Taito and Natsume Atari have just announced that a new entry in the KiKi KaiKai series (known as Pocky & Rocky in the west) is coming to Switch.

According to Weekly Famitsu, KiKi KaiKai: Kuro Mantle no Nazo (that's a tentative title) is being developed by Tengo Project, a team within Natsume Atari which is formed of staff who worked on the 1992 SNES title KiKi KaiKai: Nazo no Kuro Mantle, including Toshiyasu Miyabe.

Miyabe had this to say about the announcement:

We started work on a sequel with the thought that if we didn’t respond to requests for a remake now, we wouldn’t have the chance in the future considering the staff’s age. While you may think it’s a remake, it’s a completely new title. It’s loaded with new elements.

The KiKi KaiKai series began life in arcades in 1986. The aforementioned SNES title gave the franchise global fame and would inspire a 16-bit sequel called KiKi KaiKai: Tsukiyo Soushi (Pocky & Rocky 2 in the west) as well as a Game Boy Advance entry called KiKi KaiKai Advance (Pocky & Rocky with Becky).

Tengo Project also worked on The Ninja Saviors: Return of the Warriors and Wild Guns Reloaded, both of which updated existing series for a new generation, to great success.

[source gematsu.com]