City Connection's Saturn Tribute Boosted series is expanding this month, as an all-new two-in-one bundle comprising Data East's Wolf Fang and Skull Fang arrives on Switch on 30th October.
For Wolf Fang — the mech-based side-scrolling run-and-gun shooter — this will be the first time the game has made its way West after releasing in Japanese arcades in 1991 before being ported to PS1 and Saturn in Japan in 1996 and 1997, respectively.
And it's not like Skull Fang was much easier to get hold of. The vertical-scrolling shooter arrived in arcades in 1996 before landing its Saturn port in Japan a year later. In short, if you're a fan of Data East's arcade shooters, this will be your best chance to play through this pair.
The two titles loosely hang in the studio's 'Kuuga' trilogy, which started with Vapor Trail (or Kuuga – Operation Code Vapor Trail in Japan) back in 1989. This 'Boosted' version comes with a host of new features including a rewind and save/load function for both games and fresh music arrangements (for which you can toggle between the new and the OG tracks).
Here's a summary of each game (translated via Google) from the City Connection website:
Wolf Fang
As a member of the Wolf Fang Corps, the player pilots a robot weapon called an "Armored Mecha" and heads to the battlefield. Build your own beloved robot by combining three parts: "torso (subweapon)," "arms (melee attack)," and "legs (movement method)." Defeat the enemies by using shots, melee attacks, stomp attacks, and subweapons. If the robot is destroyed, the pilot can fight alone. Fight hard to collect items and repair your robot to revive it! Take on the battlefield as many times as you like with the Saturn's unique character voices, new actions, and boss rush mode!
Skull Fang
As a member of the Skeleton Fang Platoon, the player boards a fighter plane and heads off to intercept enemy weapons approaching the defense line. Choose from four pilots with different skills and four fighter planes with different performance. On the battlefield, freely control the speed of your fighter plane and decide whether to take the risk and fly at high speed, or play it safe and fly slow to intercept the enemy. In boss battles, control your speed to mark the boss within range. The Saturn version is even more powerful with additional bosses, background music, and additional units in trial mode!
WolfFang 空牙2001 SkullFang 空牙外伝 Saturn Tribute Boosted arrives on the Switch eShop later this month for £26.99 / $29.99 and there's even a 10% discount available until mid-November.
We last went hands-on with the Saturn Tribute Boosted series in 2023 with Toaplan's last shmup, Batsugun. We had a great time with that one, awarding it an 8/10 in our review, so here's hoping City Connection can keep the good times coming this month.