Tag Archives: Sci-Fi

Metroid II: Return of Samus, Game Boy

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.

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Daikatana, Game Boy Color

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!

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Paradroid ’90, Amiga

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.

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Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis, Atari ST

Paul Woakes‘ third game in the Mercenary series (after Damocles) retains all the flying, exploration and puzzling of the first two games, but also allows you to fly off planet, and visit other places in the Gamma System.

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Damocles: Mercenary II, Atari ST

Developer Paul Woakes takes the Mercenary series much further in Damocles (1990) – the second game in the series.

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Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, GameCube

Throughout history, man has always striven to recreate the original Star Wars battles on video-gaming hardware, to enable grown men to act like children…

And 2003‘s Rebel Strike is a veritable ORGY of Star Wars-related combat, from run-and-gun style, third-person shooter sections, to piloting virtually every craft in the Star Wars universe (including an enemy scout walker).

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Alien Syndrome, Arcade

Sega‘s 1987 arcade shoot ’em up Alien Syndrome is a difficult game. Even with quicksaves I can only (be bothered to) get to the end of level two. Which must explain why many of the Alien Syndrome videos on YouTube are cheat videos… No one can be bothered to play it properly single-player.

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Star Wars, Arcade

Atari‘s classic Star Wars arcade game took the gaming world by storm back in 1983.

It gave games-players a chance to pilot an X-Wing for the first time and wowed audiences with its superfast vector graphics and amazing digitised sound.

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Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Megadrive/Genesis

For my money: THE best game on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis.

Sega‘s very own level-grinding RPG franchise comes to full fruition in this fourth instalment of the Phantasy Star series, first released in 1993.

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