Karnov was this week’s release in Hamster Corporation’s Arcade Archives and Arcade Archives 2 lines of emulated coin-op titles, following last week’s release of Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh, on which we reported at the time.
Originally released into arcades by Data East in 1987, Karnov is a platform game starring the titular Karnov, a fire-breathing Russian circus strongman.
Of the game, Hamster Corporation says that players must: “Defeat the Emperor of Darkness and reclaim the stolen treasures, and that: “Karnov can attack by breathing fire from his mouth. Also, by making use of 9 different weapons (options), you can perform various actions such as increasing movement speed, creating a ladder, and flying through the air.”
Followung its original arcade release, Karnov was also ported to several home formats, including NES, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, PC, and Mac.
And now, almost 40 years on from his arcade debut, Karnov is breathing his deadly fire into homes worldwide once more!
The Arcade Archives version of Karnov was released on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on September 10, 2026, priced at $7.99 USD or local equivalent.
Meanwhile, the Arcade Archives 2 version, which adds a new Time Attack mode to the game, was released on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, priced at $9.99 USD or local equivalent.
As usual, purchasers of the Arcade Archives version of the game on Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4 can upgrade to the Arcade Archives 2 version at a later date, on Nintendo Switch 2 or PlayStation 5 respectively, for $2.99 USD or local equivalent.
