A Famicom game that never left Japan is getting its first Western release — forty years after it first went on sale. Hamster Corporation published Console Archives: Doraemon on July 30, 2026, for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, priced at £5.79 / US$7.99 (VGC).

The game was originally developed by Hudson Soft and released in Japan in 1986 for the Famicom, the Japanese console that Western audiences knew as the Nintendo Entertainment System. Hudson Soft later became part of Konami, Hamster noted in its release announcement (Hamster Corporation). The original reportedly sold over a million copies — a substantial figure for a single-platform title in that era.

Doraemon is an action-adventure game built across three distinct worlds. Players move through overhead exploration mixed with side-scrolling platforming, a shoot-'em-up section, and a side-scrolling underwater adventure. The character itself — a robotic cat from the future and one of Japan's most recognisable pop-culture figures — has anchored manga, anime, and merchandise for decades, though the 1986 game was the character's first appearance on a home console.

Hamster is bringing the title to Western storefronts through its Console Archives line, a retro reissue series that launched in February 2026. The series focuses on home-console games rather than arcade titles, and so far has featured only Famicom/NES and PlayStation releases. Twenty-four Console Archives titles have been released since the series began (VGC).

Console Archives is a sibling to Hamster's long-running Arcade Archives programme, which has been releasing vintage arcade games on a weekly basis for nine years. The company has stated it aims to release hundreds of games for the newer Console Archives line (Nintendo Life).

There is one catch for non-Japanese-speaking players. Console Archives releases do not translate in-game text, and Doraemon is presented in its untouched Japanese form (VGC). Menus, dialogue, and item names will be in Japanese — a deliberate choice that preserves the original release as it was, rather than adapting it for new audiences.

Doraemon was part of the Console Archives initial lineup announcement in February 2026, when Hamster revealed more than ten planned titles (Gematsu; Nintendo Life). The series launched with Cool Boarders and Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos as its debut titles, arriving on Nintendo Switch 2 on February 6 and PlayStation 5 on February 14 (Hamster Corporation).

For a game that has sat in Japan for four decades, a £5.79 download is a remarkably low barrier to entry — untranslated text and all.