Mr. Don't? Visco's sequel to Mr. Do! unbrands itself and relaunches as "Punky Circus"

Visco, a small but ambitious game developer from the 1990s, has been trying to establish itself in the 21st century with everything from new games (Andro Dunos II) to an arcade cabinet filled with their older ones (the Visco Mini Arcade Bartop, manufactured by Unico).

Unfortunately, one game they can't bring back is Neo Mr. Do!, originally created in a since dissolved partnership with Universal Games. After losing its claim to SNK at the turn of the century, Universal (aka Aruze) bounced hard off the video game industry and has shown little interest in a comeback, refusing to release its Mr. Do! series for modern game systems. It won't even let Visco release Neo Mr. Do!, forcing them to take... drastic measures to sell the game in the 21st century.

After a little graphic editing, Neo Mr. Do! has become Punky Circus. It's pretty much the same game as before, except now the hero looks like he came from the Insane Clown Posse rather than an arcade from the early 1980s. (You know, Insane Clown Posse? The Faygo swilling hip-hop group whose members frequently wonder how magnets work? Look, you had to be there.)

Neo Mr. Do! Punky Circus will be released for the Neo-Geo CD and Neo-Geo AES (for that handful of people who actually own one of these), and presumably will be ported to all those consoles that Visco couldn't publish it on with its old title. Thanks as always to Time Extension for the scoop.