Hamster Corporation | GameTrader.SG

Everyone’s favourite blue robotic cat is finally reaching fans outside Japan. The 1986 Doraemon Famicom game — a million-selling classic that never received a global release — is out now on Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 through Hamster Corporation’s Console Archives series, priced at US$7.99 / ¥800. This is Doraemon’s first-ever appearance on a non-Japanese storefront, and it is landing right as Singapore fans are deep in their Doraemon nostalgia.

Doraemon, Nobita, Shizuka, Gian and Suneo flying with the Take-copter — Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

What Is the Doraemon Famicom Game?

Released by Hudson Soft (now Konami) in December 1986, Doraemon moved over one million copies in Japan, making it one of the Famicom’s best-selling titles of its era. The game stays true to the franchise’s core setup: a time-machine accident scatters Nobita, Shizuka, Gian and Suneo across three perilous dimensions — Space, the Haunts of Evil, and the Undersea — and Doraemon must use his himitsu dōgu (secret gadgets) to rescue them all.

The adventure unfolds across three chapters, each drawn from a beloved classic film: Nobita’s Space Pioneer, Nobita’s Great Adventure in the Mysterious Continent, and Nobita’s Undersea Castle. Gameplay switches between overhead action stages — the layout will feel immediately familiar to anyone who has played the original Legend of Zelda — and side-scrolling shooter sequences, giving each world a distinct pace and feel.

Console Archives Doraemon — via HAMSTER Corporation on YouTube

Exploring Space, the Haunts of Evil, and the Undersea

The Space chapter opens things up in overhead perspective: Doraemon navigates alien terrain, collecting gadget items that unlock new paths while avoiding an array of pixel enemies. The Haunts of Evil chapter then shifts the camera side-on for cavern exploration, darker and more intense than the cheerful box art might suggest. The Undersea chapter wraps the adventure beneath the waves, blending both perspectives for a climactic finale.

Doraemon top-down gameplay — navigating open terrain with enemies in the Space world — Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

The score was composed by June Chikuma and weaves original tracks with arrangements of the anime’s iconic themes. Players who grew up humming the Doraemon opening will recognise the melodies immediately.

A 40-Year-Old Classic, Freshly Modernised

Doraemon gameplay in the Haunts of Evil — side-scrolling cave section with enemies — Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

Hamster has applied the same quality-of-life treatment it applies to every Console Archives title. Customisable button layouts, rapid-fire toggling, multiple anywhere-save slots, a rewind function to undo painful deaths, screen layout adjustments, and an optional CRT TV filter for full retro atmosphere are all included. These additions make the game genuinely approachable for first-time players while keeping the original challenge intact for those who want it.

Available Now on Switch 2 and PS5

Console Archives Doraemon — original 1986 title screen as it appears on modern platforms — Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

Console Archives Doraemon is live now on the Nintendo eShop for Switch 2 and the PlayStation Store for PS5, priced at US$7.99 / ¥800 (regional pricing may vary). For Singapore fans, this is the first legitimate, no-hardware-import way to play the Famicom original. Details are on the official Console Archives page.

For more on classic games making a comeback, browse our Retro Gaming coverage, and stay across all the latest in Game News.

The Arcade Original, Properly Preserved

Before the PlayStation home port, before the franchise sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, Tekken was a Namco System 11 arcade cabinet. Eight fighters, digitised backgrounds, and juggle physics that shaped an entire generation of FGC muscle memory. Hamster’s release preserves that ROM without modification — no balance patches, no additional characters, nothing that wasn’t in the original cabinet.

Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

What separates this from a barebones ROM dump is the new Arcade Archives 2 platform Hamster has built around it. The updated framework — launching with this title — adds Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) output for tear-free playback on compatible displays, a dedicated Time Attack mode, a rewind function for frame-perfect practice sessions, and global online leaderboards. It is, to date, the most feature-complete official release the original arcade Tekken has ever received.

Why It Matters for the SG Fighting Game Scene

The original Tekken arrived in Southeast Asian arcades at a moment when 3D fighting was still a novelty. Singapore game centres ran it alongside Virtua Fighter 2, and the character archetypes and combo logic that veterans first learned on that hardware never fully left the series. The sidestepping system wouldn’t appear until Tekken 3, but the core damage economy and the juggle-into-wall-oki philosophy that defines modern Tekken competitive play were already visible in the 1994 build.

For anyone active in today’s local Tekken 8 scene, this is a genuinely useful historical reference — and at ~$17–18, a far more accessible one than sourcing original hardware. It also lands at a pointed moment: Tekken 8 just confirmed its Street Fighter 6 Chun-Li crossover DLC last month, meaning players can now run the series’ entire 32-year arc — from System 11 cabinet to rollback-netcode PlayStation 5 fighter — without leaving digital storefronts.

Image courtesy of Hamster Corporation

At a Glance

Title: Arcade Archives 2 TEKKEN

Developer / Publisher: Hamster Corporation (original arcade by Namco)

Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Release date: 25 June 2026

Price: ¥1,800 (approx. SGD $17–18)

New series features: VRR output, Time Attack, rewind, online leaderboards

No Singapore eShop or PSN regional pricing has been confirmed at time of writing. The title publishes digitally tomorrow — check your regional storefront for local pricing.