Tag Archives: Versus

Sonic Adventure 2, Dreamcast

The sequel to Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2 is more of the same 3D running and platforming, with everyone’s favourite blue hedgehog (and friends), although this time there’s a bit more to the game than just blasting through the courses.

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Boulder Dash EX, Game Boy Advance

Boulder Dash EX is an updated version of the classic Boulder Dash, developed by Vision Works and published by KEMCO in 2002. And it’s not bad at all.

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Military Madness, PC Engine

Military Madness is the Western title for the Japanese tactical war game, Nectaris, and it was first released for the PC Engine in 1989 by Hudson Soft. A North American TurboGrafx-16 release followed in 1990.

Nectaris, or Military Madness, or whatever you want to call it, is an early turn-based strategy game that involves moving units around a map and engaging in combat. When units clash it then cuts away to a confrontation scene to show how the opposing forces fared against each other. These action cut scenes would later greatly influence similar games such as those in the popular Advance Wars series.

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Devil Dice, PlayStation

Devil Dice is a unique dice-moving puzzle game for one to five players that was developed by Shift, Inc. and published by Sony and THQ on the PlayStation in 1998. It is considered by some to be one of the best puzzle games on the PS1.

Devil Dice was originally created for a Japanese developer competition and went on to sell more than a million copies worldwide.

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Barbarian, Atari ST

Palace Software‘s notorious Barbarian is a ‘sword and sandal’ beat ’em up with a knockout gimmick: you can decapitate your opponent with a well-placed sword stroke!

Granted: you have to time it correctly, and get the distance between you and your opponent right, but when you pull it off the head bounces off in hilarious fashion, before being finally getting booted off the screen by a gremlin.

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One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, Commodore 64

This classic one-on-one basketball game on the Commodore 64 originated on the Apple II in 1983 and was later converted to other systems courtesy of Electronics Arts.

One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird is remembered as one of the best basketball games of all time and does indeed have a lot of subtlety to it that isn’t obvious until you play it.

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Spy vs. Spy, Commodore 64

Back in 1984 Spy vs. Spy was a revelation. It was – and still is – a shining example of two-player versus gaming. Two spies, each searching for the secret plans, and each laying traps in order to stop the other – it tended to bring out the devious side (and the trash talk) of anyone who played it. Myself included. Many hours were spent playing this game against my brother back in the mid Eighties, and Spy vs. Spy quickly became a cult favourite for myself, and for many other Commodore 64 owners.

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Combat, Atari 2600

Combat was designed by Atari, Inc. and first released for the Atari 2600 in 1977 and was the pack-in game for the system until 1982 (meaning: you got a Combat cartridge with the console, upon purchase).

It was one of the first home video games I ever played (probably the same for millions of others) and it enthralled me. Yes, Combat is very simple by today’s standards, but in 1977 it was a revelation and was much cloned by other developers.

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Godzilla: Battle Legends, PC Engine

Hudson Soft developed Godzilla: Battle Legends on the PC Engine, for Japanese movie studio Toho in 1993. It is an energetic 2D beat ’em up with characters featured from the infamous series of monster films.

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Penguin Wars, Game Boy

UPL and NEXOFT Corporation’s classic, cute Penguin Wars was initially released in arcades in 1985. This excellent Game Boy conversion came five years later, in 1990.

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