Vortex is a 3D shoot ’em up developed by Argonaut Software and published by Electro Brain in North America, Sony in Europe, and Pack-In-Video in Japan in 1994. It is one of the few games (other than Star Fox, Stunt Race FX, Yoshi’s Island, Doom, Dirt Trax FX, Winter Gold, and Star Fox 2) to use the Super FX co-processor chip to allow for faster 3D graphics than the vanilla SNES is capable of.
Tag Archives: 1994
Alien vs Predator, Atari Jaguar
Created by Rebellion Developments and published exclusively for the Atari Jaguar in 1994, Alien vs Predator is a first-person action game where you can play as either a marine, the predator, or an alien, and must fight your way through various levels on a marine training base that has been overrun by aliens. As well as the alien problem, a predator has also arrived to hunt xenomorphs, which means a three-way fight among adversaries.
Clockwork Knight, Sega Saturn
Clockwork Knight is a platform game exclusive to the Sega Saturn that mixes pre-rendered 2D graphics (like those in Donkey Kong Country) and 3D graphics (polygonal shapes), with the concept of children’s toys coming to life, and it is a pleasant and playable enough experience as platform games go. It was developed and published by Sega and first released in 1994.
Nosferatu, Super Nintendo
Nosferatu is a Prince of Persia-style platform game developed and published by SETA Corporation for the Super Nintendo in 1994. As SNES games go, it’s a pretty obscure title that not many people got to play at the time, but is worth unearthing and playing now if you like this type of game.
Benefactor, Amiga CD32
Benefactor is an unusual platform/puzzle game developed for the Amiga by Swedish team Digital Illusions CE and published in 1994 by Psygnosis. It could be described as a “miniature Flashback“, because it has similar game mechanics to that game, but tinier graphics.
The Second Samurai, Megadrive/Genesis
The Second Samurai is the sequel to First Samurai and was developed by Vivid Image and published by Psygnosis for the Megadrive and Amiga in 1994. It is a scrolling platform action game with a samurai sword-wielding hero on a mission to defeat The Demon King. In this sequel Mr. Samurai has a female partner who can fight alongside him.
The game was programmed by Raffaele Cecco (famous for Cybernoid, Exolon and Stormlord, among other things), with graphics by Teoman Irmak and music by Brian Marshall.
RayForce, Arcade
Also known as Gunlock and Galactic Attack in some territories, and Layer Section in Japan, RayForce is a vertical screen bullet hell shooter released into arcades by Taito in 1994. And it is quite impressive, as arcade shooters go.
Crusader of Centy, Megadrive/Genesis
Crusader of Centy is a Zelda-like action/adventure game developed by Nextech and published by Atlus in North America and Sega in Japan and Europe. The game was released in Japan first – in 1994 – and everywhere else in 1995. In Europe the game was re-named as “Soliel“.
Brain Lord, Super Nintendo
Brain Lord is a strangely-titled, obscure Japanese action RPG developed by Produce! and published by Enix for the Super Nintendo in 1994. The game was officially translated into English and released in North America, but was never released in Europe.
Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Super Nintendo
The third and final entry in the “Super Star Wars” series was of course Super Return of the Jedi, which was first released in 1994 through JVC. It was again developed by Sculptured Software for the Super Nintendo. Unlike the other two games in the series this one also made it onto the Sega Game Gear and Nintendo Game Boy that same year (no other platforms received it, though, until the Wii Virtual Console in 2009).
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