Arkanoid Returns to Consoles This Week Alongside MagMax

Arkanoid is heading back to modern consoles on May 7, 2026. Taito's 1986 brick-breaking arcade favorite is due on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S through Hamster's Arcade Archives and Arcade Archives 2 lines.

The game was designed by Akira Fujita and Hiroshi "ONIJUST" Tsujino. Its roots are easy to trace back to Atari's 1976 hit Breakout, but Arkanoid gave that familiar paddle-and-ball idea a sharper sci-fi look, with a bright futuristic style influenced by the 1982 film Tron.

Players control a spacecraft called VAUS and use it to rebound energy balls into rows of space walls. The larger goal is to break through a warped labyrinth and make it back to the mothership, Arkanoid, which gives the simple setup a proper arcade-story sparkle.

Part of Arkanoid's charm comes from its power-ups. As walls shatter, players can collect different upgrades with their own effects, adding a little extra strategy and surprise to a formula that was already built for quick retries and one-more-go sessions.

After its arcade debut, Arkanoid travelled widely. It appeared on the NES and on home computers including the Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari ST. It also grew into a longer series, beginning with Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh in 1987.

Pricing depends on the version. The Arcade Archives release for PS4 and Nintendo Switch is listed at $7.99, while the Arcade Archives 2 version is set a little higher at $9.99.

Arkanoid is not the only retro release on the schedule that day. Hamster has also announced the NES version of Nichibutsu's horizontal shooter MagMax for PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, where it will arrive as part of the Console Archives range.

MagMax first appeared in arcades in 1985, then reached the Nintendo Famicom and NES the following year. Hamster has handled the arcade version before too, publishing it on PS4 through Arcade Archives in 2015 and on Nintendo Switch in 2020.

In MagMax, players pilot a transformable mecha sent to destroy an alien computer named Babylon. The action moves between above-ground and underground routes, with plenty of robot enemies in the way, including a boss that recalls Mecha-King Ghidorah from the Godzilla series.