Turrican was written by German coder Manfred Trenz and was first published for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts in 1990. It is a scrolling platform shooter that has similarities to Nintendo‘s Metroid series of games, and also owes a lot to the obscure Data East arcade game Psycho-Nics Oscar.
Tag Archives: lasers
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.
MUSHA was released in Japan by Taoplan in 1990 and in North America by Seismic the following year. It unfortunately didn’t get a European release.
Salamander 2, Arcade
Released ten years after the original Salamander, Konami‘s 1996 sequel – Salamander 2 – is more of the same horizontal/vertical scrolling blasting action, but with a different style of graphics, bigger, better weapons, and more spectacular events.
R-Type Leo, Arcade
R-Type Leo is a spin-off from the famous R-Type series and was released into arcades in 1992. It was the last R-Type game to be made as an arcade game and was developed by Nanao, the parent company of Irem.
Rex, ZX Spectrum
Rex is a very enjoyable platform shooter, created by Neil Harris, John Anderson, and Richard Allen and published by Martech in 1988. Some describe it as a ‘Metroidvania‘ type game, although it reminds me more of another Spectrum classic – Starquake. Or maybe a Monty Mole game, crossed with Cybernoid.
Descent, PC
Descent is a famous PC DOS shoot ’em up developed by Parallax Software and published by Interplay in 1995.
Star Fighter 3000, Archimedes
Also known as “Star Fighter” in some quarters, Star Fighter 3000 is a game from Fednet Software, published by Krisalis in 1994.
It’s a third-person shooter with relatively primitive 3D graphics, in a similar kind of style to Nintendo‘s Star Fox.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, PC
Developed by Obsidian and published by LucasArts in 2004, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a fitting sequel to one of the best Star Wars games of all time.
Continue reading Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, PC
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, PC
LucasArts/Bioware‘s 2003 release, Knights of the Old Republic, is thought by some to be the best Star Wars game ever made.
It’s a hardcore RPG in the style of Neverwinter Nights (also by Bioware) and other realtime/turn-based hybrids of the early 2000s.
Xevious: Fardraut Saga, PC Engine
A conversion of an MSX2 remake of the classic arcade game, Xevious, published on the PC Engine by Namcot in 1990. And – like a lot of PC Engine shooters – it is a good experience.