Namco's run-and-gun shooter Baraduke will release today as part of Hamster's Arcade Archives collection. The game will be available to buy on PS4 and Nintendo eShop for $7.99 /€6.99 / £6.29, but as always it may take a little longer for the UK storefronts to update.
Baraduke was originally released in arcades back in 1985 and is notable for pulling the same twist as Metroid a year before that game launched in Japan. Upon completing the game, a portrait showed the protagonist Toby "Kissy" Masuyo removing their helmet to reveal that the player had been controlling a woman all along.
According to an interview with Yukio Takahashi in 2007 (translated by Shmupulations), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was responsible for influencing this decision:
"This was influenced by the anime Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Actually, a bunch of things were influenced by Nausicaa: the protagonist you just mentioned, the side-profile perspective of the paccets, and the Blue Worm boss… (laughs) Also, as I mentioned, because people during the development were so enthusiastic about slaughtering all the paccets they could, as a contrast to all that cruelty I wanted at least in the final scene to have something cute and adorable, so I drew those ending images."
Masuyo would go on to appear in a Japanese-exclusive sequel called Bakutotsu Kijūtei in 1988. She also later made cameo appearances in the Mr. Driller series too, where she played the mother of the main character Susumu Hori, having married (and divorced) Dig Dug's Taizo Hori.