Tag Archives: adventure

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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Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II, NES

The 1994 sequel to StarTropics, Zoda’s Revenge again features the red-haired hero, Mike Jones, only this time he’s on a time-travelling adventure searching to find a series of puzzles shapes called “Tetrads”.

These Tetrads are actually a nod to Tetris, and in the Virtual Console re-release of StarTropics II their names have been changed to “Blocks”, probably to avoid any legal problems. But anyway, I digress…

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StarTropics, NES

StarTropics is an action adventure game released by Nintendo in 1990. It was developed in Japan, but was only ever intended for released in North America and Europe, which is kinda weird, but that was the plan all along apparently…

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Heavy On The Magick, ZX Spectrum

Heavy On The Magick is a side-scrolling adventure game published by Gargoyle Games in 1986. In some respects it is a relative of Tir Na Nog, Dun Darach and Marsport, although it plays somewhat differently.

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Marsport, ZX Spectrum

Marsport is a futuristic adventure game in the style of Tir Na Nog and Dun Darach. It was published by Gargoyle Games in 1985.

Although it’s not related to the aforementioned two games in terms of characters or story, it is considered to be part of a trilogy with them, because they all share the same engine and gameplay features.

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