Hamster Is Bringing Balloon Fight, VS. Castlevania And More To Switch eShop

What is different about VS. Castlevania?

Hope they get Balloon Fight working well, as it is a duel monitor game in the arcade for 2 players

Sounds like a waste for a subscriber to Switch/NES Online app, as well as owning SNK 40th Anniversary which has TNKIII, and the Castlevania collection. Guess these will sell for completionists and people that skipped those collections. (and of course the games that aren't included in any collection thus far)

holy crap this is news! 2 of them are from the 90's and don't totally suck!!

@Illusion Sounds like a waste to me, too. I bought Vs. Super Mario Bros. sometime before NES Online had released, and it's one of my most regrettable Switch purchases.

where is karate champ?

If they’re doing Taito, where’s Bubble Bobble?

Stoked for these but also we need Jungle Hunt and Qix please!!!

@jrpacman Yes, thank you!

@Liam_Doolan Thanks!

Please do bubble bobble next
Please do bubble bobble next
Please do bubble bobble next

IN.THE.HUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for Scramble but where’s Super Cobra?!?

Glad to see that In the Hunt and Time Tunnel are in the works. And happy that Vs. Balloon Hunt apparently is still happening. Got announced quite sometime ago.

Where is the original stream for this announcement?

All is can say is why bother??????

As I always ask under news like this:
Where is Mr. Goemon already? It's been on PS4 for years, come on now.

Been waiting forever for Baloon Fight. Now if only they would release Gyrus.

Want Bubble Bobble, New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Karate Champ, Kung Fu Master

I'd much rather pay for a collection than one by one.

The real highlight here is Irem's submarine shmup In The Hunt!

I read this as Balloon fight vs Castlevania.

@Aurumonado Ha! That would be a game I would play!

Not sure I'll jump on these, but I have liked my Vs. purchases (contrary to one commenter on this thread, I love Vs. Super Mario Bros.), though I hate that Hamster doesn't have an instant load feature to restart from your spot-save the way other retro ports do — this is especially annoying in the SNK games they have re-released, when you may well want to just go back to the beginning of a bout against a particularly challenging opponent instantaneously the way you can in, say, The Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. Instead I have to exit and restart the game to get back to my save spot (cue someone being like "uh...that feature exists" and me feeling pretty darn dumb).

Balloon Fight was already announced, as well as Time Tunnel.

So Scramble and Twinbee individually after all (PlayStation 4 owners had them this way already since long ago), huh? Well, I'll be getting them in the Konami Anniversary Collection Arcade Classics or whatever the name is. No Hi-Score or Caravan modes, but price-wise it'll always be better.

@Not_Soos Why? You're talking about the game whose arcade version is the most different from NES counterpart.

I miss Bubble Bobble too. Hamster released it on PS4 a long time ago.

Also miss Karate Champ. It was announced but later dropped from the upcoming Hamster games list and never reappeared. (and again, PS4 has it)

Ok, now THIS is a good selection. Yeah, we probably don't need Golf, Balloon Fight, T.A.N.K., TNK III and Scramble sense we have them in other places on Switch, but In The Hunt and Detana!!! TwinBee are great choices! Going to pick those two up for sure.

@USWITCH64 did you ever play In The Hunt?

@rxchrisg no but I used to play in the park, football mainly

Every time a new Arcade Archives release is announced there are comments about the lack of interest of these games considering they are on NES Online (they aren't, if only because these are arcade versions, but it's easy to say things without having no idea)... But then people doesn't want NES or SNES Online because they prefer having to pay for them individually and own them instead of this streaming service.

So what do you want, people? Buying the games or just playing them as if they were on Netlix until the service closes down or some titles are removed for some reason? Just be consistent.

Or are you guys implying that NES and SNES games have to be bought, but arcade ones (and most of the time officially available for the first time) don't deserve that?

Seriously, I'm going to stop reading comments when news about Arcade Archives pop up...

@USWITCH64 lol

@Moroboshi876 I wondered that myself. People on here BEG to be able to buy all these old games ala carte,then about the price when they are offered. It’s one or the other.

@rxchrisg Exactly. Thank you.

@Moroboshi876 I like the RGB colors on the arcade versions. Also, the arcade versions don't have sprite flicker compared to the NES versions. It also helps that they are not exactly the same in terms of level design, enemy placement, and sometimes A.I. and timer. People these days just don't understand/care about the arcade differences. Either that, or it's "$8 for an upgraded NES game" or "this isn't my NES Super Mario Bros. that I've already played 10 Billion times over, what gives?"

Admittedly, I do think HAMSTER should consider a tiered pricing system based on the year a game came out. Like keep the $8 for 1986 and up, and maybe $5 for 1985 and earlier. Maybe even a 1989/1988 cutoff.

@Moroboshi876 Castlevania and Balloon Fight are not a different enough experience to me to warrant getting the arcade versions when I already have perfectly playable NES versions of them on NES app and Castlevania Collection. I also think anyone who wants to collect SNK arcade games should do themselves a favor and get SNK 40th Anniversary for Switch instead of purchasing them one by one. The other arcade games I have no problem with. (Also, if these releases were the only way to play Balloon Fight and Castlevania, I would throw down the money for them, but they're not)
If/when Nintendo takes down the NES and SNES app I'll be bummed but I've got a modded NES mini, SNES mini, Xbox, and a MAME computer with all those games too. I just like paying money to own things portably because my job and family normally prevent me from enjoying those consoles in my mancave. 😅

@Illusion Don't get me wrong, I prefer owning. I just pointed out that people wants to pay for Virtual Console games but then doesn't want to pay for the Hamster releases. Plus, the collection is by Digital Eclipse and this is Hamster.

I have the SNK Collection, but I understand why they would want to release the games separately. Plus, the collection is Digital Eclipse and this is Hamsyer

@LinktotheFuture As had been said, it's a difficulty mod essentially. Specifically I recall Simon takes twice as much damage, time limit is shorter (but is at least consistent across checkpoints, whereas NES gives a longer timer but shortens it at later checkpoints in a stage). And the end of stage bonus points are reduced to 40% (probably so that, especially combined with the short timer, makes it hard to earn extra lives from points as well). Wall meat only recovers half as much as well.
There could be physics changes as well (I mean, the Famicom cartridge version added an Easy mode which removed knockback when hit), but I don't know it to that detail.

But In The Hunt is interesting. I do have a PS1 disc though (I think that and Saturn were the only console releases?).
I know it was a sub-based horizontal shooter (used to play the arcade machine back in the day at this Chuck E. Cheese knockoff called Circus Pizza. We didn't have the original around the area back then.)
I believe the game was made by what would become the Metal Slug team.

@Liam_Doolan So would you say this next Arcade Archives lineup includes all the Bells & Whistles? (so I read the Detana!! Twinbee arcade machine had a western... maybe European... release under that name. Maybe it was more popular in EU, since they also got the two SNES games NA didn't.)

@LinktotheFuture Yeah it's mainly the difficulty is much harder in this but only to near the end of the castle where it's the same as the Nes one

seems a bit late on some of these releases I don't get why it takes them months/years just to release some roms there's better ways to play castlevania and Twin bee games on the Switch tho I guess this is kinda cheaper? or at least saves some memory if you only wanted the 1st game of each series

Golf should be good, seeing as they added a proper soundtrack the nes one is quiet and balloon fight with it's split/double screens co-op, that's if they bother to emulate that, seeing that was the main cool thing about the Vs system games was the two screen sides a screen for each player https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_lvKHAHoL4

Id just like to see games like Sunset Riders Ninja Turtles. More of the 1-up arcade type offerings from ACA

@Moroboshi876 Totally agree! I love playing the arcade versions of these games.

My only complaint is that not all of them warrant the $8 asking price. They need some 50% sales. On the other hand, $8 for Moon Patrol or Donkey Kong is a lot cheaper than the actual arcade cabinets.

Collections would be nice, but at least you can pick and choose which ones you want.

I am looking forward to VS Ballon Fight. I believe the arcade version does have a larger play field than the NES version.

@Tandy255 I think Balloon Fight arcade is vertical, so it'll be worth the buy.

Agree with the pricing. I don't think they're ridiculously overpriced, but c'mon, some discount here and there...

And they did on Xbox One with Neo Geo titles. Sure, the ones that probably don't sell well, but that's something anyway. On Switch it only happened once.

Ahhhh, yes, In the Hunt~

I was hoping for more NEO NEO games (namely Puzzle de Pon and Breakers Revenge) but I guess that partnership is over. 😢

I don't own any of these Hamster games, and I doubt I'll be starting now.

If I had any actual game making skills I would be working on a game inspired by Balloon Fight. Maybe give the characters a little needle-lance to pop balloons with rather than just body-slamming into them and call it Balloon Knights.

@Not_Soos
At least you can play Vs Super Mario Bros. offline indefinitely and not need a $20 a year sub.

@LinktotheFuture In terms of gameplay, enemy damage to Simon is increased from the beginning, and the first two levels have very short time limits.

@Moroboshi876 In the arcade Vs. Balloon Fight had a vertically scrolling screen, and was also made for the Duosystem, which had two units connected giving each player their own screen.

@JohnH Well, I doubt they'll replicate the dual player thing, although they could by connecting 2 actual consoles.

Anyway, if there are different stages it's worth the buy.

But these announcements are a little disappointing to me, because half of them were already known. I want a longer list with previously unannounced titles, including many that are on PS4 but not Switch yet (Bubble Bobble, Wonder Boy...)

By the way, does anybody know about the differences in arcade Golf compared to NES counterpart? I haven't found any information on this.

I wish Hamster would do some SNK games not already included in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. I'd love to see Satan of Saturn/Zarzon, Lasso, Pioneer Balloon, Sky Adventure, Safari Rally, and Jumping Cross that all got overlooked for that compilation and the earlier line of PSP Minis.

Give me Mr. Do!, or give me death!