Developed by a team led by Yu Suzuki at Sega in 1985, Space Harrier is a super-fast third-person, flying-into-the-screen fantasy blasting game, originally housed inside a hydraulic cabinet in arcades. This would jerk around as you moved the control stick, giving you a feeling of movement as you played the game.
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Arcade
Capcom‘s Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is a side-scrolling beat ’em up, based on a series of comics (and an animated TV series), and first released into arcades in 1993.
The game bears all the hallmarks of classic Capcom arcade games of the time: vivid, colourful graphics, relentless action, and violent, cartoon humour.
Rainbow Islands, Arcade
Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 is possibly Japanese game developer Taito‘s finest hour. On any system.
Arcade Special, February 2018
After the success of our recent Commodore 64 Celebration, I’ve decided to do another ‘special’ – this time about old, classic arcade games.
This week (from 14th Feb 2018 onward) I will be posting entries about some of my favourite arcade games. The kind of games that were released into video game arcades, in the form of cabinets, and you had to put money into them to play them.
Yes: believe it or not, that’s what people used to do back in the olden days.
Thankfully, though, you can still enjoy many of these games thanks to the wonders of emulation (and official re-releases). So, if you’ve never heard of these games: go and check them out. MAME, or MESS, or CoinOps. They’ll do the trick.
Anyway: enjoy this week’s Arcade Special!
Here’s what was published this week:
Rainbow Islands,
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs,
Space Harrier,
Defender,
Paperboy,
The Outfoxies,
Joust,
Xybots,
Star Wars,
Operation Wolf,
Alien Syndrome,
Smash TV,
Donkey Kong,
Donkey Kong Jr.,
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior,
Atomic Runner Chelnov,
Ghosts ‘N Goblins,
Ghouls ‘N Ghosts,
Commando,
After Burner,
Bionic Commando,
Total Carnage
The King of Grabs
Fat Worm Blows A Sparky, ZX Spectrum
Quite possibly the maddest (and best) video game title of all time, Fat Worm Blows A Sparky was a critical hit back in 1986 when it was first released.
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Megadrive/Genesis
For my money: THE best game on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.
Sega‘s very own level-grinding RPG franchise comes to full fruition in this fourth instalment of the Phantasy Star series, first released in 1993.
Continue reading Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Megadrive/Genesis
Shantae, Game Boy Color
Shantae is a great little platform adventure game, made for the Nintendo Game Boy Color by WayForward Technologies and published by Capcom in 2002.
The main character is a female, half-genie swashbuckler, called Shantae, and is up against the pirate Risky Boots and her band of cack-handed shipmates.
Killer7, PlayStation 2
Killer7 – it has to be said – is possibly THE weirdest game of all time.
Part first-person shooter; part on-rails shooter. A full-on nightmare of strange characters, both playable and not.
Shadowrun, Megadrive/Genesis
I can’t write about the other Shadowrun games without mentioning the Sega Megadrive/Genesis game, first released by Sega in 1994.
Shadowrun, Super Nintendo
This classic Super Nintendo action adventure was developed in Australia in 1993 by Beam Software. It was published by Laser Beam in the UK, and Data East everywhere else.
The King of Grabs 