Tag Archives: side scrolling

Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge, Game Boy

Castlevania II: Belmont’s Revenge was first released in 1991 and is the sequel to Castlevania: The Adventure on the Nintendo Game Boy.

Castlevania II makes much better use of the Game Boy‘s hardware than its predecessor, and is considered to be one of the best titles on Nintendo‘s monochrome handheld.

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Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Game Boy

This third game in the Super Mario Land series was the first Nintendo game to give Wario his own title, and also feature him as a playable character. After this, the Wario games went on to become a successful series in their own right.

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Metroid Fusion, Game Boy Advance

Also known as “Metroid 4“, Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance is the fourth episode in the famous run-and-gun series from Nintendo and was first released in 2002.

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Super Metroid, Super Nintendo

The third game in the Metroid series is a top class Super Nintendo classic.

Super Metroid (1994) is more detailed than both previous Metroid games put together, although the basic structure is the same – explore various levels to find your latent abilities, all of which have been lost (“Why does this keep happening in Metroid games?” you may ask. “It’s in the script,” is my answer).

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Metroid II: Return of Samus, Game Boy

The second ever Metroid game first appeared on the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991.

Metroid II: Return of Samus is a brilliant continuation of the first Metroid game. The animation of lead character Samus is much more gritty and realistic in this game, compared to the NES original. And the monochromatic graphics actually seem to add to the eerie atmosphere, rather than hamper the game at all.

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Metroid, NES

This first Metroid, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, was initially released in 1986 and remains the toughest episode in the whole series to date.

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Nemesis/Gradius, Arcade

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.

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Scramble, Arcade

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.

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Kung-Fu Master, Arcade

Irem‘s Kung-Fu Master is a brilliant side-scrolling beat ’em up from the video game arcades of 1984. And it has lost little of its appeal over the years, because Kung-Fu Master is precise, violent and fun. Not to mention a huge challenge.

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Super Mario World, Super Nintendo

Mario games may be looked down upon by some gamers as “for kids”, but this game proves otherwise.

Super Mario World (1990) may look and sound like a kid’s game on the surface, but – underneath the hood – the gameplay is for pros…

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