SD Snatcher is a great, futuristic, level-grinding RPG that was first released on the MSX2 (in Japan only) in 1990 by Konami.
The game was co-written by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) and features overhead exploration sections, and first-person combat sections.
Released in 2005 on the Nintendo GameCube in Japan, and 2006 everywhere else, Chibi-Robo! is a memorably cute third-person 3D exploration game in which you take control of a small, house-cleaning robot that must do chores for a nutty family in order to rise up the worldwide robo rankings.
There were many versions of the classic space combat/trading game, Elite. The best, though, is arguably Elite Plus on the PC in VGA. Made by Chris Sawyer of Realtime Software in 1991.
Sunless Sea was developed by Failbetter Games with the help of a Kickstarter campaign in 2015.
This very early 1983 ZX Spectrum game by Don Priestley is still a joy to play to this day.
The premise is simple: you have to find the missing gold and return it to its rightful place.
This innovative 1983 ZX Spectrum game was one of the very first to use isometric 3D graphics.
David Braben‘s long-awaited 1993 follow-up to the classic space trading game Elite unfortunately doesn’t involve Ian Bell.
Taito’s Lufia series has enjoyed moderate success over a number of platforms and releases over the decades, but this Game Boy Advance release (out in 2002 in Japan, and 2003 in North America – it never got an official European release) is the best game in the series, in my opinion.
Amberstar is a German-developed RPG that was originally released for the Atari ST, Amiga and PC MS-DOS in 1992. It is an incredibly difficult game to get a foothold in, but is worth the effort because it is such an interesting gaming challenge to take on.
