Ratalaika has announced that they’re publishing a collection of the two modern NES titles of the The Adventures of Panzer series. The Adventures of Panzer: Legacy Collection comes to Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Switch on? January?? 26, 2024.

The original Adventures of Panzer title was released back in 2021 by Pixelcraft Games. It was built in NES Maker, which means that it runs on original NES hardware. A Kickstarter in 2022 allowed them to also publish the game on cartridge. The Adventures of Panzer 2 followed it up in 2023, and also went through Kickstarter for physical publishing.

Both games are action platformers, both touting a humorous and light-hearted narrative. The first game sees the eponymous Panzer traveling to five different levels to try and assemble his old team. The secon?d game, set a year after the events of the first, sees that te?am fighting “a new evil.�?In addition to being longer at 9 levels, you're also able to switch between the four characters.

?Not much is said about the added features of the?? port, if any.

The NES is my happy place. Even though I was too young for it to really make an impact on my childhood, I’ve grown to love the simple graphics common on the system enforced by its hardware limitations. What I find weird about Adventures of Panzer is that the little characters ??????????????????????????look like they’re in a completely different resolution than the rest of the game, but they’re not, so maybe the pixel doubling is just a design decision. Weird.

The Adventures of Panzer: Legacy Collection releases on Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Switch on January 26, 2024. It’s worth noting that at $8.99, the collection is roughly $2 more than buying the two games individually for PC on itch.io.

The post A pair of modern NES games are bei?ng compiled in Th??e Adventures of Panzer: Legacy Collection appeared first on Destructoid.

Following the release of the first game this past May, Ratalaika and Shinyuden are re-releasing the 1992 Turbografx game Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2 as Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace. This new release is out on September 22.

While most of the Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2 remained exclusive to the Japanese PC-Engine, we got Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2 here in the West as simply Shockman. It would later become available on Nintendo’s Virtual Console service and PS3. Interestingly, the press release implies that it was also Japan-exclusive, and doesn’t mention its previous releases. This made me fact-check initially and then re-fact-check to make sure that, yes, Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2 was Shockman. Then, after that, I fact-checked a third time to make sure we were talking about the same game. I’m pretty certain this is the same game as Shockman.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace makes some tweaks to the previous game by making it a lot more like Mega Man. This is even down to t?he bosses being fan submissions. The melee combat of the first game was left behind, but in a lot of ways, th?at resulted in a better game.

While previous re-releases were strict ports of the Turbografx version, this new version promises new modes and will most likely have save states and rewinding. Whet?her or not it has been (or needed to be) re-translated isn’t mentioned.

Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace arrives on Swit??ch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 22, 2023. It will cost you a very reasonable $5.99 USD

The post Turbografx platformer Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: ?A New Menace gets r??e-released September 22 appeared first on Destructoid.

The Shockmaster

It’s a weirdly good time to be a fan of Shockman. It’s not an extensive series, consisting of three games on the PC-Engine (the Japanese version of the Turbografx-16) and one title on the SNES via its Sa??tellaview add-on. However, we only got one of these titles in the West, which was the second game.

However, we just recently got a fan translation of the Satellaview game, and not long after that, Ratalaika has seen to publish an official translation of the first game in the series, Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman. Choosing the name Cyber Citizen Shockman to differentiate it from the 1992 Tuborgrafx-16 title, Shockman, it feels as though it came out of nowhere. And while it’s maybe not a must-play title, I’ll always celebrate a title getting locali?zed.

[caption id="attachment_382114" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Cyber Citizen Shockman (PS4, PS5, Switch [Reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Shinyuden
Publisher: Ratalaika
Released: May 19, 2023
MSRP: $5.99

While Shockman was something of a Mega Man clone, Cyber Citizen Shockman has more of a slashin?g element to it. Your def??ault attack is just a sweep of your sword, and if you want to fire rainbows, you’ll need to get permission from the sheriff. That’s just a fantastic assembly of ideas.

Cyber Citizen Shockman is a story abo??ut youths?? fighting Darth Vader. You’re maybe a robot. You get pushed out the door by a scientist who repairs you when you die. There are dragons? It’s a bit insane.

Rather than a series of levels, you’re given a map of the city, and you can choose your path and backtrack if you want to. After clearing a level, you’ll be rewarded by a citizen for saving them and can sometimes buy gear from specific spots on the map. It’s not a bad setup, though navigating it is strangely unwieldy. Most importantly, though, you don’t have to repeat s??tages if you die?. You can just continue where you left off.

[caption id="attachment_382116" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Johnny Turbo

Speaking of unwieldy, however, Cyber Citizen Shockman controls like a dumpster?? on wheels. It was initially released in 1989, and I don’t know what it was about PC-Engine games at the time, but a bunch of them attempted some really half-assed approach to momentum-based movement. So your character is slow to get up to speed and difficult to stop, which makes platforming feel like you’re controlling it with a mouse ball.

The level design doesn’t help, either. It will use excruciatingly fast platforms and ones that will just drop or move in unpredictable directions. There’s no real instant death in Cyber Citizen Shockman, but it just sucks to helplessly watch your robo-teen repeatedly bounce on a hazard because they are only capable of running jump?s, and the platforming won’t accommodate this.

To make matters worse, the hit detection is just balls. You can eventually adapt by figuring ou?t what hazards should be ducked under and which should be jumped over, but it’s a needlessly painful process. The bosses, however, good luck. You can certai??nly learn the pattern, but you have to be overly cautious not to bump into the air around them. I guess they’re wearing too much Axe body spray because getting anywhere near them is hazardous for your character.

[caption id="attachment_382117" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Hero of justice

The port isn’t bad. I don’t have any complaints. Weirdly, it seems to be running on the same emulation platform as the recent Ninja Jajamaru-Kun Collection. At the very least, they share extremely identical UI. I’m not sure why. While Ratalaika was involved in both products, City Connection handled Jajamaru while Shinyuden localized Cyber Citizen Shockman.

Regardless, while the Jajamaru collection had, uh, problems, Cyber Citizen Shockman doesn’t share them. Most noticeably, the CRT filter functions without completely destroying the framerate on the Switch version. I also didn’t notice any functional issues as I encountered with the bosses in one of the Jajamaru titles. These menus make me very suspicious, but I nev??er found a problem with the port.

The supplemental material isn’t anything special. They include the instruction manual, but it wasn’t translated into English. I think it’s worth noting that Cyber Citizen Shockman is being released at an extremely reasonable $5.99. So while the recent Assault Suit Valken re-release not only included translated instructions but also a previously Japan-only guide, it was significantly more expensive at launch.

I can’t speak for everyone, and I don’t usually like to incorporate the cost into my critique, but $5.99 is generally the price I expect for a straight retro port. The fact that Ratalaika and Shiyuden not only ported the game but also translated it is enough. The m??anual, even not being translated, is just an appreciated extra.

[caption id="attachment_382118" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Passionate effort

On the other hand, Cyber Citizen Shockman just isn’t a very go?od game. It’s hardly a bad game, either, but it’s not particularly enjoyable to play. Poor hit detection and control completely overshadow any of its inventive qualities. That said, I greatly appreciate the effort that went into localizing it. Good or bad,? any PC-Engine title from 1989 is going to be very niche in this part of the world, so there’s obviously a lot of passion involved in bringing it here.

I can’t exactly recommend Cyber Citizen Shockman if you’re just looking for a good platformer to play. However, if you know what you’re getting into, you can rest easy knowing that it’s a decent porting job that does exactly what it says on the package. Then again, it doesn’t cost all that much to find out for yourself, and may also encourage Ratalaika to localize more niche titles. So, I guess what I’m saying is: Yes, definitely buy Cyber Citizen Shockman.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Cyber Citizen Shockman appeared first on Destructoid.

The Shockmaster

Ratalaika Games and Shinyuden have announced that they’re bringing Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman to the West for the first time as Cyber Citizen Shockman. Heck. Yes.

Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman was the first game in the series that started on the PC-Engine in Japan. We received the second game (named Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman 2) in North America on the Turbografx-16, but no other titles. Renamed Shockman, this second title eventually made it to the Virtual Console. I j?ust now realize that I forgot to buy it before the Wii U eShop shut down. Crap.

//youtu.be/gsQY9Ha8yjo

This is the first time that the first game has been localized. The announcement of Cyber Citizen Shockman hit me out of nowhere. The Shockman games are a series of action platformers with sort of a beat-’em-up slant to them. The Satellaview Shockman title (which was originally released also as Kaizō Chōjin Shubibinman) even got a fan translation recently as Shockman Zero.

On top of the base game, Cyber Citizen Shockman will inclu??de an image gallery, rewind, save states, a CRT filter, and illustrations by Suu Urabe.

This is one of those games where it absolutely sucks that we never got them in the West. It’s mostly understandable, because the Turbografx-16 ??was a resounding failure and we never got the Satellaview. But a translation has been a long time coming.

Thankfully, we don’t have to wait much longer. Cyber Citizen Shockman will rel?ease on May 19, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch at a ??very reasonable $5.99.

The post Kaizō Chōjin Shubibi?nman finally being localized as Cyber Citi??zen Shockman appeared first on Destructoid.

Roll for initiative

Dicey Dungeons, the stylish dice-based roguelite all about fantasy warrior dice, is coming to Xbox this week. The dunge??on crawler lands on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S this Thursday, Nov. 11, and it will also be arriving as part?? of Xbox Game Pass.

Creator Terry Cavanagh revealed the news on social media, confi??rming that the Xbox port was made in partnership with Rat?alaika Games.

//twitter.com/terrycavanagh/st??atus/14577711?83512850434

Dicey Dungeons has been steadily rolling out to a bunch of different platforms over the last few years. Though it launched back in 2019, it got a strong reception at the time and has ?popped up on social media again and again as more have discovered it.

And for good reason too, because dang, Dicey Dungeons is fun. The best way I could describe it is Yahtzee meets turn-based RPG, where randomly rolled die end up determining what equipment you can use, when, and how. It makes very clever use of tabletop mechanics in a way I've really dug, every time I've gone back to play it. And with Game Pass maybe some more folks will check out the Dicey Dungeons now, too.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xShpQ85jCVE

If you've missed the train on this one, you'll get the chance to check out Dicey Dungeons on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, or Xbox Game pass o??n Nov. 11, 2021.

The post Dicey Dungeons is coming ?to Xbox Game Pass this week appeared first on Destructoid.