If you're big on your video game preservation and history, this latest batch of pre-orders will be right up your retro-collecting street.
Piko Interactive, an American publisher that specialises in grabbing the rights to forgotten, never-released games from years gone by and giving them the development time they deserved, has opened orders for four games via Funstock. "With the popularity of retro gaming ever-increasing, the demand for this genre of video game has become a much-loved category in the gaming world," Funstock says.
Ranging from £34.99 to £49.99, the restored games in question are available across NES, SNES and Nintendo 64. You can grab pre-orders here, and we have a full rundown for each game for you below:
40 Winks - Nintendo 64
40 Winks is an action platformer game, with 6 themed levels and co-op 2 player mode exclusive only to the N64 version. You control brother and sister duo, Ruff and Tumble; where your goal is to collect 40 Winks scattered around the world to stop an evil man called Nitekap.Tinhead - SNES
Tinhead is a platform game, featuring 4 tin-tillating worlds with 24 super challenging levels. Unique pause-and-scroll to see the action offscreen, 3-way shooting power to blast the baddies, dozens of power-ups and hidden bonus areas.Iron Commando - SNES
Iron commando is a brawler beat 'em up action game. Featuring 10 levels of brawling action with many unique experiences such as riding in a Jeep, mine cart, and even a motorcycle. 2 player simultaneous play, stereo sound plus new experiences never experienced in a brawling game before.Exploding Fist - NES
This game is compatible with most consoles that run NES games. This version has been improved to enhance faster game-play, and is a beat 'em up action game taking inspiration from many martial art titles.
Pre-orders will remain open up until 16th August, and each game will then start shipping in October.
Are you tempted to check any of these out? Let us know with a comment.
Comments 36
You can buy Iron Commando on Steam too..
Great graphics, but overall poor gameplay, unbanced and frustrating. A shame, because it could have been a great "The Punisher" clone for the Snes.
40 WINKS?!
BRUH!
I remember reading a lot of news and previews in N64 Magazine and being pretty excited for 40 Winks!
40 Winks... I really wanted that game at the time... I'm sure the N64 game even got reviews but then didn't see a release on cartridge...
I remember seeing the PlayStation version however at retail.
Weren't those Games aviable in the Past?
Could swear i have seen them on Dragonbox and Iron Commando is right now aviable on pixelhearts :>
But great that i can still hope for more Games
I worked as a tester on N64 40 Winks during my time at GT Interactive. It's a very generic platformer at best.
All of these games have always been available for months?
@BANJO I also remember seeing reviews for the n64 version then it just kinda disappeared ...like it was all a dream.
Maybe if they did Dinosaur Planet for the N64, I would definitely consider buying it. I loved Star Fox Adventures (and I still do), so I would love to play what it was originally going to be.
@Savino well, let's say it could have been much better with only some tweakings...
Wow! None of these things are Glover 2!
Tinhead? Are these guys Brookside fans 😆
@Roibeard64 Haha yes like a dream. After doing a quick search aparently the N64 version got cancelled just before release by GT Interactive after poor sales of the PlayStation version.
(A few publications had even reviewed the game by this point.)
@somebread That's what I want to know also.... Massive Glover fan... Amazing soundtrack.
Exploding Fist.
Is it any different from the C64 classic?
@BANJO
And that includes Nintendo Power!
@Aneira
I'm presuming it's the same version as on the Piko Evercade cart. If so, it's absolutely dreadful. The visuals, sound and gameplay are all far, far worse than the original. Even the Spectrum version was a better port than this.
"Is it any different from the C64 classic?"
@Aneira It has the same cover art, and I believe it was from the same loose connective tissue that Karate Champ was created from
@Boldfoxrd We're only just beyond the mid-point of 2021, but I think I may have found a contender for Deepest Cut of the Year
Sorry, Piko are a bunch of hacks, the whole thing where they took down a community-released Glover prototype a while back comes to mind
I’m going for a complete n64 game library (NA). While I don’t count 40 Winks as part of that, I would like to get a copy.
@PigmaskFan Yes it was 😀
No love for Test Drive 2?...
Oh well...
I bought 40 Winks from Piko a year or two ago. What’s different here? Is it just another print run?
@The-Nate A quick Google search indicates that both parties confirmed it was the result of a misunderstanding about the source of the prototype and Piko even went on record to apologize for their actions, so it kind of sounds like that's water under the bridge at this point.
I read the headline as each console getting four lost games. 😂
@AstroTheGamosian - I think you'll be excited to learn that a practically finished version of Dinosaur Planet is now available for anyone to play...
@Penlab Could've sworn that apology was rather half-hearted and didn't entirely address the situation properly
@The-Nate I mean, they thought the prototype they were using to make the complete game had been leaked. They would have had every right to pursue action if that had been the case. I'm frankly surprised they even apologized; you certainly wouldn't see Nintendo doing that.
I'd be up for TinHead.
@Azuris 40 Winks was released on PS1. Iron Commando was released officially in Japan (though an incredibly expensive game these days), supposedly it was planned for European release originally, as a leaked ROM does exist.
Well, it was made by the same company that made the SNES beat-em-up Legend, though this one seemed at least more polished. (I played only a bit of Legend, and agree with the magazine review I read back in the day that the graphics were amazing for its time but the game was almost unplayable. )
@Azuris I'm sure others have already commented, however I'm tired and cannot be bothered scrolling down to see I'm afraid.....
yeah I can say for sure that 40 winks for the N64 was previously released via Kickstarter as I backed it, and have my glorious black cartridge copy in my collection.
I would assume that this is just a second print run being made available at retail for the first time perhaps?
Either way, I'm disappointed to be reading an article on NintendoLife that definitely seems to indicate that this is the first time any of these games have been released. I love this site and have visited it for years, but dear lord its going downhill fast with annoying clickbait article titles like "something has seen something and the internet can't handle it", or even this article being inaccurate. This is their bread and butter, and what I always loved about this site was how honest and accurate it was, while showing a love for all things modern and retro with a Nintendo connection and a few years ago there's no way a misleading (even if it is only slightly misleading) article would have been published.
@THENAMESNORM
I know what you mean, i can see the same happening on other Sites.
Giving a wrong Information linking to an Article of the own Site with the correct Information ^^
News Sites have come to a Point where they want and have to give a Output of Articles in Mass to get Attention and Clicks.
Such News as this one are surely gathered from a marketing Mail (or else) from Piko.
The Task is to wire some Words to it and Release it.
Than search for the next quick News.
Research will only be done for bigger Articles.
It is not easy to have right Amount of all Kind of Articles/News.
"Fast Food" Articles are gatheric quick and fast clicks, but you can lose Readers.
When you lose Readers you have to make more of those fast Artikels to gain more Clicks to compensate it.
I can see that NL is trying to have some from all, imo a good Intention, as you can choose.
Writers as Kate for Exmple are good in Filling, they are not giving out much real Information, but can write down a long Story. (It depends on the personal Taste if you like or dislike it).
But they can generate longer Reads in Times when the World isn't giving much interessting out.
Than classical Reviews of course.
And don't forget some "low Carb" Articles, as Top Lists, for the unstressful read^^
But the worst imo are "controversial Articles" .
They are planed to get People into a Dispute, i hate them, they are dividing People.
btw:
Here is still the Listing of Tinhead:
https://www.dragonbox.de/spiele/fuer-super-nintendo/tinhead-snes-fur-super-nintendo
And here Iron Commando:
https://www.pixelheart.eu/produit/iron-commando-snes-pal/
40 winks looks so cool, wish they would just port it to Switch, I love N64 era 3D platformers. That game has some cool history too.
@EmmatheBest Any idea where I can find it?
@AstroTheGamosian Google? I'm sure someone on the Roms Reddit can help, as a ton of people were talking about it and posting videos of them playing it just a couple months back when it was first leaked...
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