Remember when I wrote an article called Never Say Never, about games I never thought would come out, but did? And in that article, I had a short list of dream games that I still thought would never actually be released, and one of them was a Time Gal HD Remaster?

Well…guess what Taito just announced.

It is not usually the aim of this blog to share news, but this is a bombshell that I can’t ignore. Taito LD Game Collection will be coming to Nintendo Switch in Japan on December 14, 2023. No word on any releases outside of Japan yet, but I personally have my suspicions.

The compilation will feature HD remasters of not only Time Gal, but also two of Taito’s other laserdisc arcade games, Ninja Hayate and the long-lost Space Battleship Yamato.

Although Time Gal and Hayate have been released on various home formats over the years, the inclusion of Yamato is just as much of a shocker for a couple of reasons: one being the simple fact that it’s a licensed property (Uchuu Senkan Yamato, known as Star Blazers in its English-translated version, is one of the all-time greats of classic anime), and secondly because the game hasn’t been seen outside of Japanese arcades since the 1980s. (There was a PC remake created by a Japanese fan which you may discover if you fall far enough down the LD game rabbit hole as I have, but to my knowledge they did not make it publicly available.) Below is some old footage of an original Yamato arcade game.

It does not appear as though Taito’s other LD games, Laser Grand Prix or the unreleased Cosmos Circuit, will be part of the release.

There will, of course, be a standard version of the Taito LD Game Collection, as well as a collector’s edition that comes with a bunch of extra goodies and will only be available to pre-order from Amazon Japan for a very brief window of time.

Call it manifestation, or The Secret, or wishing on a star, or a cash grab, whatever you prefer. But I reiterate: never say never.

Check out Taito’s announcement here (Japanese): https://www.taito.co.jp/taitoldgamecollection/