Tag Archives: satire

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, “Akumajō Special: Boku Dracula-kun“.

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Kid Dracula, NES/Famicom

Known in Japan as “Akumajō 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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Cannon Fodder, 3DO

Sensible Software‘s classic point-and-click shooter, Cannon Fodder, was ported by Krisalis Software and released for 3DO systems in 1994 by Virgin Interactive. And it is a playable and accurate port of the original, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any mouse support – you can only play the game using a gamepad. Which is a little disappointing because Cannon Fodder was designed to be played with a mouse. Thankfully it still works okay with a gamepad*.

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Cannon Fodder, PC

The MS-DOS version of Cannon Fodder was ported by Audio Visual Magic Ltd., and was not the first version of Cannon Fodder released (as some seem to think – I’m looking at you, Moby Games). No – the original version of Cannon Fodder was the Amiga version, which was developed by Sensible Software themselves.

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Chiller, Arcade

This bizarre lightgun shooter from Exidy was first released in 1986, and it caused some controversy – in North America, at least. Many arcade owners refused to buy Chiller – because of the subject matter – so Exidy instead marketed it to countries that didn’t mind the satirical violence.

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Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, FM Towns

LucasArts‘ classic point-and-click adventure, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, was released for the FM Towns by Victor Musical Industries in 1993, and although it was a Japan-only release it does include the English language version, which makes it perfectly playable to Westerners.

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