Update []:
During today's Arcade Archives livestream, Hamster revealed that Taito's 1978 classic Space Invaders is the big, mysterious game that it began teasing last week.
The game will launch on Christmas Day to celebrate the company hitting 500 titles released, with the Space Invaders creator, Tomohiro Nishikado, set to make an appearance on the company's livestream to talk about the game's development.
1979's Space Invaders: Part II is also slated to release on consoles next year, on January 1st, shortly after.
Given yesterday's announcement of the Smash Bros. precursor The Outfoxies, we're guessing there's probably going to be a few people who are slightly underwhelmed with today's announcement, as there's really no shortage of ways to play the original Space Invaders. But given the importance of the original game, we can certainly see why the company would feel it would be "fitting" for the occasion.
What do you make of the announcement? Is this one release you're going to skip? Or are you more than happy to pick up Space Invaders again, with some Arcade Archives-style updates, including new modes and online leaderboards? Let us know!
Original Story: Well, here's something that we somehow missed. In yesterday's Arcade Archives stream for Roc 'N Rope, as spotted by Gosokkyu, Hamster teased that it will be releasing something big on Christmas Day to commemorate the company hitting 500 titles.
The title, according to the Japanese developer/publisher, will be something "suitable" for such an occasion, but beyond that, the company hasn't really offered many clues as to what it might be.
Instead, it is asking its supporters to write in to Hamster (at [email protected]) with their guesses of what the game could be, with 10 prizes expected to be awarded based on a lottery draw.
Submissions end December 18th, at 2 PM (JST), with the game expected to be announced later that same day at 6:45 PM. Winners for the prize draw, meanwhile, will be announced in a special New Year's Day livestream.
Given Hamster's recent reissues of Ridge Racer, Aqua Jet, and Air Combat 22, our money right now is on something Namco-related, or maybe an expensive license, but at this point, your guess is as good as ours.
What do you think it will be? Let us know in the comments!