Dungeon Magic – also known as “Light Bringer” in Japan – is an obscure Taito arcade game, first released in 1993. It is a fighting fantasy action game, with an isometric setting, and enough controllers for up to four players*.
Dungeon Magic, Arcade
City Bomber, Arcade
Konami‘s 1987 arcade game, City Bomber, has got absolutely nothing to do with bombing cities, and is a Spy Hunter clone, twinned with a bit of Bump ‘n’ Jump.
Major Havoc, Arcade
Major Havoc has one task: to destroy a series of space stations. That task has been divided into three parts for each station. Part one: defeat the robots that are protecting it. Part two: safely land on the space station. And part three: go into the space station, activate the self-destruct, then get back to your ship and escape. Do that four times and you just might save humanity from enslavement…
Gunbird 2, Arcade
The sequel to 1994’s “Gunbird“, Gunbird 2 is more of the same “tall-screen” vertically-scrolling, two-player cooperative, bullet hell action in a futuristic Steampunk setting. It was again developed by Psikyo and was first released into arcades in 1998.
Actually, that’s not fair – Gunbird 2 is definitely NOT “more of the same” because it’s actually a big improvement over the first Gunbird. In almost every department. Graphics, sound, gameplay and characters. Which makes it extra special, IMHO. 🙂
Gunbird, Arcade
Gunbird is an interesting progressive weapons shooter, developed and manufactured by Psikyo and first released into Japanese arcades in 1994. It features five playable characters, a variety of lush pixel art levels, and can be played by one or two players.
Eyes, Arcade
The videogame “Eyes” was developed by Digitrex Techstar and distributed into arcades by Rock-Ola in 1982. It is a weird little maze game that is actually fun to play and easy to pick up and understand.
Fancy World, Arcade
I can’t bring myself to use the subtitle of this game in the main title, because it’s such a hideously bad translation… I’ll just call the game “Fancy World” and leave out the “Earth of Crisis” part… 🙂 The intro sequence also has some of the funniest English videogame translations I’ve ever read… So, for lovers of bad translations, this game is a goldmine. 🙂
Developed by Unico Electronics of South Korea in 1995 and first released into arcades in 1996, Fancy World is an obscure arcade game that few people will have ever heard of. In spite of the dodgy title screen, the bad translations, and the silly name, this game is actually really rather good. It’s a bit like Taito‘s superb Parasol Stars, or SNK‘s Nightmare in the Dark, and it even has a two-player cooperative mode, like those games.
Out Zone, Arcade
Out Zone is a somewhat obscure, but rather excellent, two-player vertically-scrolling shooter, in the style of Ikari Warriors, released into arcades in 1990 by Toaplan. It’s not a game many will have heard of, but it certainly manages to provide some entertainment, when played today.
Osman, Arcade
Atlus/Mitchell Corporation‘s 1996 arcade game, Osman, is something of a ‘tribute’ to Capcom‘s Strider. It features a lone protagonist who can clamber all over the landscape and has multiple attacks and abilities at his disposal.
Some of the development team on this worked on the Strider arcade game, so Osman could be seen as a spiritual successor to Strider.
The Combatribes, Arcade
The Combatribes is a scrolling fighting game, similar in style to Double Dragon or Renegade. It was developed and published by Technos Japan in 1990. In arcades the cabinet had three joysticks for simultaneous multiplayer action.
