Tag Archives: combat

Chunsoft, Enix, NES/Famicom

Dragon Warrior, NES

3 Comments

Developed by Chunsoft and released for the Famicom by Enix in 1986, Dragon Quest was a landmark moment in video game history.

Dragon Warrior is the American NES release of Dragon Quest, translated into English and tweaked here and there (I say “tweaked here and there” but the US version had battery back-up saves and the Japanese version used password saves, so there was a big difference there), and released by Nintendo in 1989. These grabs are from the later North American English language release.

Continue reading Dragon Warrior, NES →

PlayStation, Square

Brave Fencer Musashi, PlayStation

Leave a comment

Square‘s 1998 PlayStation release, Brave Fencer Musashi, is an entertaining single-player action/RPG, with real-time sword combat and a 3D environment and characters.

Continue reading Brave Fencer Musashi, PlayStation →

Linux, PlayStation 3, Steam, Valve Corporation, Windows, XBox 360

Team Fortress 2, PC

Leave a comment

I remember Team Fortress 2 launching back in 2007. The wait had been immense… I forget how many years we waited; around seven or eight years after it was first announced, until finally getting to play it.

To me, the game was a bit of a let down. It was all a bit too cartoony for my liking. Nonetheless I have played and enjoyed Team Fortress 2 on occasion over the years, and took some grabs along the way.

These grabs do say what year they were taken, and do show Team Fortress 2 as it evolved over the space of a decade.

Continue reading Team Fortress 2, PC →

CD Projekt Red, gog.com, iOS, Linux, PC, Steam, Windows, XBox 360

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC

1 Comment

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was first released in 2011 by Polish developer CD Projekt Red.

It is the predecessor to the smash hit The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and also follows the exploits of Geralt of Rivia – a Witcher, or monster-hunter – on a series of open-world adventures.

Continue reading The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC →

Amiga, Cinemaware

Defender of the Crown, Amiga

7 Comments

The Amiga version of Cinemaware‘s classic Defender of the Crown is both beautiful to look at, and great fun to play. Actually, pretty much every version of Defender of the Crown I’ve played has been great, but the Amiga version is probably the most well-remembered. It was also the very first version of Defender of the Crown too – all the other versions followed later.

Continue reading Defender of the Crown, Amiga →

Electronic Arts, Megadrive/Genesis, Naughty Dog

Rings of Power, Megadrive/Genesis

Leave a comment

Rings of Power is an isometric Role-Playing Game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Electronic Arts for the Sega Megadrive in 1991.

Unlike many RPGs of the time, Rings of Power is very open-ended.

Continue reading Rings of Power, Megadrive/Genesis →

Neverland, Super Nintendo, Taito

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, Super Nintendo

2 Comments

I was going to add a Final Fantasy game to our Super Nintendo special this week, but – you know what? – Final Fantasy on the SNES is messy, because of all the US and Japanese title discrepancies, so… Instead I’m going to pick this: probably my favourite turn-based level-grinder on the Super Nintendo – Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals.

Continue reading Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, Super Nintendo →

FTL, JVC, Software Heaven, Super Nintendo

Dungeon Master, Super Nintendo

1 Comment

This is a very effective Japanese conversion of the great US, 16-bit classic, Dungeon Master, by FTL and Software Heaven.

The conversion was handled by JVC Interactive and was first released in Japan in 1992, before being translated and released in North America and Europe later.

Continue reading Dungeon Master, Super Nintendo →

Dynamix, MS-DOS, PC, Sierra On-line

A-10 Tank Killer, PC

1 Comment

Dynamix‘s 1989 combat flight sim, A-10 Tank Killer, is fast and fluid on the PC, making it one of the first serious combat flight sims to offer more than 20 frames a second to games-players. In the early days of combat flight sims: the games were battling against weaker machine specs and lower CPU cycles. When 386 and 486 type PCs entered the market (in 1989), and VGA graphics cards became affordable, only then did the genre finally have the power to be “fast” and “fluid”.

Continue reading A-10 Tank Killer, PC →

gog.com, Infogrames, MS-DOS, PC

Alone In The Dark 2, PC

1 Comment

Alone In The Dark 2 is a suitably frantic, scary and chilling sequel to 1992’s Alone In The Dark.

Part two came out just over a year after the first game, in 1993, and French developer Infogrames made it bigger and more challenging than the first game.

Continue reading Alone In The Dark 2, PC →