The sequel to the intriguing Game Boy game, Gargoyle’s Quest, was first released on the Nintendo Famicom in 1992 by Capcom. It is another spin-off from the successful Ghosts ‘N Goblins series.
Again, you play as Firebrand – the winged demon from Ghosts ‘N Goblins (and Ghouls ‘N Ghosts) – and again it features platforming action, with an interesting ‘fly-and-float’ mechanic.
A 1992 sequel to the excellent first Game Boy conversion of R-Type, developed by the same company as previously (Bits Studios).
For the fourth instalment in the Quake series id Software returned its emphasis back to the single-player story-driven mode of the first two Quake games. Actually, the majority of development on Quake 4 was actually done by Wisconsin-based Raven Software, with id Software supervising.
Quake III took a different route to the previous Quakes – in this one it was all about deathmatching and player versus player arenas. Gone was the single-player, story-driven, puzzle/action side of the game, and in came finely-tuned deathmatch arenas. It’s not called Quake III Arena for nothing…
Turrican II: The Final Fight is the outstanding sequel to the excellent Turrican – a classic run-and-gun platform shooter created by German coder Manfred Trenz. It was originally published by Rainbow Arts for the Commodore 64 in 1991.
Also known (in English) as: “Go for it! Goemon: The Twinkling Journey – The Reason I Became a Dancer“, this fourth instalment of the much-loved Goemon [Super Nintendo] series is about as crazy, challenging and fun as a video game can be.
Many feel that this final Goemon game on the Super Nintendo is the best in the series, so it’s great that it’s finally been given an (unofficial) English translation. The game follows the same pattern as previously, with isometric exploration sections, interspersed with side-scrolling platform/action sections.
Continue reading Ganbare Goemon Kirakira Dōchū: Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Wake, Super Nintendo
Shin Megami Tensei II is the direct sequel to Shin Megami Tensei and was first published in Japan in 1994 by Atlus.
While the basic gameplay is essentially the same as before, with tile-based movement and first-person combat sections, overhead city map sections, and magic, occult and religious themes, the developers deliberately chose not to connect this sequel directly to its predecessor, so story-wise it is somewhat different, being set in the far-flung future.
The second game in the Megami Tensei series was developed by Atlus and published for the Nintendo Famicom by Namco in 1990. It’s another Japan-only RPG featuring demon-summoning and turn-based combat and is considered by many to be much better than the first game.
Continue reading Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II, Famicom
While Gauntlet: The Third Encounter is an admirable effort on the Atari Lynx, it has to be said that it really isn’t Gauntlet. Not the Gauntlet that we know and love anyway…
Which isn’t a surprise when you take into account the fact that this game didn’t start out as Gauntlet – it was called “Time Quests and Treasure Chests” and was developed by Epyx, and was later turned into a Gauntlet game by Atari for “brand recognition purposes”.
The follow-up to the classic PS2 game Dragon Quest VIII is another fine level-grinder, with cheerful, colourful graphics and mesmerising gameplay. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies was developed by Level-5 and published by Square Enix on the Nintendo DS in 2009.
Getting straight down to it: Dragon Quest IX (nine) is similar to the previous game in the series, but with a few fundamental changes…
The King of Grabs 