Power Instinct
Image: Atlus

A new patch has just been released for the Japan-exclusive port of Power Instinct for the Sega Mega Drive.

The patch, which is called Power Instinct Plus, adds a bunch of quality-of-life improvements to the game, making it well worth checking out if you happen to have the Japanese Mega Drive ROM kicking about. Some of these improvements include allowing players to skip the post-match dialogue in the story mode, save their hi-scores, and select the character Young Otane (who was previously only playable in versus mode via a cheat code or in a battle for a limited time only).

BillyTime!Games is the developer of this brand-new hack. They previously worked on Ghostbusters Special Edition, the Sega Channel Revival Project, and countless SRAM patches for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.

Known as Gōketsuji Ichizoku in Japan, Power Instinct was a fighting game developed by Atlus, that was originally released in the arcades back in 1993. It was later ported to the Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive, with the Mega Drive version. It later received five more sequels across various platforms, with the last release being Gōketsuji Ichizoku: Senzo Kuyō in 2009.

A team comprised of former Power Instinct developers announced that it had formed a new studio called NoiseCor last year, raising hopes that a new project might soon be on the horizon. The Noise Factory founder Keiko Tanaka then reignited this speculation this year, claiming the team was reviving an "old project" related to the Power Instinct series.

You can grab the patch now from romhacking.net. Here's a video of the patch in action, courtesy of BillyTime!Games:

[source romhacking.net, via twitter.com]