Published in Japan by Hudson Soft in 1996, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy is a cute and colourful platform game that is actually the sequel to the Famicom game Milon’s Secret Castle.
Do-Re-Mi Fantasy doesn’t really look like Milon’s Secret Castle – or play like it for that matter – but it does share the same bubble-blowing DNA as its predecessor.
Hudson Soft‘s 1986 NES release, Milon’s Secret Castle, is a platform game with a focus on uncovering secrets. Either by shooting walls and platforms with bubbles, or by headbutting certain tiles.
Conqueror is a 1988 release from Superior Software, designed and programmed by Jonathan Griffiths. It’s a 3D tank game that was released as a sequel to Zarch – and it uses the same game engine.
Nintendo‘s famous flying game, Pilotwings, first came out in Japan in 1990, then the following year was a launch title for the North American and European releases of the Super Nintendo.
Pilotwings uses scaling and rotation effects (known as ‘Mode 7’ in some circles) to give a visual representation of the ground, with regular 2D sprites making up everything else, and it works extremely well.
Known as “Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2” in North America and Everybody’s Golf Portable 2 everywhere else, this superb golf game is arguably the stand-out sports title on the PSP.
It’s the eighth game in the Everybody’s Golf series and first came out in 2007.
Patapon 3 – the third game in the Patapon series – was developed by Pyramid and SCE Japan Studio and published by Sony in 2011.
I have to admit that I’d never played any of the Patapon games until recently, and – wow – I’m very impressed!
Developed by SCE Cambridge Studio in conjunction with Media Molecule and published by Sony in 2009, the PSP conversion of Little Big Planet is a wonderfully-imaginative platform game based around a unique character called Sackboy.
The 2009 PSP version of Polyphony Digital‘s classic Gran Turismo is arguably even better than the original PlayStation version, and that is saying something.
This 2005 conversion of the classic PlayStation game, Ape Escape, is a colourful 3D “chase ’em up”, where you’re basically chasing monkeys with a net through time. Yes: through various cartoony periods of history! And it’s a fairly fun game…
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is a 2007 remake of the 1993 PC Engine CD game, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, with 3D graphics, but used in a 2D, side-scrolling manner.
Gameplay is identical to most other Castlevania games – even though it uses 3D graphics – and Konami must be given credit for not mucking it up, even though they could easily have done that.
