Color me surprised, I was completely caught off guard at the news that there is a new fighting game coming to the Sega Genesis. It is being programmed by Rheo Gamer who are based in Brazil and are obviously extremely talented as they are obviously slamming the gauntlet down for new Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games.

Raise your hand if you remember the MSX computer. I know there won’t be many hands raised and that is okay, it is part of why retro gaming is so awesome. We never know when we get to learn about something we never heard of before. The MSX computer was developed by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation in an attempt to standardize computers, in 1983. It was an 8-Bit computer based on the Z80 CPU and came in various memory configurations depending on manufacturer you bought it from. The reason for this article, The Rise, is a new upcoming game for the MSX that shows just how powerful it is and will make you scratch your head as to why the MSX was not more popular.

If you are a gamer from the 90s then you probably remember how stilted fighting games were on the 32-Bit CD-ROM based consoles that were “all the rage”. No matter what the platform was, 3DO, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, fighting games were subject to a, in some situations, game breaking problem. Load times. This fact of life with CD-ROM gaming was exacerbated with games that featured a character that could change into another character anytime in the match. Also, any game that had end of match abilities – often simply called finishers no matter the game. Mortal Kombat 2 was one that pushed both hard. Never officially released on the 3DO, MK2 is getting a port by a fan, and it is better than official ports.

If you had a fan port of Final Fight coming to the Atari 2600 on your 2025 Bingo card, then you got a well-earned daub. Go ahead, mark that one off your card. It is happening and it is already on its first update. What is interesting is just how much of the aura of Final Fight is already in the game.

Raise your hand if you remember Dragon’s Lair The Legend for the Nintendo Game Boy. Remember how hard it was? Unforgiving. The game that proved “challenging” was an understatement. Yeah, that one. It is getting a re-release in digital format (available now) and physical (available in April 2025). While the different in difficulty is probably closer to taking on a bull versus a lion, it may be easier for most fans to enjoy this time.

Fans of Castlevania by Konami, particularly the Nintendo Entertainment System versions, will want to check out Nightstalker by Bad Landed. It is currently in development for the MSX2 computer platform (it was barely a blip on the radar in North America, huge elsewhere). From the intro to the graphics style, it is very clear the Castlevania influence here. Nothing wrong with that, at least in my opinion.