I'm so glad that Hamster's Arcade Archives are a thing.

[Jonpachi]

I haven't spent much time with Plus, but the two ACA games are unmissable in their own ways. The first plays like a slightly less scrappy version of Thunder Dragon, and is a really fun and rewarding clear barring a couple of nasty chokepoints, but Macross II is quite simply the best caravan shooter ever made — a secret-hunter's paradise.

Is part II only a Caravan game? Is there a regular saga as well? No interest if it's just a speed/score affair.

[dmk1198]

I like Ace Combat,
For me, it's the total opposite. This has big bad cool ass After Burner vibes!
I loathe the console exclusives

Pretty cool

Yes enjoyed this on mame
Game finished after sinking first ship is that right? Graphics were very cool but £16 steep for such short game 15/20 mins

[SavagePencil]

I haven't spent much time with Plus, but the two ACA games are unmissable in their own ways. The first plays like a slightly less scrappy version of Thunder Dragon, and is a really fun and rewarding clear barring a couple of nasty chokepoints, but Macross II is quite simply the best caravan shooter ever made — a secret-hunter's paradise.

Is part II only a Caravan game? Is there a regular saga as well? No interest if it's just a speed/score affair.

From watching replays, no I don't think it's a caravan game. I think they were alluding to how much hidden shit there is in the environment (lots of little medals that appear by shooting the right location) that would align well with a short time to set the highest score experience.

[Jonpachi]

Awesome. Thanks all. I'll pick them both up.

[BrianC]

What's up with them? It's been a long while, but I'm sure I got pretty far into AF3 without any issues?

From my experience with 2 and 3:

-higher lag than other ACA releases
-no multiple autofire settings, just ON and OFF, and ON is less than 30hz (this I noticed when my timing for killing things in SW2 was off the other night) - later ACA releases often have several rates to choose from
-can only map one button for autofire, instead of having multiple buttons for multiple types of autofire
-in Original mode, you can set your lives to 99 and still have your score registered on the leaderboard
-in High Score mode, you are locked into playing Aero Fighters 2/3, there is no way to play the japanese version in High Score Mode
-even worse, autofire is disabled for High Score mode! This is not the case in other aca titles and just makes the whole experience a tedious slog.

I think the ACA NeoGeo releases also lack the option to start on the 2p side with the p1 controller, which is a preference option in some of the more recent ACA games.

[Klatrymadon]

I haven't spent much time with Plus, but the two ACA games are unmissable in their own ways. The first plays like a slightly less scrappy version of Thunder Dragon, and is a really fun and rewarding clear barring a couple of nasty chokepoints, but Macross II is quite simply the best caravan shooter ever made — a secret-hunter's paradise.

Is part II only a Caravan game? Is there a regular saga as well? No interest if it's just a speed/score affair.

It's made up of three roughly ten-minute courses (Beginner/Medium/Expert) with three stages each, so it doesn't exactly follow the Compile/Hudson caravan structure but it's definitely geared towards the same kind of score-attacking and optimisation. Crucially, it's played against the clock — you want to score as much as you can before you get to the stage's boss, then speedkill the boss so that you can destroy bonus waves for the remaining few seconds. (It shouldn't give you much trouble but there's also a "clear score", a kind of quota you have to fill on each stage in order to keep playing.)

There are enough stages to prevent it from feeling slight, but yeah, this one's all about the speed, eventually!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

On the USA region Switch eShop portal at 9:00am PST this morning on 6/10/2025, the Switch ACA port of Macross II was a "no show" the second damn time around due the "ironclad hands" of Harmony Gold with it's ownership of the Macross IP namesake (yeah, thanks HG for a job well done -- you guys truly deserve it).

So yes, the American Switch gamers have been denied the ability & opportunity to buy another Macross game on the USA region eShop again -- but that doesn't prevent one from going on the Japan Switch eShop and buying it there to d/l on their Switch any ol' day.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BrianC]

Macross II is on US PSN. AFAIK, Harmony Gold only has the rights to the original Macross and Do Your Remember Love.

Macross II showed up for me on NoA's website

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Sure enough, the Switch port of Hamster's ACA "Macross II: Lovers Again" finally shows up at 10:00am PST on the USA region Switch eShop with a MSRP of $14.99 usd. It's a mere 155mb d/l at best. It's about damn time that Macross II showed up in proper form on the Switch gaming platform.

Will have to double dip and get it on the PS4 gaming platform as well -- thanks for handy tip that it's on PS4, BrianC.

With development done by NMK and published by Banpresto themselves in 1993, Macross II: Lovers Again is a solid and fine sequel follow-up to the first "Super Dimensional Fortress Macross" arcade stg released a year earlier in both Japan & the USA (courtesy of Fabtek). The cool simulated holograms of the singing emulators is spot on as shown within the Macross II OVA series with the "M-II: LA "ACA stg port for completeness (it wouldn't be the same without it indeed).

M-II has the obligatory on-line leaderboard support from the get-go -- how cool is that? Scanline filter is available on tap but a smoothing filter is automatically applied if any scanline filter is selected and applied -- you'll have to jack up the overall screen brightness of your Switch if a scanline filter is applied to M-II though. M-II looks "drop-dead gorgeous" on an Oled Switch setup as it should be.

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Be sure to check out Macross II OVA series streaming right now on Disney's Hulu+ -- it's all cool to see the Valkyrie VF-SS2 mecha in action for ol' times sake through "rose colored lenses" nowadays. Back in the day when anime was done entirely "all by hand" with the traditional anime cel format -- truly a "labor of love" back in those days of early 1990s anime lore/culture with the hard-core underground otaku crowd/audience.
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It was US Renditions whom handled the distribution & sales of M-II OVA series in the USA with the franchised American speciality video retailer Suncoast Motion Picture Company (aka F.Y.E. -- "For Your Entertainment" nowadays) selling it on VHS tape medium back in 1992 -- American anime fans were overjoyed that a brand new Macross sequel was released during that particular point in time -- I know I was when I first heard through the grapevine by "word of mouth" that a new Macross sequel was coming stateside.

Of course, US Renditions sold three professionally pre-recorded VHS tapes with two episodes of M-II each (and you had to buy all three VHS video cassettes for a grand total of six episodes altogether just to find out what happens next -- with the infamous "hook, line & sinker" approach/marketing strategy, US Renditions knew exactly what they were doing with the M-II OVA series by breaking into it separate VHS tapes for mass general consumption and still making a tidy profit off of it) -- as such were the days of buying & collecting anime VHS tapes back in the early 1990s. Suncoast Motion Picture Co. was well-known to sell anime on brand new pre-recorded VHS tapes priced at between $29.99 to $39.99 usd each -- quite expensive back in the day as usual in retrospect nowadays.

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Yes, it would've been awesome if Fabtek had secured the rights to sell & distribute arcade pcb jamma conversion kits of "Macross II: Lovers Again" in the USA back in 1993-1994 but that wasn't meant to be in the end. Oh well, it is what it is. American arcade gamers missed out on playing M-II entirely (as they were already well-versed & quite familiar with the Macross II OVA series released a year earlier back in 1992).
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[hamfighterx]

Does anyone have a Cyber Stick USB and the ability to check if the PS4 version of Ridge Racer or Air Combat 22 support it?

There have been some Arcade Archives games that do support it in an unofficial capacity: Metal Hawk and Thunder Ceptor among them. I have the stick and the Switch versions of all of these (doesn't seem to work on any of the Switch releaseS), but would love to know any other entries that support it.

[RoboArmy]

Video System's Spinal Breakers is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202506/44557

Looks to be censored compared to the arcade original, at least from the trailer on Hamster's YouTube page. Unfortunately another "archive" that isn't.

It's kind of an inconsequential edit to be honest. I see the value in seeing some hilariously out of touch use of imagery old japanese games sometimes have, but meh. With the gate gone you can now see the uh... "factory", with the two big chimneys above it and a "MAN" sign, which I never noticed before on the OG game. I am wondering if a certain ending was kept intact though, which would definitely tank a CERO/ESRB rating and make it fail lot check, now that would SUCK if it was missing. Anyone actually bought it?

I like their emulation which is quality stuff and has access to original hard/docs/staff but its all stuck on a digital download pkg you'd have to pirate to play 10 years from now on probably, so I'm not bothered with changes to the original games. We always have MAME and DA ROMZ for proper long-term software preservation.

Air Combat 22 seems cool, but I thought it was structured more like a carnival ride than a proper game with actual progression and skill checks, like many other fancy deluxe cabinet games of that time. Might give it a try later.

[it290]

Video System's Spinal Breakers is this week's release.
https://www.famitsu.com/article/202506/44557

Looks to be censored compared to the arcade original, at least from the trailer on Hamster's YouTube page. Unfortunately another "archive" that isn't.

It's kind of an inconsequential edit to be honest. I see the value in seeing some hilariously out of touch use of imagery old japanese games sometimes have, but meh. With the gate gone you can now see the uh... "factory", with the two big chimneys above it and a "MAN" sign, which I never noticed before on the OG game. I am wondering if a certain ending was kept intact though, which would definitely tank a CERO/ESRB rating and make it fail lot check, now that would SUCK if it was missing. Anyone actually bought it?

I like their emulation which is quality stuff and has access to original hard/docs/staff but its all stuck on a digital download pkg you'd have to pirate to play 10 years from now on probably, so I'm not bothered with changes to the original games. We always have MAME and DA ROMZ for proper long-term software preservation.

Air Combat 22 seems cool, but I thought it was structured more like a carnival ride than a proper game with actual progression and skill checks, like many other fancy deluxe cabinet games of that time. Might give it a try later.

What's this ending? The bad one? None of them seem too objectionable..