The Battle of Olympus debuted on Famicom in 1988 and later reached NES audiences worldwide, but failed to gain commercial traction at launch, dismissed as just another fantastical platformer on the console. Decades later, however, the game became a cult classic, surprising its creators when they eventually learned of its enduring status.
Husband-and-wife duo Reiko and Yukio Horimoto, who made the original, are now developing a faithful remake set to enter early access on Steam in January. According to the official description, they are personally recreating the code, redrawing the pixel art, and refining the game for modern PC players while preserving the spirit, atmosphere, and challenge of the original.
The original was heavily inspired by Zelda 2, as Yukio confirmed in a 2015 interview, and those influences are evident in the game itself. Yet The Battle of Olympus established itself as far more than a derivative, cementing its place as a cult reference among fans of 1980s and 1990s action-RPG design.
