One of the first things Blizzard revealed at BlizzCon 2021 was the Blizzard Arcade Collection, a trio of the company’s first games brought together in celebration of its 30th anniversary. The Collection bundles three of Blizzard’s older, less well-known titles so you can see how far the company’s come. Namely, you can play The Lost Vikings, the puzzle platformer originally released in 1992; Blackthorne, a 1994 platformer; and Rock n’ Roll Racing, a 1992 vehicle combat game.
All three games are available in their “original editions” as well as definitive editions that add new features to the games. The Lost Vikings, for example, will have the graphics of its original SNES release, with levels and cutscenes that were added in later releases. Blackthorne will have a level map, and Rock n’ Roll Racing will have 4-player splitscreen co-op. All three definitive editions will have key remapping, 10-second rewind, and better save mechanics.
This isn’t the first time Blizzard has re-released these games, as they’re all currently available to download for free from Blizzard’s website. The Collection is available for Switch, PS4, and Xbox One (and PS5 and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility) and PC, starting the same day as BlizzCon. Console players can purchase the Arcade Collection by itself for $19.99, but PC players can only get it bundled with the Celebration Collection.
There are three packs in the Celebration collection: Essentials, Heroic, and Epic, in ascending order of number of goodies included. All three include the Arcade Collection. Other goodies include pets, lootboxes, and skins across Blizzard’s various modern games, including Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone. The Celebration collection will be available through September 15, and the Essentials pack is $19.99.
