Tag Archives: cartoon

Battletoads, NES/Famicom

Battletoads is a scrolling action game, developed by Rare and published by Tradewest in 1991. It satirises (and takes advantage of the popularity of) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and features a group of cartoon toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

Two of the toads – Zitz and Rash – are on a mission to rescue their third member, Pimple, and Princess Angelica, both of whom have been kidnapped by the evil Dark Queen and taken to her planet. The toads fly to the planet in their spaceship and lower themselves down to the surface using their ‘Turbo Ropes’. From there they begin the fight to free their friends.

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Kid Dracula, Game Boy

Konami‘s 1993 Game Boy game, Kid Dracula, is a cutesy spin-off from the Castlevania series. It’s actually a remake of the 1990 Famicom game, “Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun“.

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Kid Dracula, NES/Famicom

Known in Japan as “Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun“, this cute and humorous Castlevania spin-off was initially released by Konami, in Japan only, in 1990, for the Nintendo Famicom. Numerous fan translations exist for the game, but it was also officially released in English for the first time – as “Kid Dracula” – in 2019, in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. That’s the version I’m showing here.

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The Grinch, Game Boy Color

Developed by KCE Nagoya and published by Konami in 2000, The Grinch is an action maze game for the Game Boy Color, based on the Dr. Seuss book, and the film (starring Jim Carrey), “How The Grinch Stole Christmas“. It is completely different – arguably even better – than the PlayStation and Dreamcast games that were also released to coincide with the film.

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Rod Land, Amiga

The Amiga conversion of Rod Land is an enhanced port of the Jaleco arcade game from 1990. It features extra levels, extra animation, hidden features and bonuses, and glitch fixes. The conversion was done by Random Access and was published by Storm (a sub-label of The Sales Curve) in 1991.

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Three Wonders, Arcade

Three Wonders is an unusual arcade game from Capcom that was first released in 1991. What’s unusual about it is that the game is based around three separate games – each of which you can choose to play in any order, cooperatively with a friend, and that are supposedly linked by the game’s storyline and characters.

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Ghoul Panic, Arcade

First released into arcades in 1999, Ghoul Panic by Namco is a spooky Halloween-style lightgun shooter for one or two players that is heavily inspired by Namco‘s Point Blank series. The game was developed by Eighting/Raizing and features colourful, well-animated 3D graphics throughout.

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Point Blank, Arcade

Point Blank (aka Gun Bullet in Japan) is a minigame-based, humorous lightgun shooter for one or two players. It was created by Namco and initially distributed into arcades in 1994.

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Rick Dangerous 2, Amiga

Rick Dangerous 2 is the sequel to 1989’s Rick Dangerous. It was developed by Core Design (with programming by Simon Phipps, graphics by Terry Lloyd, level design by Robert Churchill and sound/music by David Pridmore), and published by Micro Style (a Microprose sub-label) in 1990.

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Rick Dangerous, Amiga

Rick Dangerous is a cartoony Indiana Jones parody that was written by Simon Phipps, co-founder of Core Design, with graphics by Terry Lloyd. It was published on various 8-bit and 16-bit home computers by Firebird Software in 1989 and was generally well-received.

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