Pier Solar HD announced

Here’s an interesting one. Pier Solar is a 16-bit indie jRPG with a major Lunar: The Silver Star / Lunar 2: Eternal Blue vibe, created and released for the Sega Genesis on an actual, custom cartridge back in 2010. The developers incorrectly state that it was the only game to do so in the new millenium: in fact, a pair of indie RPGs–The Beggar Prince and Legend of Wukong–beat them to it in 2007 and 2008, respectively. That said, it’s still pretty damned impressive that developer Watermelon Co. managed to pull off an indie Sega Genesis cartridge release.

This post isn’t about the original Pier Solar, though: it’s about an HD remake that has just been announced. Here’s the relevant background: on November 5, WaterMelon Co. launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund development of an HD remake of Pier Solar. That campaign just today reached its Kickstarter funding goal, which means that the remake is now officially in the works for (and I quote) “Xbox 360, PC, Mac, Linux & Sega Dreamcast.”

The HD remake hasn’t been created yet, obviously, but you can check out gameplay footage of the original Pier Solar to get a sense of the game:

The HD remake, by contrast, is set to feature an odd mixture of high definition 2D environments and chunky, pixelated character sprites. Here are some screenshots:

Pier Solar HD is planned for a December 2013 release.

Also, worth noting: RPGGamer recently interviewed one of the developers; I suggest you give it a read if you’re curious to learn more about the game and its background.