Retro XP

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is a Tengo Project revival of a classic Natsume beat 'em up, one that goes from Point A to Point B in a straight line but also gives you multiple varied robot ninjas to choose from. And the ability to throw anything or anyone you can pick up.

The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors is a modern remaster of The Ninja Warriors Again, itself a wonderful reimagining of a Taito game handled by Natsume for the SNES, a la Pocky & Rocky. Another dub for Tengo Project, and one that won't cost you hundreds of dollars on the secondary market, too.

It me! Revisiting this was pretty wild, seeing how a bog standard RTS campaign in a game with a lot of... ideas holds up now.

It's time for a guest feature at @retroxp.bsky.social! I'm happy to host the writing of @bloomedwings.bsky.social, on a 1997 RTS from "Epic Megagames" called 7th Legion. Yes, it's that Epic, and yes, you can tell just by playing 7th Legion.

Toaplan's Slap Fight didn't have a huge production run or the success of the likes of Tiger-Heli or Truxton. It's an important game in the studio's history, though, that combined ideas from its existing work with that of Gradius, B-Wings, and more, and is available once again in the present.

Slap Fight isn't as well known as other Toaplan shoot 'em ups, but this STG played an important role in the studio's future designs. Plus, it's as much of an oddity as its name suggests because of the way it smashed Xevious and Gradius together while incorporating shape-shifting ships.

Chew Man Fu was Now Production's first game on the PC Engine/Turbografx-16, and it's a maze game requiring lots of strategy and just as much kicking. And also you're saving the world's egg rolls and fried rice from an evil wizard's curse. So, a worthy cause.

me: oh is it Ace Attorney's anniversary? Redd White of Blue Corp:

Happy 25th to Ace Attorney, which has been great the whole time but was never better than when it centered around Phoenix Wright.

Sokoban is a game series and a genre, one developed by Thinking Rabbit in the early 80s that later spread to other studios and other countries besides Japan. One such international release in the influential series is Boxyboy on the Turbografx-16. It's classic Sokoban gameplay, only more of it.

Ever played a Sokoban game? Well you should, whether the answer to that question was yes or no. Here's a brief history of Sokoban, with the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 Sokoban World/Boxyboy as highlight.

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a spinoff of a spinoff, that took the strategy RPG design to new levels by deciding that this one was also a match-three puzzle game. It works, though, as much back in 2009 as it does in 2026, whether you play the DS original or one of the many HD ports since.

It's Guest Feature time at @retroxp.bsky.social, and today's was written by @phantomcobra.bsky.social, on James Bond 007: Everything Or Nothing. What makes a Bond? What makes a good Bond adaptation? What works and doesn't from this seemingly forgotten mid-aughts 007 (action) adventure?

Alien Syndrome released on basically every platform in existence, then disappeared for years before reemerging with a then-modern reimagining. It's a wonderful example of how different hardware and developers used to mean fairly different versions of the same game.

Alien Syndrome, Sega's 1987 arcade classic that played fast and loose with the concept of visual inspiration, was excellent in arcades, and then at home? Well, that depends on the platform and your own preferences, but there was no shortage of either to work through.

Happy 25th birthday to the GameCube, you should celebrate by reading about and then playing one of its finest games: Chibi Robo! Plug Into Adventure! Underrated and under-played then and now, but you can do something about both of those problems in the present, whether via Switch 2 or [redacted]

The GameCube released 25 years ago today, so here's a reworked and more detailed version of a Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure! article that originally published six years ago to celebrate.

happy not-round-number anniversary, North American Dreamcast. Please ignore that this game does not natively play on that particular version of the console and just accept OP's agenda

Yes it's Labor Day, but I wanted to give you something to read, anyway. Here's B.O.B., a run and gun platformer from 1993 that has been mostly forgotten about, if it was ever truly known to begin with. This one has its quirks [derogatory] but they are outweighed by its quirks [complimentary]

Battle Pinball is a 3DO game from 1994, developed by a company that only made one other game as far as anyone can tell, a different (and poorly reviewed) pinball game from earlier in the year. That one lacked weird CGI characters and PvP pinball, though. Battle Pinball has both of those things.

Not Battle Pinball as in the Super Famicom game with Kamen Rider and Ultraman, but Battle Pinball as in the 3DO game by Japan Dataworks where you face off in competitive, simultaneous pinball action against a CPU or human opponent. It's a concept that should be brought to fruition more often.

That's right

Target Earth? Assault Suit Leynos? Genesis? Windows? It doesn't matter what you call it or what you play it on, which version you pick up or whether it's one with checkpoints or limited lives. Assault Suit Leynos is an underrated Masaya gem that you should play.

TX-1 was designed to be a more realistic and more visually impressive successor to Pole Position, and in Japanese arcades, it dominated for years just like Namco's hit. Unlike Pole Position, though, TX-1's success and influence was regional, and it was never ported to home platforms... until 2026

I wrote about TX-1, which is practically unknown in America but was huge in Japan for years alongside the likes of Pole Position. A number of TX-1's hardware and game design innovations would eventually make it into the likes of OutRun and even Darius: you should know about this three-screen wonder.

TX-1 was designed to be a more realistic and more visually impressive successor to Pole Position, and in Japanese arcades, it dominated for years just like Namco's hit. Unlike Pole Position, though, TX-1's success and influence was regional, and it was never ported to home platforms... until 2026

Here's the thing about MUSHA: it rules. Contemporary critics were exhausted by the volume of STG on the Mega Drive/Genesis and so MUSHA didn't get the attention it deserved. It's on the easier side for a Compile shooter, but don't let that distract you from what matters: sensory overloading vibes.

While known as Musha Aleste in Japan, it was just "MUSHA" in North America, a backronym for "Metallic Uniframe Super Hybrid Armor." Whatever you call it, though, just know that it rocks. Both the game and the "Edo metal" soundtrack.

Emerald Dragon is a Japan-only RPG released again and again there between 1989 and 1995, but the excellent PC Engine CD edition finally has an unofficial English translation. And the game is absolutely worth your time to emulate in the present, so you can experience all that makes it great.

Emerald Dragon is a story- and character-centric RPG from 1989, with a killer revamp in 1994 for the PCE CD. A hybrid battle system and character design different from better-known works of the day by Square, and a reminder that the west's idea of the evolution of Japanese RPGs is an incomplete one

Emerald Dragon is a Japan-only RPG released again and again there between 1989 and 1995, but the excellent PC Engine CD edition finally has an unofficial English translation. And the game is absolutely worth your time to emulate in the present, so you can experience all that makes it great.

Happy 20th to Dead Rising, a kick ass video game that the world maybe wasn't ready for when it first released

Here's Donkey Kong 3, a game that, despite what you might have read on the internet, did not kill the Donkey Kong series dead for a decade-plus before its triumphant revival in the 90s. If your only experience with this one is the NES port, you have been missing out on 80s Nintendo genre-hopping.

Donkey Kong 3, like its predecessors, is a platformer. Sort of. It actually has more in common with Galaga than the original DK, and that's not just because both of those involve loads of bugs.

This is out today, and my long rec is the review below, my short one for a very specific audience is "do you want to see what Toaplan and G.Rev are like smashed together?"

Here's my review of Truxton Extreme, a return to the vital and influential shoot 'em up playstyle of Toaplan, contained within a game that's worthy of both the original Truxton and player expectations in 2026. This one feels both familiar and fresh; it's got the juice.

The only thing wrong with Elevator Action Returns is that it released in a moment that wasn't interested in it — that shouldn't stop you from playing this classic today. Taito's arcade sequel to the original Elevator Action is bigger, faster, and shows how much the industry changed in 11 years.

The House of the Dead had zombies shamble toward you instead of being shooting gallery targets waiting to be picked off, and while that made them easier to hit, it also added an additional element of danger to the proceedings. That plus exploding heads and fountains of blood made this one stand out.

The House of the Dead might have featured a mansion that's actually a laboratory that unleashed zombies and genetically modified creatures with bloodlust all over the place, but other than that, it's nothing like Resident Evil. Besides also being kick ass, I mean.

The House of the Dead had zombies shamble toward you instead of being shooting gallery targets waiting to be picked off, and while that made them easier to hit, it also added an additional element of danger to the proceedings. That plus exploding heads and fountains of blood made this one stand out.

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is all about parrying. Then, now, and in (fights for) the future. Let @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social explain.

marc was kind enough to invite me to write about any retro game i wished, so i chose third strike turns out i had a lot to say about parries, practice, competition, EVO Moments, and fighting for the future, not for corporate. I love fighting games. please give it a read 💜

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike is all about parrying. Then, now, and in (fights for) the future. Let @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social explain.

Thanks to the always excellent @ashlikeadragon.bsky.social, I learned what makes Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike tick special in the fighting game community, despite its initial, comparatively, tepid reception. It's the latest guest feature at @retroxp.bsky.social.

Sure, Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is linear, but is that a negative? This wonderfully written graphic adventure from designer and writer Rika Suzuki shined on the DS nearly two decades ago, and remains as gripping of "a mystery novel" in video game form now as it was then.

The talents of writer/designer Rika Suzuki and artist Taisuke Kanasaki are on full display in the graphic adventure Hotel Dusk: Room 215, which, despite its "unrelentingly linear" gameplay remains as engaging now as it ever was nearly two decades back.

Capcom's final arcade game of 1984 — the first year it released video games — ended up being its first hit, one that dominated the charts for a couple of years afterward. 1942 was made with "western" audiences in mind, and served as the first of many key hits designed by Yoshiki Okamoto at Capcom.

Capcom's initial ascent occurred rather quickly: it pivoted to making games at the start of 1984, and by the end of that year had its first hit, a shooter that persisted on arcade charts for years afterward and became a million-seller NES game, too. 1942 was the signal that Capcom was here.

Capcom's final arcade game of 1984 — the first year it released video games — ended up being its first hit, one that dominated the charts for a couple of years afterward. 1942 was made with "western" audiences in mind, and served as the first of many key hits designed by Yoshiki Okamoto at Capcom.