PixlBit

Pengo was one of my favorite arcade games from the Golden Age of Arcades, right up there with favorites such as Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Centipede, and Joust. I also had the Atari 8-bit version of Pengo at home. 

 

Sadly, Pengo pretty much disappeared after the NES came out. The only Pengo game released after that was a Japan-only Game Gear version...until 2010.

Sega released a new version of Pengo for its RingWide arcade system in 2010. Titled as Pengo!, it was a widescreen, eight player competitive game that played somewhat differently from the original. This time, your fellow penguins were your primary adversaries rather than the Sno-Bees. Unfortunately, Pengo! was predictably only found in Japanese arcades. I actually first heard about tthis game from a 1UP blog posted by Noe V. 

In 2013, it was bundled with some simple shmup games in a compilation called Arcade Love Plus Pengo! and given a digital release on Xbox 360... also only in Japan. 

In 2019, however, Arcade Love Plus Pengo! got a physical Switch release, and PlayAsia naturally took advantage of the fact that it was region free to sell it in Western territories. And I bought a copy. The version I am playing is the Switch version.