Tag Archives: Japanese

Spindizzy Worlds, Super Nintendo

Paul Shirley‘s superb isometric puzzle/action game, Spindizzy Worlds, translates well to the Super Nintendo, even though this conversion did not have his blessing.

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Space Manbow, MSX

Space Manbow is an original MSX2 release from Konami. It first came out in 1989 and it ‘wowed’ home users with it fantastic graphics and smooth scrolling. Unfortunately it was never released outside of Japan.

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Shining the Holy Ark, Sega Saturn

A direct follow-up to the classic Megadrive game, Shining in the Darkness, and arguably the best level-grinder on the Sega Saturn, the awkwardly-titled Shining the Holy Ark is a superb first-person, party-based RPG with turn-based combat.

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Dragon Quest VIII, PlayStation 2 [Part 2]

Okay, so I couldn’t just leave it at that with regard to Dragon Quest VIII, so here’s another set of screenshots showing later in the game. In particular: the Dragovian Trials – an unlockable quest in which you take on a series of ever more powerful dragons, for unique rewards at the end of the game.

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Dragon Quest VIII, PlayStation 2

There is no doubting that this 2004 release from Square Enix is the best JRPG on the PlayStation 2. At least, in my mind.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is a colourful and detailed re-imagining of the Dragon Quest franchise, with Cel-Shaded graphics and tons of monsters – many of them familiar – to fight it out with in turn-based combat.

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Wario Blast, Game Boy

What do you get when you cross Hudson Soft‘s classic Bomberman with Nintendo‘s cheeky Wario? Answer: you get Wario Blast on the Game Boy. A super fun handheld action game with puzzle overtones that was first released in 1994.

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Alien Crush, PC Engine

The first in a series of excellent pinball games developed by famous Japanese company Compile, Alien Crush was released on the PC Engine in Japan in 1988, and the following year in North America.

The game has an alien/horror theme and features suitably weird and gruesome backgrounds and sprites.

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Grandia: Parallel Trippers, Game Boy Color

Grandia: Parallel Trippers was developed by Game Arts and published by Hudson Soft for the Game Boy Color in 2000.

Parallel Trippers is a spin-off from the Grandia series that takes place in an alternate version of the Grandia world, but still populated with characters from the original Grandia game.

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Beyond Oasis, Megadrive/Genesis

Also known in some territories as The Story of Thor: A Successor of The Light, Beyond Oasis is an action adventure game that was developed by Ancient and published by Sega in 1994.

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