PS1 and NES Game Stealth Released on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2

A PS1 and NES game from yesteryear has been stealth-released on the PS5 and the Nintendo Switch 2, courtesy of Japanese developer Hamster, with the original game being a classic Sunsoft title. The video game in question specifically hails from 1988, and at the time of its launch, it was an NES exclusive game, with the PS1 release not coming later. That said, those in the West may be entirely unfamiliar with the title because it was never released outside of Japan, leaving those in the United States with no option but to import the game. Even after doing this, said user would need to know Japanese in order to play it. This is why most of the limited copies that exist in the West are for collections rather than to be used.

As for the new stealth release, more specifically, Japanese developer Hamster — who specializes in re-releasing forgotten games from the 1980s and 1990s on modern hardware — has re-released Ripple Island on the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop and the PlayStation Store for $7.99 as part of its ongoing Console Archives series. This comes on the back of word that one of the most nostalgic PS1 series of all time is finally returning after a long hiatus.

This is just a straight port of the NES version of the game with no localization, unfortunately. In other words, while the game is finally available in the West for the first time, it’s still only in Japanese, so accessibility has improved, but it hasn’t been totally remedied. What makes this odd is the fact that Hamster even released an English trailer for the release. This isn’t the first time it has done this, though, much to the vexation of nostalgics.

A Classic Game With a Classic Issue

While the lack of an English localization has frustrated some potential customers, it’s not been enough to sour the reception. In fact, while the trailer above has some comments about this recurring issue, it doesn’t have a single dislike. Still, almost every single comment is about the lack of localization.

“Not sure what the point is of offering this outside Japan without translation,” reads one of these many comments. “I know they’ve been doing this for a little while now, but really, why even set this up for sale outside of Japan? It would make more sense if they just released the stuff that was Western-friendly in the West…”

Does Ripple Island hold up in 2026? Not overly. Unless you have nostalgia for the 1988 adventure game, it’s going to be hard jumping into it in 2026. Maybe if you have nostalgia for games of this variety from this era, that will be sufficient, but it wasn’t even one of the great games of its time, let alone almost 40 years later.

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