Update [Thu 9th May, 2024 15:30 BST]: Hamster has revealed that the next Namco game coming to Arcade Archives will be the vertical shoot-em-up F/A (otherwise known as Fighter & Attacker).
The announcement was made during today's livestream on Hamster's YouTube channel (1:41:36), with the game being planned to start distribution across both PS4 and Nintendo Switch on May 15th.
Fighter & Attacker was originally released on Namco's NA-1 hardware in the arcades back in 1992 and is notable in that it has so far never been ported or reissued on consoles. As gosokkyu notes, it also features a fairly memorable techno-inspired score, which comes courtesy of the legendary Namco composers Takayuki Aihara (Ridge Racer 2, Street Fighter EX) and Shinji Hosoe (Ridge Racer, Street Fighter EX).
Original Story [Fri 26th Apr, 2024 09:00 BST]: Usually, we have a pretty good idea of what upcoming titles are going to be in Hamster's record-breaking Arcade Archives series.
The publisher – which has worked with Nintendo, Tecmo, SNK, Konami and Namco on its series of retro classics – ordinarily tells us what forthcoming games are a few weeks in advance, so we have the opportunity to get sufficiently excited.
However, Hamster is breaking with tradition for its May 15th release – it's keeping it under wraps until the big day.
There's a reason that date is significant – it marks the 10th anniversary of the Arcade Archives range. It made its debut on the PS4 back on May 15, 2014, with Crazy Climber, Ninja-Kid, and Rygar all launching on the same day in Japan.
Rumours suggest it may be something that's never been previously ported to home hardware before. Fans are already speculating that it could be the Smash Bros.-like Outfoxies to 1998's Techno Drive.
Let us know what you'd like the game to be by posting a comment below.