Unfortunately Toaplan/Tatsujin isn't one of the companies participating in AA. And sadly, their non-shmup efforts were not included in either the Bitwave or M2 compilations.

@h3s The biggest difference is that the German intro got replaced with a new recording.

https://tcrf.net/Castlevania:_Rondo_of_Blood

Yeah the official English version is in the PSP Dracula X Collection and PS4 Requiem Collection. For some strange reason Konami used the Japanese original in the TG-16 Mini instead.

Imagine the horrors of bootleg versions of such cards.

And I still remember those Evony ads on Facebook in the early 2010s, which have scantly-clad women saying "Come play now, my lord", but the game is really a boring town building game.

Good thing is that you can still buy the game. I'd be more worried if it gets delisted.

I can't wait for the remaster of The Metal Age. It is a much better game IMO due to the more open ended levels and getting rid of the pointless combat sections.

Great article! In the Western world we tend only see Japanese gaming through what's popular in the West eg Nintendo consoles and games, and there are a wealth of hidden gems on computers that never left the country. Project EGG opened me up to a host of them.

@RejectedAng3L I don't know about the other platforms, but on Switch the SNK 40th collection has a nasty habit of crashing, particularly if you switch between games and/or the museum section. Digital Eclipse never fixed the issue.

@sbeng135 @Fallingshadow Yeah the Saturn ports were done by City Connection, who are notorious for the Cotton 2/Boomerang ports that added extra input lag on top of the existing Saturn lag due to the poor state of Saturn emulation now, making the games almost unplayable. The input lag are a little bit better in the later games, and some of do come with console extra such as voice acting and bonus stages in Wolf Fang, but I'd rather play the arcade originals for performance.

I find it really annoying that Hamster is still not touching Taito's F3 games such as Bubble Symphony, Dungeon Magic, and Elevator Action 2, even though they are on the Egret 2 Mini and the older Taito Legends collections. Some of them are on current systems but as emulated Saturn ports.

Hopefully this is done in a way similar to Capcom Arcade Stadium, where I can just buy the individual games I want. I already own the Megaman and X collections and don't want to double dip, unless they include significant improvements.

@KingMike Yes, but that didn't prevent Capcom from including Dynasty Wars and Warriors of Fate, which are derived from the same manga, in the Capcom Arcade Stadium compilations.

My favourite misrepresentation of a video game is in a Hong Kong film I watched decades ago, where a kid is playing a Master System shmup...by shooting at the screen with the Phaser.

Here's hoping for the Raiden DX Console Archives port down the line. It has many unlockable extras such as a boss rush mode, galleries, and the ability to switch to the Viper Phase 1 soundtrack.

Also it's very interesting that the Western version isn't included. It removed the tate mode (accessible via cheat devices though), but added several new options such as stage select, free play, and playing Raiden 1 without checkpoints.

@Scollurio The entire series is quite fun, and it has some charming and colourful fairytale fantasy visuals. If you're just getting into the series I suggest getting the first arcade game via Arcade Archives.

@KingMike That was Bitwave Games actually, which ported pretty much all of Toaplan's arcade shmups to PC/consoles seperate from M2's efforts.

And yes they did put in lots of effort in remastering Zero Wing's Genesis intro, correcting the grammar in generally but left Cats' iconic dialogue alone, which they made out to be an in-universe translation error.

https://youtu.be/hWlNx_R3q6g

This is pretty much an improved version of Ace Driver that makes the original redundant, similar to Rave Racer to Ridge Racer 1.

@KingMike It may take them a while. Zero Team from the same company also had copy protection issues that wasn't broken until 2016, and it eventually saw an AA rerelease in 2020.

I misread Seta as Sega and got all excited for a second.

I hope one day Square Enix can dig out the original SNES CD version, which got cut down to fit a cartridge.

Memes aside, you're better off getting Neo Turf Masters aka Big Tournament Golf off ACA Neo Geo, which is one of the best golf games of all time IMHO.

I'm glad that articles like this exist, showing that different countries often have completely different gaming experiences, and not all countries experienced the 1983 gaming crash like the USA did.

Even when it comes to Japan, we in the Western world tend to only focus on Japanese gaming products that are popular in the West, and rarely its vibrant computer gaming scene.

If they're going to port the original game, they better include the console versions as well.

Lords of Shadow 2 and Mirror of Fate seem to be excluded as well.

Sadly no Switch 1/PS4 versions, like Tekken and others running on the System 11 hardware.

Can we get a port of Night Slashers at least? The Neo Geo needs a few good beat em ups

@SepticLemon Apparently the Doraemon NES game does have a Switch 1 version, but only available via a DLC code. Hamster could obviously emulate NES and PS1 games with no problems on Switch 1, they just chose not to for some strange reason.

@DashKappei Well I hope Edia upped their emulation technology, because they never fixed their Genesis emulation sound issues in the Valis collections.

I thought we got the two Psikyo Shooting Stars collections already? And I doubt Edia's emulation quality is any better than City Connection's.

Knowing Edia, I assume they're saving the rest of the franchise for a second volume, kinda like what they did with the Valis collections.

Sigh, out of the many better homebrew NeoGeo ports, they had to pick this one? Outside of the infamous opening, which was not even in the arcade original, you're left with a rather mediocre shump. Even Toaplan had better shmups in their catalogue.

I wish Sega rereleased the games as advertisement. I want a proper port of Revenge of Death Adder and The Duel.

And this game was hugely popular in Japanese arcades back in the day, beating out the likes of KOF 98, SF3 3rd Strike, and Soulcalibur. In contrast, I never saw this in Australian arcades back in the day.

@lordlad You can buy the Japanese exclusive physical collections, where all of the Super Sidekicks games are included.

@FrowardCoast440 Interestingly according to the website, A Boy and His Blob is listed under JCF instead of JCN, despite it being developed by an American publisher. I assume JCF includes games that were either Famicom exclusive or released for both regions, whereas JCN is reserved for NES exclusive games that were never released in Japan.

https://city-connection.co.jp/jalecolle/en/

Who knows, Ripple Island, a FC adventure game, was fully translated for the first collection.

Looks like I have to correct my previous comment. A few Data East properties are owned by Paon DP, including Chelnov, Karnov, Windjammers, and the Kuuga series (Kuuga/Vapor Trail, Rohga/Wolf Fang, Skull Fang), while the vast majority of other properties are owned by G-Mode instead. Paon DP has licensed out Rohga and Karnov for AA this year, while the last G-Mode Data East games on AA was Trio the Punch back in May 2022.

I still hope Hamster could work out a deal with G-Mode down the line.

Good to see Data East back on Arcade Archives. I hope to see all of the delisted Johnny Turbo's Arcade/Retro Classix games rereleased down the line.

@-wc- TBH as a Lego fan, most of the recommendations are suggestions only, and many in the Lego community also dislike the company's attempts to market itself to adult collectors by trying to make the boxes look less "kiddy".

I'd prefer Konami to rerelease the two Famicom games instead.

@MontyCircus Yeah it's a shame that many of the non-action games on Console Archives are untranslated, Hamster could've licensed some fan translation at least.

A pity because The Conveni looks like one of those chibi Kairosoft simulation games and I would have bought it if it has an English translation.

@delta7890 Unfortunately the regional variants are separate. If you want to play the Japanese version of NG3 you can either buy the Console Archives version or change your account region to Japan and download their variant of Nintendo Classics.

@KingMike I just checked out the NSO version, apparently Arnold and Sigourney are in that version.

@JohnnyMind It's on Nintendo Classics NES in case you want to play the original

@AllieKitsune Meanwhile there's the rerelease by City Connection coming later this month

@Fallingshadow I don't think the arcade version is available anymore. The Johnny Turbo's Arcade/Retro Classix range were pulled a few years ago.

Yeah many of the 360 shumps got downgraded versions on modern platforms. The modern Raiden Fighters collection didn't even support 54 FPS (the arcade original setting) until months after launch.

The collection is pretty much redundant if you own a Switch with a NSO subscription. They should've went all out and included the original arcade game as well as Returns.

@RadioShadow The Sega Ages remaster of the first arcade game is great too. It includes the unreleased English version, online multiplayer, as well as optional features such as quick turn and left rotation.

@Van_Helsing I'd love to see a compilation like that. Rainbow Islands is getting a collection of the 8/16-bit console ports later this year and I'd love to see the original Bubble Bobble as well.