
Hamster's Arcade Archives series is celebrating its 7th anniversary on Switch, with over 400 games released on the console during that time.
The company's Twitter account has revealed that the range of retro titles – all based on iconic coin-ops – has been recognised by the Guinness World Records. For 366 consecutive weeks, there has been an Arcade Archives release on Nintendo's eShop. The record was officially recognised back in 2019, when the total was just 133.
In 2020, there was concern that the streak might come to an end due to COVID-19, but it thankfully kept on going regardless.
"Arcade Archives on Nintendo Switch celebrates its 7th anniversary today, March 3rd," says the tweet. "403 titles were released in 7 years. The weekly release, which has been certified by Guinness World Records, continues for 366 consecutive weeks. Thank you to everyone who supported us."
The series began in 2014 on the PS4 with Crazy Climber. The recently released Rainbow Islands was the 400th game to come to the Arcade Archives range.
We spoke to Hamster's president Satoshi Hamada last year, when the range consisted of 370 titles, and he said the company still had some way to go before it has covered all of the titles it wants to bring to the Arcade Archives lineup. "In total, there are 800 games we want to release on Arcade Archives, and currently, we only have about 370, so we're not even halfway there. We're still working hard!"
"It's like a dream," Hamada added. "To be able to bring back games which I was crazy about playing as a child, and to be able to work with the companies which made them? It's just like a dream."
[source twitter.com]
Comments 32
Just an incredible run and a massive service to the preservation of arcade games. I wish there were a few more sales and that these were of a wider range of games within this catalogue but look forward to what the next 400ish bring
I have 3 of these on my Switch, but I'd love to get more. Especially the Neo Geo games. 90s SNK was something else.
Bravo Hamster. Amazing! I am hoping Knuckle Joe, Ring King, Pheonix and Main Event arrive at some point.
An amazing series. Doing fantastic preservation work at affordable prices, often with additions that make them better than arcade perfect. I'm at 130, which would have bought a nice holiday, but I don't regret a single purchase.
My collection only has the 20 Nintendo ones, the 2 Tetris: The Grand Master games, VS. Castlevania by Konami, City Connection by Jaleco, Qix by Taito, King & Balloon by Namco plus on the NEOGEO side I have Real Bout Fatal Fury 1 and 2 as well as The King of Fighters '97, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Not a bad collection and it will only continue to grow until that goal of 800 games is hit and new releases stop (hopefully not as there are a couple of games I'd like to see such as SNK vs. CAPCOM: Chaos or Sheriff)
MAME broke this record twenty years ago ...
@Omiod That's impressive since there wasn't an eShop 20 years ago.
@LinktotheFuture In fact it is free
If Hamster did shop wide sales id buy them up by the armload.
compilations/bundles might be even better!
I’ve done very well out of their work on Neo•Geo games, but the non-SNK side is a bit hit-and-miss. Sure, they’ve put out stone cold classics, Sunset Riders, Mappy & Rainbow Islands to name but three, but some of them are less than stellar. Jungler & War of Aero I’d never even heard of, while Gyruss, Wardner, Parodius & Surprise Attack go begging.
All the more evidence that Nintendo prolly isn’t going to do anything substantial when it comes to “switch successor” they have the safe mind set “if it ain’t broke don’t, fix it”
I wonder at what point they'll stop releasing on the original Switch? They're at 370 now, 500 would be a nice number. Another 2 and a half years. Perhaps they will keep going till end, releasing them alongside Switch 2.
I haven't bought a single one. Not because I don't like the games, nor because of the developer. I just... never bought one.
I'm still waiting for Tutankham (Konami) as it's my favorite arcade game of all time. But I've bought Crazy Climber, Frisky Tom and 8 SNK Neo Geo fighting games so far (especially the SNK fighting games has been really good value for me).
Hamster is doing amazing work, pumping out quality ports of arcade titles that may otherwise be lost to the ages. I’ve bought a few of their titles and have wishlisted dozens more, hoping for a sale some day.
I try to catch a little of their Arcade Archiver stream on YouTube every Thu morning before going to work - not only do they introduce that week‘s game, but most often they invite original developers to visit and share their memories of it. Hamada-san emcees and his genuine love for these old games is plain to see, and infectious! If only the streams were translated, so others besides Japanese speakers could enjoy, too.
May their streak continue well into or even beyond the Super Switch, and hopefully we will have backwards compatibility to keep access to all our Ake-Aka purchases.
Ganbare Hamster!! 😆
@shgamer
Oh yeah, Tutankham is one I’ve been hoping for, too! I loved that back in the day. There’s been a few Konami titles coming out lately, so hopefully we’ll see it some day.
I would absolutely love to see Hamster bring us Taito’s Zoo Keeper, Nintendo’s Popeye, or Pengo from Sega, though that latter seems unlikely.
@Teksetter Yes, Pengo too (and Zaxxon now we're at it).
But they were both developed by external developers, so there's probably some negotiations that has to fall in place (and Pengo's music, "Popcorn", the worlds first synth pop hit - I'm not sure Sega had the rights to that).
This is off topic, but how has nobody started porting C64 games?
@Poodlestargenerica Probably because whoever did the C64 emulator on Wii did an insufficient work such that Nintendo was forced to refund anyone who bought Last Ninja 3 on the European store when it couldn't pass the original game's copy protection checks.
@Poodlestargenerica There's a few. Pixel Games has a collection called Hidden Gems. I'm not sure if there's any else.
@astrogamer I didn't know about that one. It's a pretty sad collection though. But on the other hand, there were so many games, it's hard to know which ones to do.
@KingMike Oh wow, never heard that one!
really cool! theyve quickly become one of my favorite games companies and their support of switch is an incredible asset.
this article never actually specifies what the record "is," though. 🤔
is it most titles on the eshop? most consecutive weeks with releases?
-wc- wrote:
I agree, I would totally raid them at a discount. They do have a slow drip of sales though for Arcade Archives and Neo Geo. You really have to pounce on them.
Hamster also did both Taito Milestones collections, with more in the works.
And there's a Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection that goes on sale once every year. That's a great deal if you're into '90s fighters.
@Coffeemonstah Wardner and all the other Toaplan games are licensed to M2 for release on Switch so the lack of it on AA isn't that surprising. Whether that stops Tatsujin licensing them to Hamster as well isn't known, but it wouldn't be a surprise.
I have about 25-30 of their releases. Their work is superb. Menus, options, emulation, everything's very well done and functionalities are great. If I could, I'd buy all their releases, just to support their preservation work, but I know I could use a sale or two from time to time. Sales are few and far between and the number of games offered each time isn't large
@LowDefAl Yeah, that would track with Hellfire not appearing either then. The main contributors to AA are obvious (Namco, Konami, Taito, SNK) and the next tier down (Irem, Tecmo/Tekhan, Nichibutsu, Jaleco, Mitchell) are understandable to a degree - but the rest (Athena, Allumer) can be proper head scratchers at times.
I'm not entirely sure what the record is, but good job Hamster!
We are nintendo you cannot beat us
#mariomadness
@John_Deacon
"I have about 25-30 of their releases. Their work is superb. Menus, options, emulation, everything's very well done and functionalities are great. If I could, I'd buy all their releases, just to support their preservation work, but I know I could use a sale or two from time to time."
(suggestion: buy for playing and fun)
@Mario500 That's exactly what I do, man
@Coffeemonstah Apparently Hamster now owns the rights to games from C-tier devs like Allumer, Athena, NMK, UPL etc, which is why there are so many of them being churned out.
It's really annoying since there are far more worthwhile games that have yet to see an AA release, like all of Taito's F3 System games like Bubble Symphony and Dungeon Magic, and the rest of Konami's Mystic Warriors-based games like Metamorphic Force and Violent Storm.
I have so far only bought one game from them: Metal Slug 3, on sale. A clean, no-nonsense release of one of my favorite arcade games.
I wish they'd release Alien vs. Predator, but I realize that licensing would be the main hurdle there.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...