In 1988, a game called The Battle of Olympus hit the Famicom, arriving a few years later globally on the NES. It didn't make much of an impression at the time, garnering mediocre sales as it was brushed off as yet another fantastical platformer on the console. But over the years, it's become a cult classic – something the husband-and-wife duo behind the game were seemingly shocked to learn decades later.
That's why Reiko and Yukio Horimoto are now at work on a faithful remake of Battle of Olympus, set to hit Steam early access in January. The couple is "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," according to the official description.
Yukio copped to Battle of Olympus's heavy Zelda 2 influences as part of a 2015 interview, and it certainly shows in the actual game. But this non-linear action-RPG was clearly more than a knock-off, boasting intricate world design, impressive for the time graphics, and satisfying core action. Calling it a labor of love is a little corny given the game's development history, but there's not really a better way to describe it.
"While making our first game, I met [the woman who would become] my wife, and so… well, we got married, and she’s my wife," Yukio said in that same interview. "We fell in love and wanted to make our own game together, so we talked about the game concept for a long time." Their young romance even helped shape the game's story, which takes inspiration from the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The Battle of Olympus was made by just three people, with Yukio handling the programming, Reiko leading the art and story, and another dev named Kazuo Sawa tackling the soundtrack, all working together to try and outdo Nintendo itself.
"Nintendo’s quality... they made the best games around those times, and I wanted to make a game of similar quality, too," Yukio said. "I didn’t know if I would be able catch up with them, but I put my whole effort into the game. So did my wife. Her challenge was to make the most beautiful game graphics possible, and there's been a lot of praise for her work. All on such a small cartridge—only 16 colors! A very limited environment."
But ultimately, that love wasn't enough. Battle of Olympus's sales weren't enough for their studio, Infinity, to continue making its own original games. While the studio still exists to this day, it's spent most of the past four decades doing contract and support work on other developers' projects.
At the time of that interview, Yukio said he had almost "forgotten all about The Battle of Olympus," but that's seemingly changed in recent years.
As Reiko explains in a new video about the project, "The inspiration for this remake came from YouTube. Even decades later, many people had posted gameplay videos, and those videos had received many views. I was truly surprised." She adds that the "kind comments" on these videos "moved me to tears."
Now, decades later, Reiko and Yukio are able to work together again on The Battle of Olympus. They call this remake "the culmination of our lives in game development."
"Thank you for playing The Battle of Olympus," Reiko concludes. "Thank you for posting your videos. Thank you for your wonderful comments. Thank you for loving this game. Thanks to all of you, we were able to look back on our past and find the courage to remake the game."
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