Llamasoft, liminal space, Lunar and more.
Almost three decades after the release of the original Armored Core, the impossible has finally happened: the series has finally made the jump to Nintendo platforms, in exactly the manner y’all always hoped it would.
ARCADE ARCHIVES
Tatakae! Big Fighter (Sky Robo)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (worldwide)
- Price: $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29
- Publisher: Hamster / Nichibutsu
What’s this? A horizontally-scrolling sci-fi shooting game, originally developed and distributed in arcades by Nichibutsu in 1989, with the global release titled Sky Robo; the game’s defining mechanic is the ability to switch the player-ship from fighter form to mecha form, with the mecha form being larger but able to more easily attack in eight directions.
Why should I care? You love a good Macross ripoff, or you want to try a Nichibutsu shooter that isn’t bombarding you with eight before-their-time mechanics at once.
Useless fact: This was Nichibutsu’s final conventional arcade video game; everything that came later was some variant of prize game or mahjong game of both the horny and non-horny variety.
EGG CONSOLE
Dinosaur(PC-8801)
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (worldwide)
- Price: $6.49 / ¥880
- Publisher: D4 Enterprise / Nihon Falcom
What’s this? A first-person, turn-based RPG with a tarot card motif, originally developed by Nihon Falcom for PC-88 series computers in 1990 and soon ported to PC-98 and FM Towns, with a PC remake titled Dinosaur Resurrection released in 2002; players traverse the world in pursuit of the individual goals of each party member, shaped by those they do or don’t encounter on their journey, with the ability to not only accrue individual techniques over time but pass those techniques onto their comrades when they’ve each been sufficiently leveled.
Why should I care? You want to play something with a substantially grittier tone than Falcom’s usual fare, or you’re interested in the early creative endeavors of folks like Lunar creator Kazunami Tomi and Xeno series creators/designers Tetsuya Takahashi and Kunihiko Tanaka. Just to throw out a long shot… any Sorcerous Stabber Orphen fans out there? A lot of the more overwrought spell names seen in that series were lifted from spells or phrases used in this game.
Language barrier? Virtually all the text is Japanese, and you’re not going to be able to bluff your way through and/or past it.
G-MODE ARCHIVES+
- Platform: Nintendo Switch (Japan)
- Price: ¥1100
- Publisher: G-MODE / Marvelous
What’s this? the first in a series of feature phone games based on From Software’s hardcore mecha combat series Armored Core, original released for Japanese phones in 2004; while this game maintains the heavy mech customization element of the mainline games, the action has been reconfigured for an overhead format not unlike certain late-’80s Namco arcade games.
Why should I care? Not only does this reissue represent yet further unraveling of the international rights quagmire surrounding the series, as well as a broader win for the proliferation of obscure media, but the game itself is so darn quaint — From’s commitment to cramming as much ultra-low-poly mecha junk into one tiny wrapper is commendable, as was their attempt to cram some relatively complex input commands onto devices that absolutely were not up to the task (and are undoubtedly far less cumbersome on this hardware).
Helpful tip: This game will be available on Steam very soon, so hold tight…
Original article by retronauts.com
