Three more Toaplan games are set to receive brand-new ports for the Atari 2600+, 7800, and 7800+, according to Plaion's senior business development manager, Ben Jones.
Back in July of this year, Plaion published a new version of Toaplan's 1985 vertical shoot-'em-up, Tiger-Heli, across all three of the retro platforms, marking the first time the game had been commercially available for each of these systems.
Earlier this month, however, on the Atari Age Forums, Jones told forum members that this wasn't all Plaion had in store for Atari fans, with Plaion also successfully having signed a "multi-game" deal with Tatsujin (the current rights holders of Toaplan's back catalog), allowing them to produce even more ports in the future, which were later revealed to be based on Slap Fight (1986), Flying Shark (1987), and Twin Cobra (1987) (thanks Atari Scene News/Gaowing for the spot).
According to Jones, these three titles, in particular, were chosen as Plaion now have "experience of making 7800 vertical shooters with the benchmark of Tiger Heli," making them a "logical next step". The three games will be released individually in the future, with Jones also considering a box set of all the 7800 shooters "with some neat artwork and additional trinkets", to round out his work in the genre before moving on to something new.
Thinking aloud about what this "something new" might be, he stated that he'd love to try and remake another Toaplan game like the 1990 platformer Snow Bros. for the retro machines, or perhaps even try his hand at "horizontal shooters like Hellfire or ZeroWing or more advanced bullet hell shooters like Batsugun or Dogyuun."
He acknowledges the latter might be beyond his reach just now, however, stating he's "not confident of getting [those] right at this moment in time" with the limited amount of attention he can give to these projects. He stresses that for this series to continue, it will need to continue making a profit, or else these kinds of ports will no longer be viable.