Dark Side is the 1988 sequel to Driller is a very early example of a first-person, full 3D, explorable world, that can be viewed from almost any angle.
The game engine – Freescape – has gone on to become famous as one of the earliest examples of its type, and one that was hugely influential on every 3D exploration game that followed.
I’m going to use the Japanese and North American name for this game – Star Fox – rather than the European name (Star Wing, which was chosen because the name “Star Fox” was apparently too similar to a German company called “StarVox”!).
Todd’s Adventures in Slime World is a game developed by Epyx and first released on the Atari Lynx in 1990.
This Megadrive/Genesis version came later – in 1991 – and in my mind is better than the original, because you can see more of the play area in this version (because the graphics are higher resolution), and there’s also simultaneous split-screen play.
Continue reading Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, Megadrive/Genesis
The original Atari Lynx version of Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, developed by Epyx and released by Atari in 1990.
Continue reading Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, Atari Lynx
The fifth game in Nintendo‘s famous “Metroid” series, and the first to use 3D graphics, Metroid Prime follows the well-worn gameplay path of the earlier Metroid games (that is: have all your equipment; lose all your equipment; have to find all your equipment again) and again sees you playing as Samus Aran, a female ex-soldier with a powered exoskeleton.
Another Julian Gollop classic – Laser Squad was one of the earliest squad-based tactical combat video games, released in 1988, and was originally developed for the ZX Spectrum (and later converted to various other systems).
The second ever Metroid game first appeared on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991.
Metroid II: Return of Samus is a brilliant continuation of the first Metroid game. The animation of lead character Samus is much more gritty and realistic in this game, compared to the NES original. And the monochromatic graphics actually seem to add to the eerie atmosphere, rather than hamper the game at all.
Developer Gottlieb released Mad Planets into video game arcades in 1982.
Not the infamous Ion Storm first-person failure (also known as John Romero’s Daikatana), but a Japanese, Zelda-style implementation of the Daikatana franchise on the Game Boy Color, first released in 2000.
And it is surprisingly good too!
Mmmm. Paradroid ’90 is one of those “classic” games that should have been great, but unfortunately was a big, fat missed opportunity.
Its parent – the Commodore 64 classic Paradroid, by Andrew Braybrook – is a perfect example of simple-but-amazingly-compelling gameplay.
This remake pretty much loses everything that made the original great, in spite of original author Braybrook‘s involvement.
The King of Grabs 