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| (Image Source: PlayStation Blog/Blizzard Entertainment) |
Thirty years ago, three intriguing games made by a new video game development company at that time have garnered critical acclaim upon their release and would eventually reflect the early design principles leading to the creation of Blizzard Entertainment. These were The Lost Vikings®, Rock 'n Roll Racing®, and Blackthorne®. Now, old and new generations of gamers can experience and discover what makes them challenging to enjoy during their time as Blizzard® Arcade Collection, a celebration of Blizzard's original hits compiled onto a digital collection, becomes available on Windows PC via Battle.net, PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store, Xbox One via the Xbox Store and the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo eShop as well as the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S via backwards compatibility.
Each entry in the Blizzard Arcade Collection may be challenging in their own right but showcases the fun, personality and detail at the heart of Blizzard's titles through the years and offers an early look at what would evolve into Blizzard's signature approach to satisfying gameplay, colorful design, and tongue in-cheek humor. The games come in their original format where each feature a "watch mode" which players can watch a walkthrough of the game and jump in at any point. They can also be enjoyed in their Definitive Edition with graphical and audio improvements and additional features such as local multiplayer and actual recordings of the original soundtrack in Rock 'n Roll Racing and a "fog of war" map in Blackthorne.
The Definitive Edition also brings The Lost Vikings, Rock 'n Roll Racing and Blackthorne to a broader global audience as players across different parts of the globe can now have the opportunity to play through these foundational experiences in their preferred language whether it is English, French, German, Japanese, European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese. Both original and definitive editions feature custom key mapping, the ability to rewind up to 10 seconds and the capability to save progress anywhere in the game (except for the Definitive Edition of Rock 'n Roll Racing). The Blizzard Arcade Collection also included an array of bonus materials including game art, development assets, unused content, lore and interviews among others.
On PC, the Blizzard Arcade Collection is included as part of The Celebration Collection, a commemorative bundle of in-game items for Blizzard games which was announced prior to BlizzConline in celebration of Blizzard's 30th year anniversary. Those who have purchased The Celebration Collection will automatically receive Blizzard Arcade Collection. On the other hand, the console versions are known as the Blizzard® 30-Year Celebration Collection.
