Sunsoft announced yesterday that it will be bringing Ikki Unite — its revival of the infamous 1985 arcade and Nintendo Famicom game Ikki — to Nintendo Switch on April 18th.
So if you missed it last year when it was originally released on Steam, or just fancy playing it on a Nintendo console, now seems like the perfect opportunity for you to dive straight in.
Ikki, in case you've never heard of it, is a cooperative game that focused on a farmer's revolt and is probably most well-known for inspiring the Japanese essayist Jun Miura to coin the term "Kusoge" (or "Crap Game"). This is a phrase that is still in fairly regular use today online and typically refers to unenjoyable, broken, or poorly made games.
Following its original release, Sunsoft later reissued Ikki in Japan across a bunch of compilations in the early 2000s and has even gone to the effort to produce a few different updated versions of the game, with Ikki Unite being the most recent example of this.
Instead of the four players of the original, Ikki Unite introduces the ability to play online with up to 16 players, with the goal being to complete missions and defeat a series of mighty bosses like wild animals and an evil magistrate. Players will be able to select from one of four classes, including explorers, attackers, enhancers, and healers, with cooperation and strategy being the key to survival.
You can watch the latest trailer for the game below, to see whether you fancy giving it a try: