Tag Archives: Pretty Pictures

Vectorman, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed by BlueSky Software of California and published exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis by Sega in 1995, Vectorman is an extremely well-regarded platform/action game with outstanding presentation and a humorous backstory.

The year is 2049 and the Earth has been overwhelmed with pollution. It’s so bad that humans have left, to live in space, sending automated robots down to Earth to try to reverse the out-of-control climate change. After interfacing with a nuclear warhead one of the robots becomes self-aware and declares itself to be “WarHead – The Destroyer of Humanity“. WarHead reprograms all the other robots and turns them against the humans, taking over Earth. You, as Vectorman, are a weird-looking robot that is returning from a dumping mission to the sun, and has inadvertently stumbled upon this bad situation. Since Vectorman is immune to WarHead‘s mind control, he sets out to save the Earth by destroying him.

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Magical Starsign, Nintendo DS

This is the sequel to the excellent Magical Vacation on the GBA. Magical Starsign was developed by Brownie Brown and published by Nintendo, exclusively for the Nintendo DS, in 2006. Unlike its predecessor, Magical Starsign was given an official release in the west, in English.

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Magical Vacation, Game Boy Advance

Magical Vacation is a GBA RPG, developed by Brownie Brown and published by Nintendo, in Japan only, in 2001. An English fan translation is available for the game, but it’s unfortunately not yet complete. That said: the majority of the game has been translated, and it’s absolutely worth playing because this is such a beautiful adventure!

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The Addams Family, Amiga

The Amiga version of Ocean‘s classic platform game, The Addams Family, was created by an internal team at Ocean Software in Manchester in 1992, working on multiple ports simultaneously, and trying their best to make great games under pressure.

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Mr. Driller 2, Game Boy Advance

A conversion of the arcade game of the same name, Mr. Driller 2 works brilliantly well on the Game Boy Advance. It was initially released in 2001 by Namco.

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Rampage World Tour, Arcade

The 1997 sequel to Rampage is as good – if not better – than the original. Rampage World Tour features Ralph, George and Lizzie returning to monster duties in more of the same, excellent, city-smashing, three-player action.

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Usagi Yojimbo, Commodore 64

Also known by its more long-winded name: Samurai Warrior: The Battles of Usagi Yojimbo, this elegant fighting game was developed by Beam Software and first published by Firebird in 1988. Programming was by Doug Palmer; script was by Paul Kidd; graphics by Russel Comte, and music by Neil Brennan.

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Carrion, PC

Carrion is a ‘reverse’ horror game, meaning that it puts you in the position of creating the horror, as a ‘monster’, killing humans. The humans, though, don’t seem like they’re up to much good, so MUST DIE AT YOUR HANDS… Or: your tentacles…

Carrion was developed by Phobia Game Studio and published by Devolver Digital, first releasing in July of 2020.

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Sword of Mana, Game Boy Advance

Sword of Mana on the Game Boy Advance is an enhanced remake of the first Seiken Densetsu game, which was released as Final Fantasy Adventure on the original black and white Game Boy in English-speaking territories. It was developed by Square Enix and Brownie Brown and was first released as “Shinyaku: Seiken Densetsu” in Japan in 2003.

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The Adventure of Little Ralph, PlayStation

The Adventure of Little Ralph (aka “Chippoke Ralph no Daibōken“) is an obscure 2D action game, made exclusively for the PlayStation, developed by New Corporation and released in Japan only in 1999. The game has a serious reputation among PS1 fans ‘in the know’ as being one of the best import games available for the system. And I wouldn’t disagree with that.

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