Tag Archives: swords

The Last Ninja 2, Commodore 64

The sequel to the classic The Last Ninja was first released by System 3 in 1988 – one year after the original game.

It was designed by the same team as made the first game, except this time they had on board the highly-respected John Twiddy as writer/coder, and Matt Gray doing music.

Graphically, The Last Ninja 2 is arguably better than its predecessor, with more colour and variety in the environments, and some of the gameplay niggles from the first game have thankfully been addressed too. In particular: it is now easier to pick things up!

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The Last Ninja, Commodore 64

First released in 1987, The Last Ninja is a classic isometric action adventure game originating on the Commodore 64, and later being converted to other systems.

It has to be said, though: the control system used in this game does leave a lot to be desired when playing it nowadays. Getting your ninja guy to do what you want him to do is tricky – even when you know what you’re doing…

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Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Game Boy Advance

The third and final Castlevania game on the Game Boy Advance, Aria of Sorrow was first published by Konami in 2003.

Development was again led by Producer Koji Igarashi (who had previously worked on Symphony of the Night), and the end result is another brilliant and varied mix of platforming and RPG, with challenging enemies and boss battles.

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Defender of the Crown, Game Boy Advance

Cinemaware‘s classic Defender of the Crown was ported to the Game Boy Advance by Crawfish Interactive and published by Metro3D in 2002 and it is an excellent conversion.

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Defender of the Crown, ZX Spectrum

A very good 1989 homebrew conversion of Cinemaware‘s classic Defender of the Crown, programmed by The Cat, from Hungary.

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Super Ninja Boy, Super Nintendo

Super Ninja Boy is an action role-playing game developed by Culture Brain and released on the SNES in 1991 in Japan, and in 1993 in North America.

It’s a sequel to Culture Brain‘s previous title, Little Ninja Brothers for the NES, and it’s not a brilliant game the truth be told, but it does hold a special place in my heart because it was one of the first games I ever reviewed as games journalist.

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Patapon 3, PSP

Patapon 3 – the third game in the Patapon series – was developed by Pyramid and SCE Japan Studio and published by Sony in 2011.

I have to admit that I’d never played any of the Patapon games until recently, and – wow – I’m very impressed!

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Jeanne d’Arc, PSP

This interesting 2006 release is based loosely on the story of Joan of Arc and her struggles against the English occupation of France during The Hundred Year War of the 15th Century.

Jeanne d’Arc is a cutesy fantasy adventure with magic and tactical combat sections (in the style of Ogre Battle and Final Fantasy Tactics), developed by Japanese video game developer Level-5.

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Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, PSP

Published by Square Enix in 2007, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is a Sony PSP exclusive that pays tribute to the classic Final Fantasy VII, but with a different style of combat. It was released for the 10th anniversary of FF7.

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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, PC

Developed by Obsidian and published by LucasArts in 2004, Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is a fitting sequel to one of the best Star Wars games of all time.

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