Bomberman 64: The Second Attack! is actually the second Bomberman sequel on the Nintendo 64, so could have been called “The Third Attack!“, but it is a direct sequel to Bomberman 64, thus the name. It was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Hudson themselves in Japan in 1999, and by Vatical Entertainment in North America in 2000, and it is another fully-3D Bomberman game.
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Developed by Nintendo and TOSE Co., Ltd., Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is the sequel to Kid Icarus – a much-loved game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. Of Myths and Monsters was published by Nintendo, exclusively for the original Game Boy, in 1991 in North America, and 1992 in Europe. For some reason, it wasn’t released in Japan, where it was made.
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Released in 1999, this is the sequel to Legend of the River King and is another JRPG twinned with a fishing game. It is more detailed and refined than its predecessor and is by far the better game of the two. It was developed by Victor Interactive Software and published exclusively for the Game Boy Color by Natsume.
Developed by TOSE Co., Ltd. and published by Victor Interactive Software in Japan and Natsume in North America and Europe, Legend of the River King is a JRPG that is based around the sport/pastime of fishing. It was initially released for the Game Boy in 1997, and the Game Boy Color version (which is Super Game Boy enhanced) came out in 1999.
Gauntlet 4 (aka Gauntlet IV) was developed by M2 and published by Tengen in 1993, exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis. In some respects the development of this game is just as interesting as the game itself.
Gauntlet 4 began life as a homebrew remake of Gauntlet, among a small group of friends in Japan, for the Sharp X68000 home computer. Atari Games, the developer of the original Gauntlet, eventually caught wind of the project and commissioned the group (now named M2) to produce a sequel instead.
Developed by Blizzard North and first published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1997, Diablo is a classic point-and-click action/RPG that features quests, monsters, real-time combat, magic, and dungeon-delving, in a way that is meant to appeal to those who prefer a more immediate style of gameplay, than the more ‘hardcore’, turn-based style of many RPGs. And – as a result – Diablo was a smash hit, and spawned a series that still (infamously) persists to this day.
Developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Renegade Software for the Amiga in 1991, Gods is a stylised platform game in which you play as Hercules, on a quest to make his way through five large stages, themed with Greek mythological motifs.
Based on the 1988 film of the same name, Willow is a platform action game developed by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1989. The intro says: “A magnificent fantasy filled with love, friendship and adventure!“, but in reality the game is a violent hack-and-slash ’em up, and is some distance from “love, friendship and adventure”…
Hexx: Heresy of the Wizard (aka Wizard) was released by Psygnosis in 1994 and is a first-person, free-roaming dungeon-crawler. Unfortunately, though, it’s not a very good one.
Developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra On-Line in 2001, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a rich and complex RPG with isometric 2D graphics, set in a fantasy world undergoing an industrial revolution. The game mixes magic and technology in a Victorian-styled “Steampunk” setting; is completely open-ended, and features lots of different races (humans, orcs, gnomes, elves, dwarves), with complicated – even racist – societal themes developing as you discover the world and interact with its many characters.
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The King of Grabs 