Did you know? Before Blizzard became Blizzard, they released a bunch of non-PC games, some of which when they were still called Silicon & Synapse.
Announced last weekend at Blizzconline 2021, Blizzard will be releasing three of its past games under the Blizzard Arcade Collection.
The three games are The Lost Vikings, Rock N Roll Racing, and Blackthorne.
The Lost Vikings is a platformer puzzler starring three vikings Erik the Swift, Olaf the Stout, and Baelog the Fierce.
Meanwhile, Rock N Roll Racing is, well, a racing game. It’s a top-down isometric racer with customisable cars and a selection of characters to choose from. True to its name, you even get 8-bit renditions of some classic rock and roll, including Deep Purple’s Highway Star that you can hear in the trailer.
Lastly, the Blizzard Arcade Edition includes Blackthorne. As commando Kyle “Blackthorne” Vlaros, you navigate through a 2D alien world blasting and dodging to liberate the people.
These are not just re-releases. The Original Editions are also included with a Definitive Edition- a remaster with custom key mapping and a feature to rewind the gameplay up to 10 seconds back.
For The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne, there’s a “watch mode” feature where you let the game plays by itself, and you can choose to jump back in control whenever you like. You can also save progress anywhere in these two games. (It won’t make sense for a racing game to have these features)
Here are the game-specific features that the Definitive Edition has:
The Lost Vikings: Adds extra stages and cutscenes from subsequent releases, three-player co-op
Rock N Roll Racing: Adds environmental effects (snow, rain), four-player local multiplayer, 16:9 resolution, new songs and new “Loudmouth Larry” voiceover clips
Blackthorne: New fog of war map
The Blizzard Arcade Collection is out now on PS4, PC (Battle.net), Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. On PC, it’s only available through the Blizzard Celebration Collection (a bundle that gives you other goodies across all other Blizzard games).
On consoles, it can either be bought as a standalone purchase (on PS Store Asia, that’s for RM79) or through the Blizzard 30-Year Celebration Collection.