After the arcade game, Soul Edge in 1996, and the PlayStation conversion of that game in 1998 (called “Soul Blade” in the West), came Soulcalibur in 1999. It was made available in arcades first, as a two-player cabinet, and did reasonably good business.
The basic storyline is about a group of fighters battling it out for possession of a mystical sword called “The Soul Edge“.
Released in December 1996 in Japan, and in 1997 in North America and Europe, Soul Blade is the PlayStation port of Namco‘s Soul Edge arcade fighting game – the predecessor to the Soulcalibur series.
Soul Edge was a pioneering early attempt at using Motion Capture in a fighting game – for the realistic animation of the combatants – and it had quite an impact on fighting game fans when it was first released.
Developed by “Project Soul” and released into arcades by Namco in April 1996, Soul Edge is a weapons-based, one-on-one fighting game that serves as the predecessor to the Soulcalibur series.
Known as “Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair” in North America, this fully-3D action adventure is a reimagining of Don Bluth‘s classic laserdisc arcade game, Dragon’s Lair. And it works brilliantly well. Dragon’s Lair 3D was published for the GameCube by THQ in Europe, and Encore, Inc. in North America, in 2002. It was also released for PlayStation 2, Windows and XBox.
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill was developed by Modern Dream and published by Sega in 2013. It is a first-person shooter that fuses the gruesome and colourful horror of the House of the Dead series, with keyboard typing mechanics. A sort of: “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing with Zombies and Monsters“, if you will.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is the sequel to Lords of Shadow [one], and Mirror of Fate, and was once again developed by Spanish studio MercurySteam, and was first published by Konami in 2014. It ties-up the storyline of Gabriel Belmont, Trevor and Simon Belmont, Alucard, and Dracula – the core characters of the Castlevania series – in a satisfying manner.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. It was released in High Definition for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 later that same year, then for Windows PCs in 2014.
Mirror of Fate is a sequel/prequel to 2010’s Lords of Shadow, and its story begins prior to the events of its predecessor.
Continue reading Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, PC
The beleaguered 3DO port of id Software‘s classic Doom is often referred to as “the worst port of Doom” by fans of the game, but it’s actually not a bad conversion at all. Yes: it is relatively slow, compared to other Doom ports, and yes: the game runs in a reduced-size window, but it still plays pretty well and does have its plus points.
Origin/Blue Sky Productions‘ classic MS-DOS RPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, was released for the FM Towns in 1993 by Electronic Arts Victor, Inc.*
*= Electronic Arts Victor was a joint venture between Electronic Arts and the Victor Musical Industries subsidiary of JVC, established in September 1992 in Tokyo. Electronic Arts Victor‘s mission was to translate Electronic Arts‘ library of games to Japanese language and to distribute them in Japan, as well as to create original titles for the Japanese market.
Continue reading Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, FM Towns
SOS is an intriguing survival adventure game set on a sinking ship in The North Sea, in 1921. The game features four playable characters, each with a different story, although the ultimate aim is the same for all of them: to escape from the stricken Lady Crithania, which has been hit by a gigantic wave and has capsized off the coast of England. SOS was developed by Human Entertainment and published exclusively for the Super Famicom by Field Co. Ltd. in 1993 (1994 in North America; published by Vic Tokai). In Japan the game is known as “Septentrion“.
The King of Grabs 