Following last week's release of the early Taito game Steel Worker, Hamster seems to be sticking with the theme of the early 80s, revealing that it will be reissuing Nichibutsu's football-inspired action games Dacholer and Kick Boy later this week.
Both games were originally released in arcades back in 1983, with Dacholer following an Ostrich who must use their legs to kick turtles at other animals onscreen like ducks, mice and rabbit, while avoiding a kappa that occasionally jumps across the screen. It features a top-down, fixed screen perspective, with the levels ending once you've managed to clear the stage of all the animals.
Kick Boy, on the other hand, is a variation of the same style of gameplay with the graphics swapped out. The main character, for instance, has been switched out for a baseball-cap wearing child, while the setting is far less natural, instead taking place in a busy harbour. Here the goal is still to kick something across the screen, with the concept being to lob footballs at dogs who are trying to chase and bite you (we're not exactly sure who at Nichibutsu designed these titles, but, given the concept behind both of these games, we're guessing they probably weren't a fan of animals).
In this version of the game, there's no Kappa out to get you, but instead, two of the three bridges on each stage will occasionally go out of order to allow boats to pass, adding some further difficulty to getting around the screen.
Interestingly, we should probably highlight that this week Arcade Archives hasn't listed any versions for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch 2 (as it has done in the previous weeks), with the only copies listed being for PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
These will cost $7.99 and will be available to buy from tomorrow (September 25th, 2025).