The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pack has been fantastic for retro gamers so far. Introducing brilliant titles like Super Mario 64 and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to a new audience. Our favourite part of the expansion pack is the library of Mega Drive / Genesis games available. This week, 3 new games have been added to the likes of Ecco the Dolphin and Gunstar Heroes.
Super Fantasy Zone (1992)
The Yakuza series has done wonders for SEGA’s retro gaming street cred. In game SEGA arcades let the protagonists play perfect adaptions of full titles. Super Hang On, Outrun, Virtua Fighter – the list goes on and on.
Perhaps one of the games to benefit from this most is the Fantasy Zone series. In Super Fantasy Zone, the legendary Opa-Opa must pilot his way through 8 colourful levels to defeat the Dark Menon and avenge his father. Pretty deep for such a pretty side scrolling shoot em up.
Originally released only for Japanese and European audiences, this is the perfect opportunity for North American gamers to finally play this classic.
Light Crusader (1995)
Made by the legendary development studio, Treasure, Light Crusader is a fun isometric RPG. It wont tax you too hard like a Final Fantasy or Diablo, but will definitely scratch that itch for a retro role playing game.
Playing as the atypical blonde hair, blue eyed knight – Sir David, you can visit towns, dungeons and layers in search of the evil wizard Ragno and stop his villianous plans.
Graphically, it was stunning for its time but today feels and looks very dated compared to other retro games. If you need a Saturday afternoon filling, give Light Crusader a go.
Alien Soldier (1995)
One of the most eagerly sought after games of all time. Alien Soldier was also never released in North America and this will be the first time many gamers get a chance to play this wonderful arcade style classic.
Also made by Treasure, it follows the story of human animal hybrids, anti human organisations and endless waves of bad guys. But don’t worry about the story, it only gets mentioned once. The game is an intense boss rush action game. It was designed to be hard and it capitalises on that.
You really have to play this game to understand just how difficult it is. It isn’t quite “Contra” hard but will result in many save state reloads and rewinds as you try to finish its 25 boss battles!
Treasure released two of the games in this expansion pass update and we’ve discussed this developer before as part of our Dynamite Headdy Retrospective. In fact, if you play Alien Soldier you’ll hear many of the same sound effects from Dynamite Headdy during gameplay.
But what do you think? Are you interested in seeing more Treasure games make it to the expansion pass?
