MediEvil is a classic hack-and-slash action game developed by SCE Cambridge Studio and published by Sony in 1998. In it you play as the resurrected skeleton of Sir Daniel Fortesque, in the kingdom of Gallowmere, who has been inadvertently brought back from his eternal sleep to once again fight the evil sorcerer Zarok (voiced by the late Paul Darrow). As shown in the humorous introductory sequence, Sir Dan’s initial attempt at thwarting Zarok fell flat on its face and this is his shot at redemption.
Tag Archives: fantasy
Dark Sceptre, ZX Spectrum
Dark Sceptre is a single-player fantasy strategy game designed by the late Mike Singleton (of Lords of Midnight and Doomdark’s Revenge fame), and Maelstrom Games, and it was published by Firebird Software for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC in 1987.
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, GameCube
The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is a turn-based level-grinder, developed by EA Redwood Shores and published by Electronic Arts in 2004, loosely-based on the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy of films. It is NOT based on J.R.R. Tolkien‘s famous novel, because the rights for the book were held by Vivendi Universal Games at the time, although Electronic Arts did hold the rights to make video game adaptations of the New Line Cinema films. Which is a little confusing, but the plot in this game is a non-canonical story that runs parallel to the narrative of the films. Anything from the novels not specifically mentioned or depicted in the films could not be represented in this game.
Continue reading The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, GameCube
ActRaiser, Super Nintendo
ActRaiser is an interesting Japanese fantasy action game that was developed by Quintet and published by Enix on the Super Nintendo in 1990. It has side-scrolling, platform-based hack-and-slash sections, with an interesting overhead ‘God game’ component.
TRON 2.0, PC
TRON 2.0 is a first-person action RPG developed by Monolith Productions and published by Buena Vista Interactive in 2003. It is a sequel to the 1982 film, TRON, but is based in an alternate ‘reality’ due to the de-canonisation of the first film by the 2010 re-boot, Tron: Legacy.
Ravenloft: Stone Prophet, PC
Developed by Dreamforge Intertainment and published by SSI for PC MS-DOS in 1995, Ravenloft: Stone Prophet is a first-person Role-Playing Game and follow-up to Ravenloft: Strahd’s Possession and it uses the same game engine as its predecessor but is generally considered to be a better game overall.
Dragon’s Lair, Atari ST
Released for the Atari ST, Amiga, Mac, and DOS, ReadySoft‘s 1990 adaptation of Don Bluth‘s classic laserdisc arcade game Dragon’s Lair relied on a small army of artists to painstakingly convert the video frames into 2D hand-drawn art, which was done for the entire game.
Exhumed, Sega Saturn
Also known as “PowerSlave” in some regions, Exhumed is an Egyptian-themed first-person shoot ’em up with survival horror overtones and it is arguably the best first-person shooter on the Sega Saturn. It was developed by Lobotomy Software and first released in 1996.
The Wizard of Oz, Super Nintendo
Developed by Manley & Associates and published by SETA Corporation in 1993, The Wizard of Oz on the Super Nintendo is among the worst games ever released for the console.
Ranarama, ZX Spectrum
Steve Turner‘s classic Ranarama originated on the ZX Spectrum in 1987. The game is an overhead Gauntlet derivative where you play as a frog (actually a wizard’s apprentice, called Mervyn, whose botched spell has turned him into a frog), who must fight his way through various levels of a maze, defeating warlocks and taking their runes.