R-Type II, Game Boy

A 1992 sequel to the excellent first Game Boy conversion of R-Type, developed by the same company as previously (Bits Studios).

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R-Type, Game Boy

This 1991 handheld conversion of Irem‘s classic arcade game, R-Type, is surprisingly good.

Yes: it’s monochrome, and yes: the graphics are tiny, but the gameplay is spot on, which is the most important thing.

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R-Type, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum conversion of Irem‘s classic arcade game R-Type is considered by many to be one of the best games ever made for Sir Clive‘s classic 8-bit home computer.

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Quake 4, PC

For the fourth instalment in the Quake series id Software returned its emphasis back to the single-player story-driven mode of the first two Quake games. Actually, the majority of development on Quake 4 was actually done by Wisconsin-based Raven Software, with id Software supervising.

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Dungeon Master, Amiga

FTL and Software Heaven‘s classic Dungeon Master was available on the Amiga in two different forms. Initially it was only available for Amigas with 1MB of RAM, and wasn’t available for the Amiga 500 (which only had 512kb of RAM) for quite a while, which gave Atari ST owners bragging rights for this amazing game for a few months.

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Hammerwatch, PC

Hammerwatch is a brilliant single or multi-player fantasy action game with tiny characters fighting off hoards of killer monsters. It features beautiful pixel graphics, atmospheric lighting effects, RPG elements, and seriously challenging gameplay. It was created by Swedish developer Crackshell and first published in 2013. Hammerwatch is available for Windows, Linux, OS X, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and XBox One.

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Quake III Arena, PC

Quake III took a different route to the previous Quakes – in this one it was all about deathmatching and player versus player arenas. Gone was the single-player, story-driven, puzzle/action side of the game, and in came finely-tuned deathmatch arenas. It’s not called Quake III Arena for nothing…

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Turrican II: The Final Fight, Commodore 64

Turrican II: The Final Fight is the outstanding sequel to the excellent Turrican – a classic run-and-gun platform shooter created by German coder Manfred Trenz. It was originally published by Rainbow Arts for the Commodore 64 in 1991.

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Turrican, Commodore 64

Turrican was written by German coder Manfred Trenz and was first published for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts in 1990. It is a scrolling platform shooter that has similarities to Nintendo‘s Metroid series of games, and also owes a lot to the obscure Data East arcade game Psycho-Nics Oscar.

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Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Dōchū: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake, Super Nintendo

Also known (in English) as: “Go for it! Goemon: The Twinkling Journey – The Reason I Became a Dancer“, this fourth instalment of the much-loved Goemon [Super Nintendo] series is about as crazy, challenging and fun as a video game can be.

Many feel that this final Goemon game on the Super Nintendo is the best in the series, so it’s great that it’s finally been given an (unofficial) English translation. The game follows the same pattern as previously, with isometric exploration sections, interspersed with side-scrolling platform/action sections.

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