Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, PC Engine

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones is a single-player platform game with action elements, developed by Advance Communication Company and published by Hudson Soft in Japan (in 1988) and NEC in North America (in 1989).

When the PC Engine was launched in North America in 1988 – as the TurboGrafx-16 – THIS was the pack-in game that greeted new owners. Not R-Type, not Turrican, not Ghouls ‘N Ghosts – nor any of the other great games on the system – but Keith bloody Courage in bloody Alpha Zones… History has noted that NEC (the manufacturer of the PC Engine) missed a MAJOR trick there, possibly even contributing to the console’s under-performance in sales, and eventual demise.

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Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, PlayStation 2

Developed by LucasArts and first published in 2002, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a third-person action game in which you play as Jango Fett, and it is also a prequel to the Star Wars film: Attack of the Clones.

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Super Hero, Amstrad CPC

Codemasters1988 release for the Amstrad, Super Hero, sounds innocuous, but it marked the return of pixel artist Bernie Drummond, after Head Over Heels and Batman, but before Monster Max. Which was always a cause for celebration, in my humble opinion. RIP Bernie.

Super Hero is similar to Ultimate Play the Game‘s Nightshade, or Gunfright, in that the isometric backgrounds scroll around on occasion. Not all the time. Some rooms are static, Knight Lore-style.

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Neighbours, Atari ST

Neighbours was developed by “Impulze” and published by Zeppelin Games, for the Atari ST, Amiga, C64 and ZX Spectrum, in 1991.

Based on the popular Aussie TV series of the same name, Neighbours is a 16-bit video game that almost defies belief. It’s basically a scrolling racing game where you try to beat other characters from the show, each riding their own jalopies.

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Quake, Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn port of Quake was apparently the first official console port of id Software‘s classic 3D shooter. And, while it plays quite well, it looks kinda ugly.

Saturn Quake was developed by Lobotomy Software and published by Sega in 1997.

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Spyro the Dragon, PlayStation

Spyro the Dragon is the first game in the Spyro series and was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony, exclusively for the PlayStation, in 1998. Spyro himself is a small, purple dragon, and in this opening game he is attempting to save his dragon friends who have all been turned into crystal by the evil Gnasty Gnorc.

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Arcane Dimensions, PC

This groundbreaking Quake mod was first released in 2015 and it has gradually increased in stature since. It’s an amazing achievement, and still incredible to play now. If you like First-Person Shooters and have never tried Arcane Dimensions before then I urge you to give it a try.

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Persona 5, PlayStation 3

Persona 5 was developed by “P-Studio” and was published by Atlus in Japan and North America, Deep Silver in PAL territories, and Sega everywhere else, in 2016. It is a Role-Playing Game set in contemporary Japan, featuring monsters, the occult, and the supernatural. Oh, and turn-based combat (but don’t let that put you off).

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Cadaver, Amiga

Created by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works in 1990, Cadaver is an isometric platform/action game with puzzle elements, but with Dan Malone‘s distinctive artwork adorning it. We’re looking at the Amiga version here today, but it also came out for the Atari ST and PC MS-DOS.

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Illusion of Gaia, Super Nintendo

Developed by Quintet and published by Enix in Japan in 1993, and by Nintendo, everywhere else, in 1994 and ’95. The later ‘Westernised‘ version was censored in places, but there are some good fan-patches of the uncut Japanese version available in English.

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