Known as Gradius in Japan – but Nemesis everywhere else – Konami‘s classic 1985 shoot ’em up is one of the earliest progressive weapons blasters, with distinct levels and boss battles.
The game is somewhat reminiscent of the classic side-scrolling Scramble (also by Konami), but in Nemesis you fly a ship called the “Vic Viper”, and which has a variety of different weapons which can be powered-up by collecting capsules left by destroyed enemies.
Scramble was the first ever side-scrolling shoot ’em up, coming out in arcades in 1981.
It was certainly one of the earliest colour video games, and was a big hit for developer Konami and distributor Stern Electronics.
Developer Gottlieb released Mad Planets into video game arcades in 1982.
Data East‘s Midnight Resistance (1989) is a side-scrolling run-and-gun shooter with a difference – you can rotate the hips of the soldier you’re controlling and shoot in eight different directions, which makes for interesting and unique gameplay.
Japanese developer Cave made a name for itself in the mid 1990s with a series of manic vertically scrolling shooters, including ESP Ra.De. from 1998.
Resident Evil Zero is a prequel to the first Resident Evil game and originally came out on the Nintendo GameCube in 2002.
It is the fifth major instalment in the Resident Evil series. The game uses the older ‘pre-rendered’ style of backgrounds, but is much darker and more serious than the first Resident Evil.
Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was released exclusively on the Sega Dreamcast by Capcom in 2000.
***CANNED GAME***
The retro games community got excited recently when two development cartridges from a cancelled version of Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color were found and dumped by some shadowy, anonymous people.
Was the excitement worth it?
Resident Evil 6 continues Capcom‘s infamous survival horror series in such a high-octane fashion, that its fifteen minute pre-title action sequence would shame even a James Bond film.
The first in the Resident Evil series to feature simultaneous cooperative play, Resident Evil 5 (2009) is a somewhat strange (but interesting) instalment that takes place in Africa.
This time you’re up against a virus, a corrupt corporation, local ‘zombie’ thugs, and black magic and superstition as well. All in broad daylight too, as the first part of the game seems to take every opportunity to kick you outdoors into the blazing sunshine (as though the developers were insisting that this episode would all be set outdoors, because we’d all been sat indoors playing games for too long in the dark).
The King of Grabs 