What is interesting about Demon’s Crest – a 1994 Super Nintendo release from Capcom – is that it is a spin-off from the Ghosts ‘N Goblins series.
Eagle-eyed gamers will recognise the red-skinned, demonic lead character – called Firebrand – as an enemy from the original Ghosts ‘N Goblins arcade game. In fact: Demon’s Crest is actually the third game featuring Firebrand, after Gargoyle’s Quest (Game Boy), and Gargoyle’s Quest II (NES).
Another arcade classic from Capcom, first released in 1989.
Konami‘s Axelay is considered a cult classic among shoot ’em up fans.
First released on the Super Nintendo in 1992, Axelay cleverly mixes side-scrolling and vertically-scrolling blasting action, and also makes excellent use of the Super Nintendo‘s infamous ‘Mode 7’ scaling technique, to create a weird ‘cylindrical’ rolling effect on some of the levels.
People have their own different ways of naming this game. Some call it Chelnov, others call it Atomic Runner Chelnov. Its full name is actually “Atomic Runner Chelnov – Nuclear Man, the Fighter” but that’s all a bit of a mouthful in my opinion, so I’ll just stick to Chelnov for now.
Namco‘s brilliant arcade fighting game, The Outfoxies, is a precursor to the Super Smash Bros. series and mixes a kind of Charlie’s Angels type presentation style, with a spy-themed storyline.
Williams Electronics‘ iconic Defender is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.
Capcom‘s Cadillacs and Dinosaurs is a side-scrolling beat ’em up, based on a series of comics (and an animated TV series), and first released into arcades in 1993.
The game bears all the hallmarks of classic Capcom arcade games of the time: vivid, colourful graphics, relentless action, and violent, cartoon humour.
There isn’t a great deal of information around about Uridium Plus. Like: whether this version has any technical enhancements (like Heavy Metal Paradroid does), or not. I have vague recollections that this version was somehow technically better, although I could be wrong. It’d be nice to know…
Here are a set of grabs from the original Uridium, by Andrew Braybrook. It was first published by Hewson Consultants in 1986, for the Commodore 64.
Archer MacLean‘s seminal Commodore 64 shooter, Dropzone is like a cross between Defender and, erm, Defender, but with more realistic graphics. And slightly different gameplay. But the principles are pretty much the same: super-fast, super-smooth, side-scrolling shooting. Avoid touching anything – or it’s instant death.
The King of Grabs 