Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin was the second Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS and was released by Konami in 2006. Portrait of Ruin is set in 1944, before the end of the Second World War, and Dracula‘s castle has appeared in man’s darkest hour, to push humanity over the brink into ruin.
Tag Archives: Monsters
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Nintendo DS
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was the first Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS and was released by Konami in 2005. It is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance and continues the story of that game.
Swords and Serpents, NES/Famicom
Developed by Interplay Productions and published by Acclaim Entertainment in 1990, Swords and Serpents is a first-person, party-based RPG with tile-based movement for up to four players. You can either build a party of four characters yourself, in single-player mode, or up to four different players can control one party member each in multiplayer mode*.
*= An adapter, like the ‘NES Satellite‘, or another four-player expansion peripheral, is required if you’re going to play with that many players (but, let’s face it, very few will, although it’s nice – and fairly unique – to have the option to do that).
Lucienne’s Quest, 3DO
Lucienne’s Quest is a Japanese Role-Playing Game developed by Microcabin for the 3DO. It is, in fact, the only traditional JRPG released for the 3DO and was initially released in Japan in 1995. The game was localised into English and released in North America in 1996 by Panasonic.
Rainbow Islands, NES/Famicom
The NES version of Rainbow Islands was developed and published by Taito (it was published by Ocean Software in Europe) in 1992. It is a decent enough port of the classic arcade game but does have some deficiencies compared to the original.
Another Bible, Super Game Boy
Another Bible is the fourth game in the Megami Tensei ‘Last Bible‘ spin-off series and was originally released for the original Game Boy, in Japan only, in 1995. An English fan translation, by Aeon Genesis, was released in 2002 and the game is also Super Game Boy compatible, so that’s the version I’m showing here.
Rod Land, Amiga
The Amiga conversion of Rod Land is an enhanced port of the Jaleco arcade game from 1990. It features extra levels, extra animation, hidden features and bonuses, and glitch fixes. The conversion was done by Random Access and was published by Storm (a sub-label of The Sales Curve) in 1991.
Ghosts ‘N Goblins, PC
The 1987 PC MS-DOS version of Ghosts ‘N Goblins, I’m sorry to say, is a bit of a travesty. It looks terrible, and also plays like a lame duck. In fact, unless you can get the game set up properly in DOSBox (which took me some time to do), then it’s pretty much unplayable*.
Ghosts ‘N Goblins, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Ghosts ‘N Goblins was developed and published by Elite Systems in 1986, and it looks pretty rough, and seems to be missing a good chunk of the original game.
Rainbow Islands, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 port of Taito‘s classic Rainbow Islands was developed by Graftgold and first released by Ocean Software in 1990, and – gosh-darn it – it is a fantastic port of the arcade game!