Retro Gaming Australia

Another kind of below par week. There’s some good stuff out there, but it’s way overpriced.

Saturn with Virtua Gun and four games

Snowboard Kids 2 (Nintendo 64)

DuckTales (NES)

Sonic CD and Mortal Kombat CD (Mega CD)

Street Gangs (aka River City Ransom) (NES)

Shenmue and Shenmue II (Dreamcast)

Sega has finally announced that Castle of Illusion HD will be hitting the PlayStation Store on September 3, with the Xbox Live Arcade version to follow on September 4.

As an added incentive, Sega will be giving away the Mega Drive version of Castle of Illusion with digital preorders on the PlayStation Store. It is our understanding that this will be the only way to get the classic version of the game, as plans have not been announced for a separate release.

A local price for the PSN version has not been revealed (it is £9.99 / €12.99 / $US14.99 elsewhere), but it will set you back 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was part of the first wave of “good” games for the PlayStation 2 in late 2001, following a kind of lacking launch lineup. It’s relatively light as far as RPGs go, but it really shines in co-op.

After Sega discontinued the Dreamcast, they spread their development efforts across the competing consoles. One of the titles the Xbox got was Jet Set Radio Future, a sequel to the cult hit Jet Set Radio. It’s a little bit different from the original, offering way bigger stages and a little less emphasis on tagging.

Earthworm Jim: Special Edition is an expanded version of the first game in the series which features an extra level, Big Bruty, 1,000 extra frames of animation, alternate endings and a remixed CD soundtrack. It was originally released for the Mega CD, with a Windows 95-based PC version released some months later.

Bare Knuckle, or Streets of Rage as it is known here in the West, is set for a 3D Classics release on the Nintendo 3DS eShop in Japan.

3D Streets of Rage (3D Bare Knuckle) will include local co-op, 3D graphics and a newly added One Hit Deathblow Mode, were enemies are killed in a single hit.

The game comes out on August 21 and will cost players 600 yen. There is no word on a western release yet, but we suppose it is only as matter of time.

Source: Nintendo Life

Like any big name film in the late 80s and early 90s, the Warren Beatty-led incarnation of Dick Tracy received multiple video game incarnations. This ad is for the NES one which is a totally different beast to the Sega published games, focusing more on being a gumshoe than gunning down gangsters.

Berzerk is a popular arcade shooter released by Stern. It’s also remembered for the game that was being played when 19 year old Jeff Dailey died of a heart attack while playing the game.

NARC is one of Midway’s more controversial arcade hits, and, as you’d expect, a cut down version made its way home on the NES courtesy of Rare and Acclaim. The NES version had just about all references to drugs removed by virtue of Nintendo of America’s heavy handed censorship.

Bit of a lame duck week for everything but the Nintendo 64, so we’ll focus on that.

Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64)

Mario Party (Nintendo 64)

Pokemon Stadium (Nintendo 64)

Pokemon Stadium 2 (Nintendo 64)

Nintendo 64 Pokemaniac Edition Console bundle

Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)

Shenmue (Dreamcast)

Killer Instinct + Bonus Watch (SNES)