Originally released in 1992 on Sega’s Mega Drive (better known as the Sega Genesis in North America), Vixen 357 is coming to Steam later this year. Originally developed by NCS brand Masaya Games (now known as Extreme), the SRPG received a physical re-release in cartridge format compatible with original Genesis/Mega Drive consoles from publisher Shinyuden, with preorders shipping within the last month. The new digital edition, on the other hand, promises to make this forgotten classic more accessible to those of us without Sega’s 38-year-old console on hand.
Vixen 357 is a turn-based strategy game with a giant mecha theme, making it something of a precursor to Square-Enix’s Front Mission series (Toshiro Tsuchida, the producer of Vixen 357, went on to create the Front Mission series after his departure from Masaya). The game tells the story of the Slash unit, a group of 24th-century mech pilots whose military base is attacked by an unknown enemy. Against impossible odds, they band together to fight back and uncover the truth behind their unidentified foes. The story is set in the same world as Hisou Kihei X-SERD, another tactical mecha game from Masaya overseen by Tsuchida that released on PC Engine (aka TurboGrafx-16) in 1990, but Vixen 357 follows a separate cast and storyline.
Gameplay involves players moving their units around a chessboard-like grid, maneuvering them into position for engagements with enemy combatants. When two units clash, the game shifts to a side-view for a better view of the action. This set-up will no doubt sound familiar to anyone experienced with classic entries in Nintendo’s Fire Emblem series or Bandai Namco’s Super Robot Wars games. Another familiar gameplay feature highly reminiscent of Fire Emblem is the inclusion of perma-death. Should an allied unit fall to the enemy in battle, they’re gone for good unless the player chooses to reload a previous save. The store page also hints that player decisions will likely influence the outcome of the story.
On a related note, this is not the first attempt at publishing an English release of Vixen 357 in recent years, although Shinyuden will be the first to bring it to modern hardware. San Diego-based publisher Super Fighter Team – known for their localizations of classic Taiwanese PC and Mega Drive games like Beggar Prince in the 2000s and 2010s – announced that they were teaming up with a group of fan translators to give Vixen 357 an English-language cartridge release in 2019, but that release was cancelled for undisclosed reasons. Speaking with Time Extension prior to the cancellation, Super Fighter Team said they had no interest in bringing the game to modern platforms. In other words, the game would most likely have remained locked to the original Genesis/Mega Drive hardware if Super Fighter Team’s release had gone through.
The PC port boasts a handful of quality-of-life features over the physical cartridge release. In addition to save states, rewind, turbo and built-in cheats, it also includes screen filters for players aiming for a retro CRT look and a gallery featuring the game’s original key artwork, posters, and packaging.
The Steam release of Vixen 357 is coming sometime in 2026, according to the game’s store page. Those wishing for the authentic 1992 experience can still order physical cartridge copies from Shinyuden’s website for a limited time.
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