The second episodic chapter in the Half-Life 2 series is arguably the best of the adventures of Gordon Freeman, and maybe even one of the best games of all-time. Half-Life 2: Episode Two was first released by Valve in 2007.
Tag Archives: insects
Micronaut One, ZX Spectrum
Micronaut One is another interesting game from Tau Ceti creator Pete Cooke. Mr. Cooke was known for making innovative, unusual, and technically-impressive games for the ZX Spectrum that were different to the norm. This one was published by Nexus in 1987 and involves travelling down 3D corridors and shooting weird alien insects that are infesting a biocomputer.
Mystic Ark, Super Nintendo
Developed by Produce! and published by Enix in 1995, Mystic Ark was only ever released in Japan for the Super Famicom, although an English fan translation does exist, making the game playable to Western audiences. And it is a very good RPG, well worth playing now.
Mystic Ark has been described by some as “The 7th Saga II“, and while it does share some similarities with The 7th Saga (by having a circular monster radar and also featuring some of the same monsters) it is not really a sequel as it plays quite differently.
Dragon’s Lair: The Legend, Game Boy
Dragon’s Lair: The Legend is a 1991 platform game for the Nintendo Game Boy, developed by Motivetime and published by Elite Systems in Europe and Sony Imagesoft in North America.
Bizarrely, the game is a remake of the classic 1985 ZX Spectrum game Roller Coaster, but with Dragon’s Lair-style graphics and sound effects. Which is not a bad thing because Roller Coaster is a great game.
Amaurote, Amstrad CPC
Amaurote is an isometric action game, developed by Binary Design and published by Mastertronic in 1987. It first appeared on the ZX Spectrum and was later ported to the Amstrad CPC, and it suits the machine quite well.
Cool Spot, Megadrive/Genesis
Cool Spot is a cartoony platform game featuring the brand mascot* for the soft drink 7 Up. It was programmed by David Perry and first published by Virgin Games for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1993.
Sonic the Hedgehog, Game Gear
Released for the Game Gear in 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog is a handheld-specific version of the classic Megadrive game featuring Sega‘s famous blue mascot who is battling Dr. Robotnik to free the animals he’s kidnapped.
Pssst Retrospec Remake, PC
A twenty one year-old remake of a thirty eight year-old game… John Dow‘s Pssst PC conversion was originally released in 2000 for MS-DOS and it’s not a bad effort, with decent enough graphics and responsive controls. The game was later ported to work in Windows, but there is a problem with that (see below).
Bug Hunter in Space, Archimedes
Bug Hunter in Space is the sequel to Bug Hunter, both written by Ian Richardson. This follow-up was published by Minerva Software in 1990 and is a platform puzzle game where you play a six-inch bipedal invertebrate called “Hysteron Proteron” on a mission to squash bugs, and stop aliens from destroying all life on earth.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, Famicom
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti is a spin-off from the infamous Splatterhouse series and was a Japan only release, published by Namco for the Nintendo Famicom in 1989.
Rather than take the gruesome approach of the original game, in Wanpaku Graffiti the characters are “super deformed” (and made cute) and the game takes a comical approach to the presentation and gameplay, which was obviously deemed to be more fitting to a Famicom audience.