Retro XP

It's new to me: Klonoa: Empire of Dreams Portable Klonoa made its international debut on the Game Boy Advance.

Klonoa: Empire of Dreams wasn't the first portable Klonoa, but it was the first worldwide release of a portable game in the series. And it's a great one, too, a puzzle-platforming-oriented game that adds layers of complexity as it goes, without straying from the series' two-button approachability.

It's new to me: Klonoa: Empire of Dreams Portable Klonoa made its international debut on the Game Boy Advance.

Namco's Game Boy Advance title, Klonoa: Empire of Dreams, was recently added to Nintendo Switch Online, and if you've never played, well, here's why you should get around to doing so.

Past meets present: Mamorukun ReCurse! Another G.Rev shooter gets a (very welcome) modern update and re-release.

G.Rev's Mamorukun Curse! is back in the present, in a much wider release in more ways than one, with Mamorukun ReCurse! Between the various modes, soundtracks, widescreen and twin-stick support, this is the definitive edition of a niche shoot 'em up that deserves your attention.

Guest Feature: Sonic R Super Sonic racing... on foot!

Kicking off a new column at Retro XP, where a guest author — in this month's case,
@kimimithegameeatingshemonster.com
— pops in to say hello and write about a game they want to share with you. First up, the 3D Sonic game on the Sega Saturn that we *did* get, even if it wasn't what was expected.

30 years of the Playstation: R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Ridge Racer bids farewell to the Playstation it helped to launch with one of its all-time greats.

Capping off my month of Playstation 30th anniversary coverage with R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. It's the last of the series released on the original Playstation, the console that was as successful out of the gate as it was because Namco brought Ridge Racer to the launch party in the first place.

30 years of the Playstation: R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Ridge Racer bids farewell to the Playstation it helped to launch with one of its all-time greats.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 pulled together elements of everything Namco had been doing with Ridge Racer games to that point, showed off fantastic handling and visual style, added a fleshed out grand prix story mode, and dropped an all-timer soundtrack on top of it all. One of the Playstation's greats.

30 years of the Playstation: Namco Museum The start of a vital trend, and Namco has arguably never done it better than on the Playstation.

Namco Museum, like the Playstation itself, celebrates 30 years this year. And the series was never better than on the console it got its start on, thanks to Namco actually leaning on the "museum" concept as more than something to put in the title.

Retro spotlight: Geometry Wars: Galaxies The Wii and DS got their own Geometry Wars entries back in 2007, which to this day remain the only Nintendo system releases in the franchise.

The DS and Wii entry in the Geometry Wars series, Galaxies, deserves your attention (and a modern release, too).

Thanks!

30 years of the Sega Saturn: Baroque Baroque is a horror-themed roguelike dungeon-crawler, and its finest form was stuck on the Sega Saturn in Japan for decades.

I just want all of you to play Baroque, a true all-timer

30 years of the Playstation: Descent The first true 3D first-person shooter showed off the actual power of the Playstation.

Descent released on MS-DOS in 1994 as the first "true 3D" first-person shooter, and the game that popularized six degrees of freedom in movement (and made some people nauseous because of it). That it could run on the Playstation as well as it did, and control as well as it did, was mind-blowing.

30 years of the Playstation: Descent The first true 3D first-person shooter showed off the actual power of the Playstation.

Descent is a vital game in the 3D space, not just in general, but also because it ran and played so well on the Playstation in your living room. If the cheaper 3D console out there could run something this well, then the era of polygon-powered platforms was truly here to replace faux 3D.

While you're trying not to post anything that will be used against you as you stand in front of a tribunal, you could read my latest for Endless Mode, on a whole bunch of Playstation games that should be re-released in the present (or released in North America for the first time!)

Retro spotlight: Jumping Flash! The first 3D platformer was something of a Playstation tech demo, but also a ton of fun in its own right.

Happy 30th to the Playstation, I'm covering it all month at @retroxp.bsky.social and have an @endlessmode.bsky.social piece going up tomorrow on a bunch of its games, but for today please enjoy my look from last year at Jumping Flash!, the first 3D platformer and a Sony classic.

30 years of the Playstation: Gradius Gaiden Gradius found balance on the Playstation, even if North America didn't find out for years.

Gradius Gaiden was a Playstation original, a side story for the Gradius series made by a team at Konami besides the core developers, and the result was the best Gradius to that point — and maybe since, too. Unlike so many Playstation games, the focus here wasn't on polygons, but incredible sprites.

30 years of the Playstation: Gradius Gaiden Gradius found balance on the Playstation, even if North America didn't find out for years.

Gradius Gaiden was a Playstation original, a side story for the Gradius series made by a team at Konami besides the core developers, and the result was the best Gradius to that point — and maybe since, too. Unlike so many Playstation games, the focus here wasn't on polygons, but incredible sprites.

30 years of the Playstation: Ape Escape Sony's and the Playstation's first attempt at a world that required analog sticks is still a joy to play.

The Playstation did not start out with a dual-analog controller, as North America would have to wait until 1998 for the arrival of the DualShock. And then another year and change before the first-ever game to require it: the joyful 3D platformer that has you traveling through time, Ape Escape.

30 years of the Playstation: Ape Escape Sony's and the Playstation's first attempt at a world that required analog sticks is still a joy to play.

September marks 30 years of the Playstation in North America, so I'm going to spend this month looking at games on the system that played a vital role in its success or influence in one way or another. First up, Ape Escape, which is also a way to talk about the DualShock and dual-analog controllers.

30 years of the Playstation: Ape Escape Sony's and the Playstation's first attempt at a world that required analog sticks is still a joy to play.

The Playstation did not start out with a dual-analog controller, as North America would have to wait until 1998 for the arrival of the DualShock. And then another year and change before the first-ever game to require it: the joyful 3D platformer that has you traveling through time, Ape Escape.

40 years of Bomberman: The versatility of Bomberman It's easy to forget now, since Konami has focused on multiplayer arena games, but Bomberman used to be Hudson Soft's Mario, meaning, anything they needed him to be.

That's right.

40 years of Bomberman: The versatility of Bomberman It's easy to forget now, since Konami has focused on multiplayer arena games, but Bomberman used to be Hudson Soft's Mario, meaning, anything they needed him to be.

That's right.

Thank you!

Re-release this: Shiren the Wanderer Shiren the Wanderer is bigger than its ever been, so why isn't the first game in the series available anywhere in 2025?

The first Shiren the Wanderer game is actually the second Mystery Dungeon game, made by Chunsoft because they wanted a game free from licensing issues and established characters and worlds. It didn't release in North America until 2008, 13 years after its original date, and hasn't been seen since.

Re-release this: Shiren the Wanderer Shiren the Wanderer is bigger than its ever been, so why isn't the first game in the series available anywhere in 2025?

The first Shiren the Wanderer game is actually the second Mystery Dungeon game, made by Chunsoft because they wanted a game free from licensing issues and established characters and worlds. It didn't release in North America until 2008, 13 years after its original date, and hasn't been seen since.

Retro Spotlight: Phantasy Star The original Phantasy Star is very much an old-school JRPG even in its more updated forms, but it remains a piece of genre history worth experiencing.

Phantasy Star is a vital RPG from the 8-bit era, and one that, thanks to its Sega Ages treatment, is worth your time today, even if you're the kind of person who shies away from this era of role-playing game. Especially if, really.

XP Arcade: Fantasy Zone A foundational title from 1986 that still plays (and looks) like a dream.

There aren't that many Fantasy Zone games, but that's fine. Sega nailed it the first time around, anyway.

Past meets present: Night Striker Finally, after 36 years, a worthy version of 1989 arcade classic Night Striker has been released internationally.

It took until 2025 for Night Striker to receive an official, uncompromised port to North America, but it's not too late to discover a Super Scaler classic. Taito focused Night Striker exclusively on Japan for 36 years, but now it's on Switch and Steam in the present: here's why you should care

The music of Ys I & II An incredibly influential title not just in gameplay, but on the audio side, and one ported to a number of systems with various limitations and strengths,.

For years and years, hardware differences in different consoles and computers played a major role in what games even sounded like, and since Ys I & II were ported again and again and for decades, it can be used as a lens through which to view these differences and changes over time.

The music of Ys I & II An incredibly influential title not just in gameplay, but on the audio side, and one ported to a number of systems with various limitations and strengths,.

For years and years, hardware differences in different consoles and computers played a major role in what games even sounded like, and since Ys I & II were ported again and again and for decades, it can be used as a lens through which to view these differences and changes over time.

thanks!