Tag Archives: action

Midnight Mutants, Atari 7800

Released only in North America on the Atari 7800 in 1990, Midnight Mutants is a free-roaming, scrolling action adventure with isometric graphics. It was developed by Radioactive Software and the box art features a likeness of Al Lewis, dressed as Grandpa Munster, who plays the role of “Grampa” in this game.

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The Last Ninja 3, Commodore 64

The Last Ninja 3 was released by System 3 in 1991 and it follows the same isometric/action template as the previous two games.

Again: there are refinements and differences that make The Last Ninja 3 a worthwhile game in its own right – in particular: the graphics, which are more detailed and colourful than seen previously.

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The Last Ninja 2, Commodore 64

The sequel to the classic The Last Ninja was first released by System 3 in 1988 – one year after the original game.

It was designed by the same team as made the first game, except this time they had on board the highly-respected John Twiddy as writer/coder, and Matt Gray doing music.

Graphically, The Last Ninja 2 is arguably better than its predecessor, with more colour and variety in the environments, and some of the gameplay niggles from the first game have thankfully been addressed too. In particular: it is now easier to pick things up!

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The Last Ninja, Commodore 64

First released in 1987, The Last Ninja is a classic isometric action adventure game originating on the Commodore 64, and later being converted to other systems.

It has to be said, though: the control system used in this game does leave a lot to be desired when playing it nowadays. Getting your ninja guy to do what you want him to do is tricky – even when you know what you’re doing…

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Total Eclipse 2: The Sphinx Jinx, ZX Spectrum

Published by Incentive Software in 1991, Total Eclipse 2: The Sphinx Jinx is a direct follow-up to the 1988 Freescape classic, Total Eclipse.

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Total Eclipse, ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum version of Total Eclipse was the first version of the game released.

Using the legendary Freescape Engine, Total Eclipse is an Egyptian-themed exploration/puzzle game set in a primitive 3D world. Primitive because it was one of the first ever games to allow games-players to explore a 3D world in this way, and it worked quite well, in spite of the low frame rate and slowdown.

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WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!, Game Boy Advance

This 2003 release from Nintendo is the first game in the WarioWare series. The WarioWare series is all about playing short minigames, that the player must complete in sequence, with the speed of the challenges increasing as the game progresses.

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! is known as “Minigame Mania” in PAL regions, but I’m sticking to the original title here.

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Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend, Game Boy Advance

Created in 2003 by Vicarious Visions, Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend is an excellent side-scrolling beat ’em up that presents Bruce Lee in the role of a martial arts student fighting an evil crime syndicate in revenge for the murder of his master.

It’s an excellent game too – surprisingly so.

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Super Monkey Ball Jr., Game Boy Advance

Super Monkey Ball Jr. is a conversion of the classic GameCube game by Sega. It was first released in North America in 2002, and in 2003 in Europe.

From what I can tell, Super Monkey Ball Jr. was never released in Japan… That can’t be right… I thought the Japanese were (rightly) mad for Super Monkey Ball?!

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