Long before Bubble Bobble 4 Friends and Puzzle Bobble Everybubble, Taito released a unique pair of Bubble Bobble sequels that did not involve blowing bubbles: Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars. After its inclusion on the Turbografx-16 Mini a few years ago, Parasol Stars: The Story of Bubble Bobble III is finally getting its own new release. The adorable platformer will be coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch later this year courtesy of ININ Games.

Japanese publisher Hamster is slowly but surely releasing a vast library of classic arcade games on modern consoles via the Arcade Archives label. The latest Arcade Archives release is Dragon Saber: After Story of Dragon Spirit. A vertically scrolling shoot 'em up that rarely gets ported to consoles, Dragon Saber lets two players become flying dragons to save a fantasy kingdom from monsters.

Today, Sega of Japan announced a new mini console, though it might not be the one that fans really wanted. The Mega Drive Mini 2 is a miniature version of the Mega Drive 2 (known as the Sega Genesis 2 in North America). It's not just a reskinned Mega Drive Mini, though: the new console will feature 50 games from both the Genesis and Sega CD lib...

Earlier this year, Arc System Works released the Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle for modern consoles and Switch, bringing heaps of NES beat ‘em up goodness to Sony’s console. It looked like Xbox owners would be left out of the fun, but that has thankfully changed today. Seven of the games from the Retro Brawler Bundle are now available as $5 individual downloads on Xbox One. At last, Microsoft fans can play Double Dragon II, Double Dragon III, and River City Ransom in local and online co-op! While the Xbox Store page does list Double Dragon as having co-op, since this is the NES version of the game, it actually does not offer cooperative play - instead it's a two player versus mode.

Disney's latest animated feature Wreck-It Ralph is chock full of videogame references, some more obscure than others. For instance, the final boss of Altered Beast makes a brief cameo in his rhino form. That gives us the perfect excuse to look at an obscure Japanese port of the game in our latest installment of Co-Op International. This month we look at Altered Beast (called Juuoki in Japan) for the PC Engine, an 8-bit system known as the Turbografx-16 in the west.

Our previous Co-Op International looked at the Japanese versions of Double Dragon II. This month we follow up with River City Ransom. Think the GameBoy Advance version is the best? No way! Read on to discover the River City Ransom that never left Japan but does feature awesome co-op.

In honor of Double Dragon: Neon's recent release on XBLA and PSN, this month's Co-Op International looks at a couple of classic Double Dragon games that never made it out of Japan. Both are ports of Double Dragon II: The Revenge and share a few things in common, but otherwise they could hardly be more different.