Tag Archives: soundtrack

Pokémon Red Version, Game Boy

Pokémon Red Version was the very first Pokémon game and it was released for the original black and white Game Boy in 1996.

Like all subsequent Pokémon games it came as a pair of releases, so that players could have Pokémon exclusive to their version of the game and so that trading was required between versions – if you wanted to catch every single available Pokémon. Some might view that as cynical, but it wasn’t really intended to make people buy both versions, just to encourage link-up play and trading between them. It does however mean that you can’t catch all the available Pokémon if you only have one version of the game, and have no way of trading with someone else who has the other version.

In Japan, Pokémon Red (originally titled Pocket Monsters: Red) was accompanied by Pokémon Green (Pocket Monsters: Green), but in North America and Europe Pokémon Red was accompanied by Pokémon Blue, which is basically a remake of Green.

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Fireball II, Archimedes

Fireball II is a garish but playable Arkanoid clone for the Acorn Archimedes, written by Simon Heather and published by Cambridge International Software in 1990.

Although the graphics look a bit amateurish, Fireball II does have a number of surprises under the hood, which make it fun to play.

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Vib-Ribbon, PlayStation

Vib-Ribbon is a unique game on the PlayStation. It is the only game I can think of that is mostly black and white and uses simple animated vector-style line art to present the visuals. That said: Vib-Ribbon is full of character and charm and goes to show what can be achieved when developers think out of the box.

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Revelations: Persona, PlayStation

Revelations: Persona is the first game in the Persona series, which is a spin-off from the Shin Megami Tensei series, and was first published by Atlus for the PlayStation in 1996. It was actually the first game in the entire Megami Tensei series to be officially released in the West.

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Out Run, Megadrive/Genesis

This 1991 Megadrive/Genesis conversion of the classic arcade race game, Out Run, was written by Sega’s AM2 development team – who made the original – and it is therefore very authentic and just as much fun as the arcade game.

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The Goonies, Commodore 64

Released the same year as Richard Donner‘s classic adventure comedy film of the same name, The Goonies by Datasoft is a multi-screen action adventure game for one or two players.

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Dusk, PC

Dusk is a 2018 release from New Blood Interactive, developed by American programmer David Szymanski. It is a horror-themed first-person shoot ’em up with simplistic graphics, atmospheric music, lots of weapons, and plenty of blood and gore.

It doesn’t look like much when viewed as still screenshots, but the beauty of the game comes from its refined controls, interesting level design, and engaging, fast-paced gameplay.

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Pokémon Pearl, Nintendo DS

While I wouldn’t call myself a Pokémon fanatic, I do really enjoy the games because they are so well made, and because I love level-grinders. Pokémon Pearl (and its companion, Diamond) is considered by many as one of the best games in the series, and people still love to play it now.

Compared to previous generations, Pokémon Pearl has lots of new features, and compared to later generations: the series hasn’t yet started to collapse under its own weight.

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Ghostbusters, Sega Master System

The 1987 Sega Master System conversion of David Crane‘s classic Ghostbusters is… Okay. It’s actually got a few enhancements over other versions that make it a bit more of a challenge, although it does have its down sides.

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Ghostbusters, NES/Famicom

The Nintendo Entertainment System version of David Crane‘s Ghostbusters is known for being a bit of a mess, compared to all the other versions.

It was initially released in Japan in 1986 and later in North America in 1988. Why the two year delay? Probably something to do with the fact that the game is terrible…

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