Tag Archives: shooting

Gauntlet, Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance version of Atari‘s classic Gauntlet was released as a double-pack, with Rampart, in 2005. It was developed by EC-Interactive and published by Destination Software, and is pretty close to the arcade original, but doesn’t offer a multiplayer option, in spite of the GBA‘s link-up capabilities.

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Action Force II, ZX Spectrum

The sequel to the first Action Force, Action Force II is a game that I knew had reviewed well at the time of its original release (in 1988), so I was expecting good things from it. Having never played the game before, I sat down and gave it a go, but was disappointed with what I found…

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Action Force, ZX Spectrum

Developed by Gang of Five and published by Virgin Games in 1987, Action Force is a scrolling shooter set in the world of the Action Force toys by Hasbro/Milton Bradley (aka G.I. Joe toys in North America). Action Force was also released for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC, although the Spectrum version is notably different to those versions.

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Twinkle Tale, Megadrive/Genesis

Developed by ZAP Corporation and published by Wonder Amusement Studio (a subsidiary of Japanese record label Toyo Recording), Twinkle Tale is a scrolling ‘bullet hell’ shooter released exclusively for the Sega Megadrive, in Japan only, in 1992. Fan translations into English, Spanish and Korean exist, making the game accessible to a good proportion of the world outside Japan.

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RoboCop, PC

The 1989 MS-DOS version of RoboCop is part conversion of the Data East arcade game, and partly does it own thing, with level structures that connect rooms above and below, with staircases that instantly flip the screen, rather than scroll it. The majority of levels do scroll horizontally, though, although the scrolling is very jerky.

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Shadow Skimmer, Commodore 64

Published by The Edge in 1987, Shadow Skimmer is an overhead scrolling shooter set on a large, maze-like spaceship. At first glance, the game looks a bit like Andrew Braybrook‘s Paradroid, but it plays much differently.

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Star Wars Episode I: Obi Wan’s Adventures, Game Boy Color

Developed by HotGen and published by THQ and LucasArts for the Game Boy Color in 2000, Star Wars Episode I: Obi Wan’s Adventures presents you with the opportunity to play as Obi Wan Kenobi, the young Jedi apprentice, during the events of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

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RoboCop, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad version of Ocean‘s RoboCop came out in 1989, and it is much like the Commodore 64 version, but with a smaller play window and chunkier graphics.

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Gauntlet, Apple IIgs

The Apple IIgs version of the arcade classic, Gauntlet, was first published by Mindscape in 1988. It’s a reasonable port, although it doesn’t have the variations in colour that most Gauntlet ports have. The levels in this version seem to be mostly the same colour – grey – with spot colours used for doors, items and monsters. Which is disappointing.

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Gauntlet, NES/Famicom

The 1988 NES version of Gauntlet was developed and published by Tengen, and – surprisingly – it doesn’t feature the levels from the arcade original, but does its own thing instead.

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