Tag Archives: Sprites

Shatterhand, NES/Famicom

Shatterhand is a scrolling action game in which you play a young police officer – called Steve Hermann – who has lost his arms and has had them replaced with enhanced, cybernetic limbs, and is in pursuit of a group of military renegades called “Metal Command“.

Shatterhand was developed by Natsume and originally published for the Nintendo Famicom by Angel under the title of “Tokkyū Shirei Soruburein” in 1991. That version of the game is based on the Japanese TV series “Super Rescue Solbrain“. The US and European versions, published by Jaleco, removed the licensed elements, changed the backstory, and re-titled the game as “Shatterhand” for Western audiences. One level was also completely changed – from a carnival level in the Japanese version, to a submarine level in the American version. The gameplay in both versions is identical, though.

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Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear, Game Boy

Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear is a handheld version of the popular Wizards & Warriors games on the NES. It was developed by Rare and published by Acclaim Entertainment, exclusively for the original Game Boy, in 1990.

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Wizards & Warriors III: Kuros: Visions of Power, NES/Famicom

The third game in the Wizards & Warriors series was released for the NES in North America in 1992 and in Europe in 1993. It was once again developed by Zippo Games for Rare, although the game did encounter a few issues during development*, and was published by Acclaim Entertainment.

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Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, NES/Famicom

The sequel to Wizards & Warriors was developed by Zippo Games (with help from Rare) and published by Acclaim in North America in 1989 and Europe in 1991. It’s another action platform game that doesn’t deviate much from the formula of the original, but is different enough to make it interesting.

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Wizards & Warriors, NES/Famicom

Wizards & Warriors is an action platform game developed by Rare and published by Acclaim (in North America and Europe) and Jaleco (in Japan) in 1987.

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Citadel, Commodore 64

Martin Walker‘s classic scrolling shooter, Citadel, was released exclusively for the Commodore 64 by Electric Dreams in 1989. The premise of Citadel is quite interesting – as is the gameplay.

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Frankenstein: The Monster Returns, NES/Famicom

Frankenstein: The Monster Returns was developed by TOSE Co. Ltd. and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Bandai, in North America only, in 1991. It is a side-scrolling platform game with beat ’em up elements, in much the same style as the early Castlevania games.

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Arcadia, ZX Spectrum

Written by David H. Lawson and published by Imagine Software in 1982, Arcadia is another early Spectrum game that sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but has not weathered the sands of time well at all…

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Cobra, Commodore 64

The 1986 Commodore 64 version of Cobra – based on the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name – is infamous for its sheer awfulness. It is based on the more successful ZX Spectrum game, designed and programmed by the late Jonathan Smith, but has lost a great deal in translation to the C64.

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