Kuru Kuru Kururin is a weirdly-named but wonderful (and original) Game Boy Advance game, developed by Eighting and first published by Nintendo in 2001.
The idea is that you have to control a spinning stick, and take it around a series of increasingly twisting and torturous courses, without touching the sides, or hitting other hazards. And do it against a time limit. It’s one of those games with a simple premise, but offers quite a tough and interesting challenge.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a superb party-based, level-grinding RPG, first released on the Sega Saturn in 1996 (as Lunar: The Silver Star), and brilliantly remade for the Sony PlayStation in 1998.
Continue reading Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, PlayStation
Drill Dozer is a fun, side-scrolling “drill ’em up” where you take control of a small tank with a drill on the front, which allows you to dig your way through the landscape and bump off your enemies. You can upgrade the drill as you play, which then requires the learning of new control techniques – using a kind of gear type system. It’s all quite clever and original.
Parasol Stars is a wonderful sequel to Taito‘s classic Rainbow Islands, although it was never released in arcades.
The game was initially developed exclusively for the NEC PC Engine in 1991, and later released on other formats by Ocean Software. The brilliant Amiga version was released in 1992 and remains a firm favourite among Bubble Bobble series fans.
Sequel to the fun arcade game made by UPL and published by ASCII in 1985. This second game was released by ASCII on the MSX in 1988 and is an excellent continuation of the theme, which is similar to air hockey, but with animals playing against each other.
Ingenious rhythm game sequel starring everyone’s favourite rapping dog.
For me: THE stand-out title on the Sega Master System.
Phantasy Star is a solid – if rather basic – level-grinding RPG/adventure, and it went on to spawn a whole series of other games afterwards.
The PlayStation version of Tekken 3 was released by Namco in 1998.
SD Snatcher is a great, futuristic, level-grinding RPG that was first released on the MSX2 (in Japan only) in 1990 by Konami.
The game was co-written by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) and features overhead exploration sections, and first-person combat sections.
Produced by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) and released by Konami in 2003, Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand is a clever little action game that uses actual sunlight (as detected by a sensor on the game cartridge) to charge up a solar weapon, to be used against undead and vampires in the game.
Continue reading Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand, Game Boy Advance
The King of Grabs 