Dead Eye is an early arcade game that was first released in 1978 by Meadows Games. The aim of the game is to flip a coin, and then shoot it to keep it in the air, scoring points as you do so.
Tag Archives: coins
Wario Land, Virtual Boy
Wario Land on the Nintendo Virtual Boy (aka Virtual Boy Wario Land) was developed by Nintendo R&D1 and first released in 1995. It’s a platform game that was designed to utilise the Virtual Boy‘s stereoscopic 3D capabilities, and therefore features objects that swing in and out of the screen, and also allows the player (as Wario) to explore foreground and background areas.
Willow, Arcade
Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Willow is a platform action game developed by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1989. The intro says: “A magnificent fantasy filled with love, friendship and adventure!“, but in reality the game is a violent hack-and-slash ’em up, and is some distance from “love, friendship and adventure”…
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“.
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.
Xybots, Atari Lynx
The Lynx port of Atari Games‘ 1987 arcade game, Xybots, was developed by NuFX, Inc. and first released by Atari Corporation in 1991. It is a futuristic third-person shooter where you explore a maze full of deadly robots, to ultimately confront the ‘Master Xybot‘ and defeat it.
Pocky & Rocky 2, Super Nintendo
The sequel to Pocky & Rocky (known as Kiki Kaikai in Japan) was developed by Natsume and published by Ocean Software in Europe (by Natsume themselves in Japan and North America). Pocky & Rocky 2 was first released in 1994 and is a similar scrolling shooter to its predecessor, but with multiple companions, instead of just one.
Shatterhand, NES/Famicom
Shatterhand is a scrolling action game in which you play a young police officer – called Steve Hermann – who has lost his arms and has had them replaced with enhanced, cybernetic limbs, and is in pursuit of a group of military renegades called “Metal Command“.
Shatterhand was developed by Natsume and originally published for the Nintendo Famicom by Angel under the title of “Tokkyū Shirei Soruburein” in 1991. That version of the game is based on the Japanese TV series “Super Rescue Solbrain“. The US and European versions, published by Jaleco, removed the licensed elements, changed the backstory, and re-titled the game as “Shatterhand” for Western audiences. One level was also completely changed – from a carnival level in the Japanese version, to a submarine level in the American version. The gameplay in both versions is identical, though.
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.
Super Fantasy Zone, Megadrive/Genesis
Super Fantasy Zone is a conversion of the 1986 Sega arcade game, Fantasy Zone, re-programmed by Sunsoft and published by Sega in 1992. The game was initially only released in Japan and Europe, but North America did finally receive an official release of the game via Virtual Console in 2008. The game is also included on the Sega Genesis Mini.
The King of Grabs 