There is an NES/Famicom version of Ultima III: Exodus – called just “Ultima: Exodus” – that was developed by Newtopia Planning and first published by Pony Canyon in 1988. It has some major differences to the original, but essentially it’s the same game. The graphics are cuter but do suffer from some hideous tearing when a number of sprites are on the same horizontal line, which is a common technical fault on the NES.
Tag Archives: Japanese
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Game Boy Advance
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a 2004 handheld remake of the Megadrive/Genesis game Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. It features an expanded plot, three new playable characters, three new battles and various other tweaks to the gameplay.
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Rastan, Arcade
Rastan – also known as “Rastan Saga” in Japan – is a scrolling hack and slash arcade game developed and manufactured by Taito in 1987. It features a barbarian warrior who must embark on a quest to slay an evil dragon.
Operation Thunderbolt, Arcade
Operation Thunderbolt is the sequel to the classic 1987 arcade game Operation Wolf. It was developed by Taito and first released in 1988, and is a first-person, simultaneous two-player shoot ’em up that uses cabinet-mounted positional gun controllers to shoot at the screen.
Alien 3: The Gun, Arcade
The funniest thing about this 1993 arcade game from Sega is that it is based on a film in which guns are decidedly absent. In fact: David Fincher‘s Alien 3 makes a point of removing guns from the story, because the characters exist on a prison planet where guns are not allowed. That said: I think many people would have preferred it if the film had had guns in it, so Alien 3: The Gun could be seen as something of a wish fulfilment for those who didn’t like the film.
Ristar, Megadrive/Genesis
Ristar is a cute and colourful scrolling 2D platform game developed and published by Sega in 1995. It first came out for the Megadrive/Genesis and was later ported to the Game Gear, but it was only ever initially released on Sega console hardware.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Nintendo DS
Developed by AlphaDream and first published by Nintendo in 2005, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time is the second game in the Mario & Luigi series and the prequel/sequel to the excellent Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. The plot of the game is completely unrelated to its predecessor, though.
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Silent Hill 4: The Room, PlayStation 2
Silent Hill 4: The Room was once again developed by Team Silent (an internal dev team at Konami Tokyo), and was first published by Konami in 2004. The word on the street is that Silent Hill 4 initially began life as a concept outside of the Silent Hill series and was later made canon when the devs decided to incorporate it. It plays differently to the previous three Silent Hill games, but does have the same DNA, mixing first-person exploration with the familiar third-person survival horror gameplay.
Silent Hill 3, PlayStation 2
Whereas the second Silent Hill was more of a ‘spiritual successor’ to the first game, the third Silent Hill is a direct sequel to Silent Hill [one], continuing the story, but with new characters, enemies and locations. As well as re-visiting places familiar to those who’ve played the first game.
Silent Hill 2, PlayStation 2
Silent Hill 2 is the sequel to the classic PS1 survival horror game, Silent Hill, and was developed and published by Konami in 2001. And – like the first Silent Hill – it is considered to be one of the best video games of all time by those who’ve played it.