Game writer Sunsoft, greatest identified within the West for 8-bit period video games like Blaster Master, Batman, and Fester’s Quest, is trying a return to publishing and creating video video games. On Thursday, the brand new Sunsoft — which, technically, by no means went away — outlined its plan to rerelease and revive its traditional recreation catalog, beginning with the Vampire Survivors-inspired Ikki Unite and releases of beloved retro video games Gimmick! and Ufouria (often called Hebereke in Japan) for contemporary platforms.

Sunsoft is even hinting at bringing again Aero the Acro-Bat, the anthropomorphic bat who appeared in a pair of Sega Genesis and Super NES video games close to the height of the console mascot platformer.

The writer’s first recreation underneath the brand new plan, Ikki Unite, is a sequel of kinds to Ikki, an arcade recreation (that was later ported to Nintendo’s Famicom) a couple of medieval Japanese farming village’s rebellion towards its feudal overlord. Ikki Unite will increase upon the unique single-player recreation with on-line multiplayer, and is unmistakably impressed — if not outright copying — 2021’s smash hit Vampire Survivors.

Yuichi Ochi, basic supervisor of Sunsoft, informed Polygon in an interview Wednesday that Ikki Unite is being constructed upon Vampire Survivors’ recreation design and viral success to assist discover an viewers for the Ikki model, which he admitted doesn’t have international consciousness. (The Famicom port of Ikki is notorious for its shoddy high quality, and reportedly the idea for the derogatory phrase “kusoge,” or “shitty game,” in Japan.)

Only barely higher identified than Ikki are Gimmick! (which noticed a Scandinavian launch) and Hebereke (which options Metroid-like mechanics and was launched in North America for the NES underneath the identify Ufouria: The Saga). But Sunsoft hopes to offer these underdog video games new ranges of publicity by bringing them to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC through Steam, and Xbox One.

Beyond that, there are many Sunsoft-developed and revealed video games that had been cult hits in Japan, however by no means made their method to the West. Ochi hopes to revive these as properly. While Ikki Unite is being developed by Sunsoft internally, different titles are being developed with assistance from outdoors studios. Sunsoft is keen to work with smaller indie studios on video games based mostly on its IP, Ochi stated: “Our strategy is very open.”

So why carry again Sunsoft now, years after its final try and publish video games? Quite merely, enterprise is sweet for Sunsoft’s mother or father Sun Corporation and the electronics firm is trying to reinvest in making video games, Ochi stated. Ochi himself is comparatively new to the corporate, having joined Sunsoft in July 2021, after stints at Capcom and different gaming firms in Japan and Taiwan.

But with a recognizable classic identify, a again catalog of underexploited manufacturers, and now an official VTuber named Sunsoft Nosuke to ship the excellent news about video games like Gimmick! to a worldwide viewers, Sunsoft is proudly claiming it’s again.