Gyruss is a cross between Galaga and a tube shooter like Tempest.
Created by Konami in 1983, Gyruss allows you to spin your ship entirely around the centre of screen, in a 360 loop, firing inwards.
Konami‘s 1982 cult hit Time Pilot is a multi-directional shoot ’em up with you piloting a plane through various time zones.
Originally released in arcades in Japan in 1989, Quarth became a cult hit when it was released for the MSX2 in 1990.
Quarth is basically part vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up, and part Tetris.
A fantastic 1992 conversion of the Turtles In Time arcade machine, courtesy of Konami. And a rollicking and colourful side-scrolling beat ’em up, for up to four players.
Continue reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time, Super Nintendo
The 1995 sequel to Konami‘s International Superstar Soccer is more refined and detailed than the first game, but still retains its exuberant atmosphere, OTT commentary, and alluring gameplay style.
Continue reading International Superstar Soccer Deluxe, Super Nintendo
This brilliant single and multi-player overhead shooter by LucasArts is a parody of every single horror and sci-fi film you’ve ever seen.
Chainsaws, zombies, UFOs, mummies, werewolves, demonic babies, spiders, shopping malls – you name it, the game will throw it at you during at least one of its 48 different stages.
This colour remake of Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge was released as part of the Konami GB Collection Vol. 4 compilation in 2000.
Continue reading Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, Game Boy Color
Konami‘s Cave Noire is a smart little handheld ‘Roguelike’ dungeon crawler for the Nintendo Game Boy that was first released in Japan in 1991. Cave Noire did not receive a release outside of its native country, which is a pity because it’s an excellent game.
Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge was first released in 1991 and is the sequel to Castlevania: The Adventure on the Nintendo Game Boy.
Castlevania II makes much better use of the Game Boy‘s hardware than its predecessor, and is considered to be one of the best titles on Nintendo‘s monochrome handheld.
Continue reading Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, Game Boy
Konami‘s 1983 arcade hit Track & Field broke new ground with its button-bashing gameplay.
It also broke a fair few cabinets along the way, with arcade machine operators having to repair the buttons on machines quite often, to keep them operative (and therefore earning money). A broken Track & Field machine was no good to anyone, and people tend to get carried away and hit too hard when playing this game.