2 NES Games From the 1980s to Release on New Platforms Very Soon

A pair of games that launched on the NES all the way back in the 1980s are receiving new releases on modern platforms this week. Despite being quite dated at this point, the Nintendo Entertainment System still boasts a vast catalog of games that remain quite popular today. And while many of these games have since been brought forward in various ways over the years, many others remain trapped on the NES. Fortunately, two games that have remained confined to the first Nintendo hardware will be getting new ports incredibly soon.

Set to arrive tomorrow on October 8th, Fighting Golf and Ripple Island will both be launching on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch platforms, with the latter also coming to Xbox. Of these two throwback NES titles, Fighting Golf is almost certainly the more prominent of the pair, especially for those in North America. Originally released in arcades in 1988 by publisher SNK, Fighting Golf would go on to get a port for NES later that same year. This home console version of the game went on to be one of the most popular golfing titles on the NES during its run, which makes its return on modern consoles quite exciting.

Ripple Island is then certainly much lesser-known, as the game only ever saw a release in Japan. Also released in 1988, Ripple Island is an adventure title developed by Sunsoft that was exclusive to the NES, or Famicom, as it’s known in Japan. As a result, this new port of Ripple Island represents the first time that the game has ever been released outside of the region, which is quite a big deal.

As for both of these games, they happen to come from Hamster and are the latest additions in the company’s ongoing Arcade Archives and Console Archives programs. While the biggest focus of this initiative is merely porting older games forward onto modern consoles, Hamster also makes sure that it adds some new features and upgrades to these re-releases as well. To that end, these new versions of Ripple Island and Fighting Golf will contain additions such as VRR support, save points, and customizable video filters, in tandem with new game modes. As a result, these new ports should be the best ones to play for both of these games moving into the future.

If you’re looking to snag Ripple Island for yourself, the game will retail for $7.99 when it hits the Nintendo eShop and PlayStation Store. Fighting Golf will then be a bit more costly and will sell for $9.99 for its iterations on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Conversely, the game will retail for less on PS4 and Nintendo Switch, where it’ll go for $7.99.

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