LRG3 2024 event recap

This Summer Game Fest was an odd one, I consumed the content, took notice of announcements, but I didn’t exactly cover anything on the site. Hell I didn’t even watch the Devolver Direct 2024 (Happy Belated Birthday Volvy!), so Limited Run Games showing up a week late actually actually a boon since they had my full attention and after the showcase I might need to play to eat a lot more ramen for the rest of this year.

LRG3 is in a way a lot like Devolver Direct, informative but highly sardonic, dripping with snark and camp. Hosted by company founder Josh Fairhurst, it directly continues from the company’s retro E3-style presentation where the company proclaimed “they saved E3”. In a nice little call back to Chrono Trigger, Josh is returned to the present at what could be assumed at the Limited Run Games warehouse and our show begins.

The first title to be revealed is Star Wars Dark Forces Remaster. Visually cleaned up the title will be available for pre-order on the company’s site tomorrow. The second title is a compilation of the Valis titles that were released on the PC-88, Famicom, MSX, Mega Drive, and Super Famicom dubbed Valis: The Fantasm Soldier Collection. The eroge Valis X obviously will not be included. 2017’s Rain World received a physical edition this year, not bad for a title that was almost lost to time due to the dissolution of Adult Swim Games.

The next one is a head scratcher, the title that was almost Street of Rage 4, Fighting Force and it’s strange espionage brawler Fighting Force 2 returns as Fighting Force Collection. It’s pretty surreal to see the Square Enix logo in the trailer’s end card as this was one of the many properties which the house of Final Fantasy acquired when they bought Eidos Interactive. There’s not much I can say about Renaine, as I thought the title hasn’t come out yet, but a simple google search indicated the game has been out since 2020. Hopefully this physical edition will give this title a bit more visibility and bring a new audience to the title. To close out this paragraph is another head scratcher…Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus on the Switch required an additional download in order to enjoy the last 2 chapters of the game. This upcoming release will have the entire game on the Switch cartridge. Here’s hoping ID and Limited Run Games will have some sort of trade-in program for those who own the original version of Wolfenstein 2, so they can upgrade to this “complete” copy. Enough wishful thinking and back to the announcements.

I guess the show will stay weird as the next game trailer is just a bunch of “monitors” showing random anime and a logo that is just a bunch of Japanese words and “collection 2” in English. Seriously guys…we couldn’t get an english logo for this? Either way this announcement is for Cosmic Fantasy Collection 2, which is the last 2 games in a quartet of RPGS released on CD based consoles in the 90s. Hold Freedom Games’ upcoming licensed brawler GI JOE: Wrath of Cobra when it joins LRG’s collection in 2025. The next title almost gave me hope that we were getting a re-release of Metal Warriors (I mean LRG has a relationship with Lucasarts and Konami), but alas this was just Assault Suit Leynos 2: Saturn Tribute, which is still an entry from a storied franchise of mech games. Apparently this block of announcements are all from a publisher called Clear River Games which is a sister company of LRG under the Embracer Group umbrella. Titles announced in this block include Snow Bros. Wonderland, and Gimmick!2.

The next announcement almost made me plunk down $600 dollars for a PSVR2 (Thankfully cooler heads prevailed…) as Cosmic Smash is coming to a modern platform in the form of C-Smash VRS: New Dimension, the only thing I thought was odd was it felt like accolades trailer…which would mean this game has actually been out for a while…which it is (Clearly I’m the worst games journalist in the world since so many releases seemingly slipped through the cracks). Next is the game that SEGA probably let get away…Penny’s Big Breakaway, a title I’m hoping to get to before Game of the Year season comes around. This release will test Benny Rose’s principles as a company owned by the Embracer Group will be handling the physical version of a game he won’t shut the hell up about…Beyond Good & Evil: 20th Anniversary. I say he’s going to crack…but you tell me what he’ll do. As someone who owned Jay and Silent Bob Mall Brawl…am I obligated to own Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch?

This title has had a lot of Beat Em ups and Retroware’s upcoming Toxic Crusaders’ physical edition will be handled by Limited Run Games and Retroware’s own Justin Silverman promises “a lot of fun stuff for this release”. Agent 47 looks rougher compared to his World of Assassination look as Hitman Blood Money Reprisal lets players experience this classic title from the Hitman series. Another Eidos alum has appeared in the showcase as Fear Effect is being re-released, if you ask me what I know about the title? Cell Shaded Lesbians…that’s it.

In a snake eating its own tail kind of way, Helldivers ripoff Starship Troopers Extermination (in case you can’t tell I’m saying this ironically) is getting a physical edition and we also learn Casper Van Dien will be reprising his role as Johnny Rico. With a disclaimer that will probably flair up the next wave of Neo-Gamergate shenanigans (Re-Pop mode will have less violence…but the game will let you access the original game)…we learn LRG is the US/EU physical distributor for Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP.

We get updates for previously announced titles such as Double Shake, Ghosts, Rugrats: Adventures in Gaming in a quick montage before we see the next large announcement. This is where I would question LRG’s definition of large as the next announcement is for GEX Trilogy…uh yeah sure.

We get our mandatory WayForward appearance with Shantae Advance (Man, if you asked me you’d think WayForward has an office next door to LFG giving how much they do stuff together.). The more I see this next title…the more I think it sold for so much because it was a low print run late GBA title, Do I wish I still hung onto the sealed copy of Ninja Five-O, will I buy it for modern consoles…maybe.

 

I will buy this next title even though I’m not a survival horror guy…but a Kinuko simp, it’s Clock Tower: Rewind. It’s funny Tomba Special Edition is in this block of announcements given how Double Shake is literally like a spiritual successor. We do get a surprise announcement in the form of a remake of Tomba 2 in LRG’s proprietary Carbon Engine.

So we head back to Josh where he closes out the presentation with the usual “one more thing”. We’re treated to a music with a oddly familiar tone, text in a font that you’ve surely seen before, then we get a transition to a fiery background with a debonair figure slowly walking to the center of the screen? Good god, did someone manage to convince the Broccoli family to sign off on this? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the rug pull! It’s Bubsy. He’s back with Bubsy In: The Purrfect Collection.

God Damn it, Limited Run Games…never change. I’ll see you guys next year.

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