Tube Panic is this week joining Hamster's Arcade Archives collection on the Nintendo Switch eShop. The 1984 arcade shooter was originally released by Nichibutsu (long before Hamster Corporation acquired its entire library in 2014) and is considered to be the first game circuit board to feature a 3D rotation function.
Here's a little bit more about the game itself, courtesy of the official PR:
A mysterious tube net appears before the command ship Marcus as it cruises through space. Use 360 turning to battle enemy ships hiding in the depths of each stage, and face off with the mother ship's fleet waiting at the end.
As usual, this is a faithful reproduction of the arcade version and comes with additional features such as the ability to change various settings and compete against high scores set by other players from around the world.
This follows on from last week's release, which was the 1989 Jaleco shmup, Plus Alpha. Will you be adding Hamster's latest release to your digital collection on the Switch? Leave a comment down below.
Comments 27
And here's another one previously unannounced. They said due to CERO stopping its activity (it seems that giving an age rating to an old game is something they cannot do if not in an actual office -yes, someone did tell me there's no working from home culture in Japan, thanks-) they might release unannounced games. Well, that's 2 out of 2 since they said that.
I hope Bubble Bobble comes soon. It was on PS4 already, shouldn't require a new age rating.
Annnnd maybe make history next week by releasing the first new port of Sunset Riders in nearly 30 years? :3
@Moroboshi876 Perhaps, but it would still require a phone call to Taito/Square Enix and be like "Hey, can we put this title we released on PS4 way back on Switch?", which I'm sure wouldnt be too problematic unless Taito/SE thought it would clash with Bubble Bobble 4 Friends....
Looks a lot like Tempest.
Welcome Stun Runne- wait...
@Juga Yes, I know the original is included there (I don't know if it's good emulation, at least Hamster level emulation, though), but the main game didn't get extremely good reviews. And I'm interested in the original, which in Arcade Archives will cost much less. And it will come eventually. Because there have been some releases that have been on PS4 for years now, and because there have also been SNK releases which where included in SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, and that didn't deter Hamster from releasing them individually, despite the collection being handled by another company. So Bubble Bobble will come. It's just a matter of when. And I hope that after stopping the release of the already announced titles, one that we will see sooner than later will be Bubble Bobble.
It's a shame that we have to wait even longer than we already were for Sunset Riders and Wrecking Crew, though.
@Moroboshi876 Yeah I really wanted those two. Been holding off on buying more ACA games until those release.
I'll be picking this up, even if just for curiosity value. It's a game I know nothing about, so will be a new experience.
I agree with the comments about Sunset Ridets, though. It's like Microsoft Game Room all over again!
@JayJ That's my case too. Well, there are some games I really want from Hamster, but I have 40€ worth of eShop codes and want to spend them on 6 games (that's 42, but hopefully I will be able to gather enough points with the purchase of the first 5 games), and I don't want to redeem the codes until I can buy all 6 games in order to avoid having unused currency in my account and be able to switch region whenever I want. And 3 of those games are Wrecking Crew, Sunset Riders and Bubble Bobble (The already released ones being In the Hunt, Twinbee and Vs Balloon Fight).
@Moroboshi876 Lol that is exactly what I am doing as well. I am planning on just buying another batch of 6 but I am waiting for Sunset Riders and Wrecking Crew before I do that. A big part of that is how I am kind of OCD about how I have my games library organized alphabetically and I just want to add an even row of games. I already got a ton of them that I bought earlier but I stopped a few months back saying how I will just buy one more batch then call it quits for a while, I have a big ACA backlog by now.
Please surprise me with a release of chase hq 1 and 2 x x x
@JayJ That's a coincidence! LOL
Yes, I have a huge backlog too. Between physical releases, digital games and titles included in collections (after all they were originally individual games and they have to be counted that way) I'm nearing 200 games on Switch. A couple dozen of them from Hamster. Good thing I chew on every arcade purchase.
@Moroboshi876 Yeah I have a bunch of physical games I still need to get around to, and far too many digital purchases that I have collected over the years. It's kinda nice though because there isn't much that I am really looking forward to anytime soon and I have a very solid collection by now. It's nice when I get to this point with a console.
@JayJ I agree. There's only a small amount of 2020 releases I'm looking forward to at this point. But I'm also aware I have too many games on Switch as it is, so I'm ruling out several titles my 2 years ago me would have picked.
@Moroboshi876 Yeah same. A lot of games that I would have picked up around the launch era I am now passing up because I already have a good selection when it comes to that type of game or something. It feels good to be finally slowing down after buying to much software, I feel like there is very little that I want or need at this point so that probably has a lot to do with why I am not really looking forward to much anymore. A game has to be pretty special to grab my attention.
It's like Gyruss, Tempest, and Juno First had a baby and called it Tube Panic! I swear Nichibutsu has the widest gamut of quality in their releases. I say that because there's stuff released after Tube Panic that's several steps backwards in terms of technical prowess. And Tube Panic came out in '84! It's like internally, they didn't have a 'house style' to adhere to. Unlike say, Capcom, Konami, and SEGA games which are easy to differentiate from one another.
I'll definitely pick this up at some point since I love me some 'tunnel shmups'.
I often moan about the selection of arcade games they choose to put out. but on this occassion i have nothing but praise. This is one of the greatest arcade games, very few people have played. Way ahead of it's time. The other thing that is crazy is that the music is pretty much house music, way before it actually existed. And when compared to the soundtracks of other games of the era it's quite simply staggering.
@JayJ did you know that codes expires? Put them in the console before they expire, or you will lose everything
I will grab this one! I HOPE sunset riders is within the next few weeks. Can’t wait! One of my faves!
Slightly off topic, the Switch is just a retro powerhouse! Having said that, we do NEED the MIDWAY ARCADE CLASSICS!!! Sorely missing!!
I just featured a piece of music from this game on my pod in Feb: C1E51 - my second-to-most-recent episode, and most recent non-April-Fool's! I will be buying this game for sure!
@masterLEON Nichubutsu had some pretty interesting games.
Too bad that by the '90s, they had turned into a mahjong game factory.
They had an interesting looking Famicom strategy game (Ganso-something? I only know it is its roughly translated title Spirit Animal Genesis) that was canceled (and no prototypes found, just some video footage) surely for more mahjong games.
(like, checking their release history on GameFAQs, and they were up to releasing eight of them in a single year. How does one need that many? )
Nice! I wonder what other "aready rated but not yet released" games they'll release earlier the originally intended.
@Oppyz666 What do you mean?
@KingMike Apparently you can't have too many mahjong games, LOL. IIRC having an entire sections or floors in an entertainment center or even dedicated mahjong game parlors were a thing back then. Currently, I don't know if there's a high demand anymore since most of those shifted to home PC/console release. I'm thinking it's like in casinos in Las Vegas, or anywhere really, where there used to be a need to cycle slot machines out regularly, like every year, just to keep things fresh and also to ensure they're not too worn out. Nowadays slots have gone digital with mechanical wheels replaced by a monitor and flashy graphics. So for coin-op mahjong games, once you beat the opponents (and see the pics) it's off to the next one, LOL.
Ah, so the next (announced) Arcade Archives games are:
All Data East stuff. Curious. I guess JT/FDG/Golem are no longer handling those.
Odd the Darwin games were numbered. So it 4078, SRD was 4079, then there was a 4080, and 4081 was the Japanese Mega Drive port of 4078, I think.
I only know of Trio the Punch from watching Games Done Quick last year. The runner asked the audience to make the same weird pose as the player character every time he finished a level.
@KingMike Yeah I caught that AGDQ clip yesterday and it was wild! I ended up doing the poses by the end, too, LOL
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