My heart was set afire with joy the other day when I read the Gamestop report on XS Games’ latest publishing plans. It turns out they’re releasing both Raiden III and The Red Star for PS2 late this summer (or early fall?), and seeing as I’d planned on importing one and “tracking down” the other, I’m thrilled with the chance to own both legitimately.

XS Games does have what can politely be referred to as a “troubled past”. Best known for being the company to publish Gunbird as Mobile Light Force and Shikigami no Shiro as Mobile Light Force 2, complete with the single worst cover in memory (both MLF1 and 2 used the same cover art), they’ve cleaned up their act a bit since. While they still publish such stunners as DT Racer, their release of Shikigami no Shiro 2 as Castle Shikigami 2 was a respectable job, despite a translation that combined the best Babelfish can offer with high-school calibur voice acting. The attractive packaging showed no cheap attempt to re-market it to a perceived American taste, and as incomprehensible as it turned out, they didn’t cut the story mode from the game like they did in Mobile Light Force 2. So despite their low-budget quick & dirty approach, XS Games can learn.

While Raiden III has received mixed reviews, with some people thinking it to slow and others findiing it perfectly balanced despite the changes made to the “toothpaste laser”, I’m happy to see it. It’s Raiden, after all. If it turned into a bullet-hell shooter then it wouldn’t be Raiden any more.

But it’s really The Red Star that I’m looking forard to. Cancelled when Acclaim died in 2004, the demo circulated on both the official Playstation and Xbox magazines, and was just plain fun. We’ve seen a lot of games try to revitalize the brawler in the last few years, like Final Fight Streetwise and those other ones that were so forgettable I’ve forgotten them, but The Red Star looked to be the one to do it right. I found both the strong and fast characters useful, and seeing as I normally stick to the “quick female” stereotype that’s saying something. Enemies were plentiful and fun to wail on, and there were even some nice bullet patterns from the mid-boss, which could be taken apart piece by piece. Though the game’s original $40 price tag struck me as a bit steep, I still planned to pick it up at the time. And then Acclaim went out of business, taking the first game I’d have given them money for in years with it.

Well now XS has finally admitted to having the rights to The Red Star and is bringing it out on PS2, but the Xbox version is in limbo. Anyone feeling like dropping by http://www.xsgames.biz/contact/ and dropping them a quick line telling them that yes, Xbox would be nice too, feel free. Because though I’ll get the PS2 version if it’s all that’s available, it would be nice to have at least one more game on the Xbox before it fades away forever.