Time for our regular 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…
JETBOY & the Randomizer of DOOM. Honestly July is offering slim pickings so far, so we’re starting with a couple of deep cuts that might not have made it here otherwise – not that there’s anything wrong with them, but they are stretching our remit here! Anyway, this one’s a pixel shooter on jet-packs with a heavy metal soundtrack and some strong retro vibes. Especially Jet-Pac ones, would you believe! It’s out on 1st July for Nintendo Switch at a price of £4.79, and credit to Game Trailers for the video.
Rainbow Laser Disco Dungeon. I’ve been playing Robotron 2084 this week for an upcoming epic here on the Midway Arcade Treasures compilation for PlayStation 2, and by amazing coincidence, like that game this one is set in 2084! Okay, no coincidence, but as well as some familiar twin-stick shooting, you’ve also got a bit of rhythm-action and dungeon crawling in the mix, and it looks pretty cool! It’s also out on the 1st for Nintendo Switch at £9.99, and I think it might also be out on PC via Steam too. Credit once again to Game Trailers for the video.
Hell Pages. It’s evil versus evil in this old-school side-scrolling shoot ‘em up! You’re a demon, unleashed onto Earth among ten infernal armies because some idiot left the door to hell wide open. That makes for ten levels of nightmare fuel, shooting everything in sight (including some nice but not nice looking bosses) to a big pumping soundtrack. It’s been out on Steam for a while, but is coming to Switch on July 15th for £7.99.
Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium. This is the big one this month! A total of 32 arcade titles either bundled or for sale individually, and like the first one, it’s looking very polished with loads of customisations and all mod-cons such as gameplay slowdown, save states and rewinds. For me at least, the first Stadium was a greatest hits package, but this one is mostly about discovery, with stuff like Mega Man: The Power Battle, Saturday Night Slam Masters and Rally 2011 LED Storm really grabbing my interest. Not sure about the bundle though, having just bought the Capcom Fighting Collection which contains a bunch of duplicates, as well as a few of the more niche games I can probably live without here! It’s out on Xbox, PS4, Switch and PC on 22nd July, and it looks like the full game bundle costs £32.99, while I assume individual games will be priced at £1.69 like the first collection.
Scarlet Symphony. This was originally a 2009 fan game, belonging to the Touhou Project, which I know very well for its bullet-hell schmups, but this one was a metroidvania drawing very strong influence from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Which might be my favourite Castlevania, depending on whether or not it’s that or Super Castlevania IV I played last! Anyway, this is a remaster of the Touhou game for PC or Switch, priced at £26.99 for the latter at least, and it’s out on the 28th July. And that’s all I’ve got for this month, but I hope you’ve enjoyed having a look at a few trailers all the same, and we’ll see if things pick up for August!
Retro Arcadia 