Taito released Parasol Stars for the PC Engine in 1991. It is the third game in the Bubble Bobble series and features Bubby and Bobby – the two human characters from Rainbow Islands – both armed with a multi-purpose parasol and the ability to chuck water around with them.
Tag Archives: Boss Battles
Equinox, Super Nintendo
Sony‘s Equinox is an isometric platform adventure that was first released in 1994. It was a Super Nintendo only release, and wasn’t converted to any other platforms. It is also a sequel to the NES game Solstice.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, PC
Nihilistic Software‘s 2000 release, Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, is a 3D RPG with real-time combat and is held in very high regard by those who have played it.
On the surface Redemption is similar in style to Neverwinter Nights, although Neverwinter Nights came two years after Vampire, which demonstrates how ahead of its time it was.
Dyna Blaster, Atari ST
This game is really a re-titled Bomberman – Hudson Soft‘s famous maze game – on the Atari ST. The game was re-named to avoid any association with the IRA bombing campaign in the UK, which was happening at the time.
Armalyte, Atari ST
Armalyte is a 1991 conversion of the classic Commodore 64 shooter by Cyberdyne Systems. Actually, it’s not really a conversion – more of a ‘re-imagining‘. More accurately: a ruining…
Sinistar, Arcade
People forget how early Sinistar was – 1983. Which was a hell of a year for old arcade shooters!
Of the first colour arcade shooters, the class of 1983 were definitely second or third generation – in terms of ideas, patterns, movement, challenge, and sophistication. Graphically they were becoming a great improvement over early shoot ’em ups.
Sinistar is a good example of this. The graphics are much more detailed and colourful than the old arcade shooters of 1980/81.
Xevious, Arcade
Namco‘s groundbreaking Xevious gave you a ship (the Solvalou) that could fire both a laser at flying targets and drop bombs on ground targets. Two fire buttons… Innovative in arcades in 1982.
Zaxxon, Arcade
Sega‘s Zaxxon is an early arcade shooter that broke the mould. It was first released in 1982.
Gorf, Arcade
Gorf is an early arcade shooter that feels like a poor relative to many of its peers of the time.
It borrows most of its features from other games (one wave is actually called “Galaxians” although I do believe that the developers properly licensed it from Namco) and doesn’t bring anything new to the table in terms of gameplay, but it did pioneer one thing. And that is: in the use of synthesised speech. Gorf was one of the earliest video games to use it (and although clear, it is quite robotic).
Quake, PC
Doom was good, but Quake – for me – was where id Software really broke the First-Person Shooter mould, with a game far ahead of anything else at the time – even their own games…
The King of Grabs 