This Just In: New Arrivals For the Week of May 13, 2026
This Just In: New Arrivals For the Week of May 13, 2026
A detailed look at the games that’ll be shipping soon, direct to you.
This just in! We have two new arrivals this week, both of which should be arriving in your mailbox soon. Assuming you preordered them, of course. If you missed them, well, there’s always The Vault and Limited Run Retail!
Maybe “in your mailbox” is a bit misleading. One of these games should fit neatly into any reasonably sized mail depository, but the other would strain even a hefty parcel locker. Let’s start with the l’il guy first.
The Standard Edition of our 50th anniversary rerelease of Jaws for NES has begun making its way to the homes of smart and cool Limited Run Games fans who understand that Jaws for NES has been unfairly maligned through the years and is in fact a pretty neat little game. Developed by the same people who gave us Wonder Boy, Jaws was a tiny game that could be completed in just a few minutes, but it had a lot of interesting and ambitious systems lurking beneath its surface. Much like a shark, in fact.
The physical edition of Jaws Retro Edition comes with a small but substantial manual, because Jaws Retro Edition also includes a second version of Jaws. A version newly crafted here within the deepest dungeons of Limited Run Games Headquarters, in fact! (OK, the Carbon Team office isn’t literally a dungeon, it’s just very very dark inside.) Jaws: Enhanced Edition attempts to draw out those interesting and ambitious systems lurking beneath the surface of the original Jaws and build them out into a full-length and fully substantial game that demands three or four hours of dedicated play time to complete. The manual is there to explain how it all works.
And there it is. The game itself. It looks so minuscule compared to our second arrival this week....
Gradius Origins Collector’s Edition
Yeah. Here we go. This is how you do a Collector’s Edition. Buckle up. You know you’re in for a ride when the box itself lights up and plays music.
Gradius Origins contains six classic arcade games, or maybe seven depending on how you count them: Gradius, Gradius II, Gradius III, Salamander, Salamander 2, Salamander III, and Life Force.
Now, the retro gaming literati among you know that Life Force is the same game as Salamander, renamed for the U.S.... except that the American arcade release remixed a lot of details, such as the stage designs and power-up systems. Meaning that it’s kind of a different game, despite being the same game. So like I said, six arcade games, or maybe seven. It’s complicated... but since it’s all represented beautifully here, you don’t have to fret about the specifics. Just play the version that sparks joy.
As for the physical contents:
Take away the outer box and here’s what you have. So much Gradius! (And Salamander.)
The outer box of the Gradius Origins Collector's Edition is a window box whose cutout reveals this art frame. You can see the Vic Viper and Lord British fighters bursting through space with the heart of the evil Zelos in the background, protected by Salamander. Hit a switch and the frame illuminates. Press a button and it plays a brisk clip of a stage theme from Salamander III, the M2-developed Gradius/Life Force sequel newly created for this collection.
The game itself (Switch version here, but this is true regardless of the platform you purchased) ships in a special inner box designed to resemble Konami’s iconic NES box art style. And, for no reason beyond showing off and being ultra-premium, the box itself comes inside a heavy cardstock O-ring sleeve.
Inside the NES-style box, you’ll find the Standard Edition release of the game, plus two additional alternative covers that can slide into the game case should you prefer to swap out the Salamander-themed default cover with something tied to Gradius II or Gradius III.
As for the standard case, even the default cover is reversible. Oh, and there’s also a game and booklet. We didn’t forget the reason for the season.
The NES-style box also includes a two-sided poster depicting two key Gradius (well, Salamander) illustrations at a larger scale.
Packed alongside the NES-themed inner box, you’ll find a set of art prints that reproduce the original cover or cabinet side art illustrations for each of the games in the collection. There were too many for Frog Stand to display all at once, the poor guy, so what you see here is just a compacted view. Honestly, the key illustration for the original Gradius (pictured here) is so iconic and gorgeous that it could have been the sole print in the set and felt like a good deal. But no! Some madman included them all!
The set also includes a massive four-disc soundtrack CD set in a double jewel case, featuring a pretty substantial booklet to detail the track listing and credits.
And, just in case the art prints and poster weren’t enough, there’s also a compact Art Book to showcase sketches and paintings.
Finally, just in case one light-up show piece wasn’t enough, the set also includes a second light-up element in the form of an arcade marquee light box. (Both light-up elements come with their own USB charging cables, as well as a pair of drywall brackets in case you want to mount the frame for display.) If you look carefully, you can see the marquee positioned here on a Replicade change machine USB charging bank—it’s perfectly sized to 1/6 scale to sit on display in your tiny arcade of miniature machines being played by Hot Toys figures.
And, just in case the original Gradius logo isn’t to your liking, the marquees are an interchangeable element of the light frame. You can swap them out at your convenience. Now, technically, Salamander III didn’t actually have an arcade cabinet. But no one likes a nitpicker. And the marquees are otherwise painstakingly accurate—you get localized English-only marquees for the games that saw distribution in the U.S., while Japan-only arcade cabinets like Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou and Salamander 2 appear here with their Japanese subtitles and rubi text faithfully reprinted.
Wow, that’s a lot of material, and a lot of love for Gradius. (And Salamander.) If we’re being honest, there were a couple of other games in the new arrivals bin for this week. But after powering through all of that incredible Gradius (and Salamander) material, I need a nap. More photos next week, don’t you worry.