James Pond, California Games, The Last Ninja and More Getting the HD Revamp Treatment by System 3 Games

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Lee Bradley

UK developer and publisher System 3 Games is masterminding the return of some beloved classics to a range of current-gen platforms including XBLA.

Starting with Putty Squad and extending to such beloved classics as California Games, James Pond, Constructor and The Last Ninja series, System 3 intends to polish up these late 80s and early 90s home computer classics with HD graphics, Leaderboards and all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect.

“We are blessed, as an independent, with having one of the most powerful back catalogues from back in the day,” System 3 founder Marc Cale told X360A. 

“Whether it’s International Karate, IK+, Last Ninja 1, 2 and 3, Constructor, Mob Rule, California Games, Impossible Mission, James Pond. They’re all things that we own and are in a position to bring back.”

The news will be of particular interest to hairy old UK gamers of a particular age. System 3‘s back catalogue represents some of the very best, most revered titles of the Amiga age. From the funky low-fi bleeps of the California Games soundtrack to the iconic, tongue-in-cheek platforming of James Pond, these games were as good as it got.

Putty Squad, the inventive 2D puzzle-platformer coming to XBLA soon, represents the first wave of a much welcomed tsunami of nostalgia.

Comments
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  • I like how all these old classics are getting remakes. Keep it up, game companies!
  • The last ninja! Oh god that brings back memories from the c64 days. That's a day one for me.
  • James pond ! Used to love that little fella !
  • Oh man, I remember playing James Pond on my Acorn computer back in the 90s.
  • out of all the decent games to make they bring out this shit? /yawn
  • IK+ and Last Ninja would be awesome.
  • Hopefully they will leave ninjas music as if was.
  • We all loved these games back in the day. Will we still love playing them? I'm not so sure.
  • @8 no we wont. Rose tinted.
  • @#8 Depends on price. 400 points would be a no brainer, 800 and up would really depend on your love/nostalgia for the specfic game. inb4 they charge 1200 and no-one buys them
  • i want a crash bandicoot 1,2 and 3 remake.
  • I'd love to see a remake of James Pond 3. Everyone prefers the 2nd game but the 3rd one was a real blow for me. But I join #8 : Nostalgi
  • GTFO! California Games? I spent hours upon hours playing that on the NES throughout my childhood. Make it happen, and I guarantee a day-one purchase of this classic game.
  • Sorry for double post -_- I was saying Nostalgia is a thing, but we have different expectations today...
  • Robocod FTW! Spent many hours on that as a boy.....Atari 800 with 16k expansion y0!
  • i remember The Last Ninja 2 on my Amstrad 464. Came in a nice big box with a ninja mask and rubber shuriken :)
  • Hell yes. Day one buy for Putty Squad, James Pond and California Games. Loved these games. All I need now is a remake of Adventures of Dizzy and my nostalgia trip is complete.
  • First Toejam and Earl,now James Pond! Someone needs to bring back World of Illusion and I will be a very happy man
  • After seeing how slow and dated Toejam and Earl was, I can't say I'm looking forward to more games from my childhood reappearing. They're best left as memories.
  • @17- adventures of dizzy! Omg now that brings back memories. All a want for christmas is a FFVII remake and ill die a happy man!
  • Sooooo happy. James Pond, awesome.
  • Would love to see more Amiga Classics bought back e.g. Jet strike, Jurassic park. Hopefully this is the start of something wonderful.
  • California Games = instabuy
  • I am happy there doing this is it nice to bring out some of the old games I played as a kid so my kid can see how amazing the graphics where when I was growing up
  • Fudge yeah! James Pond and The Last Ninja were great on my C-64. I hope it's not a bad HD Remake like Karateka which just shares the same name.
  • Last Ninja and IK+ would be much appreciated. Two of my favourite games from the 80's
  • IK+ is a must.
  • James Pond!!!!!! Hahahahaha Loved this game as a kid! :D
  • Last Ninja 2 has my favourite pieces of SID music, cant wait :)
  • California Games! about the only decent game i had on my GameGear! hopefully they'll price them sensibly.
  • "these games were as good as it got." I read this line as a damning criticism and laughed out loud. But Putty Squad is cool, that's a game I had some interest in but never got around to actually playing.
  • CALIFORNIA GAMES!!! YES! & Last Ninja too. Son, I am not disappoint!
  • California Games and Impossible Mission! YES! YES! YES!
  • So is this remakes or rereleases? Though (to me anyway) old doesn't mean classic I do have some fond memories of some of these games, so I'd pick up some of these!
  • IK+ would be classic especially with 3 player online. I don't think the Last Ninja games have aged too well tbh. Played them on emmulation recently and there not a sgood as i remember them being plua there bastard hard. If theres any Amiga game thats begging to come out on XBLA live its got to be Moonstone. 4 player online with that would be amazing.
  • Impossible Mission and Last Ninja?? YES!
  • Constructor ftw. Bring. It. On.
  • James Bond gone fishing
  • I can't wait to relive my childhood in HD. :D Just need Codies to remake Dizzy.
  • OMG! I want The Last Ninja series NOW!! My fav C64 game when I was a kid! :D
  • Robocod! Dizzy in treasure island! Trolls! Zool! Adams family! these are all games I would play even today if my C64 didnt die like a decade ago lol.
  • California Games was the shit!. Loved getting eaten by sharks while surfing
  • Would love to see a Gex remake.
  • California Games, fuck yeah!
  • Hell Yeah. Robocod is a great game but I'd much rather see the Super Mario World and Sonic inspired Operation Starfish released as Robocod has had too many rereleases, although a collection of all four James Pond games (including the olympic games) would be nice to have, even for 1200 points. Although I expect the penguins and penguin bars in Robocod will still be gone :(
  • Wow, completely forgot about California Games... This is awesome news! I agree with the Fantastic Dizzy comment. Never got to complete it on Mega Drive due to not having the save feature back then. I really hope these XBLA games work on the next Xbox.
  • System 3, huh? James Pond? Last Ninya? I don't suppose there's any chance of a remake of FLIMBO'S QUEST in that lot? It's still one of my favourite Amiga titles. I have the (original) disc here and still play it on my trusty A500! But Putty Squad (Tough guy, eh?) will be a definite first day purchase! I remember playing the demo-disc from Amiga Power and was disappointed that it was never officially released. Now we need more Graftgold titles updated, too! Uridium 2, Paradroid'90, etc... ^_^
  • Gonna have a Putty Squad preview on the site next week. They've brushed it up real nice!
  • California Games ftw! I will wait until release and actually check what comes with it though; I got stung with Alex Kidd by expecting Ninja World and Enchanted Castle and getting two completely games. My fault, no less
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