You know something, kids? I’m really anxious of those who own a Nintendo Switch 2… because they have that fancy new Console Archives series from Hamster that lets them buy releases from previous consoles.
Now granted, there are a number of titles in which I either already have the original media for (Ninja Gaiden, MagMax, Seicross) and some I have little interest in (the Koei games… Cool Borders), but there’s a couple intriguing titles in there that kinda, sorta intrigue me. I recall the Monster Rancher cartoon from decades back and never knew it was based on a game, so I’d be curious about that one… even if said curiosity would last about one session before I got bored. But you know… I’m just waiting on that one firm console release that will get me over that hump and sell me on a Switch 2. After all, it was a retro throwback title in Mega Man 9 that convinced me to buy a Wii.
And so Hamster announced their latest addition to the Console Archives line-up: the Legend Of Kage.
On NES.
Yes, even though the Arcade Archives release already has the original arcade game, you can now purchase and play the inferior Famicom release.
Now, granted, Console Archives had home ports of arcade titles that were already featured in Arcade Archives… and honestly, no real reason to be playing those, quite frankly. MagMax and Seicross were fine games that stayed true to the source material, but still lesser versions of those arcade originals from a technical standpoint. Honestly, if you were going to release console conversions of arcade titles, you’d want to go for the games that were significantly different enough to warrant sample plays. Games like Contra, Bionic Commando, and Green Beret/Rush’n’Attack are good examples of this.
The Legend Of Kage, though? That’s just a bad NES port of a less than stellar arcade game.
This would have been fine as a Nintendo Classic addition if nothing else; the kind of game you sample for five minutes before going back to the more noteworthy NES/Famicom releases. Even in this economic climate, I was able to find NES carts of this thing selling for five bucks a pop… in Canadian currency.
Now you want me to pay ten bucks for this thing?
Thanks, Hamster people, for killing any desire I had in buying Switch 2.
Oh well…
