Classic games publisher Sunsoft says it’s back and remaking its old games

Game publisher Sunsoft, known in the West for 8-bit era games such as Mr. BlasterAnd the BatmanAnd the Pfister mission, is trying to get back to publishing and developing video games. On Thursday, new Sunsoft — which has never really gone away from a technical point of view — outlined its plan to re-release and revive its catalog of classic games, starting with Vampire survivors-Probably ike unite and popular retro game releases trick! And the Euphoria (known as Hyperic in Japan) for modern platforms.

Sunsoft is even hinting at bringing back Aero the Acro-Bat, the anthropomorphic bat that appeared in a pair of Sega Genesis and Super NES games near the height of the console’s mascot platformer.

The publisher’s first game under the new plan, ike uniteIt’s a sequel of some kind ikean arcade game (later made into Famicom Nintendo) about the uprising of a medieval Japanese farming village against its feudal lord. ike unite It expands on the original single-player game with online multiplayer, and is unmistakably inspired – if not outright copied – the great 2021 hit. Vampire survivors.

Yuichi Aoshi, General Manager of Sunsoft, told Polygon in an interview on Wednesday that ike unite It is being built Vampire survivors Game design and viral success to help find an audience for the Ikki brand, which he admitted does not have a global awareness. (Famicom port in ike Notorious for its poor quality, it is said to be the basis of the derogatory phrasekusogeor “dirty game” in Japan.)

Only known a little better than ike be trick! (which saw a Scandinavian release) and Hyperic (Any advantages? metroid-Like Mechanics and was released in North America for NES under the name Euphoria: The Saga). But Sunsoft is hoping to give those poor games new levels of exposure by bringing them to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC via Steam and Xbox One.

Moreover, there are a lot of games developed and published by Sunsoft that have been a huge hit in Japan, but never made their way to the West. O’Shea hopes to revive those as well. While ike unite It is developed in-house by Sunsoft, and other titles are being developed with the help of third-party studios. Ochi said Sunsoft is willing to work with smaller independent studios on its IP-based games: “Our strategy is very open.”

So why is Sunsoft bringing back now, years after its last attempt to publish games? Put simply, O’Shea said the business is beneficial to Sunsoft’s parent company Sun Corporation and the electronics company is looking to reinvest in the gaming industry. Ochi himself is relatively new to the company, having joined Sunsoft in July 2021, after stints at Capcom and other game companies in Japan and Taiwan.

But with a well-known old name, a back catalog of untapped brands, and now an official VTuber called Sunsoft Nosuke to deliver the good news of games like trick! To a global audience, Sunsoft proudly claims to be back.