Tag Archives: Boss Battles

Operation Wolf 3, Arcade

Developed by East Technology for Taito, and first distributed into arcades in 1994, Operation Wolf 3 is – as the title suggests – the third game in the famous Operation Wolf series. It’s a lightgun shooter for one or two players, and it goes the route of using digitised graphics, which I personally think was a mistake, because the hand-drawn 2D graphics of Operation Wolf, and the sequel, Operation Thunderbolt, are much better than the dodgy visuals in this.

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Gunbuster, Arcade

Gunbuster is a lightgun-based First-Person Shooter (FPS) for up to four players, first distributed into arcades by Taito in 1992. It was released as “Operation Gunbuster” in North America and as “Gun Buster” in Japan.

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Lucky & Wild, Arcade

Lucky & Wild is a one or two-player lightgun shooter from Namco that is incorporated into a driving game. Not only does each player hold a handgun in one hand, but they also have a steering wheel and two pedals (accelerate and brake) to contend with. That might sound like too much to handle, but it works well in the context of a car chase shoot ’em up. Which is what this game is. Imagine Chase HQ crossed with Operation Wolf, and you get Lucky & Wild.

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Mechanized Attack, Arcade

Mechanized Attack is a manic, one or two-player lightgun shooter that was released into arcades by SNK in 1989.

On the face of it you could argue that Mechanized Attack is a clone of Taito‘s 1987 hit, Operation Wolf. You could also argue that it’s not a very good clone.

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Switchblade II, Atari Lynx

Switchblade II is a platform action game that originated on the Amiga; was developed by Gremlin Graphics, and published for the Atari Lynx by Atari Corporation in 1992. It is similar in some respects to Capcom‘s Strider, although the main character – Hiro – isn’t quite as dynamic as Strider Hiryu. The first Switchblade wasn’t released for the Lynx – just the sequel was.

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Switchblade II, Amiga

The sequel to Switchblade, Switchblade II originally came out on the Amiga and was developed and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1991. The designer/programmer of the original Switchblade, Simon Phipps of Core Design, had no involvement in the creation of this follow-up.

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Switchblade, Atari ST

Created by Simon Phipps (co-founder of Core Design), and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1989, Switchblade is a platform action game that could be described as a ‘spiritual successor’ to the Rick Dangerous games (also created by Simon Phipps). Switchblade features similar gameplay and graphics to Rick Dangerous, although it is more refined, less cartoony, and is far less frustrating to play. Switchblade came out on the Atari ST first and ports for the Amiga, C64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum followed.

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Lethal Enforcers, Arcade

Lethal Enforcers is the first in a series of arcade lightgun shooters from Konami. It was initially released in 1992 and features digitised photos of people and places, which was relatively innovative back in ’92, but by today’s standards now looks pretty rough.

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Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Arcade

Based on the smash hit film of the same name, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a one or two-player lightgun shooter developed and distributed by Midway in 1991. In this game you’re flung into the future (post-1997), after the nuclear holocaust caused by SkyNet, to fight for The Resistance against ‘The Machines‘.

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Zombie Raid, Arcade

Zombie Raid is a first-person arcade lightgun shooter for one or two simultaneous players. It was developed and distributed by American Sammy in 1996.

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