In this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine, Namco Bandai Games announced online-exclusive remakes of two classic Namco arcade games, both titles fondly remembered by hardcore gamers even if most non-Japanese haven’t heard of them before.
The first, AeroCross, is a reimagining of Metro-Cross, an arcade title Namco originally released in 1985. In it, you play a cyborg racing across a futuristic obstacle course, trying to make it to the finish line before time expires. The graphics are modernized and in 3D, but the idea is completely the same. New features include fancy air combos and rival course runners that you have to shake off and/or take advantage of to get ahead.
Meanwhile, Dancing Eyes (original 1996 arcade version pictured above) is the sort of action/puzzle game that, for better or for worse, only the Japanese could come up with. You must control a little character as it zips across a grid, filling in squares to claim them as your territory. The gimmick: This grid is laid over the midsection of a fetching anime girl, and filling in square takes removes that patch of her outer clothing, revealing the swimsuit or whatever she’s wearing beneath it. The remake also supports the PlayStation Move controller in as-yet-announced ways.
