It did not take eagle-eyed gamers much time to spot something very interesting on the Switch dashboard HAMSTER used for the Famitsu broadcast that revealed the upcoming Arcade Archive Punch-Out!! is arriving next week. Not one but two as-yet-unannounced ACA title icons where clearly visible earlier today, and both belong to two true '80's video game franchises. Spoilers ahead!
UPL's 1984 Ninja-Kid kick-started the whole Ninja JaJaMaru-kun series that would go to delight gamers at home thanks to several 8-bit entries for both Famicom and Game Boy and even a single Super Famicom entry all by the hands of Jaleco. A charming yet hardcore platformer that, despite being three decades old and long-surpassed by its own sequel, still retains its own addictive qualities.
One year later, Nichibutsu's 1985 Terra Cresta changed the landscapes for shmup generations to come. Ditching the single-screen nature of the original Moon Cresta, this revered shmup brought TATE scrolling action to arcades and later to Famicom owners at home, thanks to an incredibly faithful conversion. Instead of weapon power-ups, you could actually collect other ships that provided fire-power upgrades and even the ability to fly in different formations. A revolutionary shmup that also still plays brilliantly today.
No word on when these two classics will be arriving, but no doubt they'll fall into HAMSTER's weekly release schedule nicely.
An exciting leak into the future of the Switch Arcade Archives series! Will you be picking up any of these two?
[source nintendoeverything.com, via japanesenintendo.com, japanesenintendo.com]
Comments 50
Looks like a couple of entertaining classics, so I'd say: the more, the merrier.
"Accidently". They know how to rob this nostolgic old farts wallet.
More HAMSTER mooooorrrreeee.
I’d rather have Moon Cresta! Fun classic shooter
This is a welcome surprise! more more more!
Terra Cresta was ace. Hmmm...I wonder if Slap Fight will make the archives too.
Hamster really is doing a great job on these. Wish they were a little bit cheaper but good to see this stuff coming out
I could have been a normal person, but I was exposed to Terra Cresta on Zx Spectrum and my life was never the same.
Afterburner next, how about it Sega?
@Shiryu I never was able to play on the Spectrum myself, so I'm quite partial to the Famicom version.
Speaking of Famicom, I'm hoping all of these show up one day on Switch, either as Arcade Archive releases or as Virtual Console one.
@meppi64 ...they should have sent a poet. 0_0;
@Shiryu I'm not sure if I follow to be honest.
None of that rhymed as far as I'm aware of.
@meppi64 I do hope at the very least Irem's Image Fight shows up after R-Type. The game is utterly brilliant but also equally brutal.
Loving Moon Patrol, great little game. I don't recall ever seeing it in the arcades, I was only 5 when it came out. I did play it on 2600 though but looking at that version now compared to the one in the arcades,it really was a poor man's Moon Patrol.
I'm of the generation where the words 'arcade perfect' really meant something but nothing you played at home ever was.The difference was pretty huge until the CD based consoles arrived, even then it took a few years for them to be on par with the arcades before eventually surpassing them once the Dreamcast and PS2 arrived. Final Fight on Mega CD was the big one for me, the first time I ever felt like I'm playing the arcade on my own TV. Felt amazing.I think that's one of reasons I'm so drawn to these arcade releases. They're not just 'arcade perfect', they're 'Arcade Perfection' HD, filters, display options, portable and on the TV, and most of all online leaderboards and Caravan mode. It's amazing to own the kind of games I used to dream of as a wee laddie, some of them I've played in the arcades, others I've played ports of, some I've only watched others play but there's so many I wasn't even aware of.
Best of all though, we've got a great little retro community going here and with all the chatting about them in the forum and the weekly challenges we've got going, is making me appreciate them even more.
@OorWullie this was my Moon Patrol:
And on topic, this was my Terra Cresta:
Wish I could go back three decades back and tell my young self and say "It's ok little dude, in the future you will be able to carry all those arcade salons in your pocket."
@OorWullie @Shiryu Now that Irem is on board, I'm sure that one will come one day. I was actually going through my PC-Engine games a week or two ago and to my surprise I came across Image Fight II. Completely forgot I got that one all those years go.
And speaking of how this hobby has changed, I don't think we as kids back in the day would be able to imagine playing the games like we are today on Switch. It would have blown our minds.
Heck, the Game Boy blew my mind completely when I first saw it in the Club Nintendo issue!
One of the games that stood out to me as being absolutely arcade perfect was Batsugun on the Sega Saturn.
Bit strange actually since we've seen plenty of arcade perfect games before that. But still, that one really blew me away in that regard.
@Shiryu As bad as it looks I bet you loved it back in the day.
That's what's up ! I'm down with purchasing the real arcade Punch Out!!
I always confuse Hybris on the Amiga with Terra Cresta. Hybris had awesome music. https://youtu.be/K9s0lO-k7cs?t=22s
Wow the music in Terra Cresta sounds like it could’ve easily been a B-side off the original Blaster Master soundtrack. I think that is so cool.
Terra Cresta’s ability to get other ships as power ups makes me think of Mii Force.
The streetpass games were/are underrated.
@tovare But then Battle Squadron came out and I had tow work my parents into upgrading my ZX Spectrum to a Commodore Amiga 500.
That 16 -bit powerhouse made me the man I am today.
So, that was HAMSTER Next episode.
After NEO GEO, ACA, could it be SEGA Genesis, SEGA Saturn or Dreamcast by, next ??
Love the Sea Punk Sylvester Stallone.
@tovare wow Hybris was a good game!!
@GrailUK
An arcade perfect Slap Fight would be a day one purchase for me. I can't tell you how many quarters I poured into that machine in college. It was a race between SMB, Slap Fight, and Goonies.
I do have bit of an affinity for Ninja-Kid here, or Ninja-jajamaru-jun as I used to know it as, I had this weird Orange colored Nintendo 64 controller shaped 60 games in 1 thing that had this as one of the 18 or so games in it. I recall kinda liking it so I might give it a shot for nostalgia's sake.
Arcade PO, very awesome! I hope Nintendo gives us more of their arcade titles, such as the Vs. ones. Just for experience's sake, I'd also like Super Special Mario Bros. from the PC88.
Terra Cresta, Nichibutsu, beautiful.
Also the sequel is a favorite on PCE
@Shiryu
Well, at least the TG16 versions of Image Fight and Image Fight II are available on the Wii U's TG16 VC.
@OorWullie You did NOT just entirely skip the Neo Geo while mentioning when exactly arcade perfect conversions entered the homes of consumers...
@ThanosReXXX Haha, yep that's terrible. I did actually mean to write
"but nothing you played at home ever was unless you were a rich kid with a Neo Geo."
Terra Cresta was released on the NES a few years later (though sometimes erroneously called other things like Terra Presta due to the somewhat ambiguous logo font), but from what I've heard the music in the NES version has an ever so subtle difference from the Famicom. It sounds like the some music but just a slight bit more downbeat than the Famicom's. That is at least using NES Guide's NES video (they say they recorded all their gameplay sample videos on youtube from original hardware) and a camera recording I made of an original AV Famicom.
Though it's kind of a moot point since ACA is like its name, going to be the arcade version surely.
@OorWullie Very true, and my first "arcade at home" experience was also with a Sega Dreamcast, so no harm done to me personally...
I still vividly remember the first time I saw the Dreamcast playing Soul Calibur in my local game shop: it completely blew me away. I actually still spent quite a bit of time in the arcades back then, and seeing those types of games being reproduced 1:1 on a home console was completely mind boggling, as in brain - explodes...
And then I knew I just HAD to have that console. And I still have it and play on it every now and then. And Soul Calibur STILL amazes me to this day, in how good it stands the test of time, especially effects- and animation wise, even more so if you consider how old that game is.
Is Moon Patrol a good game?
Never heard of it. Only had Nintendo and Sega systems as a kid, and was too poor to go to the arcades often... cause it seems like an older game which I may have been too young for. Only started playing games around age 6 in 1990.
hype!
More retro goodies. You guys have fun. I will just keep sitting here waiting and wishing for my nostalgia to get some love too...
@JaxonH Well it obviously depends on how far you can go back and enjoy classic games.
I myself have no problem enjoying any arcade games no matter what their release date is and I love Moon Patrol.
Played it back in the arcades a ton and the last time I played it was on Arcade Greatest Hits Midway Collection on PSone.
Got it now on Switch and I love the game just as much as I did back in the day.
And who said there's are to many HAMSTER lol
More the better
Can we have samurai showdown 64 I've nerve played if before.
I wonder if sega will join at some point
some streets of rage will be nice.
On another point will there be any more up to date king of fighters.
@meppi64 Xevious should’ve been on the Namco Museum IMO- idk what they were thinking but hopefully Namco will do a Museum Vol 2!
@joey302 Yeah, it really should have been on there.
No idea why they left it off as it's been a staple of Namco Museums compilations for a couple of decades now.
Really hoping we'll get more volumes, but it feels like this might have been just a one of.
@meppi64 was one of my early favorites- I remember bringing home the Atari 7800 Xevious in 1986 which at the time blew me away. Was the only way that i recall that you could play Xevious at home. Played for hours lol good times. 👍
@joey302 Well there was one other way to play Xevious at home, even in 1983.
I grew up in small pub that my mom had back then, and there always was an arcade cabinet as well as a pinball table as long back as I can remember.
So I played a ton of arcade games as they were switched out every 2 or 3 months or so. Literally grew up on them.
We have a bit of an arcade community going in the forum for all us old farts. btw.
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/arcade_archives?start=220
And even a weekly high score competition that's gaining in popularity:
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/arcade_shmup_high_score_thread?start=1120
@OorWullie you need to get yourself an Atari Jaguar mate. The home brew community there is incredible. It’s unbelievable that guys are making games in their houses and releasing them. I’ve bought 13 carts since October. They aren’t cheap but the love that has gone into them shines through. I’ve been playing Xenon 2 this weekend and it’s superb. 😘
@JaxonH up high within the ranks of the most popular classics imo - based on our previous conversations and reading your other many past comments here....YOU WILL ENJOY!
@meppi64 that’s an awesome childhood right there lol. I had an arcade right outside my train station and after hopping off the train on my way home from school - instead of heading straight home to do homework etc, I stayed there for hours and played Moon Patrol, Robotron 2084, Defender, Joust, Gauntlet, Paperboy, Blasteroids, Punch Out...omg countless others! Of course, when I finally got home, had the face Dad’s wrath!! Every Time!!
@meppi64 thx been in there a few times but just waiting to jump in - lol
I've been debating recently which ACA games I might wanna get. Been awhile since I played Punch Out, I'd love to step into the ring again.
It's exhausting waiting for Nintendo to release their arcade classics at this pace.
@OorWullie The gameplay was there at least. One of the most accurate playing arcade conversions on the 2600.
This post and the comments have been awesome to read on my tea break. All power to the Switch arcade and its community here. Wonderful reading all those stories that also capture my own experiences as an arcade mad child and home computer, console enthusiast. Great tag line: The "Switch: Arcade Perfection" (or at least moving in that direction with each new retro release. Please bring Sega, Capcom, Konami, ToaPlan, Cave, Taito and company along for the ride too). Thanks to all for sharing.
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