Retro Gaming Australia

A packed week on Virtual Console!

Xbox Live Arcade
Nothing

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

WiiU Virtual Console
Mario & Yoshi (NES) – $AU0.30 until mid-July
Mega Man 2 (NES) – $AU6.50
Mega Man 3 (NES) – $AU6.50
Mega Man 4 (NES) – $AU6.50

3DS Virtual Console
Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear) – $AU6.50
Doctor Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (Game Gear) – $AU3.90
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (Game Gear) – $AU5.20
Columns (Game Gear) – $AU5.20
Mega Man 6 (NES) – $AU6.50

Wii Virtual Console
Path of the Warrior: Art of Fighting 3 (Neo Geo) – 900 points

Nintendo eShop (North America)

WiiU Virtual Console
Yoshi (NES) – $US0.30

3DS Virtual Console
Sonic the Hedgehog (Game Gear) – $US4.99
Doctor Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine (Game Gear) – $US2.99
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (Game Gear) – $US3.99
Columns (Game Gear) – $US3.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)
Nothing

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Contra: Shattered Soldier (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99
Pirates: Legend of the Black Buccaneer (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Good Old Games

New Releases
Pandemonium 2 – $US5.99
Jade Empire: Special Edition – $US9.99 (introductory pricing, normally $US14.99)

Discounts
Notable Nordic Games sale – 60% off selected games

Steam
Nothing

SCUMMVM, the emulator dedicated to keeping the many fantastic LucasArts adventure games playable for future generations, is available on pretty much every system around.

Thanks to the efforts of programmer Jukka Jylänki, SCUMMVM is now also playable in your HTML5 enabled browser.

To stay on the right side of the law, the version up on the site only enables you to play the demo versions of games such as Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road and The Secret of Monkey Island, to name a few.

Square Enix has released a new trailer for the upcoming HD remasters of Final Fantasy X and X-2.

The games will be released later this year – together on the PlayStation 3, but separately on the PlayStation Vita.

Regardless of which version you get, that horrible laughing scene still included, though.

Sega has released a new trailer for their upcoming remake of Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse.

The trailer confirms that the game is based on the Mega Drive / Genesis version of the game, but will also feature new levels.

It’ll be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Steam in the North American summer. So before the end of September, basically.

Oddworld Inhabitants has released a new trailer for the upcoming HD remake of Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, entitled Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty. The game is currently scheduled to be released on the PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Wii U.

It won’t, however, be coming to the Xbox 360 or Xbox One anytime soon. According to Oddworld Inhabitants co-founder Lorne Lanning, it’s because Microsoft stuffed them around with Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. Microsoft first rejected the game because it exceeded the XBLA size limit, then refused them a slot because they didn’t have a publisher. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Lanning elaborated “Why do we need a publisher when we self-finance our games, we build our own IP, we manage our own IP and we’ve turned nearly two million units online as indie publishers sold – not free downloads? Why? What’s wrong with us?”

They could actually release the game if they wanted to, Lanning elaborated, stating “For Xbox One they’ve granted us a license for New ‘n’ Tasty! but they still say you need a publisher. We don’t have a publisher so we’re not officially on the platform, even though we’re compatible, even though we’ll be ready to do it. Period.”

The Mega Man love appears to be in full swing this week.

Discotek Media announced today via their Facebook page that they will be re-releasing Ruby Spears’ Mega Man animated series to DVD in 2014 in North America.

Previously, ADV Films held the license to the series. They put out a two disc set in 2002, which has long since been discontinued. ADV Films went bust a number of years ago.

Rare’s visually groundbreaking fighting game series Killer Instinct will be returning later this year on the Xbox One.

Development duties have shifted from Britain to America with Double Helix leading production efforts on the title.

Little has been confirmed at this stage beyond the inclusion of Jago, Sabrewulf, Glacius and a 2013 release date.

Contra: Shattered Soldier, the last traditional Contra game for home consoles, will join the PS2 Classics range in North America next week.

The game is best remembered for putting the series back on track after the dire Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure.

Expect to cough up $US9.99 for this one.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Capcom, and to celebrate, the company has teamed up with publisher BradyGames to release an encyclopedia of their pantheon of video game characters, simply titled the Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia.

According to the publisher, the book “celebrates Capcom’s 30 years in the industry and gives fans concise information about every major Capcom character, their key artwork, statistics, background information, and interesting notes on the history of each character and game franchise.” Over 200 of Capcom’s finest will be featured in the book, which is a 208 page hardcover edition.

The Capcom 30th Anniversary Character Encyclopedia is available to order from Amazon for just $US12.72

Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, new publishing outfit Boss Fight Books will be releasing a number of books on classic video games. Each book will take what the publisher describes as a “critical, creative, historical, and personal look at a single classic video game.”

Five books have been announced at this time: Earthbound, Galaga, Super Mario Bros 2, ZZT and Jagged Alliance 2. The Earthbound book is the first planned release with a tenative release date of December 2013.

The Kickstarter campaign still has 23 days to go, so you can snap up all five books for the early bird price of $US25 for the digital version, or $US100 for both the print and digital.