Tag Archives: Satirical

Manos: The Hands of Fate, PC

Now this is a game I never thought I’d ever get to play… A game based on arguably the worst film of all time. A film called Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966), and a film that is so bad that it has been known to reduce grown men to tears… And – believe it or not – I’ve sat though it twice. Yes: twice. Anyone who’s seen Manos: The Hands of Fate might want to congratulate me on that feat since sitting through the film twice requires a special kind of skill… Thankfully – as a lover and connoisseur of bad films – I have developed an immunity to [most of] them over the years, and it was with some excitement that I purchased this game on Steam and installed it…

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Cobra, ZX Spectrum

Loosely-based on the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name, Cobra is a legendary run-and-gun platform game programmed by the late Jonathan Smith for Ocean Software and first released in 1986.

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Smash TV, Atari ST

On the face of it the Atari ST conversion of Williams Electronics‘ classic Smash TV looks pretty good, but scratch below the surface and you might realise that it has one or two major deficiencies.

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Mortal Kombat, Arcade

Mortal Kombat is a legendary arcade fighting game, created and manufactured by Midway in 1992.

The game is infamous for a number of reasons.

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Dracula, Intellivision

This 1983 release from Imagic is somewhat revered among Intellivision fans, because it is an original title, and because in it you play Dracula and must drink the blood of victims in order to survive for as long as possible.

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Kato & Ken, PC Engine

Hudson Soft‘s infamous 1987 platformer, Kato & Ken, is known by a variety of different names, depending on where it was released.

In its native Japan it is known as Kato-chan & Ken-chan and is loosely based on a television show called Fun TV, and the madcap antics of its two hosts, Kato-chan and Ken-chan. In North America the game is known as J.J. & Jeff and features a couple of bungling detectives out to solve a kidnapping case…

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It Came From The Desert, Amiga

One of my favourite Cinemaware games, It Came From The Desert is a satirical detective story based on 1950s sci-fi B-movies about giant ants and was first released in 1989.

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The King of Chicago, Amiga

The King of Chicago is a strategic gangster simulator, released by Cinemaware in 1987. And – while “gangster simulator” might sound bad – the game is full of dark humour and is something of a satire, so is not to be taken too seriously on that front.

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BMX Kidz, Commodore 64

Firebird Software released BMX Kidz for the Commodore 64 in 1987.

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