video below, around the 59:25 mark:

[source gematsu.com]