Hitman, Tomba, and more classics get new revivals at Limited Run Games showcase

By Carli Velocci Published June 20, 2024

Hawk in a headset in the Fighting Force collection — Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games ran its annual showcase on Thursday, adding to its catalog of physical retro game releases for the next year. While many of the trailers were for already-announced titles, LRG managed to sneak in some big announcements, including the Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, re-releases and remasters of some deep-cut retro games, and more.

The physical game publisher has also gotten into the world of broader video game publishing, with its Carbon Engine helping developers use emulation to port older games from in the pre-PlayStation 1 era over to modern platforms. It’s also already released some projects this year, with Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked with Konami and being behind the Alan Wake 2 Collector’s Edition.

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So there were a lot of announcements to run through during the hour-long showcase. Let’s break it all down.

Fighting Force Collection is bringing the beatdown to consoles and PC in 2025

Fighting Force Collection | LRG3 Reveal Trailer

Who doesn’t love an old-fashioned 3D brawler? Team up with your friends with the newly announced Fighting Force Collection, which will allow you to play the two franchise games from the original Tomb Raider developers in 2025. It’ll be out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC.

FMV game you can only play after 10 p.m. gets release window

GHOSTS | FMV Game Trailer

Ghosts, a real-time FMV game that you can only play after 10 p.m. local time (yes, really), is now set for 2025, according to a new trailer that debuted during the showcase. The game was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2021, and comes from the mind of Jed Shepherd, one of the writers on the excellent Zoom horror movie Host, and Visible Games. It also features a lot of the cast from that low-budget film.

Tomba! 2 remaster gets a surprise announcement

Tomba! 2 | LRG 2024 Reveal Trailer

While we already knew that the first Tomba! game, an iconic retro platformer, was already in development, viewers of the LRG showcase got a surprise. Creator Tokuro Fujiwara, also known for Bionic Commando and many other games from your childhood, was on hand to announce that Tomba! 2 is also getting a remaster. There’s no release date yet, but Tomba! Special Edition will be out on August 1.

Beyond Good and Evil 20th Anniversary Edition gets announced for real

Beyond Good & Evil - 20th Anniversary Edition: Launch Trailer

While Ubisoft seemed to accidentally leak this game’s existence numerous times — including with a post ahead of the LRG showcase — we now have the official announcement for the 20th anniversary edition, which will be releasing next week.

Fear Effect is coming to modern platforms after all

Fear Effect | LRG3 Reveal Trailer

We thought we’d never see a modern Fear Effect after Square Enix announced the remake’s cancellation last year, but a re-release was just announced during Limited Run Games’ presentation on Thursday. This action-adventure game is set to release in 2025 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC. Square Enix is also involved in development.

Clock Tower: Rewind physical edition out this fall

Clock Tower: Rewind | LRG3 Trailer

We’re already prepared to have our pants scared clean off when Clock Tower: Rewind — the first time the famous Japanese survival-horror game will be released in the West — officially releases this year. The new trailer during the showcase also announced it’ll be getting a physical edition now available for preorder.

Bubsy??

*sigh* Were you expecting someone else?

That's right, Bubsy is back in a Carbon Engine collection of classic capers! Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection releases digitally and physically in 2025. pic.twitter.com/mbD51pTkVG

— Limited Run Games (@LimitedRunGames) June 20, 2024

Truly one of the most out-of-left-field announcements came in the form of the Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection, which was the showcase’s “one more thing.” Bubsy is one of the 1990s’ most bizarre video game mascots, with a very hit-or-miss series of titles. There wasn’t a lot of information released about the collection, but it’ll likely feature the first four games in the series as it’s being made through the Carbon Engine.

Everything else

Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered is getting a physical release and collectors editions on Switch, Xbox Series X, and PlayStation 5 on July 21, with preorders opening on Friday.
Physical and collector’s editions of The Fantasm Soldier Collection 3 will release this summer.
Rain World from 2017 is getting a physical release later this year.
Renaine is an upcoming retro throwback that’ll be getting a physical edition.
Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is getting a Nintendo Switch physical edition this summer.
G.I. Joe: The Wrath of Cobra will be available in a physical form in 2025.
Anime and mechs? Can’t go wrong. Assault Suit Leynos 2 is getting a physical edition later this year.
Snow Bros. Wonderland got a new gameplay trailer ahead of its late 2024 release.
Gimmick! from 1992 is getting a sequel, if you can believe it. Gimmick! 2 was announced for all platforms in 2024.
C-Smash VRS + New Dimension, previously only out for the Meta Quest headsets, is getting a physical edition for the PlayStation 5.
Adorable, unique platformer Penny’s Big Breakaway is getting a physical release this year.
Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch, which has been in development since 2016, will be getting a physical edition in 2024.
Retro beat-em-up Toxic Crusaders will get physical in 2024.
Hitman Blood Money: Reprisal will be physically out on Switch this fall.
Starship Troopers: Extermination is getting a collector’s edition this summer.
Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP will be out this summer, but you can get physical copies for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and Switch, too.
DoubleShake, an action-adventure platformer made in the style of the first 3D games, gets a new trailer.
The Rugrats are coming back to video games with Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland, which got a new trailer during the showcase.
GEX Trilogy will be available for preorder this fall.
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, originally developed for the Game Boy Advance, is getting a Carbon Engine port, and is expected in 2025.
Get your preorders in for Ninja Five-O starting on July 5.
Limited Run Games is teaming up with No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture on a project.

Former Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

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Gaming

These video game engines are powering today’s retro revival

10/24 Save State Key Art

Retro games are back in fashion. Over the past several years, many developers have made a name for themselves by releasing high-quality remasters, collections, or ports of gaming classics. These retro revivals go above and beyond, adding quality-of-life visual and gameplay enhancements and featuring museums full of information on the games’ creation. These rereleases do a net good for the video game industry, but there's a catch for developers: They require proprietary technology.

Many of the studios behind these retro revivals have created emulation engines of their own to make the work they do possible. Nightdive Studios’ KEX Engine and Limited Run Games’ Carbon Engine might be the most famous, but the Eclipse Engine from Digital Eclipse and Implicit Conversions’ Syrup Engine are also doing good work. Without these game engines, recent releases like Doom + Doom II, Micro Mages, Llamasoft: The Jeft Minter Story, and Tomba: Special Edition would not be possible.

Gaming

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes the right cues from Tears of the Kingdom

Zelda holds a rock in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The only constant in the Legend of Zelda series is change. From its perspective to its art style, Nintendo takes some surprising risks when it comes to one of its most valuable franchises. That often pays off. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, for instance, was a bold open-world reinvention of the classic adventure formula that put an emphasis on flexible gameplay and emergent moments born from creative thinking. That design didn’t just influence its direct sequel, the excellent The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It’s very much present in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom too.

I’ve been curious about how the first Zelda game to actually star Zelda would work ever since it was revealed. It looked like a return to top-down form, but its item-copying hook suggested that it might be more creatively open-ended than any traditional Zelda game. After playing 90 minutes of it, I can see exactly how Nintendo is fusing old and new to once again reinvent its tried-and-true formula. Echoes of Wisdom plays like a miniature Tears of the Kingdom, at least in terms of how it lets players tackle problems in multiple ways. That makes for a unique puzzle adventure hybrid that I’m already eager to return to.
Summoning echoes
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom begins with mysterious rifts opening up around Hyrule. Princess Zelda is blamed for their appearance and imprisoned. My demo begins in captivity, where she meets a little sidekick named Tri. The Navi-like partner gives Zelda the Tri Rod, an item capable of copying items and letting her freely summon them. I get to test it out right away, cloning an object in my cell and using it as a platform to reach a high-up exit. A stealth sequence ensues that introduces the basics of that echo play.

Gaming

Don’t skip Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s great new mode during its beta

A player holds a dead player as a body shield in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

The beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 begins tomorrow, and it features eight different modes for players to check out. While I'm guessing most will want to play iconic modes like Team Deathmatch (TDM) or Domination, I recommend you give Kill Order a shot.

Kill Order is a mode new in Black Ops 6 that finds a way to twist the core TDM formula to make it less chaotic. I spoke to developers at Treyarch about its creation and learned that Kill Order works as well as it does because it was built around the aspects of Call of Duty that players like best.
A high-value mode
At its core, Kill Order is TDM with a twist. The basics will be familiar as two teams of six compete to get the most kills, earn points, and win a match. To help focus the action, one player on each team is named the "High Value Target." This "HVT," as the game and developers call it, is powered up with extra armor, directional indicators for other players on the minimap, and the ability to earn more score with each enemy kill. They're not a juggernaut or anything, but in a one-on-one between an HVT and an enemy player, the HVT is more likely to win.