Nintendo‘s classic 1981 release, Donkey Kong, was the first appearance of Mario (and his missus, Pauline – whatever happened to her?) and was also the first ever video game to feature jumping. Yes: jumping.
Tag Archives: difficult
Smash TV, Arcade
Williams‘ brilliant 1990 arcade hit, Smash TV, is an insane overhead shooter with a wicked sense of humour.
You play a contestant in a futuristic game show – one in which you must kill to survive. And you have to kill a lot of people, robots, monsters, and snakes, to make it to the end.
Alien Syndrome, Arcade
Sega‘s 1987 arcade shoot ’em up Alien Syndrome is a difficult game. Even with quicksaves I can only (be bothered to) get to the end of level two. Which must explain why many of the Alien Syndrome videos on YouTube are cheat videos… No one can be bothered to play it properly single-player.
Defender, Arcade
Williams Electronics‘ iconic Defender is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.
Kururin Squash!, GameCube
I only discovered this marvellous game recently, on the back of posting screenshots of its predecessor on here. But I’m extremely glad I did, because Kururin Squash! is a fantastic update of the same game mechanics that made Kuru Kuru Kururin so compelling to play: guiding a spinning stick around a series of mad, twisting mazes.
Kururin Paradise, Game Boy Advance
Fantastic 2002, Japan-only sequel to Kuru Kuru Kururin, developed by Eighting and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance.
Kuru Kuru Kururin, Game Boy Advance
Kuru Kuru Kururin is a weirdly-named but wonderful (and original) Game Boy Advance game, developed by Eighting and first published by Nintendo in 2001.
The idea is that you have to control a spinning stick, and take it around a series of increasingly twisting and torturous courses, without touching the sides, or hitting other hazards. And do it against a time limit. It’s one of those games with a simple premise, but offers quite a tough and interesting challenge.
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, PC
Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame was originally released for PC MS-DOS by Broderbund in 1993, but has a had a number of high def Apple-based remakes since.
Like the first Prince of Persia, The Shadow and the Flame is a side-on, Persian-infused action/platform game with sword fighting and fantasy elements.
Continue reading Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, PC
Gyron, ZX Spectrum
Gyron was developed by released by Firebird Software in 1985 and was something of a bolt out of the blue at the time. Nothing quite like it had been seen before.
You play as a Hedroid and roam a wireframe 3D maze, avoiding towers and spheres, while searching for the exit goal. In other words: you’re just trying not to get squished on your way out…
Manic Miner, ZX Spectrum
All 20 screens of Matthew Smith‘s ground-breaking 1983 ZX Spectrum platform game, Manic Miner!
