There’s not going to be a Kingdom Hearts V, right? We all understand that it can’t and won’t happen in our lifetimes, don’t we? Just checking.
Arcade Archives and Arcade Archives 2
Fighting Golf
• Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X worldwide (ACA2); Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 worldwide (ACA)
• Price: $9.99 / €8.99 / £7.39 (ACA2); $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29 (ACA); $2.99 / €2.99 / £2.49 (ACA-to-ACA2 upgrade)
• Publisher: Hamster / SNK
What is it? SNK developed and distributed this arcade golf game in 1988, then followed it soon afterward with a NES/Famicom conversion released in North America as Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf. Pick one of four characters, each with different strengths, and vie for the lead over as many as 18 holes. Aiming and hitting use a digital, old-school swing mechanic based on three button presses, while the game chooses clubs for you. You may remember seeing it in arcades as Country Club: that later version was remixed for trackball controls, but it isn’t included here.
Why care? Maybe you feel duty-bound to trace the roots of Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. You’ll also need the patience to figure out how forcefully to swing in each situation, since the meter doesn’t always show the cause and effect clearly—or accurately.
Useful tip: This release contains both Japanese and international ROMs, in old and new versions. The differences between them aren’t documented online, and I’m not certain that every version included here has ever been publicly dumped. Fortunately, the manual lists what changes: character names and designs, bonus scoring requirements, and the time limit for each swing.
Console Archives
Ripple Island (Famicom)
• Platform: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5 worldwide
• Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
• Publisher: Hamster / Sunsoft
What is it? Sunsoft’s cheerful “animation adventure” first appeared on Famicom in 1988. It later came to PlayStation in 2002 as part of the two-game Sunsoft Memorial Vol.4, and has also been reissued through Japan’s Virtual Consoles and the recent Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection compilation. Heroes Kyle and Cal set out to save Ripple Island from an evil emperor and rescue the king’s daughter. Interaction combines command selection with pointing: choose an icon from a row, then either move a cursor over an on-screen person or object, or pick commands from a menu to engage with the world. As usual, this is the original Japanese ROM without a translation.
Why care? This is a chance to try one of Sunsoft’s major Japanese classics, whose fairly brief, linear story works surprisingly well with its branching endings and period-appropriate inscrutability. That said, it’s a harder sell if you haven’t already bought Sunsoft is Back!: the compilation includes this game and two other Sunsoft Famicom releases, with new localizations and extra features, and it’s regularly available for much less than this edition.
Useless fact: The game recently got a “sequel” modeled on Overcooked of all things.
EGG Console
Aggres (PC-8801)
• Platform: Nintendo Switch worldwide
• Price: $6.49 / ¥770
• Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Riverhillsoft
What is it? Riverhillsoft’s 1986 follow-up to its 1985 science-fiction adventure Zodiac, originally developed and released for the PC-88 computer series. Set five years after the first game, it follows the protagonist and his sarcastic helper bot as they investigate a fresh lead in the search for their missing father. The biggest change to moment-to-moment play is the removal of the original’s text-entry system. Commands are instead assigned to number keys, with contextual subcommands shaped by four character stats. Those stats can be improved by finding required items or carrying out particular actions that players have to discover or work out for themselves.
Why care? You may want to see early versions of systems and even visual touches that the J.B.Harold games would soon embrace more fully. Or perhaps you played the first game and have to play this one to bring its story, such as it is, to a close.
Language barrier? Yes, though the addition of hiragana and the removal of the text parser may make it a little more approachable, I suppose.
Qubyte Classics
Thunder Hoop Collection
• Platform: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC via Steam worldwide
• Price: $9.99 or equivalent
What is it? This emulated double feature brings together Spanish arcade developer Gaelco’s 1992 side-scroller Thunder Hoop and its 1994 sequel, TH Strikes Back. Neither game has appeared on home platforms before. Qubyte’s usual options are included: save states, rewind, and basic screen and control settings.
Why care? The games’ remarkably shameless borrowing from Dragon Ball might amuse you—and TH Strikes Back makes an even more entertaining swerve into supposedly mature content and a darker tone, apparently as imagined by a teenager who really likes Vegeta.
Useful tip: It may not matter much for these games, especially since the first offers little beyond a one-time tour of its assets. Still, Qubyte’s emulation has improved lately, so buying this collection may not be something you immediately regret.
Other releases
BioMenace Remastered
• Platform: Nintendo Switch worldwide
• Price: $14.99 or equivalent
• Publisher: Rigel Gameworks
What is it? This Switch edition ports the recent PC remaster of BioMenace, Apogee’s 1993 side-scrolling PC action game, first released through shareware and now owned by its original creator, Jim Norwood. The Switch version keeps most of the PC remaster’s content and features. Alongside a widescreen, high-frame-rate engine, online leaderboards, and mid-level saves, the remaster adds numerous quality-of-life adjustments and general retuning, plus a completely new fourth episode. The level editor appears to be missing, although the game still gives players access to the PC community’s library of user-made stages.
Why care? Even in its original 1993 form, BioMenace felt much more like a console action game than most shareware contemporaries. I think bringing this particular version to Switch will win over players who might have avoided it because they disliked the more flippant design sensibilities of small-scale PC action games from the era. It could also bring back people who tried it back then but dismissed it as needlessly punishing. This time, you will be able to finish it, I promise.
Useless fact: Rigel Gameworks may be familiar for RigelEngine, a fan-made engine originally created to recreate Duke Nukem II. It’s now being used for this release and other commercial projects, including a licensed Duke Nukem II reissue that has not—and might never—make it to PC. The free version of RigelEngine is still available to find and run online.
Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed
• Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 worldwide
• Price: $39.99 or equivalent
• Publisher: THQ Nordic / Purple Lamp
What is it? This Switch 2 edition brings over the 2024 remaster of Junction Point Studios and Disney’s 3D platform-adventure set among vintage and forgotten Disney characters. The original game was published for Nintendo Wii in 2010. Recent Spongebob Squarepants platformer-remake studio Purple Lamp developed this version, moving the game to Unreal Engine and substantially remodeling and retexturing its characters and environments. It also reworks the controls for the central paint-and-thinner mechanic and Mickey’s basic movement, overhauls the camera, and makes it faster and easier to replay or skip the 2D sections. There are numerous quality-of-life changes to the interface, map, subtitles, and more, along with a fully credited concept-art gallery. Compared with the original Switch edition, the Switch 2 version adds Joy-Con mouse controls and runs at a higher resolution and frame rate.
Why care? I’d hoped the remake would let more players enjoy the game’s affectionate celebration of Disney’s less celebrated characters, as well as its “what if Rareware made an immersive sim?” design premise, without the technical problems that dogged the original. Those hopes weren’t quite fulfilled. Still, clipping into half as many environmental objects is a genuine improvement.
Upgrade path? Not exactly, but the original Switch release is getting a free update that will essentially make it the Switch 2 version when played on Switch 2. You may need to dig through the menus to switch on some enhancements yourself, but they do appear to be available.
Kingdom Hearts [I~III] Collection
• Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox worldwide
• Price: $74.99 or equivalent for the collection; $39.99 or equivalent for each release
• Publisher: Square-Enix
What are they? These are new current-generation ports of Kingdom Hearts -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX-, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, and Kingdom Hearts III + Re Mind. They bring forward last-generation remasters and remakes of nearly every game in Square’s decades-old action melodrama series with Disney. The three releases can be bought individually or together. Based on—and replacing—the collection previously called Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece, these ports are almost identical to the existing PC editions. The main upgrades are higher resolution than the earlier console versions and, on Switch 2, actual ports instead of the nearly unplayable cloud versions.
Which games are included? There’s no legible way to list everything in this collection, so I’ll point you to the full breakdown. In brief, it includes a version of nearly every game except some discontinued mobile releases. The originals span PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, a remake of a Game Boy Advance game, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and PlayStation 4.
Why care? I don’t know. I don’t knowwwww.
Switch upgrade path? Owners of the previous cloud releases can get a 50% discount on the new Switch 2 versions. Confusingly, Square has also just released a native original Switch port of 1.5+2.5. It has no upgrade route or discount for the Switch 2 edition, but you can transfer your original Switch save to the Switch 2 version if you upgrade later—not the other way around.
Rainbow Islands CS
• Platform: Nintendo Switch worldwide
• Price: $29.99 or equivalent
• Publisher: Taito / M2
What is it? This emulated collection gathers several home versions of Taito’s arcade hit Rainbow Islands, first released in 1987 as a follow-up to Bubble Bobble in name only. M2’s package adds custom button assignments, save states, display options, cheat and enhancement menus for every game, and extra on-screen tools—including a visual tracker for the position of the essential rainbow diamond drops. It’s arriving digitally worldwide and in a Japanese physical Switch three-pack alongside Parasol Stars and Spica Adventure, two loosely related Taito action games that received global reissues a few years ago.
Which versions are included? The collection contains the Famicom and North American NES editions, the Sega Master System version, the Japanese Sega Mega Drive release of Rainbow Islands Extra and its Genesis localization, and the PC Engine CD port. The Genesis version was thought to have been made for a Sega Channel release before it was eventually found through the Genesis Mini 2. Note also that the original arcade main theme, present in some but not all home versions, has been edited where needed to match the legally distinct arrangement made for the relatively recent Arcade Archives release. That version itself used the edit from the NES edition. The PC Engine port’s original ending theme has also been swapped out for a new track by former Zuntata composer Norihiro Furukawa, also known as Nakayama Raiden, because the original was a licensed pop song.
Why care? It’s hard to recommend discovering Rainbow Islands through this collection instead of playing the genuine arcade version. The home conversions add little that’s new or transformative, and while admirable, they’re otherwise inferior experiences. But if one of these versions holds particular nostalgia for you—or you want to compare them and settle an old console-war argument—this is as good an option as any, provided you can live without the European conversions.
Useless fact: Listeners with sharp ears may notice that the edited music in the Mega Drive and Genesis versions of Rainbow Islands Extra isn’t identical. The Genesis edition, dated 1994—four years after the Mega Drive release—uses an authentic edit produced by Zuntata. The Mega Drive version has a by-ear edit arranged by M2 around 2022 while working on the Genesis Mini 2, before the team had been shown a Genesis build from which it could potentially have copied the audio data.
Source: Retronauts
