A game that PlatinumGames first revealed as a joke gets an actual release date. Find out when is the Sol Cresta release date below.

Sol Cresta Release Date: February 22, 2022

Sol Cresta will be released on February 22, 2022, on PC, Nintendo Switch, and PS4 for $3.99. The game is by the team of Hideki Kamiya, director of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami. He also worked on Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. It’s also made in collaboration with Hamster Corporation, developers of mostly Japan-only arcade games, who have a specialty in vertically scrolling shooters. The release date was announced by PlatinumGames through a live stream on Youtube.

Sol Cresta is a vertically scrolling shooter. If you think PlatinumGames should finally lean into their penchant for bullet hells, then this is it. They originally revealed the game as an April Fools’ Joke in April 2020. It was released with the hashtags #AprilFoolsDay and #Gotcha, but the game was so convincing that fans have indicated their desire to play the game. A year later, on April 2, 2021, PlatinumGames would reveal that the game is, in fact, real. The publishers released screenshots of the game in progress back then and said that Sol Cresta will be the final chapter of the Cresta Saga, which follows up on 1985’s Terra Cresta.

If fans are impressed with Sol Cresta and would like PlatinumGames to make more games of similar nature, then they’re in luck. PlatinumGames also revealed that Sol Cresta will be the first in a new Neo-Classic Arcade series. The series will draw from the classic spirit of arcade games while also utilizing modern technology to add more polish and features. While PlatinumGames hasn’t revealed any other game from this new series, they will most likely work with Hamster Corporation in future titles as well.

Given the original nature of the game’s announcement, PlatinumGames and Hideki Kamiya, who serves as the game’s creative and story director, have been keeping a lighthearted tone in all of the game’s live streams. One of the previous live streams, wherein Kamiya announced the game’s postponement in 2021, was titled “Sol Cresta: Hideki Kamiya’s Very Sorry Stream.”

PlatinumGames has also recently come forward to discuss the possibility of the studio being acquired by a larger studio. Commenting on the Activision acquisition by Microsoft, newly-minted PlatinumGames President Atsushi Inaba says that he thinks Microsoft will give Activision creative control over their IPs. He then commented that he’s open to the possibility of the studio being acquired in a similar fashion, but only if they can also be afforded the same creative freedom. “The most important thing for us is to have the freedom to make the games that we want to make.”