The Saturn Tribute release of classic Saturn sidescrolling shooter Assault Suit Leynos 2 is set for an April release, its publisher announced Thursday.
City Connection updated its official website to say that Leynos 2 will release April 25, 2024 — although the English version of the site still gives just a less-specific 2024 release.
A new video showing off the game was uploaded to YouTube, too:
The site reveals other new details — apparently, the only physical releases for Leynos 2 will be Japanese versions on the Switch and PlayStation 5. It’s planned to come out on the Xbox, PC via Steam, Switch and PlayStation 4 digitally in both Japanese and English, though.
The fact that it’s coming out in English is notable — the game originally is entirely in Japanese, but when City Connection announced that Leynos 2 would be the next in its Saturn Tribute line, it said it would localize the game into other languages. That would be a first for the company after selling 14 Saturn games whose languages had been untouched.
There’s still no word on what other languages besides English might be supported.
The Japanese physical releases will come in two flavors: A standard edition with a poster for a preorder bonus and a special edition with a soundtrack CD and a book called “Assault Suit Leynos 2 Unveiled Report” as well as a reversible cover using newly drawn illustrations.
The 2D mecha run-n-gun was originally developed by NCS and published by Masaya on the Saturn in February 1997 exclusively in Japan. It’s a sequel to Genesis game Assault Suit Leynos, aka Target Earth in North America, and Super Nintendo game Assault Suit Valken, aka Cybernator in North America and Europe.
Saturn Tribute games are the Saturn originals running on what City Connection calls the Zebra Engine, which dataminers have found appears to be a modified version of the SSF emulator. City Connection appears to use the “S-Tribute” label for the Saturn games from Taito that it’s handling, while games like Cotton 2 and Suchie-Pie are from other publishers and sport the “Saturn Tribute” label. It used a “Saturn Tribute Boosted” label for Batsugun earlier this year, denoting extra features that aren’t in their other Saturn efforts.
That emulator gives players features like rewind, quick save and quick load.
So far, 14 games have been released under the three labels: Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang and Guardian Force, which came out in 2021; Layer Section & Galactic Attack, which came out April 2022; Cleopatra Fortune and Elevator Action Returns, which came out November 2022; the four games in the Suchie-Pai collection, which came out December 2022; Metal Black and Bust-a-Move 2: Arcade Edition & Bust-a-Move 3, which came out in January; and Batsugun, which came out in May.
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