The third Micro Machines was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. In V3 the environments and vehicles are all 3D-modelled, and the action is displayed at a slightly tilted angle, rather than directly overhead.
The same excellent gameplay mechanics of the previous games have been retained though. Mostly revolving around getting ahead of your opponents in order to push them off-screen.
Written by Howard Scott Warshaw and published by Atari, Inc. in 1982, Yars’ Revenge is one of those old video games that plays a lot better than it looks, and is much more subtle that you might think upon first inspection.
In fact, it took me decades to actually ‘click’ with the game and finally be bothered to learn how to play it properly.
Written by Carol Shaw for Activision and published initially for the Atari 2600 in 1982, River Raid is an early vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up with simple graphics, challenging gameplay, and its own unique set of rules.
Released only in North America on the Atari 7800 in 1990, Midnight Mutants is a free-roaming, scrolling action adventure with isometric graphics. It was developed by Radioactive Software and the box art features a likeness of Al Lewis, dressed as Grandpa Munster, who plays the role of “Grampa” in this game.
The third Donkey Kong Country game was first released in 1996. It was again developed by Rare and published by Nintendo. This one featuring Dixie Kong and her cousin Kiddy Kong.
Continue reading Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble, Super Nintendo
Following a year after the original Donkey Kong Country, this 1995 sequel is more of the same platforming action, with pre-rendered graphics, only this time you’re playing as Diddy Kong – and his girlfriend, Dixie Kong – on a mission to rescue Donkey Kong.
Continue reading Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest, Super Nintendo
Donkey Kong Country is a famous SNES platform game, created by British developer Rare and published by Nintendo in 1994.
It is famous for a number of reasons. Primarily because it was one of the first mainstream games to use pre-rendered 3D graphics in a 2D setting. And also because it was one of the biggest cartridges Nintendo ever produced, and was a massive-seller.
Little Ninja Brothers is the second game in the “Super Chinese” series* and the predecessor of Super Ninja Boy on the SNES. It was developed and published by Culture Brain in Japan in 1989. North America got it in 1990 and Europe in 1991.
It is an excellent one or two-player level-grinding RPG, with random battles, but instead of turn-based combat you get real time beat ’em up action instead, and works very well.
Published in Japan by Hudson Soft in 1996, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy is a cute and colourful platform game that is actually the sequel to the Famicom game Milon’s Secret Castle.
Do-Re-Mi Fantasy doesn’t really look like Milon’s Secret Castle – or play like it for that matter – but it does share the same bubble-blowing DNA as its predecessor.
Developed by Imagineer, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Elite is pretty good – considering that the NES isn’t particularly suited to generating wireframe 3D graphics. Yes, the wireframe 3D is slow (like in all the 8-bit versions of Elite), but not to the point where it makes the game unplayable.
