Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is one of the finest beat 'em ups in recent years. What's more, the game has continued to improve over time thanks to updates that added online co-op and new playable characters. Those enhancements won't be stopping any time soon, it turns out. This week, two new playable characters joined the game, and six more are planned for later in the year.
There are plenty of beat 'em ups in the sea. Most of them are pretty good, of course, so how does a new one stand out from the crowd? With dragons, of course! Heroes of Mount Dragon will feature plenty of dragons when it comes to Steam and Switch. In fact, all 4 local or online co-op players can change into dragons and bombard enemies with fire. That's pretty cool!
Warside, an Advance Wars-style turn-based strategy game from Lavabird and First Break Labs, arrived on Steam last month. While the game impressed us with its approachable gameplay, the promised co-op mode was nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, it's still a-comin', as the recently released development roadmap indicates. Before the big co-op update makes it to market, several more updates are planned to tide players over.
Double Dragon Revive, the slick 3D reboot of the classic co-op beat 'em up, looks better every time we see it. The game is still several months from release, but Arc System Works continues to release exciting new details. Most recently, the developer revealed new designs and details for many of Revive's enemies. Additionally, the preorder bonus game, Double Dragon Dodgeball, has an enticing trailer that shows off plenty of retro charm.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate is one of the best TMNT games around, and a really fine co-op roguelike to boot. The only thing that has held it back from greater mainstream success is availability. Namely, it hasn't been available on the two most powerful consoles: Xbox and PlayStation. That will finally change this summer, thank goodness, because Super Evil Megacorp has announced that Splintered Fate is coming to PlayStation on May 20 and Xbox on June 24.
Wrapping houses is a common prank in which people throw rolls of toilet paper at a house at night. So far, there's never been a video game about this time-honored pastime. Imagine being able to safely wrap houses from the comfort of your own home! Well, Wrap House Simulator from Broken Lyre Entertainment and PlayWay is not that game. Instead, it's about running a restaurant. Does the restaurant get wrapped in toilet paper? Probably not. On the plus side, it does have online co-op.
Spring is an excellent time for retro games, and Arc System Works knows it. That's surely why they've recently released Super Technos World: River City & Technos Arcade Classics, a collection of 12 classic Super NES and arcade games. Technos games always held a cult appeal, and retro gamers will love the chance to revisit games like Super Dodgeball, The Combatribes, and River City Renegade. Five of the included games feature local and online co-op too.
April saw a whopping 150 new entries to our database, 15 of which are versions for the hottest new thing in town: the Nintendo Switch 2. That's a good start for a new platform and we're sure there are many, many more titles to come. For comparison, we currently have over 1,800 entries for the first Switch, and there's no sign of the new releases stopping any time soon.
Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics debuted on most platforms last year, followed by an Xbox release this year. Right out of the gate, it was a really impressive collection, hence the high rating in our Co-op Review. Still, it seems that the collection had some room for improvement. This week's update adds local versus modes to each fighting game, graphical enhancements for Marvel vs. Capcom 2, new artwork and music, and more.
Back in the good old days, baseball games were fairly simple and easy to play. One of the more popular NES baseball games was Bases Loaded from Jaleco. A sequel called Super Bases Loaded was later released for the Super NES, offering much improved graphics and sound. Rather than allow the series to be forgotten, Sickhead Games and Rock It Games have just released a collection called Jaleco Sports: Bases Loaded on PC.
Warside is a freshly-released, turn-based strategy game for Steam from Lavabird and First Break Labs (makers of Cthulhu's Reach). We've been excited for it not just because of its lovely Advance Wars-style graphics and intuitive gameplay, but also for its promised co-op support. Well, now that the game is here, it turns out that co-op won't be arriving until the console ports come along. That's a shame, but the currently-available solo campaign and competitive multiplayer are nothing to sneeze at.
In the time before bullet hells, shoot 'em ups featured sharp level design and more deliberate gameplay. Konami's Gradius is undoubtedly one of the finest shoot 'em up series of the 1980s and 90s. Players will finally be able to enjoy many of those games on modern hardware thanks to GRADIUS ORIGINS. The upcoming compilation collects 7 arcade Gradius titles, most with multiple versions to choose from. What's more, four of them will support 2-player local co-op!
