Yuzo Koshiro and Ancient Corp have stated via Twitter that their modern Genesis/Mega Drive game, Earthion is aiming for release this summer at the earliest. The composer has also announced that plans to bring it to modern consoles are underway.
Earthion is a scrolling shoot-’em-up in development for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. While that is not entirely unique in these days of homebrew development, what makes Earthion special is that it’s being helmed by Yuzo Koshiro, the legendary composer behind games such as Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi. While he did compositions for SNES games like Actraiser, Robotrek, and Super Adventure Island, he’s perhaps best known for his Genesis contributions. His company, Ancient Corp, beyond collaborating with other developers, also created Beyond Oasis for the console.
The company has been tinkering with Earthion as far back as 2022, with its big reveal happening at Tokyo Game Show 2023. There, Ancient demonstrated the game’s tremendous bosses and fancy scaling effects.
While Koshiro has moved on to composing for modern platforms with games such as the Etrian Odyssey series, he hasn’t lost his appreciation for old hardware. For Ancient’s recent game, Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness, there’s a suite of DLC available that changes the soundtrack to versions arranged for various consoles. This includes not only PC-88 and Mega Drive platforms but even less common consoles such as the Wonderswan. It feels very fitting that his company would eventually go back and create and new game for an old console.
Earthion is aiming for a Summer 2024 release (at the earliest) on Genesis/Mega Drive. Modern console versions are planned, but none have been confirmed. Physical distribution in the West will be handled by Limited Run Games.