Shadow of the Beast is a side-scrolling action game developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis in 1989. When the game first came out it was praised for its graphics, but not for its gameplay, which is frankly paper thin.
Tag Archives: Boss Battles
Akumajō Dracula, X68000
The 1993 Sharp X68000 version of “Akumajō Dracula” is arguably the best version of the first Castlevania game available, with improved graphics and sound, and redesigned gameplay to accomodate new and more dramatic situations.
Also known as “Vampire Killer” in Europe; also known as “Castlevania” in North America; but known in its native Japan as “Akumajō Dracula“, this is an updated remake of the first game in the Castlevania series. And it is known for being two things: 1. REALLY GOOD, and 2. REALLY HARD!
Vampire Killer, MSX
Konami‘s “Akumajō Dracula” was first released in 1986 for the MSX2. It helped set the template for a series that is still going (relatively) strong to this day – the Castlevania series.
This MSX game was also the first game in the Castlevania series to be given an English language release, and it was released in 1987 in Europe under the title of “Vampire Killer“, which then changed to “Castlevania” when the North American NES version of this game was released on cartridge.
Paperboy, Nintendo 64
The Nintendo 64 version of Paperboy is one of the few full-3D remakes of the game. Everything in it has been changed and turned into 3D – the streets, the characters, and the gameplay. The game was developed by High Voltage Software and first published by Midway in 1999.
Zaxxon, ColecoVision
Alongside Donkey Kong, Sega‘s Zaxxon was another ColecoVision arcade conversion that wowed gamers back in 1982 when they first saw it. And it was so close to the original that it drove sales of the console itself, because gamers wanted the arcade experience in their own homes.
Eliminate Down, Megadrive/Genesis
Eliminate Down is a top-quality single-player, side-scrolling, bullet hell shooter developed by Aprinet and published exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis by Soft Vision in 1993. The game was only ever released in Japan, but is in English, so is easy to understand. There are fan translation patches available, and those translate the game into Spanish and Dutch.
Midnight Resistance, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of Data East‘s Midnight Resistance was created by Jim Bagley and Keith Tinman and was published by Ocean Software in 1990. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that it is probably the best run-and-gun shooter on the humble Speccy, and punches well above the machine’s weight.
Adventure Island IV, NES/Famicom
The fourth and final Adventure Island game for the NES/Famicom was only ever released in Japan, in 1994. Now – thanks to the magic of fan translation patching – the game can be played by people who don’t read Japanese. In fact: Adventure Island IV has been translated into more than just English. It’s also patchable into Spanish, Polish and Arabic, thanks to the efforts of various fan translation groups.
Super Adventure Island II, Super Nintendo
Super Adventure Island II is the sequel to Super Adventure Island and was developed by Make Software, Inc. and first published by Hudson Soft in 1994. It is somewhat different to the first game, though, and has RPG elements, as well as also being more open-ended in how you play it.
Adventure Island II, Game Boy
Adventure Island II on the Game Boy is actually a port of Adventure Island III on the NES/Famicom. The Game Boy Adventure Island numbering scheme ignores the first game in the series and this 1993 handheld conversion is the rather excellent part three for the NES/Famicom, but re-titled as part two for the OG Game Boy. Because it’s always fun to confuse people with mismatched titles in a series…
The King of Grabs 