Developer Red Art Games has worked with SUNSOFT, a legendary Japanese publisher, to bring three retro classics previously only released in Japan to the Western market and modern devices in SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Selection.

SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Selection is comprised of The Wing of Madoola, Firework Thrower Kantaro’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido, and Ripple Island, and is the result of a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign ??the publisher ran in 2023. The collection is set to launch on October 4, 2024, and you can pi??ck up a physical copy for PS5 for your collecti??on, as well as a digital version for PS5, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X/S. The most important thing about this release is that it not only preserves these games for? a new audience to enjoy but is als??o the first time they can be played with a full English translation.

Dive back into the 80s

You've likely never heard of the three games included on SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Selection, but you probably know some of the other games SUNSOFT has worked on, including Trip World for the original Game Boy and Final Fantasy Legend I, II, and III. Mercifully, the announcement of thi?s release came with some info about each title included in it.

Firework Thrower Kantaro’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido (Action, 1986): You play as fireworks maker Kantaro. He's discovered that some evil merchants are trying to use his creations as weapons, and y??ou've got to head out and stop them from sullying his name.

The Wing of Madoola (Action, 1986): As the fierce warrior Lucia, you'll battle the forces of the evil King Daltos in an effort to retire the powerful Wing of Madoola. This game was directed by Kenji Sada, who also worked on Blade Master, and features music from Naoki Kodaka, who worked on Super Fantasy Zone and Albert Odyssey.

Ripple Island (Adventure, 1988): Kyle is a young boy who dreams of a better life. That is, until he's called upon by King Dotella to help battle Emperor Groaker, a villain ?w?ho has been plaguing the land for too long. The game was directed by Atsushi Sakai, who also worked on Atlantis no Nazo, Ikki, and also features music by Naoki Kodaka.

Not only will all three games be available in English for the first time, but SUNSOFT is Back! Retro Game Selection includes some incredibly retro enthusiast-friendly quality-of-life features.? My favorite might be the CRT filter, but there's also a rewind button, multiple aspect ratios and borders, 3D models of all three cartridges, and a gallery of concept and promotional art.

Having this level of detail in a modern collection of games that were first released in the 80s is wild. I really love that you can try to relive the nostalgia of twirling the cartridge around and play with a filter that pulls you back to the days of the biggest monitors known to man. Experiencing previously Japan-only titles is, of course, the real ?treat here.

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Gravity Game Arise and Sunsoft have revealed that they’re bringing back Hashire Hebereke, a Super Famicom spin-off of Ufouria: The Saga. That’s all we really have about Hashire Hebereke EX.

It was announced via Twitter, and the link for more information goes to a press release that is mostly just descriptions of the ?involved companies. The Twitter account reveals that there will be more characters, more levels, and ??online multiplayer.

Ufouria: The Saga was initially released in Japan as Hebereke, which Sunsoft had hoped to turn into a franchise based around memorable characters. While the original is an exploration platformer, the games that came out after covered a variety of genres. It didn’t return to the sidescroller setup until this year with Ufouria: The Saga 2.

Of the spin-offs, 1994’s Hashire Hebereke was one of the better ones. It’s an isometric foot-racing game with weapons. It involves the cast of the series running laps and competing for top position. It’s simple, and quick, and it had split-screen mult?iplayer.

It’s not a bad choice for a rev??ival, though there isn’t any information suggesting whether it’s an enhanced port or a full remake. It’s nice to see the series get some recent ?love.

No release window was provided Hashire Hebereke EX. It’s not even confirmed for a North American release, but Sunsoft’s games have been making their way over here, so t?he chances are good.

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With Sunsoft working on their rather strange revival, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that they’d eventually get around to Hebereke. It was probably the company’s most?? prolifi??c game series, after all, stretching across several games throughout the �0s.

The series never really came to North America, but a few were localized for Europe. The first time we saw it on this side of the ocean was when the first game was released on Wii Virtual Console under its European name, Ufouria: The Saga. That was, unfortunately, locked?? at running at the PAL’s 50hz, which made it run faster on modern displays.

For the rest of the games of the series, they strangely never returned to the original formula of quasi-Metroidvania. The series went through racing, puzzle solving, and even arena fighting, but never back to sidescroller. That changes now, as Hebereke 2, er, Ufouria: The Saga 2 is the closest the series has come to the original formula. End ??r?eview.

Ufouria: The Saga 2 (PC [Reviewed], Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Tasto Alpha
Publisher: Sunsoft
Released: February 28, 2024, March 1, 2024 (Switch)
MSRP: $24.99

Okay, so if you’re not familiar, Hebereke�I mean, Ufouria: The Saga, is a gated exploration game where you journey to find new friends and abilities to make progress in other areas. It's fine. It's a decent sidescroller, if a little bit underwhelming and simple. However, its personality mad??e it truly memorable.

Hebe�Ufouria: The Saga features four characters that you could swap between?. The main character is a penguin named Hebe, but he was changed? to a snowman with the fantastic name, Bop-Louie, in the European version. He was joined by O-Chan, a person in a cat suit, Sukezaemon, a ghost in sunglasses, and Jennifer, a deep sea angler fish.

The setup in Ufouria: The Saga 2 is a bit different. You still try and ?assemble your party and unlock skills to proceed to new areas, but the game world has a much simpler layout. It boils down to an initial hub area that splits off into semi-randomized, mostly linear levels. 

The goal of these areas is, typically, to just reach the end and maybe defeat a boss. Upgrades are doled out through a vending machine adjacent to Hebe’s home. You search for “Utsu-cans�during your run, which unlocks new items for purchase. Then you spend the coins that you collect to actually receive the items, and beyond getting the other three characters, this is how you obtain the skills needed to get to new areas. Even when the team finds the need for a skill contextually through exploration, it’s stuffed?? in the vending machine to be bought.

It’s a weird and almost insultingly simple approach to progression in?? a game like this. Imagine if Samus had to return to her ship each time she wanted to install a new ??item. Somehow, this didn’t bother me.

The story involves an alien named Utsujin crashlanding on�Earth or wherever this is supposed to be. They begin spreading globs of jam everywhere, and this jam takes over people’s minds, maybe? The Ufouria gang really just seems ?to think they’re ??gross and would rather Utsujin doesn’t just drop them on their picnics.

Fo??r the length of the game, you mostly just chase this alien around. Of course, whenever you catch up to them, they just fly off until the final showdown. You know how it goes.

It’s a simple story for a simple game. The real value of the narrative comes from character interactions, which are heavily leaned on. Short skits kick off constantly. Sometimes when Hebe returns home, after a boss, at the entrance to a new area, or every single time you buy something from the vending machine, there’s a short e??xchange.

Surprisingly, like the vending machine, this didn’t bother me. Unsurprisingly, this is mainly because a lot of the interactions are entertaining. The characters themselves are bizarre, and so is the way they interact with their world. Some of it seems specifically suited for a Japanese sense of humor, but the English translation handles it rather well. The skits aren’t always worthwhile, but I?? never found their constant interruptions to be unwelcome.

The main issue with Ufouria: The Saga 2 is its simplicity. Its puzzles, progression, and even platforming all lack even a whiff of complexity. I’d say that it feels like an NES game built for the modern day, but even vanilla Ufouria gave you more to chew on.

If there's one standout addition, it's that the characters converse during traversal. Every once and a while, you'll get a notification that someone in your pocket has found something. If you press a button quick enough, they'll pop out and give you a?? coin or a coil of po??op. The prompts are easy to miss, but the rewards are also not typically important. It's mostly just flavor to help you remember that it's a team of characters, rather than just one hero.

It’s just so damned friendly. There’s very little resistance. Maybe Sunsoft has a younger audience in mind, but I thought kids these days just play Fortnite.

Regardless, it winds up working well. The aesthetic has a crafted look about it, with the characters and backgrounds having a needle-felted appearance with stray strands of fiber poking out in all ?directions. The soundtrack is chirpy and cute, and the enemies have a vacuous goofiness to them. It’s adorable without being as vapid as some of the cartoons aimed at younger children these days.

It also does some great callbacks and even references the regional changes made in the European version of Ufouria on NES, with Bop-Louie making a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo. It shows a lot of reverence for t?he series as a whole. I couldn’t find any crossover between the developer (Tasto Alpha) and the team behind the original, but it’s hard to tell. They certainly made i?t their own.

And that’s generally the Ufouria: The Saga 2 vibe. Regardless of how you feel about the lack of challenge and the simplicity of the design, there aren’t really any noticeable cut corners. It seems to know exactly what it is. It’s a short (3-5 hours) jaunt through a lovingly created resurrection of an old franchise with a lot of untapped potential. It’s maybe not going to set your world on fire, but if you have any affection for Hebereke, then it’s a worthwhile tribute. Even if you don’t have the prior familiarity, its ease, pace, and quirks mean that it will be, at the very least, a comfortable? experience.

To put it more poetically, Ufouria: The Saga 2 might not be a game fo??r your brain, but it’s one for your heart.

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

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Over 30 years after its original launch, Ufouria: The Saga is getting an official quasi-sequel-remake from Sunsoft. Following up on the initial announcement, Ufouria: The Saga 2 has locked in a March 1, 2024 date on PlayStation 5,? ??Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Sunsoft shared a new trailer via the IGN YouTube channel, highlighting more of the follow-up's fantastic looking stop-motion felt style. It's got a bit of a Kirby's Epic Yarn vibe to it, and ????the animation really sells the diorama aesthetic. 

Ufouria: The Saga was originally released for Famicom in 1991 as the first entry in Sunsoft's Hebereke series. A European release followed in 1992, but folks in North America didn't get a chance t?o try it out until it hit the Wii Virtual Console in 2010. If that port and its re-releases left you wanting for a proper way to enjoy it without having to deal with the PAL refresh rate, it looks like the follow-up might do the trick. 

Remake? Sequel? Why not both? 

When Sunsoft first teased more Ufouria it was a little unclear as to what they were planning. Sunsoft announced it? as a "full ??remake after about 32 years," but now they're calling it a sequel. Kind of.

According to the devs, it's "a brand new Metroidvania-type game featuring the humor and the characters from the original but with a brand new art style." Cutting through some of the confusion, it sounds like a mix of both. Ufouria: The Saga 2 features a recreation of the world of ?Ufouria and all the characters from the first game. Those classic stag??es now "change randomly every time you enter," and there are new areas thrown into the mix. 

There's also a new enemy threat in the form of the Bumyon, a creature who "sticks to everything and everyone" but can be countered with Hebe and friends' Popoons. Cleaning them up throughout Ufouria will take you one step closer to besting the evil plans of the Utsujin. Add in characters that previously only appeared in Hebereke art books and you have what's shaping up ??to be a real treat for fans of the side-scroller. You know who you are. ?;

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Following a release on PC in February of 2023, Sunsoft has announced that Ikki Unite will launch on Switch in North America in early 2024. Japan will get it slightly earlier in 2023??.

Ikki Unite is a bit of a weird one. It is based on a 1985 arcade game that was ported to Famic?om in the same year. The Famicom version is considered one of Japan’s �a href="//jbsgame.com/tag/weekly-kusoge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">kusoge no densetsu�or “legendary crappy game.�However, rather than try and duplicate the reviled gameplay of the 1985 “classic,�Ikki Unite has a lot more in common with Vampire Survivors. Specifically, it involves hordes of monsters and powering up your auto-firing attacks. The big wri?nkle here is that it’s 16-players online.

I played some of Ikki Unite back when it first released on PC. It was fun, but at the time it was unbalanced and buggy. Sunsoft has patched it a few times since then, and I keep meaning to jump back in to see if they polished out the experience. Its roguelite multi-player gameplay just seemed ki??nd of fascinating to me at the time, but I recall it being a very busy period for me, so I didn’t get a chance to put much time into it.

While details on the Switch release is somewhat sparse, Sunsoft is saying that it will have full crossplay with the current PC version.? That’s pretty important. You wouldn’t wan??t to divide the player base of such a niche game.

Ikki Unite is available on PC right now. It will be coming to? Switch sometime in early 2024.

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'80s titles planned for rerelease on Switch and PC

Old-school cool developer Sunsoft has announced that it is planning a crowdfunding campaign in hopes to bring three of its Japan-only Famicom releases to modern platforms. The campaign will officially launch on the Japanese crowdfunding site Campfire between July 14 - August 31.

The three titles up for rerelease are Edo-set platformer Kanshaku Tamanage Kantarou no Toukaidou Gojuusan-tsugi (1986), side-scrolling fantasy adventure The Wing of Madoola (1986), and finally the casually-paced text adventure Ripple Island (1988). None of the titles ventured outside of Japan and thus have since faded into obscurity, a status that Sunso??ft is hoping to revitalize.

[caption id="attachment_388355" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Shmuplations[/caption]

Should the Campfire campaign prove successful, the three titles will be ported to PC and Nintendo Switch. In addition, the publisher is hoping to release physical gold cartridges of the games for ?the Famicom platform. Way back when, Sunsoft was one of the few companies allowed to release its titles on specially branded cartridges, (see image above), and while many of the studio's games were awarded this prestige, gold-tinted cartridges were a goal never achieved by the studio. Hopefully, Sunsoft will be able to realize its glittery dream, if 40 years after the fact.

Localizati??ons for the titles were not confirmed, and seem unlikely, but we will let you know should this change.

Sunso??ft plans crowdfunding campaign to port three Famicom titles to Switch, PC [Gematsu]

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Not just a novelty

Bitwave Games has announced that Gimmick! Special Edition will be coming to PC a?nd console on July 6, 2023.

Initially released by Sunsoft in Japan in 1992, followed by a very limited release in PAL regions as Mr. Gimmick in 1993, Gimmick! is a game cherished by NES fans who a?re in the know. The PAL version is among the? most expensive NES cartridges on the system and isn’t cheap on the Famicom either. As such, a modern port has been a long time coming.

//youtu.be/Rb8KGQVksp0

Gimmick! has you play as a horned, green blob who can throw st??ars. While it’s simple on the surface, it requires you to master the heavily physics-influenced gameplay. It can be a rather tricky game that requires you to become intimately familiar with ?its movements.

I’ve personally bounced off Gimmick! More than a few times, but I know a number of gamers who are passionate about it. Gimmick! Special Edition is looking to preserve the gameplay while bringing a few extra tweaks alongside. Thereâ€?™s a speed-run mode and some other quality-of-life upgrades (that can be disabled). There’s also a save and reload function so you don’t have to complete the game in one sitting. Beyond that, there’s the now standard rewind feature to smooth over the more difficult aspects. If you found the original version too punishing, this could be your chance to finally finish it.

Gimmick! Special Edition launches on PC, Switch, and PS4 on ?July 6, 2023. The Xbox version will follow shortly after. There are physical versions of the games comi?ng for Switch and PS4, and they’ll be arriving at retailers later this year.

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Bop-Louie bops again

As part of its second Sunsoft is Back stream, Sunsoft has announced that a remake of the 1991 NES title, Ufouria: The Saga, is on the way.

If you didn’t catch the Sunsoft is Back stream, you didn’t miss much. Ufouria was essentially the only new reveal, and all we got was a screenshot. They showed off Trip World DX and Gimmick!, but we didn’t even get a release date for Gimmick! beyond “soon.�Trip World DX previously received an announcement, with Limited Run Games handling? the physical versions of it. Pre-orders start April 28.

Ufouria: The Saga (known as Hebereke in Japan) notably never released in North America prior to its arrival on the Wii Virtual Console. However, it has never been ported well. The Virtual Console re-releases run at the PAL region’s 50hz, making everything run too fast. Despite the poor quality of the ports, Ufouria: The Saga has developed a cult following.

Unlike Gimmick!, which is just getting a modernized port, Ufouria will enjoy a full remake, with the demonstrated screenshot showing off a crafty art style similar to Yoshi’s Wooly World. We don't know much else aside from a planned 2023 release. There is no word on whether the character depicted in the screenshot will have the western “Bop-Louie�nomenclature or revert to the Japanese “Hebe.�Personally, I think “Bop-L?ouie�is just such an amazingly cute name.

The horrible Vtuber running the stream makes coy mention of two unannounced projects. We can only hope that one is the rumored Clock Tower port/remaster/remake. We’ll have to wait and hope for a better stream in the future.

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And you better bring some Aero the Acro-Bat

Retro publisher Sunsoft, the studio behind 16-bit franchises such as Aero the Acro-Bat and Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, has announced that it intends to hold its second "Sunsoft is BACK" live s?tream next week, featuring more information on the resurr??ected publisher's upcoming releases.

Sunsoft's first comeback stream, which was held in August of last year, saw the dormant studio announce a selection of new titles for the Japanese market, including the revival of '80s strategy series Ikki Unite, a remaster of 1992 platformer Gimmick!, and a rerelease of 1991 Famicom adventure Ufouria: The Saga �One of the games in the cult Hebreke franchise. In addition to these announcements, Sunsoft also teased that it had a full remake in the works, but is yet t?o offer up the identity of the mystery title.

Next week's stream is expected to feature new information pertaining to the above titles, and will perhaps see Sunsoft f?inally lift the lid on the teased remake. Of course, we may find that the studio is only planning to continue its focus on the Japanese market and some of its more obscure IPs, but it's still interesting to see the long-forgotten studio make its presence felt some 20-30 years later. We will, of course, bring you all of the news from ??the stream right here on Destructoid, so stay tuned, folks.

The "Sunsoft is Back" live stream kic??ks off April 20 at 15:00 JST / 07:00 BST / 23:00 PT.

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It's a little late to mend childhoods

The time has come for the peasants to revolt, as Ikki Unite has hit PC.

The original Ikki launched in arcades in 1985 and was quickly followed by a Nintendo Famicom version. The Famicom version is famous for being one of the first games to have had the title of “kusoge�(literal translation: crap game) bestowed upon it. The creation of the kusoge nomenclature has sometimes been attributed to Jun Miura writing about this game, but the origins are a little murky.

It seems like a strange game to return to, but in Japan, kusoge is more celebrated as a shared suffering experience. Ikki’s Famicom iteration actual??ly sold quite well, which only solidified it in the minds of young games.

[embed]//youtu.be/-hY370EfgDc[/embed]

Ikki Unite, however, is a largely different beast, more akin to the horde-filled gameplay of Vampire Survivors. Attacks are automatic, and the emphasis is mostly on positioning and buffing your character to take the hordes down faster. Ikki Unite shakes things up by laying the focus on its 16-person multi-player, which has multiple teams working their way through bosses and objectives. That’s quite a significant change, but anyone who has played Vampire Survivors is no doubt ?going to have trouble shaking the feelings of deja vu.

I may circle around and review Ikki Unite, but the half-hour I spent with it this morning was mostly positive. However, despite being multi-player focused, the latency was ridiculous. I found that it wasn’t a huge barrier, but it’s definitely not the best first impression. I also wound up playing with a lot of Japanese night owls; which was fine since Ikki Unite isn’t a game that requires or even allows for much commu??nication. However, it probably didn’t help the ping.

Ikki Unite is going to be a game that will live or die depending on how well it retains its player base. While I was able to join two full teams with no player overlap, the Ikki brand doesn’t exactly have name recognition over here. It’s a rough product, but with my love of ??series revivals, I can’t help but root for it on some level.

Ikki Unite is available now on PC via Steam.

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Don't call it a comeback...

'90s developer Sunsoft, perhaps best known for its range of 8-bit licensed adventures and 16-bit platformers, has announced t?hat it will be holding a special digital presentation next week, wherein the company will announce several titles scheduled to release over 2023 and the remainder of 2022.

"Although we have been quiet for some time, many things have been happening behind the scenes," declares Sunsoft general manager Yuichi Ochi in a press release. "We are very excited to be able to finally share our vision for the?? rebirth of Sunsoft with fans old and new."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTfmwHxy52U

Originally formed in 1978 as a subsidiary of the legendary Sun Corporation, Sunsoft spent much of the 1980s in the electronic gaming market, before transitioning to video games via a plethora of NES releases, including Blaster Master, Fester's Quest, Xenophobe, Batman, and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. In the early '90s, Sunsoft began developing and publishing titles for the 16-bit market, creating a slew of, frankly, exceedingly middling platformers, brawlers, and adventure games for the Sega Genesis and SNES. Perhaps Sunsoft's best-known character is the platforming star Aero the Acro-Bat.

Sunso?ft would enter a period of bankruptcy in 1995, but has always remained in the industry, albeit in an incredibly scaled-down capacity. Just last year, the company asked fans which of its classic IP??s they would like to see receive a remaster or remake, so it's quite possible that next week's presentation will see the company announce several comebacks for the studio's portfolio of titles.

The Sunsoft digital event will take place on Thursday, August 18 at 13:00 PT / 16:00 ET / 21:00 BST and can be watched on the official Sunsoft YouTube channel. We will, of course, be sure to b????ring you all of the details right here on Destructoid.

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