Tag Archives: skeletons

Willow, NES/Famicom

Based on the 1988 Ron Howard film of the same name, Willow is an adventure/RPG that was developed and published by Capcom in 1989. It has nothing in common with the arcade game, called Willow, which was released by Capcom the same year.

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The Sword of Hope, Game Boy

This first-person adventure/RPG was developed by KEMCO (a subsidiary of Kotobuki Engineering & Manufacturing Co.), and published by Seika Corporation in Japan, North America and Europe in 1989. In it, you play as Prince Theo, who is on a quest to challenge his insane, power-mad father for rule of the kingdom.

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Castlevania Chronicles, PlayStation

Castlevania Chronicles is a remake of Akumajō Dracula – the first Castlevania game – and it was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (KCET) and first published by Konami in 2001. In it, you play as the vampire hunter Simon Belmont, who must defeat Dracula and save Transylvania from the vampire’s tyranny.

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Xanadu Next, PC

Xanadu Next was developed by Falcom and published for Windows PCs in Japan in 2005. It is a continuation of the Dragon Slayer series and a spin-off from Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II. The game remained untranslated into English until a worldwide release by XSEED Games in 2016. And I have to say: it’s a wonderful game, and is arguably the pinnacle of the long-running franchise.

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Double Dungeons, PC Engine

Developed by NCS Corporation and published by Masaya Games in Japan and NEC in North America in 1990, Double Dungeons is a one or two-player, first-person, dungeon-crawling JRPG with real-time combat. The game’s unique selling point is that it features two-player split-screen cooperative play, which is unusual for a game like this, and which makes it simultaneously playable with a friend.

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Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Nintendo DS

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was the third Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS and was released by Konami in 2008. In this one you play as a member of The Order of Ecclesia – a clan dedicated to defeating Dracula.

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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Nintendo DS

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin was the second Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS and was released by Konami in 2006. Portrait of Ruin is set in 1944, before the end of the Second World War, and Dracula‘s castle has appeared in man’s darkest hour, to push humanity over the brink into ruin.

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Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Nintendo DS

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow was the first Castlevania game released for the Nintendo DS and was released by Konami in 2005. It is a direct sequel to Aria of Sorrow on the Game Boy Advance and continues the story of that game.

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Dungeon Master, Apple IIgs

The 1989 Apple IIgs conversion of FTL‘s Dungeon Master was created by the original developers and is therefore a perfect port of this classic Role-Playing Game. The game requires a minimum of 1MB of RAM to run, like the Amiga version, and a processor running at 2.8MHz or above makes it playable at the right speed.

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Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, Nintendo 64

Set eight years before the events of Castlevania 64, Legacy of Darkness is a prequel to the first N64 Castlevania, featuring a ‘man-beast’ called Cornell who is trying to save his sister, Ada, from being used as a sacrifice to resurrect Dracula.

The game is set in 1844 and begins with Cornell arriving at his home village, only to discover that it’s been burnt to the ground by Dracula’s skeleton army. He finds Ada’s pendant on the ground and follows her scent to Dracula’s castle.

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