Blizzard has surprisingly announced an arcade collection of some of its earliest titles to celebrate the company’s 30-year anniversary – and it’s out right now. Officially titled Blizzard Arcade Collection, the assortment was revealed during BlizzConline today and includes three classics: The Lost Vikings, Rock N Roll Racing, and Blackthorne. You can purchase the compilation on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One now for $19.99, but make sure to watch the announcement trailer below before you do.
For each game in Blizzard Arcade Collection, you can play the Original Edition, which allows you to play the game as it first released, or the Definitive Edition of each game. Each Definitive Edition has its own unique bonuses. The Lost Vikings, for example, includes features that were added in later versions, such as extra stages, cutscenes, and support for three-player local co-op. Rock N Roll Racing’s Definitive Edition comes with environmental effects, four-player co-op, more than 384 racetrack variations, 16:9 resolution, and recording of the songs from the original soundtrack. Lastly, Blackthorne’s Definitive Edition packs in an area only previously available to those that owned the 32-bit version of the game and a fog-of-war map for each level.
Blizzard Arcade Collection comes with wholly new features too. For starters, custom key mapping is now supported for all versions of the games, along with the ability to rewind time by 10 seconds. Additionally, the Original Editions of The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne include a mode that allows you to watch a playthrough of the game and then jump in yourself as you please, and with the exception of the Definitive Edition of Rock N Roll Racing, all games now allow you to save your progress at any point in time.
If you’re looking to explore the history of each game, you can check out in-game bonus materials like game art, development assets, unused content, lore, interviews, and more.
If you’ve already purchased The Celebration Collection on PC, which was released earlier this month and comes with different digital goodies for Blizzard fans, you’ll be granted instant access to Blizzard Arcade Collection. The company has released a console version of the bundle called The Blizzard 30-Year Celebration Collection today as well.
Published: Feb 19, 2021 07:45 pm