Time for our regular roundup of the mostly (but not strictly) retro-interest games I’m aware of so far that are due for release in the upcoming month, complete with trailers for everything and snippets of info where I have them!
I spent literally decades playing Missile Command without ever realising you could shoot from all three of the bases at the bottom! Once I did it didn’t change much though – still not really for me, but if it’s for you then check out our first release of the month, Missile Command Recharged. It’s a reimagining of the 1980 shooter, with fancy graphics and upgrades and power-ups, and I think it’s actually been around for a while of Steam and mobile, but it’s coming to all the consoles today, November 1st.
And tomorrow, on the 2nd, Shatter Remastered Deluxe is bringing the definitive version of its souped-up brick-breaking to everything too. You’ve got over seventy levels across ten distinct worlds to play through, with some mad physics, power-ups, intense boss action and loads of gameplay modes, including couch co-op. Honestly I’m not familiar with this one but you’ve also got hi-res, mega frame rate remastered visuals and an enhanced soundtrack to boot, which apparently is a good ‘un!
I’ve been looking forward to Mecha Ritz Steel Rondo for a while, and it finally arrives on PC and Switch on the 3rd (with one about a third of the cost of the other if you have the choice). It’s a very distinctive, very frantic vertical shoot ‘em up set in a mechanised apocalypse, mixing vector graphics with pixel art and a fantastic FM synth soundtrack. There’s dynamic difficulty at play across the fifteen stages (and forty bosses!) that makes it welcoming for the beginner but a challenge for the veteran, and I can’t wait to play this one!
Sonic Frontiers dumps 3D Sonic the Hedgehog in an open-world (or open-zone) on the 8th on Switch, PC, Xbox and PlayStation. I have zero affinity with Sonic, except maybe his appearance dangling off the rearview mirror in Sega’s 1991 racer Rad Mobile, so l’m really not qualified to comment on whether or not it looks sparse and unevenly paced but varied and mostly fun…
Tactics Ogre: Reborn arrives on PlayStation, Switch and PC on the 11th, and is a remaster of the 2010 PSP turn-based tactical RPG Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, which itself was a remake of the 1995 SNES original. I think! It’s big-budget, big-scale fantasy fair with a deep, branching story, revamped 3D battlefields and multi-language cutscenes. All very Square Enix and all very nerdy, and if that’s your thing I’m sure it justifies the very full-price asking price too!
Only one thing I’ll be parting with cash for on the 11th though, and that’s Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration, which I’ve got preordered physically on Switch, but you’ve also got the choice of PlayStation, Xbox, PC and apparently Atari VCS too, so it seems. There’s 100+ games spanning Atari’s history on arcade, Atari 800, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari Jaguar and Atari Lynx… The games aren’t fully announced yet but I really hope for a bit of handheld Basketbrawl action for the old Lynx! What we do know is that it all seems to be very lovingly emulated and presented, and as well as the games you’ll be getting interviews, retrospectives and so on too. Looks great!
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet arrive on Nintendo Switch on the 18th, bringing borderless open-worlds to the series for the first time as far as I’m aware. Apart from that, there’s co-op play, new Pokémon and some fancy graphics, but the rest seems like business as usual as you explore, catch Pokémon, train them, trade them, fight them against other trainers and so on. Reminds me, I never did finish that Moon one on 3DS…
Closing out this month we’ve got Donut Dodo, a single-screen 2D platformer that’s presented as a pixel-perfect lost arcade classic from 1983. Seems to be old-school difficult too, but also very fair and reminiscent of something like Chuckie Egg, BurgerTime or Mario Bros. It’s already out (and already on sale) on Steam, and I think it’s another one for that Atari VCS thing too, but it’s definitely coming to Switch on the 30th, possibly also with news of the 8-bit and PC “conversions” vaguely mentioned in the blurb too!
What no God of War? Well, I don’t own a PlayStation anymore so I’m not massively interested, and if you are then you don’t need me to tell you about it! I will mention one more game though, New Joe & Mac: Caveman Ninja, which, as I write, is due to come to everything sometime in November but I’m not sure when yet. Seems like part-remaster and part-remake of the 1991 prehistoric SNES scrolling platformer which I’ve never played but did find the sequel very average, so probably a miss for me, but keep an eye out if it’s more for you!
That’s going to do us for November. Hope you’ve enjoyed a look at what’s on the way and a few trailers too, and we’ll be back here in a month or so to have a look at what’s left for the rest of 2022… Not really sure that much is left so far, but I guess I’m finally going to have to concede isn’t going to include Hollow Knight: Silksong, although at least that means my upcoming game of the year feature won’t need any last minute changes! See you next time!
Retro Arcadia 