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.
Tag Archives: Japanese
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, PC Engine
Also known as Akumajo Dracula X: Chi no Rondo, Rondo of Blood is a famous entry in Konami‘s Castlevania series that was initially made exclusively for the PC Engine CD and first published in 1993.
Vampire: Master of Darkness, Game Gear
Let’s not beat around the bush: Vampire: Master of Darkness is a blatant rip-off of Castlevania, but it’s a good one. It was developed by SIMS Co., Ltd. and published by Sega for the Master System and Game Gear in 1992.
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, GameCube
Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness is the successor to Pokémon Colosseum and is another third-generation spin-off from the main Pokémon series. It was developed by Genius Sonority and published by The Pokémon Company exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube in 2005.
Pokémon Colosseum, GameCube
Pokémon Colosseum was developed by Genius Sonority and published by The Pokémon Company in 2003 in Japan and 2004 everywhere else. It is not considered part of the main Pokémon series, but is a third-generation spin-off made exclusively for the Nintendo GameCube.
Virtua Racing Deluxe, Sega 32X
This superb conversion of Sega‘s Virtua Racing arcade game required the 32X add-on peripheral for the Megadrive/Genesis and was first released in 1994. Called Virtua Racing Deluxe, it had features that were exclusive to this version, and it also had remarkable use of 3D polygonal graphics that were outstanding for the time.
Emerald Dragon, Super Nintendo
Emerald Dragon is a Japan-only RPG that was developed by Alfa System and published by MediaWorks for the Super Nintendo in 1995. It was given an English fan translation (by Translation Corporation) in 2014, which is great because it is an excellent game!
Secret Commando, Sega Master System
Known in North America as “Rambo: First Blood Part II” (complete with movie licensed characters), and “Ashura” in Japan. Also known as: “Not-So-Secret Commando“, since this is an unsubtle clone of Capcom‘s classic 1985 arcade game, Commando (and SNK‘s 1986 game, Ikari Warriors – since it has a simultaneous two-player mode and level designs that echo that game). Joking aside: it’s a pretty good clone of Commando, although it does play rather slowly.
Pokémon Gold Version, Game Boy Color
Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in 1999 in Japan and 2000 everywhere else. They are ‘second generation’ Pokémon games and were released simultaneously as twin titles, as has become the norm with Pokémon games.
These were the first proper, full-colour Pokémon games, with graphics that have been created to take advantage of the Game Boy Color‘s extended palette (Pokémon Yellow, which preceded this game, didn’t really do that; the graphics were simply colourised from the black and white originals). And you can tell from the very beginning that the visuals in Gold/Silver are a step-up from what we saw previously.
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Game Gear
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap is a platform action game developed by Westone and published by Sega in 1992. It is considered to be one of the best games on both the Master System and the Game Gear.
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The King of Grabs 