Games by Ancient
Gotta Protectors: Cart Of Darkness Switch eShop
- 14th Apr 2022 (UK/EU)
- 14th Apr 2022 (NA)
Reviews of Ancient Games
Review Earthion (Switch) - A New 16-Bit Shooter That's Bold, Inventive & Hugely Enjoyable
It means the world
While not entirely dormant for the last 30 years, Yuzo Koshiro’s Ancient Corp — responsible for Streets of Rage II, Story of Thor, and the Master System’s superb Sonic the Hedgehog — is finally back in the public eye with the release of Earthion. What’s significant for the small studio is a return to the console that...
Review Gotta Protectors: Cart Of Darkness (Switch) - An Inventive, Hilarious Action-Strategy Blend
Cowabunga!
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness starts as it means to go on — with a warm-hearted parody of something only gamers of a certain age are likely to remember. Ancient's logo appears and then… nothing happens — not until you hammer the 'A' button on the side of the screen as though your Switch is a temperamental CRT TV that's seen...
Review Gotta Protectors (3DS eShop)
You've gotta download this
Here's a typical snapshot of a battle in Gotta Protectors. Hundreds of enemies are hammering on the defenses from four different sides, the turrets and barricades are slowly but surely succumbing to the hordes, you and the Princess desperately attempt to beat them back with magic and arrows, and for every felled enemy four...
Review Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console / Master System)
Sonic's back in 8-bit style.
Following the undoubted success of Sonic The Hedgehog on the Mega Drive it seems only fitting that a version of the game was created for the Sega’s 8-bit wonder, the Master System which still had strong support in Europe at the time. This game was also something of a swan song to North American gamers who had took a...
Review Beyond Oasis (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
You are the young Prince Ali in a desperate fight to defeat the evil that is threatening your island empire, Oasis.
This was another late Megadrive/Genesis release but thankfully it avoided the fate of games like Comix Zone and sold pretty well at the time. It's easy to see why - graphically it's one of the best looking games on Sega's 16-bit...
Latest Ancient News
Wednesday3rd Sep 2025
News Yuzo Koshiro's Shmup 'Earthion' Finally Has A Switch Release Date
According to the eShop
Did you know that Yuzo Koshiro, legendary video game composer, has made a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis shmup? It was released on Steam back in July, with our friends over at Time Extension giving it a glowing review. It was due to launch on consoles, including Switch, at the same time, but was pushed back to "mid-September"...
Tuesday28th Dec 2021
"Leave it to the big companies to overwhelm the players... let's do what only we can do!"
Here at Nintendo Life we're huge fans of Ancient, the company set up by composer Yuzo Koshiro and his family which has worked on some absolute brilliant games over the last three decades — including Mega Drive classics Streets of Rage 2 and Beyond Oasis, and...
Quick Beats Streets Of Rage Composer On Musical Heroes And The Series He'd Love To Work On
10 rapid-fire questions for VGM legend Yuzo Koshiro
Throughout the Nintendo Life Video Game Music Festival we're speaking to a range of composers and musicians for a mixture of in-depth interviews and shorter, sharper (and perhaps a little goofier) Q&As where we ask just ten rapid-fire personal questions; we're calling these shorter features...
Wednesday22nd Dec 2021
Where's our diploma in slime-slicing?
Ancient — the family company of VGM composer Yuzo Koshiro and developers of everything from Sonic The Hedgehog’s debut Game Gear outing to Gotta Protectors for the 3DS — released Royal Anapoko Academy in Japan on 16th December 2021. Like much of its output in recent years, this light-hearted RPG is an...
Wednesday11th Mar 2020
Random Streets Of Rage Composer Put His Name On Title Screens Because His Mum Told Him To
“That wasn’t my suggestion”
Yuzo Koshiro is arguably one of the most famous composers of video game music in the world thanks to his incredible work on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive and, more recently, for his sterling efforts on franchises such as Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey. While Koshiro’s tunes for titles like Revenge of Shinobi, ActRaiser...
Saturday24th Aug 2019
News Yuzo Koshiro Confirms That Switch Gotta Protectors Sequel Is Coming To The West
English version available "by next spring"
Ancient's Gotta Protectors was one of the last truly essential eShop games for the Nintendo 3DS, and we awarded it a much-deserved 9/10 back in 2016. Koshiro revealed in 2018 that the next game in the Mamotte Knight / Protect Me Knight series – entitled Susume!! Mamotte Knight: Hime no Totsugeki Serenade...
Tuesday12th Sep 2017
News Check Out a New NES Game - Amazon's Running Diet
Some quirky anniversary marketing from Ancient
New NES releases in 2017 are always welcomed, but there is more than meets the eye to Amazon's Running Diet, because it is in fact a release by the folks at Ancient to celebrate an anniversary for 3DS title Gotta Protectors. In this endless runner you take control of the titular Amazon, one of the...
Tuesday20th Jun 2017
News Streets Of Rage And Etrian Odyssey Composer Isn't Sure Why The Switch Exists
"I'm not really surprised by it"
The name Yuzo Koshiro will be instantly familiar to anyone who has been gaming for the past 30 years. The legendary creator of music for games like Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi, ActRaiser and Etrian Odyssey has been president of Ancient Corp for 27 years now, and during that time he has contributed some...
Monday26th Sep 2016
News Gotta Protectors Was Translated By Just One Person
"Why hasn't this been localized? I want to translate this"
Gotta Protectors has been something of a sleeper hit with North American 3DS owners thanks to its mixture of NES-style visuals, engaging gameplay and the involvement of Japanese company Ancient, perhaps best known as the home of the legendary composer Yuzo "Streets of Rage" Koshiro. While...
Friday8th Jul 2016
News Gotta Protectors Looks Like an Amazing and Quirky Throwback to '80s Gaming
Music from great composers like Yuzo Koshiro
The 3DS eShop has hosted plenty of retro-styled games, a number of which have been excellent. We're rather optimistic about another that's on the way - Gotta Protectors by Ancient Games. Known as Protect Me Knight 2 in Japan, this one arrives in North America on 21st July and will cost $12.99. That's an...
Tuesday10th Feb 2015
News Protect Me Knight 2 For 3DS eShop Is In the Process of Being Localised
Making steady progress
Following the 3DS eShop title’s Japanese release in September last year, comes news from developer Ancient, that work on the English version of Mamotte Knight 2: Hime no Tokemeki is well underway for a local release. Ancient revealed the news via their official Twitter account, whilst also revealing the English logo and...
