Benefactor is an unusual platform/puzzle game developed for the Amiga by Swedish team Digital Illusions CE and published in 1994 by Psygnosis. It could be described as a “miniature Flashback“, because it has similar game mechanics to that game, but tinier graphics.
Tag Archives: Obscure
Deep Fear, Sega Saturn
Deep Fear is a Saturn exclusive survival horror game published by Sega in 1998. It’s basically a shameless Resident Evil clone, and someone obviously thought: “let’s cross Resident Evil with The Abyss” and came up with this underwater adventure.
You play an emergency chief on an underwater fuelling base and must investigate why a submarine has crashed into part of the rig, and why some people are suddenly transforming into disgusting monsters and attacking the crew.
Violent Storm, Arcade
Released into arcades in 1993 by Konami, Violent Storm is a three-player scrolling beat ’em up in the mould of Capcom‘s 1989 hit, Final Fight.
Guile, Archimedes
The best way to describe Guile on the Archimedes is: it’s a lot like David Braben‘s Zarch (aka Virus), but set in tunnels. And if you’ve ever played Zarch before then you’ll know that that means that this game is gonna be difficult…
The box describes Guile as: “a unique three-dimensional flight simulator set in a dungeon adventure“, which is sure to have any rational gamer scratching their head in confusion.
Mystic Ark, Super Nintendo
Developed by Produce! and published by Enix in 1995, Mystic Ark was only ever released in Japan for the Super Famicom, although an English fan translation does exist, making the game playable to Western audiences. And it is a very good RPG, well worth playing now.
Mystic Ark has been described by some as “The 7th Saga II“, and while it does share some similarities with The 7th Saga (by having a circular monster radar and also featuring some of the same monsters) it is not really a sequel as it plays quite differently.
Brain Lord, Super Nintendo
Brain Lord is a strangely-titled, obscure Japanese action RPG developed by Produce! and published by Enix for the Super Nintendo in 1994. The game was officially translated into English and released in North America, but was never released in Europe.
The 7th Saga, Super Nintendo
The 7th Saga is an obscure Japanese Role-Playing Game developed by Produce! and published by Enix for the Super Nintendo in 1993.
The story and gameplay of The 7th Saga are fairly simple – at least when compared to other SNES RPGs, like Seiken Densetsu 3 – but the game moves at a quick pace and also has a few unique features of its own that make it memorable.
Run Saber, Super Nintendo
Run Saber is a side-scrolling action game developed by Hori Electric and published by Atlus in 1993 for the Super Nintendo. It is something of a clone of Capcom‘s classic arcade game, Strider.
Although Run Saber was developed in Japan it was only released in North America and Europe. A later Japanese release was cancelled.
The Kristal, Amiga
The Kristal is an obscure British adventure game based on an un-produced theatre play written in 1976 (called “The Kristal of Konos“), developed by Fissionchip Software and published by Addictive Games in Europe and Cinemaware in North America. The fact that Cinemaware picked up The Kristal for distribution in the US and Canada is a surprise in itself, as that kind of thing didn’t happen very often back in 1989 when this game was first released.
OnEscapee, Amiga
This rather obscure Prince of Persia/Another World/Flashback tribute was created by Hungarian developer Invictus Games exclusively for the Amiga 1200 in 1997. It was initially released on CD-ROM only, which is strange as the Amiga 1200 didn’t come with a CD drive, so players had to purchase an external CD-ROM drive or somehow transfer the game to a hard drive and play it that way. Invictus later re-released the game as freeware for Windows, in 2004, to coincide with the company’s 10th anniversary.
The King of Grabs 