Tag Archives: Japanese

Castlevania: Bloodlines, Megadrive/Genesis

Castlevania: Bloodlines was released for the Sega Megadrive by Konami in 1993. It was the only Castlevania game ever released for the Megadrive.

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Herzog Zwei, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed by Techno Soft and first published in 1989, Herzog Zwei is an early real-time strategy game, predating Dune II by three years. It is the sequel to Herzog on the MSX2 and it shares the same DNA as that game.

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Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Megadrive/Genesis

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle is a 1989 platform game released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. It was developed in-house by Sega as a competitor to the Nintendo Mario games, which were hugely popular at the time.

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MUSHA, Megadrive/Genesis

MUSHA is a well-liked Megadrive shooter, made by famed Japanese developer Compile. It is part of the Aleste series, but features a ‘mecha’-suited protagonist fighting against a super computer that has taken over the Earth, rather than a spaceship.

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Mega Bomberman, Megadrive/Genesis

I have said previously on this blog that no system is complete without a version of Hudson Soft‘s Bomberman, and the Megadrive has one in the form of Mega Bomberman.

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Gunstar Heroes, Megadrive/Genesis

Gunstar Heroes is a classic run-and-gun shooter, published initially on the Megadrive/Genesis by Sega in 1993. It was the debut game of the famous Japanese developer, Treasure.

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Sega Megadrive/Genesis Special

Known as the Megadrive in Japan and Europe, and the Genesis in North America, this was Sega‘s fourth generation home video games console and it was launched in 1988 in Japan (1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe).

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Ghostbusters, NES/Famicom

The Nintendo Entertainment System version of David Crane‘s Ghostbusters is known for being a bit of a mess, compared to all the other versions.

It was initially released in Japan in 1986 and later in North America in 1988. Why the two year delay? Probably something to do with the fact that the game is terrible…

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Fighting Hawk, Arcade

A relatively obscure Taito arcade game from 1989*, Fighting Hawk is a vertically-scrolling bullet hell shooter where you fly an A-10 ‘Tankbuster’ up the screen, fighting its way through waves of enemies and bosses.

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Fantasy Zone, Arcade

Fantasy Zone is a colourful scrolling shooter from 1986. It was created by Sega and it looks simple and cartoony, but is in fact very challenging.

The main character, Opa-Opa, is sometimes referred to as “Sega‘s first mascot” and is very similar to the one seen in the earlier TwinBee. Both TwinBee and this game have been credited with the creation of the “cute ’em up” genre, and that is probably not too far from the truth.

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