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Another classic coin-op release has been dusted off and repackaged for modern platforms via Hamster's Arcade Archives 2 range, essentially re-releases of re-releases for Gen 9 platforms. This week, it's the turn of suspiciously familiar shmup Rezon, now available for PC and console platforms.
As we noted on its original re-release back in 2023, Rezon came blasting into the arcade scene in 1987, one of many horizontal shooters that were gobbling up the 10p pieces in the late 1980s. Developer Allumer, however, chose to unapologetically borrow from one of the market's most popular titles, Irem's R-Type, which had blown up in the scene earlier in the year.
And "borrow" is being generous. As you can see from the above trailer, the ships, enemies, weapons, stage layouts, and even attack patterns are close enough to Irem's classic as to be comical. It's honestly amazing that Allumer didn't straight up design their own poundship Dobkeratops as Rezon's stage one boss. Even the game's logo has a similar typeface and spacing! Well, they do say that if you're gonna steal, you might as well steal from the best.
I don't ever remember encountering Rezon in the arcades personally, so perhaps it had something of a low-key rollout in the West, if it even saw these shores at all. Never officially ported to home platforms (for obvious reasons), these Arcade Archive editions represent the only viable way to own Rezon. Despite the obvious plagiarism on display, it remains a pretty funny piece of gaming history, worthy of an ACA spot if only as one of the greatest "Can I borrow your homework?" examples in the medium.
Rezon is available now on PlayStation, PC, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch platforms.