SEGA AGES and Arcade Archives have dominated the Switch eShop's retro re-release scene for too long—now it's Project EGG's turn to share the money fun, bringing '80s/'90s Japanese PC classics back into circulation for today's players. It's a bit questionable, then, that despite all the added quality-of-life features, they've kept Game Arts' Thexder just as comically difficult as ever. I'm going to find it hard to play this without save states now, aren't I. No matter what, anyone keen to try an unforgiving but surprisingly rich action platformer, a computer-bound refraction of Super Mario Bros. that same year, should give this a look-see.
I reviewed Thexder earlier this year while trawling through memories of playing localized and untouched J-PC games back in college, wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into.Ghosts 'n Goblins hadn't yet reached the PC-88 by 1985, but its sheer level of brutality finds a fellow traveler in this title. Thankfully it's not as outright misanthropic and impenetrable as Capcom's infamous side-scroller, yet I wonder if it's not too far off. A studio like M2 or Hamster would have included some kind of easier mode or options to favor players (that aren't just saves), but not D4 Enterprises. They're confident that this will hold up well in the people's court, and I respect their moxie. Let's not act too surprised to see *Xanadu selling way better, though, whether because of the Falcom bump or how it's just slower and affable from the onset.
| Robo-Dexter's Laboratory |
Even the slowed-down DOS port of the game, released by Sierra in 1987, slices you in two with a proverbial laser beam before reassembling your sad self in not quite the right order. This may not have the design of a Mario kaizo hack, but it's very happy to sucker in players with a challenging but reasonable first stage before laying down the gauntlet. Level 2 asks a simple question: to shield or not to shield? One can choose to barrel through enemies, losing a mere 10 energy to replenish the barrier. Someone more daring may try and avoid as many enemies as possible, ending the level with no shield use and gaining a free 150 energy and raised energy cap as reward. Each following level begins to feel less like a robotic defense installation, more akin to a series of puzzles testing your resource management and ability to juke the droids into sticking on walls or each other.
Routing Thexder involves figuring out which stages are best tanked with shields or are possible to clear while taking minimal damage vs. the no-shield bonus. This becomes easier the further the player gets because designers Hibiki Godai and Satoshi Uesaka decided to recycle level layouts towards the end of the main loop, albeit with changed tilesets and enemies to keep it all fresh (no recolors!). So while it's as tough to learn as any memo-oriented shooter, there's some lenience here and there which retains the game's first impression of Mario meets Major Havoc and Macross. The only notably slow bits are "boss fights", which take the form of multi-object structures containing enemies within. It's fun to pick off each robot in just the right order to avoid releasing them from their prisons to attack you. These sections get a lot more use out of the plane morph than one might expect, all because you need a focused stream of fire instead of the auto-targeting projectile in mech form.
| Preservation, incubation, what's the difference? |
I was apprehensive about whether or not Project EGG's jump from subscription-based Windows emulation to Switch would shake out, and my worries were far from unjustified. As much as I admire Thexder in its historic context, the game's a hard sell today without offering more invasive ways to alleviate its ruthlessness. Save states are limited to just five slots here, along with a few game speed options which let you play slower or faster at the expense of audio design. Button remapping works very well, but the lack of turbo functions spells trouble in the future (or right now in Silpheed's case, though I need to play that port to know for sure). Including the manual is a nice touch, yet it also highlights the lack of other contextual materials like magazine articles, production materials, etc. There's a lot more D4 could have added to round out the package without using excessive time and budget they understandably would want for upcoming releases.
On the other hand, maybe five save slots and a minimalist approach works fine for this era of J-PC game soft, not swinging too hard towards purism nor revisionism. I think players should have the final say in how a game's played, with developers ideally accommodating multiple audiences' needs through options vs. forcing a one-size-fits-all approach. And it's hard to tell if Project EGG currently sees an opening in the retro games fandom to attract newer, younger players or if they'll lay the commercial onus strictly on aging dads and salarypeople from the '60s, '70s, and '80s who are already familiar with the J-PC library. When the software you're trying to sell is interesting yet somewhat inaccessible by design—front-loaded with challenge and gotcha moments meant to prolong playtime while encouraging the game's community through shared secrets—what can a modern digital distributor really do the bridge the gap in player demographic mindsets?
The EGGCONSOLE releases of RELICS and Thexder feel tentative and spare, very much testing the waters of how far these ancient J-PC legends can evolve to meet EGG's market needs. But I also doubt one can really do more with a game this honest and straightforward, not without designing basically a whole new game via difficulty rebalancing. M2's able to go that far because SEGA and other large firms back them up on projects big and small, whereas D4 and Hamster only have so much capital to buoy their teams. The mere threat of drastic changes turning off long-time EGG players might be enough of a problem to outweigh creating a full-on modern remake (ex. Thexder Neo). It's a tough call for the company to make, but I think they should still try to push the envelope more than this. Something as simple as letting players keep the end-of-level energy bonus even when using barriers, for instance, wouldn't deviate too far from Godai & Uesaka's design. It'd just speed up the average player's learning process, letting them chomp at the later levels earlier.
| Moonlight Sonata |
D4's imperative with EGGCONSOLE, ultimately, is to thread the needle on fidelity vs. accessibility while escaping the chokehold that their PC service's subscription model's kept them in for decades. I've rarely been able to convince anyone to pay upfront for an account, and then buy access to the games EGG carries, vs. just directing folks to emulation and the Neo Kobe packs on Internet Archive instead. Not only is this release a way better value for returning players who no longer have to lug a laptop with them to play Thexder (assuming the Steam Deck can't run the EGG Player, which is likely), but it's a cheaper buy-in for anyone encountering this and similar software for the first time. (Granted, you've always been able to play EGG games without an Internet connection and/or active sub, but that doesn't remove the stink it seems.) Make no mistake, there are worse ways of handling this big an emulation library—AntStream says hello from the bleachers.
I hope and expect this move onto Switch will get Project EGG out of the rut it's been stuck in, and that more will at least try to crack Thexder's tough exterior now that save states are available. There's quite a bit more that the company could have done to improve their emulation package here, so I hope any broadly applicable add-ons to later releases get backported here. It's hilarious how much they've improved on the basic Windows-bound emulation of Thexder, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that EGGCONSOLE's grossly outperforming the traditional PC service now as a result. Well, enough musing. I've got a saveless run to figure out when I'm not thinking about ancient Rom—erm, sorry, I meant Bouken Roman and other weirdo platformers confined to PC and arcade obscurity. Thexder's lucky…it's got a sizable legacy, being the game that sold the PC-88 in '85, and that shines on nearly 40 years later thanks to its solid, addictive design. All these titles coming to Switch now, late as it is, just means I get to see more of y'all try and hopefully enjoy these old standards on their own terms.
I reviewed Thexder earlier this year while trawling through memories of playing localized and untouched J-PC games back in college, wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into.Ghosts 'n Goblins hadn't yet reached the PC-88 by 1985, but its sheer level of brutality finds a fellow traveler in this title. Thankfully it's not as outright misanthropic and impenetrable as Capcom's infamous side-scroller, yet I wonder if it's not too far off. A studio like M2 or Hamster would have included some kind of easier mode or options to favor players (that aren't just saves), but not D4 Enterprises. They're confident that this will hold up well in the people's court, and I respect their moxie. Let's not act too surprised to see *Xanadu selling way better, though, whether because of the Falcom bump or how it's just slower and affable from the onset.
| Robo-Dexter's Laboratory |
Even the slowed-down DOS port of the game, released by Sierra in 1987, slices you in two with a proverbial laser beam before reassembling your sad self in not quite the right order. This may not have the design of a Mario kaizo hack, but it's very happy to sucker in players with a challenging but reasonable first stage before laying down the gauntlet. Level 2 asks a simple question: to shield or not to shield? One can choose to barrel through enemies, losing a mere 10 energy to replenish the barrier. Someone more daring may try and avoid as many enemies as possible, ending the level with no shield use and gaining a free 150 energy and raised energy cap as reward. Each following level begins to feel less like a robotic defense installation, more akin to a series of puzzles testing your resource management and ability to juke the droids into sticking on walls or each other.
Routing Thexder involves figuring out which stages are best tanked with shields or are possible to clear while taking minimal damage vs. the no-shield bonus. This becomes easier the further the player gets because designers Hibiki Godai and Satoshi Uesaka decided to recycle level layouts towards the end of the main loop, albeit with changed tilesets and enemies to keep it all fresh (no recolors!). So while it's as tough to learn as any memo-oriented shooter, there's some lenience here and there which retains the game's first impression of Mario meets Major Havoc and Macross. The only notably slow bits are "boss fights", which take the form of multi-object structures containing enemies within. It's fun to pick off each robot in just the right order to avoid releasing them from their prisons to attack you. These sections get a lot more use out of the plane morph than one might expect, all because you need a focused stream of fire instead of the auto-targeting projectile in mech form.
| Preservation, incubation, what's the difference? |
I was apprehensive about whether or not Project EGG's jump from subscription-based Windows emulation to Switch would shake out, and my worries were far from unjustified. As much as I admire Thexder in its historic context, the game's a hard sell today without offering more invasive ways to alleviate its ruthlessness. Save states are limited to just five slots here, along with a few game speed options which let you play slower or faster at the expense of audio design. Button remapping works very well, but the lack of turbo functions spells trouble in the future (or right now in Silpheed's case, though I need to play that port to know for sure). Including the manual is a nice touch, yet it also highlights the lack of other contextual materials like magazine articles, production materials, etc. There's a lot more D4 could have added to round out the package without using excessive time and budget they understandably would want for upcoming releases.
On the other hand, maybe five save slots and a minimalist approach works fine for this era of J-PC game soft, not swinging too hard towards purism nor revisionism. I think players should have the final say in how a game's played, with developers ideally accommodating multiple audiences' needs through options vs. forcing a one-size-fits-all approach. And it's hard to tell if Project EGG currently sees an opening in the retro games fandom to attract newer, younger players or if they'll lay the commercial onus strictly on aging dads and salarypeople from the '60s, '70s, and '80s who are already familiar with the J-PC library. When the software you're trying to sell is interesting yet somewhat inaccessible by design—front-loaded with challenge and gotcha moments meant to prolong playtime while encouraging the game's community through shared secrets—what can a modern digital distributor really do the bridge the gap in player demographic mindsets?
The EGGCONSOLE releases of RELICS and Thexder feel tentative and spare, very much testing the waters of how far these ancient J-PC legends can evolve to meet EGG's market needs. But I also doubt one can really do more with a game this honest and straightforward, not without designing basically a whole new game via difficulty rebalancing. M2's able to go that far because SEGA and other large firms back them up on projects big and small, whereas D4 and Hamster only have so much capital to buoy their teams. The mere threat of drastic changes turning off long-time EGG players might be enough of a problem to outweigh creating a full-on modern remake (ex. Thexder Neo). It's a tough call for the company to make, but I think they should still try to push the envelope more than this. Something as simple as letting players keep the end-of-level energy bonus even when using barriers, for instance, wouldn't deviate too far from Godai & Uesaka's design. It'd just speed up the average player's learning process, letting them chomp at the later levels earlier.
| Moonlight Sonata |
D4's imperative with EGGCONSOLE, ultimately, is to thread the needle on fidelity vs. accessibility while escaping the chokehold that their PC service's subscription model's kept them in for decades. I've rarely been able to convince anyone to pay upfront for an account, and then buy access to the games EGG carries, vs. just directing folks to emulation and the Neo Kobe packs on Internet Archive instead. Not only is this release a way better value for returning players who no longer have to lug a laptop with them to play Thexder (assuming the Steam Deck can't run the EGG Player, which is likely), but it's a cheaper buy-in for anyone encountering this and similar software for the first time. (Granted, you've always been able to play EGG games without an Internet connection and/or active sub, but that doesn't remove the stink it seems.) Make no mistake, there are worse ways of handling this big an emulation library—AntStream says hello from the bleachers.
I hope and expect this move onto Switch will get Project EGG out of the rut it's been stuck in, and that more will at least try to crack Thexder's tough exterior now that save states are available. There's quite a bit more that the company could have done to improve their emulation package here, so I hope any broadly applicable add-ons to later releases get backported here. It's hilarious how much they've improved on the basic Windows-bound emulation of Thexder, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that EGGCONSOLE's grossly outperforming the traditional PC service now as a result. Well, enough musing. I've got a saveless run to figure out when I'm not thinking about ancient Rom—erm, sorry, I meant Bouken Roman and other weirdo platformers confined to PC and arcade obscurity. Thexder's lucky…it's got a sizable legacy, being the game that sold the PC-88 in '85, and that shines on nearly 40 years later thanks to its solid, addictive design. All these titles coming to Switch now, late as it is, just means I get to see more of y'all try and hopefully enjoy these old standards on their own terms.