Developed by Sega Technical Institute and released for the Megadrive/Genesis in 1993, Sonic Spinball is a pinball game featuring Sega‘s famous mascot.
The game took some criticism upon release, although I think it’s a very good game that is still fun to play now. If I had any criticisms it would be that the game is quite hard – at least getting to the later stages – but overall has a satisfying feel to it.
Released in 1992, one year after the classic Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s big contribution to the series was the introduction of two-player games of Sonic. It was also a Japanese/American co-production this time, by Sega Technical Institute.
When Sega bigwigs asked their talented designers to create a video game character that would become the company mascot, the designers rubbed their chins for a while, then came up with a blue hedgehog, called Sonic.
In fact, the designers were so enamoured with their new creation that they changed their name to Sonic Team as they developed the game.
Developed by Namco and released into arcades in 1984, Pac-Land is a departure for the Pac-Man series because this time it’s a platform game. And a pretty good one at that.
Manufactured by Bally Midway in 1983, Jr. Pac-Man is another sequel to the smash hit, dot-eating maze game, Pac-Man, created by Namco in 1980.
Unlike Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man was developed by Namco themselves in 1982, so could be considered the first ‘official’ sequel to Pac-Man.
The fact is: it is arguably inferior to both the aforementioned Midway Pac-Man games, which is a little embarrassing. That said: it is still a decent game in its own right; maybe not quite as ‘pure’ or ‘hardcore’ as Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man, but good nonetheless.
Another American Bally Midway variation of Namco‘s Pac-Man, shipped out into arcades in 1982 to take advantage of the PM craze sweeping the globe.
Thanatos is an unusual side-scrolling action game designed by Mike Richardson and programmed by Rod Barrington for Durell Software in 1986.
The game is unusual because you play as a dragon… Yes, that’s right: a dragon! And not any old dragon, but as “Thanatos the Destroyer” – a fire-breathing behemoth with a heart.
Gremlin‘s Zool appeared on virtually every (capable) platform, back in the early ’90s when it was first released. And – having originated on the Amiga – porting it to the CD32 seemed like a no-brainer.
Which it was, and the CD32 conversion – in my opinion – is arguably the best version of Zool, outside of the SNES version. 🙂
Superfrog is an Amiga-based platform game, developed by Team 17 and first published in 1993, although this CD32 conversion followed later, in 1994.
