Category Archives: Hudson Soft

Kato & Ken, PC Engine

Hudson Soft‘s infamous 1987 platformer, Kato & Ken, is known by a variety of different names, depending on where it was released.

In its native Japan it is known as Kato-chan & Ken-chan and is loosely based on a television show called Fun TV, and the madcap antics of its two hosts, Kato-chan and Ken-chan. In North America the game is known as J.J. & Jeff and features a couple of bungling detectives out to solve a kidnapping case…

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Bomberman ’94, PC Engine

Bomberman ’94 says “copyright 1993” on the title screen, and it came out in December 1993 in Japan, so just made it out before the turn of the year. And it’s a classic in the Bomberman series.

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Gunhed, PC Engine

Gunhed is a classic vertically-scrolling. progressive-weapons shooter released for the PC Engine in 1989. It is based on the Toho film of the same name. In North America the game goes by the name of Blazing Lasers.

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Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, PC Engine

This Japanese RPG was released on CD-ROM only on the PC Engine, so required a disc player to work. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys was first released in 1993 and was developed by Hudson Soft as a single-player, cinematic, cartoon-style RPG, with real time combat and exploration.

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Godzilla: Battle Legends, PC Engine

Hudson Soft developed Godzilla: Battle Legends on the PC Engine, for Japanese movie studio Toho in 1993. It is an energetic 2D beat ’em up with characters featured from the infamous series of monster films.

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Dyna Blaster, Atari ST

This game is really a re-titled BombermanHudson Soft‘s famous maze game – on the Atari ST. The game was re-named to avoid any association with the IRA bombing campaign in the UK, which was happening at the time.

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Chew Man Fu, PC Engine

Known as “Be Ball” in its native Japan, Chew Man Fu is an excellent arcade-style puzzle game where the gameplay involves pushing and pulling coloured balls around a maze.

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Super Bomberman, Super Nintendo

Hudson Soft‘s classic Super Bomberman was originally released for the Super Nintendo in 1993.

As an example of a frantic maze/puzzle game: there is absolutely nothing better in its class – other than its four sequels! 🙂

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Stop The Express, ZX Spectrum

Stop The Express is an early ZX Spectrum game – created by Japanese developer Hudson Soft and first released in 1983 – and is a simple action game where the aim is to traverse the train carriages, from right to left, in order to reach the engine and to stop the out-of-control train.

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