Tag Archives: jumping

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, PC Engine

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones is a single-player platform game with action elements, developed by Advance Communication Company and published by Hudson Soft in Japan (in 1988) and NEC in North America (in 1989).

When the PC Engine was launched in North America in 1988 – as the TurboGrafx-16 – THIS was the pack-in game that greeted new owners. Not R-Type, not Turrican, not Ghouls ‘N Ghosts – nor any of the other great games on the system – but Keith bloody Courage in bloody Alpha Zones… History has noted that NEC (the manufacturer of the PC Engine) missed a MAJOR trick there, possibly even contributing to the console’s under-performance in sales, and eventual demise.

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Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, PlayStation 2

Developed by LucasArts and first published in 2002, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a third-person action game in which you play as Jango Fett, and it is also a prequel to the Star Wars film: Attack of the Clones.

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Super Hero, Amstrad CPC

Codemasters1988 release for the Amstrad, Super Hero, sounds innocuous, but it marked the return of pixel artist Bernie Drummond, after Head Over Heels and Batman, but before Monster Max. Which was always a cause for celebration, in my humble opinion. RIP Bernie.

Super Hero is similar to Ultimate Play the Game‘s Nightshade, or Gunfright, in that the isometric backgrounds scroll around on occasion. Not all the time. Some rooms are static, Knight Lore-style.

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Quake, Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn port of Quake was apparently the first official console port of id Software‘s classic 3D shooter. And, while it plays quite well, it looks kinda ugly.

Saturn Quake was developed by Lobotomy Software and published by Sega in 1997.

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Spyro the Dragon, PlayStation

Spyro the Dragon is the first game in the Spyro series and was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony, exclusively for the PlayStation, in 1998. Spyro himself is a small, purple dragon, and in this opening game he is attempting to save his dragon friends who have all been turned into crystal by the evil Gnasty Gnorc.

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Cadaver, Amiga

Created by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works in 1990, Cadaver is an isometric platform/action game with puzzle elements, but with Dan Malone‘s distinctive artwork adorning it. We’re looking at the Amiga version here today, but it also came out for the Atari ST and PC MS-DOS.

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Eight Man, Neo Geo

Eight Man (aka “Eightman” aka “8 Man“) is a one or two-player scrolling beat ’em up based on Kazumasa Hirai‘s manga and anime character of the same name, who is considered one of the earliest Japanese cyborg superhero characters. The game was developed by Pallas and published exclusively for the Neo Geo by SNK in 1991.

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Rampage World Tour, Arcade

The 1997 sequel to Rampage is as good – if not better – than the original. Rampage World Tour features Ralph, George and Lizzie returning to monster duties in more of the same, excellent, city-smashing, three-player action.

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The Deadly Tower of Monsters, PC

The Deadly Tower of Monsters is a third-person action game, released in 2016, where you must climb a series of large towers, to complete various tasks, all presented like a parody of old fantasy and science fiction films. You can play as either a man (Dick Starspeed) or a woman (Scarlet Nova), and you can even play as the robot sidekick (just called “Robot“) at certain points too.

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Montezuma’s Revenge, Sega Master System

Developed by Utopia Software and published for the Sega Master System in 1989, Montezuma’s Revenge is a nice surprise for anyone looking for a decent 8-bit ‘hidden gem’ to play now. It’s a remake of Robert Jaeger‘s classic platform game, but with updated graphics, making them look more realistic than the chunky versions seen in the Atari 8-bit original.

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