Limited Run Games opens up pre-orders for new English printings of Earnest Evans and Annet Returns for the first time until March 9th

Here’s a retro reprint that you do not see often. Limited Run Games have opened up pre-orders for the first ever English versions of Earnest Evans and Annet Returns for Sega CD. Both games released exclusively in Japan on that platform (Though a Genesis version of Earnest Evans had been made exclusively for North America) and have had their animated cutscenes finally dubbed in English for the first time, exclusively in this release. LRG has also begun pre-orders for reprints of the Genesis cartridge version of Earnest Evans at the same time. Each of these games can be purchased separately or altogether in a special collector’s edition bundle. Pre-orders are currently open right now until March 9th, 2025.

For a brief synopsis on each game, pre-order links, and a bit of a warning for buyers, check in after the break for more.

Earnest Evans (1991) is the second of a trilogy of games created by Wolf Team for Sega platforms and follows up on the events of El Viento (1991) (Which had earlier received its own cartridge reprint courtesy of Retro-Bit) The star of this game is famed archeologist Earnest Evans III, who’s grandfather, the original Earnest Evans, tried and failed to find three ancient artifacts that have the potential to destroy the world when gathered together. Earnest III is on a quest to find those artifacts before Brady Tresidder, who seeks the destruction of the Earth with their power. Earnest’s quest eventually sees him travel to Peru, where he meets the very same Annet Myer from El Viento and then forms an alliance with to find the artifacts.

Earnest Evans is perhaps best known for Earnest being a sprite made up of multiple sprites making up different parts of his body, which move and rotate independently for more fluid, puppet-like animation. This was an animation feature occasionally used for larger characters, usually bosses, most notably in games developed by Treasure such as Gunstar Heroes (1993), Alien Soldier (1995), and Mischief Makers (1997). Earnest Evans might be the only time this technique was used for a player character. In practice, it can look and feel very awkward, but you can get used to it playing.

Earnest Evans will be available from Limited Run Games as both a standard edition Sega CD game, printed on an all-new CD, or with a Collector’s Edition or Standard Edition Genesis cartridge. The two standard editions cost $59.99 USD while the Collector’s Edition Genesis game costs $99.99. The Collector’s Edition Genesis version includes the following extras:

• Earnest Evans Game
• Exclusive Red Cartridge
• Foil O-Sleeve
• Numbered Foil Case
• Soundtrack
• Manual

We’ll assume that the Sega CD release might come with the soundtrack on the game disc in the form of Redbook audio, which can be played on any CD player or easily ripped onto your computer as digital files, like with many other Sega CD titles. This is already true of the original Japanese release.

Annet Returns released exclusively to Japan as Annet Futatabi (1993) and was the final game in Wolf Team’s Annet/Earnest trilogy. Publisher Renovation may have planned to release this game to North America as Annet Again, but this never came to pass. After the events of both El Viento and Earnest Evans, Annet is traveling through Europe when she finds herself sought after by an evil group called NeXesis, who wants her special pendant that she’s been wearing to bring about their takeover of the world. Annet fights them off as she seeks answers about their ambitions and why they need her pendant. Like Earnest Evans, the game’s story is still told through immaculately animated cutscenes in-between levels, all done at Madhouse, the same studio later responsible for anime such as Trigun, Cardcaptor Sakura, Perfect Blue, Summer Wars, and One Punch Man.

Unlike Earnest Evans or El Viento, Annet Returns is a scrolling beat-em-up instead of an action platformer. Annet has multiple attacks she can dispatch foes with, including various dash and grapple attacks, as well as a special magic attack that can be gradually strengthened with powerups before unleashing on enemies, similar to Golden Axe.

Until this new release from Limited Run Games, both games had their cutscenes voiced only in Japanese, making this the first time either game has been available in English. Due to Annet Returns only ever being available as a Sega CD title, it will once again be released only as a Sega CD game disc, but this time with a North American style longbox package complete with full-color instruction manual to match. Annet Returns and Earnest Evans can be purchased separately or together as a Collector’s Edition double pack costing $149.99 USD, while the Collector’s Edition Earnest Evans Genesis package is only available separately.

 

All of this sounds great, but as a word of warning to buyers, just last year Limited Run Games had found themselves in hot water after finally shipping a reprint of the 3DO game D to buyers. One of those buyers, Todd Gill of Retro Frog, figured that out that LRG had printed his D game on a CD-R instead of a standard pressed CD and alerted the entire internet to it, causing many other buyers to realize their copies were also on CD-Rs, which forced Limited Run Games to admit to what they had done and issue out a recall. As of this writing, burnt customers have yet to receive new copies of D on professionally printed CDs.

This is a big deal because CD-Rs, the same kind of blank CDs you would buy and burn your own files and media to, are made of cheaper material than professional production CDs, giving them a much shorter lifespan as a result. In the case of D, 3DO systems, while they can sometimes read games from CD-Rs, can’t do so very reliably, meaning that some customers may not be able to play their new D game at all even if they didn’t mind it being on a CD-R. It’s also just a very bad look for a company like Limited Run Games to be printing anything on discs like these and selling them for a premium price, especially when they don’t tell their customers they’ll be doing so during the pre-order period, which is exactly what they’ve done.

To make matters worse, Limited Run Games co-founder Douglas Bogart showed proof that Josh Fairhurst, the other co-founder who is still with LRG to this day, had always intended to release 3DO games on CD-Rs and never tell customers, thinking he could pull a fast one on them while saving the company money. Customers never accept cynical cost-cutting measures like these, and they clearly still have fresh scars from this incident. As soon as LRG made the announcement on Twitter and Bluesky that they were bringing back Earnest Evans and Annet Returns, the first instinct customers had was to ask if these would be printed on CD-Rs or assume that would already be the case. LRG quickly responded to many replies saying that they would properly press these discs, including the following response to Yours Truly on Bluesky.

 

As of this writing, Limited Run Games has not released any games for disc-based retro consoles other than Sega CD, with all of those having been pressed discs. They have also properly-pressed every CD soundtrack they have released to date. D was their first 3DO game that they shipped to customers and that being a CD-R seemed to have been a special case just for 3DO, inexcusable as it may have been. Of course, considering the Sega CD could read burned game discs, and more easily than the 3DO at that, there’s reason to fear they will do that again with Earnest Evans and Annet Returns to save a buck or two, even though they say they know better now, so pre-order at your own risk. Of course, if these do turn out to be CD-Rs, you’ll hear about it here at SegaBits and many other corners of the internet. We’re watching you, Josh.

With all that said, here is the Earnest Evans & Annet Returns page at LRG, where you can pre-order whichever versions of the game you would like. The games are all estimated to ship in late September 2025.

How do you feel about this news? Have you played Earnest Evans or Annet Futatabi? Are you excited to see these games reissued and dubbed in English? Do you trust Limited Run Games to be Earnest and deliver a quality product? Tell us in the comments below.

Oh, and speaking of retro reprints, pre-orders on P-47 II from Retro-Bit end this Sunday. You can get those from Limited Run Games, along with Earnest Evans and Annet Returns, or from a variety of other retailers, so if you want it, hurry up and get it.

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