The sequel to Wizards & Warriors was developed by Zippo Games (with help from Rare) and published by Acclaim in North America in 1989 and Europe in 1991. It’s another action platform game that doesn’t deviate much from the formula of the original, but is different enough to make it interesting.
Continue reading Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, NES/Famicom
Shadow of the Beast III is the third game in the colourful and technically-impressive action/platform series. It was once again developed by Reflections and published by Psygnosis. This time in 1992.
In Shadow of the Beast II you again play as ‘Aarbron‘, the bipedal being who was turned into a half-beast by the evil wizard Maletoth (who you defeated in the first Shadow of the Beast), and who is now in half-beast, mostly human, form and who is searching for his kidnapped sister.
Terminator: SkyNET is the 1996 sequel to Terminator: Future Shock and was again developed by Bethesda and co-published by Virgin Interactive.
The sequel to the 1981 arcade game, Qix, Super Qix is more of the same line-drawing, area-capturing gameplay that made the original so challenging and compelling. It was first released by Taito in 1987.
TIE Fighter was first released in 1994 and is the sequel to the smash hit space combat game, X-Wing, which are both of course based on spacecraft from the Star Wars universe. This time, though, you get to fight on the side of The Empire, who are widely seen as the ‘bad guys’ in the Star Wars series, so in this game you are blasting Rebels and their collaborators out of space, and not the other way around.
Frenzy is a 1984 conversion of the 1982 arcade game of the same name, which in turn is a sequel to the maze shooter, Berzerk. The ColecoVision port was developed by Stern Electronics, who made the original arcade game, and is therefore very authentic to that game. In fact: it’s even better than the arcade game, because it’s less archaic, more playable, and is more varied.
The famous sequel to Nintendo‘s classic Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. sees the roles reversed in this cute platform game, in that this time it’s Mario (aka Jumpman, as he was known back then) who is the protagonist, and Donkey Kong who has been kidnapped and must be rescued. This time, by his son, Donkey Kong Junior.
The sequel to 1987’s cult hit Barbarian, Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax is a similar fighting game, but with more variety than the first game, and the possibility of exploring the actual world by moving from screen to screen (“wow! What a technological advancement!“). Barbarian II was first released in 1988 by Palace Software. The game was later licensed by Epyx for distribution in North America under the title of “Axe of Rage“.
Continue reading Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax, Commodore 64
The fourth and final Adventure Island game for the NES/Famicom was only ever released in Japan, in 1994. Now – thanks to the magic of fan translation patching – the game can be played by people who don’t read Japanese. In fact: Adventure Island IV has been translated into more than just English. It’s also patchable into Spanish, Polish and Arabic, thanks to the efforts of various fan translation groups.
The King of Grabs 