Credit: Cat Hui Trading
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Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE Brings a Real Famicom Shooter to PS5
August 5, 2026·3 min read
Most new retro games borrow the colours, sounds, and rough edges of old hardware without ever having to obey its limits. Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE took the harder route. It was built as a genuine Famicom and NES game, released on cartridge in 2024, and is now coming to modern consoles at a far more approachable price.
The new version launches on August 6 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, starting at $15.99 in the US. Rather than rebuilding the game with modern graphics, the port keeps the original 8-bit design intact and adds the features players now expect from a retro re-release.
Cat Hui Trading created Changeable Guardian ESTIQUE to run on Nintendo's original hardware, which gives its retro style more weight than a modern pixel filter. Every enemy, background, boss, and animation had to fit within the same technical limits developers faced decades ago, making the finished game feel like a lost release from another timeline.
The six-stage campaign sends pilots Mary and Kanon across versions of Hong Kong, Bavaria, London, New York, and Kyoto before a final battle against the Van-De-Raus space pirates. The story is light, but the stages are carefully paced, with detailed scenery, large bosses, and busy attack patterns that rarely collapse into heavy slowdown or flicker.
Veteran developers connected to Zanac, The Guardian Legend, Gun-Nac, Power Strike II, Dragon Spirit, and Wonder Boy helped shape the game. Their experience shows in the way enemies enter the screen, bosses change phases, and each stage builds pressure without relying on endless visual noise or cheap surprise attacks.
Estique can switch between Fighter Form and Robot Form at any time, giving players a reason to transform constantly instead of saving the mechanic for special moments. Fighter Form has a smaller vertical hitbox and stronger shooting, while Robot Form ignores terrain damage, recovers health faster, and changes the available special attack.
The health system also makes the game easier to learn than many shooters from the same era. Estique can survive several hits and recover after avoiding damage, so one mistake does not immediately ruin a run. The game also avoids a long stacked power-up chain that leaves players permanently weakened after dying.
Wave covers a wider area and helps control groups, while B.I.T. creates orbiting units that attack enemies and block incoming shots. These options give experienced players room to chase higher scores, but the basic controls remain clear enough for anyone who usually finds classic shoot 'em ups too punishing.
The modern release includes both the Japanese Famicom version and the North American NES version, which use different story scenes and some different artwork. A Gallery Mode collects manuals, cartridge designs, box art, and other material from the physical editions, giving players a closer look at how the project was presented as a real new 8-bit release.
Rewind, infinite continues, a CRT filter, full controller support, and remappable controls make the game easier to approach without changing its stages or combat. Score Attack gives experienced players a separate reason to learn enemy patterns, while online rankings support both regular play and score-focused runs across the modern versions.
Buying an original cartridge and the hardware needed to run it would cost far more than the new port. The PS5 release makes the game available to players who care about the design rather than collecting rare hardware, while still preserving the version built for the Famicom instead of replacing it with a better imitation.
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An original side-scrolling shoot 'em up game for Nintendo Entertainment System being developed by Cat Hoi Trading LLC set to release in the Summer of 2024. The game is set in 5 world cities and space, for a total of 6 stages. The moderate difficulty and play time, as well as a l
Released
December 16, 2024
Developer
Cat Hui Trading LLC
Publisher
Cat Hui Trading LLC
