Nintendo‘s 64-bit console was first released in 1996 in Japan (and in limited numbers in the USA), and 1997 everywhere else.
The N64 was the third Nintendo video game console (after the NES and the SNES) and was a leap forward in technology that had a profound effect on the games market as a whole. It is a console suited to 3D graphics and gameplay, but also extremely capable with 2D graphics (although you’d be hard pushed to find a game on the N64 that was entirely made of 2D graphics).
My personal favourite of the Alex Kidd Sega Master System games – Miracle World was first released in 1986.
Continue reading Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Sega Master System
Solstice is a neat isometric platform/puzzle game from British developer Software Creations. It was published by Sony for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 and is the (spiritual?) predecessor to the Super Nintendo game Equinox.
Microsoft‘s Midtown Madness games have always been fun to play, but this third instalment in the series is arguably the best, with the most detail. It was an original XBox exclusive, first released in 2003.
Known as “Be Ball” in its native Japan, Chew Man Fu is an excellent arcade-style puzzle game where the gameplay involves pushing and pulling coloured balls around a maze.
Namco‘s Mr. Driller first appeared in arcades in 1999, and this PlayStation version (pretty much the arcade version, plus a bunch of extras) came out in 2000.
Mappy-Land is a console-only sequel to Namco/Midway‘s 1983 arcade classic, Mappy. It was first released on the NES in Japan in 1986, then much later in North America in 1989.
Bust-A-Move 2 is the console name for the famous arcade game Puzzle Bobble 2. Thus: the “Arcade Edition” subtitle. I’ve no idea why they changed it – it just makes things confusing.
Puzzle Bobble 2 is a brilliant game though. It was initially released into arcades by Taito in 1995 and this arcade conversion came a year later via Acclaim in 1996.
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.
The original Defender on the Atari 2600 is rubbish, but Defender II is the shizzle.
The King of Grabs 