E3 is dead but that’s ok; it was a “put it out of its misery” situation anyway. Although E3 was fun the revelations didn’t really need to be bunched up all together any more, but even so the start of June is probably going to remain the traditional time for publishers to put on some type of event for the foreseeable future. Today was the day for Limited Run Games to run their preview of upcoming titles, taking a full hour to go over everything the company could reveal to the tune of 34 pending releases. It’s a lot to cover so, dividing things up into categories, here’s what’s on the way-
BATS: Bloodsucker Anti-Terror Squad (PS4, Switch)- Side-view run & gun as a member of a vampiric anti-terrorist organization. Entertainingly splattery. (Trailer)
Blossom Tales 2: The Minotaur Prince (Switch)- 16-bit-style Zelda-ish adventure, and a direct sequel to Blossom Tales: The Sleeping King. (Trailer)
Deathwish Enforcers (PS4, PS5, Switch)- 1970s cop-fantasy run & gun action. (Trailer)
DOOM Eternal (Switch)- Needs no introduction, it’s Doom Eternal.
Frogun (PS4, PS5, Switch)- A young girl with a frog-gun in a cute-beyond-words 3D platformer adventure. (Trailer)
Garden Story (Switch)- Action-RPG about saving and rebuilding a town as the Grove’s new guardian, who also happens to be a grape. (Trailer)
Go! Go: Kokopolo: Harmonious Forest Revenge (3DS)- and…
Go! Go! Kokopolo 3D: Space Recipe for Disaster (3DS)- A mischievous cat tears through “chase-em-up” levels. The first had been for DSiWare while the sequel was native to 3DS. (Trailer)
LUNARK (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- Narrative action-platformer in the style of the classic Flashback. (Trailer,Steam demo)
River City Girls 2 (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- All problems in high school can be solved by beating on them really hard. (Trailer)
Skelattack (PS4, Switch)- Skelly and bat-friend Imber platform their way up to the human world to chase their raids on the afterlife. (Trailer,Review)
Spidersaurs (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- Contral-styled run & gun against dinosaur-spiders! (Trailer)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (PS4, Switch, Xbox)- Not actually a classic game but a new brawler in the old arcade style, now with afree pizza included! (Trailer)
Undermine (PS4, Switch)- Excellent action-roguelike where poor disposable townsfolk try to survive where a hero is needed. (Trailer)
Classic, non-FMV
A Boy and His Blob: Retro Collection (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- The original NES game and the third in the series from the Gameboy, both designed by legend David Crane.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Retro Collection (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- Two game, NES and Gameboy, from an era when a movie tie-in game was just part of the product line.
Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition (PS4, PS5, Switch)- Westwood’s classice point & click based on the movie, with a story that runs in parallel rather than trying to recreate it.
DoDonPachi Resurrection (Switch)- Kind of painful to put in the Classic section but what can you do? Cave shooters are always must-haves. (Trailer)
DOOM 64 (Xbox)- The N64’s unique version of Doom, already released by LRG for Switch and PS4, now on Xbox One. (Trailer)
Enclave HD (PS4, PS5, Switch)- Third-person action-RPG upgraded from the original Xbox.
ESPGaluda II (Switch)- Everything said about DoDonPachi Resurrection is true here as well. (Trailer)
Glover (N64)- 3D platformer starring a glove, from the N64 era. It was the 90s, anything could be a mascot. (Trailer)
Konami Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection (Switch. PS4)- A collection of Konami arcade games, including Nemesis, Life Force, Thunder Cross, TwinBee, and the ancient arcade king Scramble.
PowerSlave: Exhumed (PS4, Switch, Xbox)- A lot of FPSes wanted to be Doom or Duke and most failed miserably. PowerSlave was not one of those. (Trailer)
Rendering Ranger R-2 (PS4, PS5, Switch, SNES)- A combination of horizontal and run & gun shooter from the creator of Turrican, no longer lost and forgotten on the SNES.
Shadowrun Trilogy (PS4, Xbox, Switch)- The fantasy/cyberpunk world of Shadowrun has always translated from tabletop to PC RPG, and these three from 2013-15 were standouts.
Shantae (PS4, PS5)- The old Gameboy Color adventure-platformer has come a very very very very very long way from its initial fan-favorite release 20 years ago.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (Switch, PC)- The classic Bioware Star Wars RPG is ready to join its prequel on fan shelves.
Tetris Effect: Connected (Switch, PS4, Xbox)- Kinda new-ish/kinda classic, this is Tetris Effect with a new co-op moded added on where up to three players can work together to clear all the lines. (Trailer)
Classic, FMV
American Hero (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC)- A lost Jaguar CD game that’s popped up in completed format over the years, now getting an official release (up since Friday, actually), with an unrated PC version available too. (Trailer)
D (PC, 3DO)- A real surprise and lost product of its time, D was Kenji Eno’s breakout game. For how almost-forgotten it is today, it’s hard to overstate how huge this horror adventure was at the time.
Night Trap (PS5)- The notorious Sega CD game (I was there at the time, it was pure tempest-in-teapot, “Will no one think of the children!?” posturing) lands on PS5.
Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties: Definitive Edition (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox)- Originally announced last E3, this is just about ready for release. Terrible, yet terribly irresistible too.
Prize Fighter: Remastered (PS4, PS5)- Black and white boxing from the Sega CD days. One of the better-reviewed Digital Pictures ones from the era, too.
And that’s the lot! Limited Run Games has always been a publisher interested in everything and that’s pretty much what was on display today, from cute and friendly indies to pervy 90s FMV, classic arcade games and modern hits, plus everything in between. It’s a lot, but at a game or two being released every week also bound to be churned through quickly even with other surprises remaining unannounced. The full presentation with trailers for all games is available for viewing so give it a watch for more details and some general silliness.
