Digital Down-Low for 06/05/2026: Insert Disc 2

[Octopus Prime]

Pretty thin week overall this week, but we're also smack dab in the middle of Summer Games Fest so who knows how shrimpy this weeks releases will be.

And speaking of, you know who else loves shrimp? Virtually everyone; they're a delicious bug. But more specifically, l'il kitty cats. And that brings us to our first game, which is technically a port of a game that's been on the Switch for a while, but now it's on the FANCY NEW Switch so its visually on par with the other versions of the game; Stray now has a Switch 2 port that looks much nicer and I am genuinely unsure if it has any other changes. You're a cat lost in the big city, but it's a futuristic cyber-robo city full of cthulhus, and that presents its own set of challenges.

And speaking of little kitties who have to deal with the terrors of alien monsters and weaponized industrialization, we have the second chapter of the F7 remake trilogy; Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. And I absolutely adored Remake when I got around to playing it on the Switch 2 earlier this year and this one is coming out the same day I start my vacation so *clearly* the universe is doing me a kindness here.

I've been steadfastly avoiding spoilers since this game came out originally, but I know it's much more of an open world game than Remake was, and that Red XIII and Cait Sith are in it, so that automatically makes it a more enticing prospect. Well, they were technically in Remake as well, but not directly playable.

Explore scenic "A planet that's dyin'" with your friends, the Worlds Angriest Goobus, a Karate Bartender, A Chair-Wielding Chaos Gremlin, A 50 Year Old Angsty Teen Cat *and more* in order to chase down a beautiful man who loves his mom.

Speaking of travelling the land with a bunch of eclectic weirdos in order to beat the very gods inside out, we have River City Saga: Journey to the West, which is one of the River City games that does not, in fact, take place in any kind of city, let alone one with a river, or being threatened by any kind of ransom. No, this one is set in the incredible world of Dragonball, where the role of Goku is played by Kunio and Riki.

This one is also a roguelite, which, honestly, feels like it would mesh pretty well with RCR gameplay, so I'm completely on board.

And finally we've got an NSO update for the N64 and it's, uh... well it's certainly a high profile one, if not one that's especially beloved; we have Donkey Kong 64, the game so dedicated to the idea of being a collectathon that it nearly killed the genre. Explore scenic Donkey Kong Island in three full, glorious, dimensions. And then do it... like... a half dozen more times because all the myriad little chotchkes and geegaws you need to progress are each tied to one specific playable character.

On the other hand, it gave us the DK rap, so it's a bit of a wash.

OKAY, GO TO BED.

 

[WildcatJF]

I don't have time this morning to report on this week's retro releases (regrettably), but I'll get to it this evening, I promise! The titles have great image potential and I gotta writes em!

 

[Aurelia]

Don't have a lot to say atm, but I'm kind of tempted to give Donkey Kong 64 a decent shot as I've been avoiding playing it for way too long.

 

[jpfriction]

I have nothing but fond memories of DK64 but I’ve only played it in 5 minute chunks at a Walmart kiosk 25 years ago. Clearly the ideal experience.

 

[Bongo]

It's not that there isn't any fun to be had in Donkey Kong 64, of course, but also it can be very educational to experience firsthand the ways in which it sucks.

 

[WildcatJF]

As promised, Squid Alpha is here to deliver this week's retro releases (or this reek's wetro weleases, which I almost typed...this is why I normally don't do these in the evening lol). What's on tap for ya?

Arcade Archives has returned to the well of Taito and through some clever manipulation of the world's placement driven this week's release successfully out of the maze of obscurity and into the limelight: 1990's rotate-em-up Cameltry! Imagine Pac-Man, but you control the maze itself, there are no dots, and there are no ghosts trying to kill you. So that's very much not like Pac-Man, huh...well, it's a delightful twist on the maze style arcade experience I highly recommend, even if its name doesn't immediately ring a bell as to why it's called that. I'm sure camels tried really hard developing this!

Console Archives has dusted off something even more obscure, something only localized once and it was two years ago when it was! Sunsoft's 1986 firework-fuelled run-n-gun Firework Thrower Kantaro’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido is the title of the week, although it is very much NOT localized for this release. So if you want to understand why you're throwing firework bombs at villagers and you don't read Japanese, you're out of luck here. Anyway, this is among those earlier Sunsoft titles where they had an idea but not quite the technical chops to make it sing (that came about with Blaster Master), so it's a perfectly cromulent but rudimentary example of their output in the early days of the company. Which, sadly, has become entangled with its parent company's decision to own the Israeli company Cellebrite, whose main product is the Universal Forensic Extraction Device (or UFED), "a portable tool capable of extracting the contents of a cell phone". Which you can probably imagine has been utilized for all kinds of inhumane things. So.......................maybe don't?

EGG Console is last up, and they're bringing a sequel to an action RPG of some renown, the PC-9801 release of 1986's Marchen Veil II, by System Sacom. A title with notable cutscene visuals paired with 'scrolling and shooting action' per the game's description, this game improves upon its predecessor with better controls, a bigger map, and larger-than-life boss battles. It also had exclusivity to this particular PC platform, unlike its forebear, so it's possible some fans of the original never got the chance to try it out! Well, now you can get both of them!

Well, now I'm really exhausted, but I think it was worth it! I spelled everything right! That's worth something. Til next week, friend-o-lings!