Famitsu new years card/message dump is up https://www.famitsu.com/article/202601/61543 🇯🇵 the comments are mostly identical to the stuff that's been trickling out all week, but Sunsoft did offer a teaser for their next revival project...

what could the Fit Boxing publisher possibly be hinting at

Naito asked ppl not to spoil the credits (maybe they've loosened up now, idk) but the PC8001 version they started with (which has beeper BGM) has em all listed on the splash screen: mostly old micom scene guys, but some names chiptune folk might recognise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uKZSNyS60

the PC88 port of XeGrader, the recent Druaga-esque puzzle-STG by Hydlide series creator Tokihiro Naito, is up for sale on booth, ¥3980 https://valgus.booth.pm/items/7812568 🇯🇵 you're getting raw d88 files for use with your emulator of choice free demo https://valgus.booth.pm/items/7814722 🇯🇵

M2 put up a new years video: no reveals, just acknowledgement that it's ShotTriggers' 10th anniversary and that 2026 will be a celebratory year with lots of stuff in the works (including Aleste Branch), but they did elect to feature the Senxin Aleste charas with a certain controller on their ny card

tomorrow is now, have at it https://store.steampowered.com/app/3390980/DaemonBrideADDITIONAL_GAIN/

aight done for real, I swear

another year, another 20+ translated Japanese game developer interviews published by @shmuplations.bsky.social at shmuplations.com —the final updates for the year just went up, so allow me to run down what's been translated over the course of 2025, from most to least recent: (thread)

DaemonBride:ADDITIONAL GAIN, the first-ever home version of Examu's 2009/11 arcade fighting game Daemon Bride, will be out on Steam tomorrow—this version features rollback, 16:9 & OG 4:3, playable boss, training mode, etc https://store.steampowered.com/app/3390980/DaemonBrideADDITIONAL_GAIN/

Famitsu published a collection of 2026 aspirations from 171 different game devs https://www.famitsu.com/article/202512/61923?page=2 🇯🇵 right off the rip...Shutaro IIda's keyword is "survival"; his aspiration is to release the new Bloodstained while he's still alive; he wants to live to see Jojo pt.7

integer overflow

great idea! now, to never get sick, never have my identity compromised, never have my financials frozen, never start a business with "slop" in the name... 2026 or death

you can thank the Newgrounds sidebar mascot for that one

Double Dragon Advance (down to 3.49), maybe the last authentic stab at Double Dragon, before everyone involved gave up and allowed it to become indiscriminate brawler gumbo... iirc the emulation's shaky, but what else is new https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/double-dragon-advance-switch/

I was asked to recommend some cheap Switch games... I've got a minute, so why not: <$5 eShop thread, here ya go (many of these are curios or "oh yeah, that exists"-type recs, not necessarily wholehearted endorsements—ya gotta have the correct head injury for some of this stuff)

4gamer also spoke to 104 fighting game players about 2025: what they achieved, the games/media they liked, other players they're watching & aspirations for 2026 https://www.4gamer.net/games/635/G063504/20251226001/ 🇯🇵 again, just singling out whatever catches my eye

didn't see this til now but two comments: Yoko does not have discriminating taste & will twist himself into a pretzel to enjoy anything vaguely STG-like he even hit yall with the "I ran out of space to talk about Gradius & Nebulasray bc I wrote so much about Cygni"—dude knows he's pushing buttons

4gamer's end-of-year roundup's up: 194 devs sharing their games, media & persons of interest for 2025 & their plans for 2026 https://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999905/20251219044/ 🇯🇵 just gonna go through and pick out whatever catches my eye (thread)

I feel like we've passed a double-digit amount of asian mobile devs wearing Psikyo games as a skin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWtr9eje33Y

jumping on this to add that Shine Post topped denfami's list of user-recommended games of 2025 https://news.denfaminicogamer.jp/kikakuthetower/251226b 🇯🇵 for comparison's sake, the Tokimemo remake didn't even crack the top 30

newly-uploaded, edited footage of Shonen Majutsushi Indy / Indy, the Magical Kid, an original Famicom RPG based on the Futabashi gamebook series of the same name https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M_vsswo5Gc 🇯🇵this footage is from an old dev VHS; the uploader has lots of other dev materials, but no ROM

City Connection prez Yoshikawa & director Kei Watanabe on Rushing Beat X https://www.4gamer.net/games/960/G096022/20251202054/ 🇯🇵 the~yr-long delay was caused by them completely redoing the anims & other elements due to negative feedback—not just from fans, but also the OG devs working as supervisors

from this interview with City Connection's Yoshikawa on their '26 plans: they're investigating the cause of commonly-cited bugs (sound issues, enemy placement, effects etc) & intend to fix what they can, and are considering adding OG slowdown https://www.gamespark.jp/article/2025/12/25/160998.html

Natsume-Atari's rebranding as Winning Entertainment Group in 2026 https://www.winning-ent.co.jp/ this rebrand is is partly due to the confusion that comes with having "Natsume" &/or "Atari" in their name, but also coincides with a tie-up with Tamkeem, the Bahrain Royal Labour Fund. happy holidays!

Hopemoon's joining G-MODE Archives+! Monstrewaltz, out now on the JP Switch eShop; Steam later https://store-jp.nintendo.com/item/software/D70010000115226 https://store.steampowered.com/app/4192750/GMODE/ Flash Motor Karen, announced for Switch/PC https://store.steampowered.com/app/4243610/GMODE/

I'd be curious to see whether this is equally true of games with more contemporary visuals or aesthetic like, say, Drainus (for lack of other, better examples)... like, are there any credible games in this broader genre whose visuals aren't terminally unc-coded

early xmas for the one (1) person who's been asking for this for the last several years. hope ya dig it

This Month In Retronauts: @feitclub.bsky.social @stuartgipp.bsky.social & @allcityslopshop.com close out 2025 with news, the latest announcements, your comments, and our picks for the best games of the year Available to backers at the $5 level & up: www.patreon.com/posts/146322...

a neat detail from the Rockman pitch docs, as photographed at Capcom's latest art exhibition (https://xcancel.com/kangyaku/status/2002170653118767439): Guts man was originally "Gantz Man"—seeing it written makes the influence kinda obvious (Gantz-sensei from Ganbare! Robocon)

Arcade Archives #500, now with scoring pencil

these also dropped in Japan today—these comps usually aren't particularly noteworthy but Vol.10 includes Gapporin!, a game that's not on ACA & has since been described as a "pre-release" inclusion on this comp, indicating that Hamster's going to push beyond their current ~108-deep NG library

icymi, all this Egret II Mini junk dropped today: Arcade Collection vol.1, a new 10-game SD expansion with Technos & Data East games (Chelnov!) a new violet-variant run of the base Egret II Mini "lite" (no zines) reprints of the first three SD expansions another run of goofy toy accessories

out on Switch in Japan: Bounty Sisters, a steampunk STG from Pixel Co. in collab w/ several ex-Konami folk incl. artist/designer Shuzilow.HA (Twinbee) & composer MIKI-CHANG (Gradius, Suikoden) https://store-jp.nintendo.com/item/software/D70010000103779 🇯🇵 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJLnisTLFhU

well goddamn, this week's the week: Namco's chaotic gimmick-heavy versus action The Outfoxies is getting its first-ever home reissue via Arcade Archives tomorrow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxTaxcJpD50 this is a massive get & one of the biggest requests by both fans & Hamster themselves

on that note: G-MODE's queued up an announcement stream for Dec.22, 20:00 Japan time https://www.youtube.com/live/7YCIOJGszIc 🇯🇵 they'll be announcing new games & new third-party participants, previewing the Tantei Kibukawa retail comps & more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTJxaW1eT-U ahh the ol Warcraft 3 Reforged treatment, right on

IT & AU, united in Seega

the results are in https://mastodon.social/@gosokkyu/115729053429533450 BCV only made it to #25...

out now https://store.steampowered.com/app/4038680/ARTDINK_GAME_LOG/ https://store-jp.nintendo.com/item/software/D70010000107645 🇯🇵 again, they're specifically reissuing Taiyo no Shippo, so despite using the Tail of the Sun title on the loc'd store page, the game's only playable in Japanese

speaking of Studio Siesta, they'll be delisting the DLC for their vertical caravan-esque STG The Hurricane of the Varstray on December 25 https://store.steampowered.com/app/609120/The_Hurricane_of_the_Varstray_Threat_of_third_force/ this DLC was a collab with the famous occult/supernatural zine MU

Trouble Witches Final!, a revised compilation/remake of the many prior versions of Studio Siesta's hori STG, finally hit intl PS4/Switch, but… https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10005606 https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/trouble-witches-final-episode-01-daughters-of-amalgam-switch/

Namco's legendary Sugamo arcade (fka Namco PlayCity Carrot Sugamo) will be closing its doors on March 22 🇯🇵 this venue's been operating since '84 and is not only the mecca for pre-release Namco games & hot games in general but also built the communities that would underpin much of JP's games media

heads up: Baroque Syndrome, Shooting & Become a Meta-Being are also coming to Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/3747890/BAROQUE_SYNDROME/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3671880/BAROQUE_SHOOTING_REVERSED/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3600770/BAROQUE__Become_a_MetaBeing__Revive/

someone's gonna wanna hear this: former Westone founder Ryuichi Nishizawa (Wonder Boy/Monster World series) is currently in the very early stages of planning an original sidescrolling action game with Kouichi Yotsui (Strider, Suzuki Bakuhatsu, etc)

30th anniversary Linda Cube popup store's kicking off on xmas eve, as it should https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000024.000044560.html 🇯🇵 they're recycling a lot of the new art CANNABIS drew for last yr's merch, mixed in with new pieces & items (no idk when/if the game itself will ever reemerge)

the MSX port of Ninja JaJamarukun hit the JP Switch eShop today, in conjunction with City Connection's 20th live event https://store-jp.nintendo.com/item/software/D70010000097694 🇯🇵 Moebius put this out; they announced a Jaleco MSX tie-up a few months back and confirmed City Connection & Formation Z

IGCC & Denpa Shinbunsha are finally back with ALL ABOUT Data East II, out Dec.22 https://www.amazon.co.jp/ALL-ABOUT-DATA-EAST-%E3%83%87%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%82%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%81%AE%E3%81%99%E3%81%B9%E3%81%A6/dp/4864060517/ 🇯🇵 this one's a full arcade catalogue featuring...

catching up on last night's Arcade Archives stream from Hamster... they're teasing a big release for ACA #500, scheduled for xmas day—they'll be revealing the game on next week's stream, & if you email em a correct guess before then, you might win a prize tba on their new years day stream

hearing some quizzical reactions to Mizuiro Blood on this one, so lemme chime in: it's a silly DS minigame collection designed+written by Yukiko Yoko & Yoko Taro's studio, starring a cute robot girl whose surprise fate is being groomed for & ultimately dying in an unwinnable galactic war, hth

R-Type Dimensions III, coming to PC & consoles in May https://store.steampowered.com/app/4165620/RType_Dimensions_III/ ININ's putting this out & it's being made by the team that did their recent Rainbow Cotton port, X-Out remake, etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXOKxxPsUvs