Taito has announced that M2 is currently working on a new follow-up to the 3D arcade shoot 'em up Night Striker.
Released in 1989, the original Night Striker saw players step behind the wheel of a futuristic armored vehicle, with the ultimate aim being to take down an evil terrorist organisation and rescue a kidnapped scientist and his daughter. At the time, it took advantage of Taito's Z System arcade hardware and featured 2D sprite scaling, similar to that seen in Sega's Super Scaler games Space Harrier and After Burner, to give players the impression of a 3D world.
Console ports were later released for the Sega Mega CD (1993), Sony PlayStation (1995), and Sega Saturn (1996), with all three of these being exclusively released in Japan.
The new entry from M2, which is called Night Striker Gear, will feature pixel art and sprite scaling similar to the original game, according to the announcement on Taito's website, but will also introduce a new "Gear System" that aims to provide "simple and exhilarating" gameplay.
It is currently unknown what platforms it will be released on, or when exactly it will launch, with Taito telling fans to expect a more in-depth reveal from M2 tomorrow at the Zuntata Night 2024 November issue.
In addition to this news, Taito and M2 have also revealed that they are working on a reissue of the original arcade game for PC. This will be packaged alongside the light gun shooter Operation Wolf under the name Operation Night Strikers and will be released sometime next year, in 2025, with the Steam page currently being available online to wishlist.
These arcade reissues will reportedly contain multiple versions of each arcade game and will come with the added benefit of being able to apply CRT filters, save/load at any time, and upload your scores to an online leaderboard, as well as the option to use the Japan-only Cyber Stick for further authenticity.
Both of these announcements follow the recent inclusion of Night Striker in Taito Arcade Memories Vol. 2 for the Egret II Mini micro-console.