Sequel to the award-winning Epyx multi-event sports game, Summer Games II is arguably even better than its predecessor.
Tag Archives: Single-Player
Nebulus, Commodore 64
John Phillips‘ fabulous Nebulus attracted rave reviews when it was first released in 1987, and – to be honest – it still gathers rave reviews now. The Commodore 64 original in particular.
Drill Dozer, Game Boy Advance
Drill Dozer is a fun, side-scrolling “drill ’em up” where you take control of a small tank with a drill on the front, which allows you to dig your way through the landscape and bump off your enemies. You can upgrade the drill as you play, which then requires the learning of new control techniques – using a kind of gear type system. It’s all quite clever and original.
Lunar Jetman, ZX Spectrum
Another hugely memorable Ultimate game (and the official sequel to the hit game Jet Pac), Lunar Jetman was first released in 1983 for the ZX Spectrum.
Cyclone, ZX Spectrum
Manchester-based Vortex Software first published Cyclone on the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
A colourful helicopter action game, Cyclone was created by Costa Panayi – an early pioneer of ZX Spectrum games design, and an alumni of The University of Salford – and is a challenging race to pick up crates from a series of islands that are caught in the grip of a powerful weather system.
Legend of Grimrock, PC
This incredible “indie” dungeon crawler absolutely drips atmosphere and is bloody terrifying in places! It’s a heck of a challenge too…
Legend of Grimrock plays very much in the mould of Dungeon Master, and other first-person, tile-based RPGs, but it does it so much better than almost all of the others.
Little Big Adventure 2, PC
An excellent sequel to Little Big Adventure, once again developed by Adeline Software International and published by Electronic Arts, this time in 1997.
Little Big Adventure 2 is more detailed, more varied, and more fun than its predecessor, and, technically, it is also something of a leap forward – this second game having fully-rotating 3D exteriors, as well as the usual isometric, pre-rendered backgrounds seen in the first game.
Little Big Adventure, PC
French developer Adeline Software International created Little Big Adventure (or LBA as it is affectionately known), for Electronic Arts in 1994.
The game is an isometric 3D adventure, with simple beat ’em up combat elements, and features an interesting mix of pre-rendered backgrounds (popular at the time of release, but dating badly these days), and 3D polygonal characters.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, PC
The first of two ground-breaking Ultima Underworld games made by Looking Glass Technologies (formerly known as Blue Sky Productions) and Origin Systems.
The Stygian Abyss, first released in 1992, is one of the first Role-Playing Games to feature first-person action in a 3D environment.
Parasol Stars, Amiga
Parasol Stars is a wonderful sequel to Taito‘s classic Rainbow Islands, although it was never released in arcades.
The game was initially developed exclusively for the NEC PC Engine in 1991, and later released on other formats by Ocean Software. The brilliant Amiga version was released in 1992 and remains a firm favourite among Bubble Bobble series fans.
