Today is a leap day, a day that comes only once every four years. While there are many different traditions that come along with leap year and the scarce date of February 29th, the day has a particularly varied and unique history in the realm of gaming. February 29th has been home to releases both big and small, important and inconsequential, dating all the way back to 1988, and it is always fun to look at special cases like this and draw comparisons to more standard cases.
For those unaware, the leap year, and more specifically the leap day, has a peculiar effect on birthdays and anniversaries. For example, a game released on February 29th of 2016, the last leap day, technically celebrates its first birthday today rather than its fourth. The same is true for people born on leap days and the like. While realistically this has no effect on anything– a person born on leap day obviously still matures at the same rate as any other– this leap year seems like a great time to reminisce on some of these entries due to the uniqueness and significance of the date on which they were released.
Leap Day, 2020
Today’s lineup of releases doesn’t sport anything major, instead bringing the release of three games on Switch in Australia and New Zealand. These games, titled Ganbare! Super Strikers, Profane, and Spartan Fist, have already been released on different platforms and in different countries. The firsts of these is an anime-themed tactical sports game, the second is more of an arcade shooter type. Of particular interest is Spartan Fist, a cartoonish first-person roguelike game. Fans of the somewhat niche genre may find this one worth checking out, since good roguelikes are few and far between.
Leap Day, 2016
In contrast to this year’s leap day, February 29th of 2016 saw a whole lot of activity. Most of these are relatively unknown games and such, but there is one particularly interesting entry. Mortal Kombat XL released on Xbox One on 2016’s leap day for fans in Brazil. Mortal Kombat XL featured the full Mortal Kombat X roster, but also came with all of the DLC, and ultimately was a much better deal. This kind of thing is not unusual, but it is interesting that Brazil’s version of this release happened to land on leap day of all days.
Leap Day, 2012
The most important leap day release of 2012 actually has an interesting connection with current gaming trends, since Resident Evil 3 was released as a PSone Classic on PSP. There is currently a Resident Evil 3 remake in development, scheduled to release on April 3rd of this year. Resident Evil is a longrunning and beloved franchise and has recently joined the trend of re-releasing or remaking its classic games to run with better graphics and on smoother engines. Beyond this, 2012 also saw the worldwide Mac release for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction as well as some DLC for other major games like Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Soul Calibur V.
Leap Day, 2008
2008’s leap day was another busy and rather varied day for gaming, mostly overseas. Russia received the Platinum Series of Devil May Cry 2 for PS2 as well as the PS3 and Xbox One versions Devil May Cry 4. In addition to Russia, France and Hungary finally got ahold of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, the first game of Capcom’s series. Finally, while there were many other things going on that day, France, Greece, and the United Kingdom had the PlayStation 2 version of Persona 3 released on this day as well.
Leap Day, 2004 and 2000
These two years saw a significant drop in activity compared to the leap years surrounding them, each featuring only two or three releases, all of which are mostly inconsequential. Of note in these years is The Mystery of the Haunted Hollow, released worldwide on the leap day of 2004. It’s a solid puzzle type game that has come back in recent years as a mobile game for fans to enjoy. In the year 2000, NASCAR 2000 released worldwide for PC. This title wasn’t groundbreaking by any means, but still an interesting date for such a major franchise like NASCAR.
Leap Day, 1996
This day, 24 years ago, saw the release of a game so popular that it has received several sequels and remakes. The SNES version of the original Doom released on the leap day of 1996, and although the MS-DOS version released in 1993, this is still a neat fact, especially considering the recent 2016 reboot the series got in 2016, and the upcoming sequel Doom Eternal. Unfortunately, not much else of relevance happened this year, though there were a couple mostly unknown PC releases alongside Doom’s SNES release. For those who first started playing Doom on their SNES, happy 6th anniversary!
Leap Day, 1992
Going back far into the history of video games, there’s not much to say about leap day. The only release that occurred on the leap day of 1992 was Shanghai II: Dragon’s Eye on the X68000. The X68000 was a home computer released by Sharp Corporation in 1987, and had a few games developed for it such as Castlevania Chronicles and Prince of Persia. Shanghai II: Dragon’s Eye, the game which celebrates its seventh birthday today, was essentially a Mahjong simulator developed by Activision.
Leap Day, 1988
Leap day’s history in gaming ends in 1988, with the release of Power Strike and Space Harrier 3D for the SEGA Master system in Japan. Power Strike, also known as Aleste in Japan, is a shoot-em-up game in the style of ’80s anime that was so prevalent during its time. Space Harrier 3D is particularly notable, though, for its ambition in the realm of three-dimensional entertainment. This game was meant to be played with 3D glasses, and although the feature could be turned off, one first had to get a high score, which was next to impossible given the distortion caused by the 3D effects.
