Continuing our new regular monthly roundup of the handful of games I’m aware of that might interest the retro gaming enthusiast to a greater or lesser degree for the upcoming month, and at the very least I hope you enjoy a few trailers and snippets of info where I have them…
Actually, more than a handful this month, and they start appearing from the outset, with Samurai Riot Definitive Edition being released on Nintendo Switch and PC (where it was originally released a few years ago) on 1st June. This one’s a full remaster, but it looks like the slick solo or co-op beat ‘em up action is still very much intact!
Gigapocalypse seems to be Tamagotchi meets Rampage, as well as a total homage to Godzilla and his Kaijū brethren, which all results in 2D pixel art total destruction to a heavy metal soundtrack, and if that floats your boat it’s out on the 2nd of June on Xbox, Switch and PlayStation, and I think it’s already in early access at least on Steam.
The Wonder Boy Collection is out on 3rd June on Switch and PlayStation, and brings together four classics: Wonder Boy (1986), Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1987), Wonder Boy in Monster World (1991) and Monster World IV (1994). I can also tell you that none of the fun has been lost in translation (literally!) because I’ve been playing them all week for a review that will be here very, very shortly!
Here’s a beast coming on June 8th! Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, aka KOTOR II, comes to Nintendo Switch with a bit of a resolution bump and some performance upgrades, as well as the Restored Content DLC that never saw the light of day when the game was originally released in 2004. Loved the original game but never played this, so very interested in seeing how it holds up!
I once bought a game called Super Mario Strikers for the Nintendo GameCube and to this day have never so much as loaded it! And that’s why I won’t allow myself to get sucked in by Mario Strikers: Battle League when it arrives on June 10. Its madcap take on football does look very cool though…
On the 21st of June we have the Shadowrun Trilogy: Console Edition, which reimagines the cult cyberpunk tactical RPGs Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Dragonfall – Director’s Cut and Shadowrun Hong Kong – Extended Edition. They’re available as a bundle or individually on PlayStation, Switch and Xbox, where you can grab them on Game Pass.
Moving to something a bit less specialist (though honestly equally unappealing to me!), on June 23 there will be Sonic Origins, featuring fully remastered gameplay, animations and various other stuff that ties together the four included games, namely Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic CD, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckes.
My Deathsmiles I & II Collector’s Edition still hasn’t turned up, but this combo is finally coming to PC via Steam on 23rd June after it was released on Switch and PlayStation at the end of last year I think. The last couple of games here might not have been my cup of tea, but Cave’s Deathsmiles is my favourite shoot ‘em up of all time, and the more places it’s available again the better!
I’m not the biggest fighting game connoisseur anymore, but there’s no way I’m not getting Capcom Fighting Collection on June 24th – the only question is whether to pre-order on Xbox or Switch because I still haven’t made up my mind where I want the pre-order bonus for the upcoming Capcom Arcade sequel to sit! Either way, it’s ten of the best from Capcom’s arcade heritage including the wonderful Darkstalkers and Vampire Saviors, and it’s about time I did become the biggest fighting game connoisseur again!
Also on June 24, we have Pocky & Rocky Reshrined for PlayStation and Switch, one of which we might review here if we’re lucky! It’s a new instalment in the legendary top-down scrolling shooter series from Taito that’s styled a lot like the old SNES games. And that’s a cool look to have!
Last up for this month we’ve got some DLC for the wonderful, brutal Cuphead, and it will be available on everything and everywhere on June 30. Cuphead In The Delicious Last Course gives us a whole new Inkwell Isle to explore, a new playable character, Ms. Chalice, new adventures and a load of new weapons and charms that you can take back into the original game too. Only problem is I’m not sure I’m ready to be broken by more Cuphead again yet!
That’s the lot for this month, but make the most of it because so far I’m seeing nothing of interest coming in July! Instead, I’ll give a quick shoutout to an upcoming Amiga Castlevania fan game, Maria Renard’s Revenge – check out that music! In the meantime, I hope you’ve found something of interest here, and if there’s anything I missed or anything coming next month that I should include, please let me know!
Retro Arcadia 