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Taito's often forgotten follow-up to Space Invaders, Space Cyclone, is heading to modern consoles (Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S) as part of the Arcade Archives & Arcade Archives 2 range of games, Hamster has revealed.
Originally released in 1980, two years after Space Invaders, Space Cyclone is a shoot 'em up designed by Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado and was built on the same board as the arcade classic. As a result, it should probably come as no surprise then that it plays very similarly to the title that became a hit the world over.
Same as Space Invaders, players are put in control of a ship positioned at the bottom of the screen that must strafe left and right, firing at different-coloured aliens as they approach.
However, the twist here is that, rather than taking place in space, the action takes place on the surface of a planet, with the game's bad guy, BEMS (described as "insect cyborgs"), travelling on clouds and diving to the ground rather than descending in uniform rows and columns. It's the player's goal to stop the BEMS from landing safely, with every alien they let pass contributing to the creation of a robot on the left side of the screen that will launch into the sky and blast at them with their "deadly Cyclone Shots!"
The game will be released on Thursday, June 18th, 2026, and will cost $7.99 for the Arcade Archives edition (PS4, Nintendo Switch) and $9.99 for the Arcade Archives 2 version (PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S). An upgrade option will also be offered for $2.99 between Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 and PS4 and PS5.
Space Cyclone was previously included on Space Invaders Invincible Collection for Nintendo Switch, but outside of that, doesn't seem to have been reissued all that much in the past.