This week’s Famitsu magazine has revealed that a Penguin Wars remake is in development for Nintendo Switch, seeing the competitive action game make a return after a 32-year absence.
The original game was first released in arcades before going on to receive NES and Game Boy ports and saw players control an animal at either side of a table.
The aim was to roll balls as quickly as possible to your opponent’s side, the loser being the player that can’t keep up and, as a consequence, sees ten balls build up on their side – or, has the most on their side at the end of a round. With each round lasting 60 seconds, that results in a particularly frantic experience.
The five animals – penguin, bear, panda, koala and beaver – each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and players could try to hit their opponent with a ball to temporarily knock them out.
Siliconera reports that the remake will retain the base gameplay while introducing new rules, such as players having to hit each other with 10 balls to win. There’s also 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 options, and special rules that replace the balls with explosive bomb counterparts.
The soundtrack will modernise the original game’s music as well as introduce new tracks, with multiplayer supporting up to four players locally and online.
Penguin Wars will release on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch in Japan later this year.
