Tag Archives: satire

Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch, Game Boy Advance

Wade Hixton’s Counter Punch is a single-player boxing game developed by Inferno Games and Engine Software, and published by Destination Software, exclusively for the Game Boy Advance, in 2004.

The game takes a satirical, cartoony approach to the subject, with colourful, well-drawn characters and opponents, and humorous situations and dialogue.

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C5 Clive, ZX Spectrum

C5 Clive, written by Barry Jones and published by Scorpio Gamesworld Ltd., pays tribute to (ie. satirises) Sir Clive Sinclair‘s infamous “personal automotive vehicle“, which was released onto the UK market as the Sinclair C5 in 1985.

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Splatterhouse, FM Towns

The FM Towns version of the controversial Namco arcade game, Splatterhouse, was developed and published by Ving – in Japan only – in 1992. It doesn’t suffer from any of the censorship, that some versions of the game do, and is a completely uncut and almost perfect port of the arcade original.

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Battletoads, Arcade

Battletoads is a humorous side-scrolling beat ’em up, developed by Rare Coin Games and distributed into arcades by Electronic Arts in 1994. It satirises the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters, turning them into muscular toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

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Battletoads, NES/Famicom

Battletoads is a scrolling action game, developed by Rare and published by Tradewest in 1991. It satirises (and takes advantage of the popularity of) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and features a group of cartoon toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.

Two of the toads – Zitz and Rash – are on a mission to rescue their third member, Pimple, and Princess Angelica, both of whom have been kidnapped by the evil Dark Queen and taken to her planet. The toads fly to the planet in their spaceship and lower themselves down to the surface using their ‘Turbo Ropes’. From there they begin the fight to free their friends.

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Kid Dracula, Game Boy

Konami‘s 1993 Game Boy game, Kid Dracula, is a cutesy spin-off from the Castlevania series. It’s actually a remake of the 1990 Famicom game, “AkumajĹŤ Special: Boku Dracula-kun“.

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Kid Dracula, NES/Famicom

Known in Japan as “AkumajĹŤ Special: Boku Dracula-kun“, this cute and humorous Castlevania spin-off was initially released by Konami, in Japan only, in 1990, for the Nintendo Famicom. Numerous fan translations exist for the game, but it was also officially released in English for the first time – as “Kid Dracula” – in 2019, in the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. That’s the version I’m showing here.

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Cannon Fodder, Amiga CD32

The Amiga CD32 port of Cannon Fodder was developed by Arch Rivals and published by Virgin Interactive in 1994. Of course the game does have mouse support (as if it wouldn’t…), and it plays extremely well. In fact: some may argue that this is the best version of Cannon Fodder ever released.

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Cannon Fodder, Megadrive/Genesis

The Megadrive/Genesis version of Sensible Software‘s classic Cannon Fodder is not the one I think of when I think “Cannon Fodder“, but it’s actually a really good port. The game was converted by PanelComp, who also made the excellent SNES version, and it too supports mouse play. Which is important, because without using a mouse it’s impossible to attain the right kind of intensity needed to play Cannon Fodder properly. IMHO.

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Cannon Fodder, Super Nintendo

The Super Nintendo version of Cannon Fodder was coded by Andy Onions, John Rocke and Steve Caslin, with graphics conversion by Doug Townsley and sound and music adaptation by Allister Brimble. The SNES port was published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1994 and you’ll be pleased to know that it does indeed support the use of the SNES mouse, which makes all the difference.

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