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NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
A Revolutionary Namco Racer & A Classic Nichibutsu Shoot 'Em Up Are Both Heading To Consoles This Week
'Arcade Archives Final Lap' & 'Console Archives 'Terra Cresta' announced
www.timeextension.com
First up, we have some potentially exciting news for F1 fans. Namco's arcade racing sim, Final Lap, is finally being released as part of Arcade Archives and Arcade Archives 2 later this week.
Originally released in 1987, Final Lap is the successor to earlier Namco arcade racing games like Pole Position and Pole Position II, and coincided with a boom in the popularity of the motorsport in the region, brought on by the Japanese Grand Prix being held that year at the then-newly refurbished Suzuka Circuit (the first time a Japanese track had been include since the 1977 Formula One World Championship in Fuji).
The game featured one course to race on, modelled after the Suzuka Circuit, and gave players the choice of four vehicles (Williams-Honda, Lotus-Honda, McLaren-Porsche, or March-Cosworth), unlocked by plugging special connectors into their machine. At the time, the machine's hardware was considered revolutionary, as it was the first game to take advantage of the then-new System 2 arcade board, allowing up to four two-player cabinets to connect for eight-player races. This feature, sadly, seems to be missing from the latest release. Instead, Hamster, the creators of Arcade Archives, is listing the game as single-player only.
The game will be released on March 26th, 2026, and will cost $7.99 or $9.99, depending on whether you opt for the Arcade Archives (PS4, Switch) or Arcade Archives 2 version (Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S). As is typical with these types of releases, it will include a bunch of features not present in the arcade original, such as online leaderboards, additional modes (including a TIME ATTACK MODE in the case of the Arcade Archives 2 version), and screen filters.
Here's the official description, from the publisher, to give you an idea of what to expect:
Besides the arcade release, the game was later ported to the Nintendo Famicom in 1988 by Arc System Works as that company's debut title. It also spawned a series of sequels and spin-offs, carrying on the legacy of the original.
Console Archives Terra Cresta
As for Console Archives, this week's game is Nichibutsu's vertically scrolling shoot 'em up Terra Cresta, which was released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1986.
It will be released on March 26th, 2026, and will be available for the Nintendo Switch 2 and PS5, priced at $7.99.
Terra Cresta is the sequel to the 1980 fixed-screen shooter Moon Cresta, and originally debuted in the arcades in 1985, before being ported to a bunch of home platforms, including the C64, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo Famicom / NES, and X68000 (as part of Dempa's Video Game Anthology Vol. 1 – Moon Cresta / Terra Cresta) in the years that followed.
It puts players in control of a combat ship called the Wing Galiber, which can be split apart and arranged in various special attack formations, and tasks them with fending off a hostile invading army. As with previous Console Archives releases, this new reissue will include "customizable button layouts, rapid-fire settings, multiple save points," and more.
Here's some more information on the game and its story, courtesy of Hamster:
