Tag Archives: space

Star Fox, Super Nintendo

I’m going to use the Japanese and North American name for this game – Star Fox – rather than the European name (Star Wing, which was chosen because the name “Star Fox” was apparently too similar to a German company called “StarVox”!).

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Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, Megadrive/Genesis

Todd’s Adventures in Slime World is a game developed by Epyx and first released on the Atari Lynx in 1990.

This Megadrive/Genesis version came later – in 1991 – and in my mind is better than the original, because you can see more of the play area in this version (because the graphics are higher resolution), and there’s also simultaneous split-screen play.

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Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, Atari Lynx

The original Atari Lynx version of Todd’s Adventures in Slime World, developed by Epyx and released by Atari in 1990.

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Metroid Prime, GameCube

The fifth game in Nintendo‘s famous “Metroid” series, and the first to use 3D graphics, Metroid Prime follows the well-worn gameplay path of the earlier Metroid games (that is: have all your equipment; lose all your equipment; have to find all your equipment again) and again sees you playing as Samus Aran, a female ex-soldier with a powered exoskeleton.

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Asteroids, Arcade

Released in November 1979, Atari‘s Asteroids was an instant hit with gamers.

It featured a vector graphic-based, black and white display, with a player-controlled triangular ship, moving in space and firing at moving rocks.

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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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Paradroid ’90, Amiga

Mmmm. Paradroid ’90 is one of those “classic” games that should have been great, but unfortunately was a big, fat missed opportunity.

Its parent – the Commodore 64 classic Paradroid, by Andrew Braybrook – is a perfect example of simple-but-amazingly-compelling gameplay.

This remake pretty much loses everything that made the original great, in spite of original author Braybrook‘s involvement.

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Jet Pac, ZX Spectrum

Ultimate Play The Game‘s amazing Jet Pac is an early ZX Spectrum classic, first released onto an unsuspecting world in 1983.

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