Taito‘s 1988 arcade release, The NewZealand Story, is a super-cute platform game featuring a kiwi called Tiki, who is on a rescue mission to save his friends who have been kidnapped by a Leopard Seal. Tiki can jump and shoot arrows from his bow (as kiwis do), as well as commandeer various different floating or flying vehicles to get around in.
The NewZealand Story was an instant hit with gamers and is still much loved today.
Looking Glass Technologies are probably best known for their Ultima Underworld series of games, but this 1996 tactical shooter from them is also a retro-gaming classic.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a first-person, futuristic ‘combat suit’ type action game with an interesting mix of styles.
Konami released Arumana no Kiseki in Japan in 1987. It is an action platformer with a cool rope mechanic that you use to climb to out-of-reach platforms.
Known in its native Japan as Nazo no Murasame Jō, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is an action adventure released by Nintendo for the FDS in 1986.
It came not long after the first Zelda (also released on the Famicom Disk System) and uses many Zelda gameplay elements in its design, except with a ‘Feudal Japan’ style setting.
Continue reading The Mysterious Murasame Castle, Famicom Disk System
This 1989 BBC Micro conversion of Taito‘s classic arcade game, Bubble Bobble, was never commercially released. Which is a shame because it is rather excellent.
SNK‘s famous arcade shooter, Ikari Warriors, was released in 1986 at a time when many Commando clones were saturating the market, but managed to stand out against the competition.
Ape Escape is a cute 3D chase game where you basically have to collect escaped apes by hunting them down within the landscape and catching them in your net or using some other gadget to catch them. It starts off easy and gets progressively harder.
Konami‘s Antarctic Adventure was first released on the MSX in 1983 in Japan – coming to Europe and North America later, in 1984.
Dragon’s Lair is one of those old arcade games that has developed a legendary status, even though there isn’t actually much of a game there. And what there is is incredibly difficult.
Now here’s a game that really made waves when it first came out… Bad jokes aside: Wave Race 64 really did have gamers ‘wowing’ back in 1996, because it’s a damn impressive water-based racing game.
The King of Grabs 