The second Gradius/Nemesis sequel developed and released exclusively for the MSX by Konami, Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction is another great ‘bullet hell’ progressive weapons shooter that really shows what the MSX is capable of.
Tag Archives: missiles
Gradius 2, MSX
Gradius 2 (aka Nemesis 2) is a sequel to the classic Gradius/Nemesis and was published for the MSX in 1987. This game is, however, unrelated to the actual arcade game sequel, Gradius II, and is a separate game in its own right in the Gradius/Nemesis series.
Gradius, MSX
Gradius – also known as Nemesis in some regions – was one of the first progressive weapons shooters to come out in arcades, and it was a big hit in 1985 when it was first released.
This led to the game being converted to many home computer systems, including the MSX, which was programmed by Konami themselves. So the game is unsurprisingly very good; very authentic, and with graphics and gameplay that push the MSX quite hard (I wouldn’t say “to its limits”, because I’m not a marketing a-hole, but it does push first-generation MSXes a fair degree).
Slap Fight, Arcade
Slap Fight is a vertically-scrolling, progressive weapons shoot ’em up developed by Toaplan and manufactured by Taito 1986. It’s also known as “Alcon” in the US.
Spheres of Chaos, Archimedes
Spheres of Chaos is a colourful and superbly-playable Asteroids tribute originally written for the Acorn Archimedes by Iain McLeod and Matt Black and self-published in 1993.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, MSX
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake is a direct sequel to the original Metal Gear and was first released for the MSX2 by Konami in 1990. It was again written and designed by Hideo Koijima and is much better than the half-baked pseudo sequel, Snake’s Revenge, by Ultra Games on the NES.
Desert Strike, Atari Lynx
This conversion of the classic Sega Megadrive/Genesis game, Desert Strike, is about as good as you could expect on the Atari Lynx. Meaning: that it is very, very good indeed.
In fact: it is surprisingly close to the original, but obviously with smaller, more condensed graphics.
Steel Talons, Arcade
Steel Talons is a helicopter action game that uses 3D, polygonal graphics to represent the playing area. It was developed and manufactured by Atari Games in 1991.
This being from the early 1990s: the 3D graphics are quite simple, and Steel Talons does look complicated to play on first inspection, but the gameplay is actually fairly simple.
Urban Strike, Megadrive/Genesis
Urban Strike is the second sequel to Desert Strike, and the follow-up to Jungle Strike, and it improves on both those games in a number of different ways.
For starters: there are now indoor shooting sections, where you have to search for MIAs and POWs and free them. Secondly: this time you get to fly different helicopters, and thirdly: you also get to drive ground assault vehicles! Yippee! 🙂
Jungle Strike, Megadrive/Genesis
Jungle Strike is the 1993 sequel to the smash hit Desert Strike. It walks the same satirical/propaganda tightrope as the previous game, and is just as much fun to play.
The King of Grabs 