Codemasters‘ 1988 release for the Amstrad, Super Hero, sounds innocuous, but it marked the return of pixel artist Bernie Drummond, after Head Over Heels and Batman, but before Monster Max. Which was always a cause for celebration, in my humble opinion. RIP Bernie.
Super Hero is similar to Ultimate Play the Game‘s Nightshade, or Gunfright, in that the isometric backgrounds scroll around on occasion. Not all the time. Some rooms are static, Knight Lore-style.
Spyro the Dragon is the first game in the Spyro series and was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony, exclusively for the PlayStation, in 1998. Spyro himself is a small, purple dragon, and in this opening game he is attempting to save his dragon friends who have all been turned into crystal by the evil Gnasty Gnorc.
Created by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works in 1990, Cadaver is an isometric platform/action game with puzzle elements, but with Dan Malone‘s distinctive artwork adorning it. We’re looking at the Amiga version here today, but it also came out for the Atari ST and PC MS-DOS.
Developed by Utopia Software and published for the Sega Master System in 1989, Montezuma’s Revenge is a nice surprise for anyone looking for a decent 8-bit ‘hidden gem’ to play now. It’s a remake of Robert Jaeger‘s classic platform game, but with updated graphics, making them look more realistic than the chunky versions seen in the Atari 8-bit original.
Ocean‘s 1983 release of Kong was an unofficial clone of Donkey Kong, and not a very good one at that. Kong was another early ZX Spectrum game I bought and thought was crap, but was entertaining enough for a few hours at least.
The ZX Spectrum version of Ocean Software‘s classic platformer, The Addams Family, was first released in 1992 and was for 128K Spectrums only. The game was programmed by Andrew Deakin, with graphics by Ivan Horn and sound by Jonathan Dunn.
Based on the 1991 action/comedy film by Michael Lehmann (Heathers and Meet The Applegates), and starring Bruce Willis, Hudson Hawk on the Spectrum is a rare beast indeed. It is a game that is better than the film it is based upon…
Developed by Vic Tokai, and based on the “Magical Hat” manga series by Yōji Katakura, Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken was first released, by Sega, for the Megadrive in Japan in 1990. It is a colourful platform game with smooth movement, easy-to-understand controls, and gameplay that is fairly forgiving overall.
Continue reading Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken, Megadrive/Genesis
Decap Attack is a side-scrolling platform game, developed by Vic Tokai and published by Sega in 1991. This game was originally released in Japan, in 1990, as “Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken“, but developer Vic Tokai failed to secure the Magical Hat license for use outside of Japan, so decided to remove all traces of it, and completely re-skin the game. So Decap Attack is essentially a Westernised re-skinning of Magical Hat no Buttobi Tābo! Daibōken.
The 2007 release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was something of a milestone for Nintendo, the game’s publisher, and Retro Studios, the game’s developer. For Nintendo this was a landmark release, showing off the Wii‘s impressive capabilities as a games console, and for Retro Studios it was the end of years of experimentation with the control system. In the end, it turned out to be a masterpiece…
The King of Grabs 