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This year marks the anniversaries of several classic Namco games, including Galaga (45th), The Adventures of Valkyrie (40th), Genpei Touma Den (40th), Family Stadium (40th), and Time Crisis (30th), so to celebrate, Namco has just revealed a new initiative which it is calling NAMCO LEGENDARY 2026.
NAMCO LEGENDARY 2026, according to the announcement, will be focused on the continuous development of new "content" designed to"revitalize" and "enliven" the aforementioned brands, in the hopes of promoting an environment "where these titles can be easily experienced not only by fans who remember the excitement of the time, but also by generations experiencing them for the first time."
As stated in the press release, games will apparently be at the forefront of this new venture, joined by events (Namco Game Selection Summer Market), collaborations (NAMCO LEGENDARY Mountains), and merch (blankets, pins, t-shirts, and stickers). However, before you go getting too excited for brand new releases, it's worth mentioning that the press release mentions Tassei Denki's G'AIM'E Light Gun re-release of Time Crisis and previous Arcade Archives releases like "Galaga," "VS. Valkyrie no Bouken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu," and "Genpei Touma Den," among the list of games included as part of the celebrations. So nothing new has actually been revealed just yet.
That said, though, this announcement hasn't been a complete wash, as Famitsu seems to have partnered with Namco to publish some early design docs from both Time Crisis and Galaga to coincide with the announcement, revealing some cool insights into these legendary projects (which you can view here).
This includes the fact that the main character of the game was originally called Richard Sander as opposed to Richard Miller and that the arcade title was originally planned under the name "Richard Sander: Emergency Measures". Not only that, but its story was also set to take place in New York, as opposed to a private island, and would have focused on a plot about bombs being planted around the city, a story that seems to be remarkably similar to Die Hard with a Vengeance, which released in theaters the same year, in 1995.
According to Famitsu, because of this bomb plot, which apparently saw the character having to race against time to stop the explosives from detonating at a designated time, overseas staff members suggested the name Deadline as one of the potential names for the project, but eventually it was decided to go with Time Crisis instead.
Famitsu has also published some alternative names for some of the characters, including Richard Miller, Wild Dog, and Rachel Macpherson, with the latter undoubtedly being named after the Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson (given the other surnames considered all refer to other '90s models).