Released in 1991 in Japan and Europe, and in 1993 in North America, Bomberman II is the sequel to 1985’s Bomberman on the NES/Famicom, and it features improved graphics and a multiplayer mode for competitive games against other players (a first for the series). Bomberman II is more in line with the excellent PC Engine version of Bomberman, than anything radically different, and it does improve parts of the game considerably.
Tag Archives: Big Hit
Bomberman, PC Engine
The PC Engine version of Bomberman was where this famous video game series really began to take off. It features enhanced graphics, sound and gameplay, further refining Bomberman into the more familiar ‘modern’ incarnation that most games-players know and love. Bomberman was released in Japan in 1990; in North America, for the TurboGrafx-16, by NEC Technologies in 1991, and in Europe by Ubisoft in 1992.
Bomberman, NES/Famicom
The first NES/Famicom version of Hudson Soft‘s Bomberman was a significant enhancement of the Bomberman concept, and was the first game in the series to feature the famous Bomberman player character, with the white helmet (actually an enemy graphic taken and adapted from Hudson‘s 1984 Famicom port of Brøderbund‘s Lode Runner). Bomberman was released in 1985 in Japan, but wasn’t released in North America until 1989.
RoboCop, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad version of Ocean‘s RoboCop came out in 1989, and it is much like the Commodore 64 version, but with a smaller play window and chunkier graphics.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Nintendo 64
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a first-person shooter, developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Acclaim for the Nintendo 64 console and Microsoft Windows. It was initially released in 1997 in North America and Europe.
RoboCop, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of RoboCop was first released by Ocean Software in 1988, and it is well-presented, but does have one major fault that I find completely puzzling…
Diablo, PC
Developed by Blizzard North and first published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1997, Diablo is a classic point-and-click action/RPG that features quests, monsters, real-time combat, magic, and dungeon-delving, in a way that is meant to appeal to those who prefer a more immediate style of gameplay, than the more ‘hardcore’, turn-based style of many RPGs. And – as a result – Diablo was a smash hit, and spawned a series that still (infamously) persists to this day.
RoboCop, Amiga
Ocean Software‘s Amiga port of RoboCop was fairly impressive when it first came out in 1989, but – playing it now – it hasn’t stood the test of time particularly well. It’s a scrolling run-and-gun shooter that is loosely-based on the Data East arcade game of the same name (although the arcade game and the home computer versions were developed in parallel).
Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II, MSX
Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (aka just “Xanadu“) is the 1987 sequel to 1984’s Dragon Slayer. It was developed and published by Falcom in Japan only, but the game is entirely in English so is playable by non-Japanese speakers/readers.
Xanadu is an action RPG that looks and plays similarly to Falcom‘s own Ys series, with side-scrolling town and dungeon sections and overhead, real-time combat taking place on a separate screen. Xanadu was a much bigger hit than its predecessor and was released in MSX and MSX2 versions.
Donkey Kong, Super Game Boy
The Game Boy port of Donkey Kong was first released by Nintendo in 1994 and it really is something special. I’m showing the Super Game Boy version of Donkey Kong here, with its special arcade bezel border and enhanced colour palette. It was, in fact, the first Game Boy cartridge released with Super Game Boy enhancements. If you want to see the original B&W version, click here.
The King of Grabs 