- Also Read | The Sunsoft brand announces its rebirth and makes an appointment on August 18
The first Sunsoft game was Ikki Unite, an evolution of a game released in 1985 in arcades and on the Famicom, entered into legend for having given birth to the term kusoge in the Japanese press (literally “shitty game”), which didn’t prevent this top-down action shooter from meeting real success with its 700,000 copies sold in Japan. Inspired by the Shimabara Rebellion, a peasant revolt of 1637-1638, the game allowed to ally with a second player but this port announced on PC raises the cursor up to 16. Sunsoft also qualifies it as roguelike but does not say no more and invite the curious to request access to the beta from the Steam page.
Business failure in his day, Mr. Gimmick! yet was one of the most requested ports by Sunsoft connoisseurs. Considered underrated today but also reputed to be very difficult, this platform game released late on the NES in 1992 (only in Japan and Scandinavia) will finally be entitled to a worldwide deployment thanks to the release of Mr. Gimmick! Special Edition at the end of the year on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and Steam. Ported by City Connection and published by Bitwave Games, a studio just acquired by the Embracer group, the game will offer new features (achievements/trophies, time trial mode, save, rewind, gallery). To mark the occasion, a boxed version is in preparation at Clear River Games and the soundtrack of the game will be marketed in vinyl and K7 format (!) in November. The title will be playable in the Retro Gaming space at gamescom in Cologne.
The last title of the day is Ufouria: The Saga, an NES game from 1991 that today we would call metroidvania. First game in the Hebereke franchise, which will be available in multiple genres while keeping its penguin mascot with a blue cap, this action/platform game was released on the 3DS and Wii U virtual consoles but will be more easily accessible from in early 2023 when released on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and Steam. A City Connection port that will have the same additional features as Mr. Gimmick! Special Edition and with here also a marketing of the soundtrack in disc and cassette. As a bonus, the Journey to Silius soundtrack will also be provided. We also hope to be able to find this run & gun originally thought to be a Terminator game before Sunsoft lost the rights in full development.
Promised, Sunsoft has plenty of other projects in store for the rest of the events and even mentions the production of a remake without spilling the beans on the identity of the lucky winner.