Hamster Corp continues to revive the glories of the past with two new additions to its Arcade Archives collection: NebulasRay and Ridge Racer. Two cult Namco titles, never re-released on consoles in the case of the former, and only once on PlayStation 1 in the case of the latter, Ridge Racer was in fact a launch game for SONY's console.

NebulasRay: first console release

Released in 1994 on arcade terminals, NebulasRay will arrive on consoles for the very first time on 15 May, on Switch and PlayStation 4. This vertical shoot'em up, developed on the Namco NB-1 system, uses pre-calculated 3D sprites in the style of Donkey Kong Country, for a spectacular rendering at the time.

Masahiro Kimoto (Tekken 3) and Yuji Yamamura (Soul Calibur) are behind the project, while the soundtrack was composed by Takayuki Ishikawa and Masahiro Fukuzawa. The player pilots an experimental ship tasked with repelling the onslaught of a mechanical army dubbed ‘The Master Force’, across six challenging levels.

To give you an idea, if you liked the Raiden franchise, you'll have to like NebulasRay.

Ridge Racer: back to basics

Scheduled for release on 5 June, Ridge Racer returns in its 1993 arcade version, as we knew it on Namco System 22 kiosks. At one stage, this re-release was announced as exclusive to the forthcoming Switch 2, but it will now also be released on PS4 and PS5.

This port will feature the usual Arcade Archives functions: quick save, rewind, online leaderboard and time trial mode. A good opportunity to rediscover the racing game that marked the start of the 3D era at Namco.

Source : Time Extension