Classic Replay

A freebie on Playstation Plus, I'd better play it for a bit. Now, what would happen if I get that object over there? Ah and that opens this...  now if I can just avoid that dragon. "Ahh, it got me." From the creator of Monkey Island (Ron Gilbert), published by SEGA and tailored by the developer of Psychonauts... comes the eerily named title 'The Cave'. Ron Gilbert is an Amiga legend, his games are still with us today, released on newer formats (iPad, iPhone and Android) and still enjoyed by millions the world over. Here's a question. I wonder If we'll still be playing the Cave twenty years from now? 2013 seems a funny time for Ron to branch out, but here's his first game in over two decades. It's a game filled with logic, leaps of faith and death-defying jumps... The idea has been floating around inside Ron's noggin for the last twenty years. There's lots of narrative, clever puzzles and a sense of original humour not found in g...

A few weekends back, I was trawling through a local car boot sale and caught the gaze of a SNES looking back at me. It was loosely boxed, with lots of games piled horribly high, the majority were tightly packed and squashed together. As you can imagine, a worst case scenario for a SNES cardboard box. Within seconds, I asked the guy "how much?" [trying my best not to prove overly desperate] He replied "er dunno, give me twenty". I paused for a few seconds and was just about to snap his hands off when his mate piped up and said "you can have that lot for a fiver, we're not taking anything back with us" he then proceeded to throw in even more goodies into an already overcrowded box. Seconds later, the box now included an N64, a ZX Spectrum +3 and several more games including a copy of Super Mario All-Stars, which brings me to my review. I was never a fan of the early NES Mario games until Super Mario World came along on the SNES. I enjoyed Mario in...

Golden Axe was one of my favourite games. I played it with both my sister Alex and cousin Matteo. Alex wasn't as big a fan of it as I was, so I played it far more often with Matteo, who had no choice other than to moan about having to play Golden Axe again, and being sick of playing Golden Axe. The object of the game is to work you way through the levels, which are really just sections of a long journey towards a castle, fighting baddies/minions, until you reach the end and have to overthrow the usurper; a hunky looking so and so called ‘Death Adder’ who appears to have spent rather a long time injecting steroids and pumping iron. He wears a Viking-esque helmet and has decided he wants to take over, probably the world eventually (like they usually do), but to start with he’d laid claim to the little shit hole where the people you are playing as live. As you progress through the game you can collect extra lives, magic potions and hijack creatures like dragons, which are being ...

ROLLING START! If you owned a Sega Saturn (chances are you didn't) it's more than likely that Daytona USA would have formed as part of your early gaming collection. Those who have played the arcade original will be forced to admit that it's without question one of the best racers in arcade history. So, therefore, a Saturn conversion with all the tracks, vehicles and a prancing pony should be perfect, right? Well, the tracks from the arcade original were faithfully converted, along with the over-the-top presentation and bizarre music (so awful it's good). Unlike most coin-op racers of the time, the player's view of the racetrack can be viewed from a multitude of different angles, including inside and not just from behind the car. Besides having to stay on the racetrack and avoid crashing into barriers, there are forty other cars to contend with, that see's you competing at three different levels ranging from beginner, advanced and expert. The Saturn versio...

P47 - Freedom Fighter Arcade: Jaleco 1988 Home Conversions: Firebird 1989 In the midst of Spitfires, Messerschmitt's and Hurricane's, there was one world war 2 fighter, nicknamed the 'jug' (short for 'Juggernaut') that packed an almighty punch. The Jug entered the war in 1943, piloted by the 78th and 56th Fighter Group of the 8th Air Force, with a kill ratio of 8 to 1... changing history forever. WOT? NO SPACE SHIPS? When playing these types of SHMUPS as a kid, I had no idea of the historical significance of it all. Back in the day, it was just a really good shoot-'em-up, that moved at pace and looked really good. Although highly inaccurate  the game follows the real life struggles of the American fighter, as it prowled above the skies of Northern France, Egypt and North Africa. How does it play P47 is a horizontal scrolling shoot-'em-up (No need to fill out any forms), with bags of pace, outstanding graphics and rigorous gung-ho game-pla...

What's it all about: In early 1989, Storm released the coin-op Big Run. The game was loosely based on the world famous Paris Dakar. And in case you didn't know, Dakar is the capital of Senegal which is situated on the West coast of the African continent. Since 2009, due to security threats, the race is no longer held in Europe and Africa, these days Argentina and Chile host the endurance event. The original event trailed around 9000 kilometers across the Sahara and the tropical Savannah. It was generally considered the most challenging race on earth. The Dakar, did not enjoy this reputation without a price, many have died over the years, or returned home with broken bones. It's a race for survival, where reaching the finish line seems challenge enough. What does it play like: Big Run is an impeccably well made game, that plays like the child of Outrun and Wec-le-mans. The whole experience is wonderf...

Programmers: Team Easter Egg (2012) One small ship for man, one giant leap for the CPC ... Some twenty years after its launch, R-Type is back for the CPC. It's horizontal blasting like you've never experienced before, and lacks nothing of the coin-op original. In fact, this is the ultimate 8-bit home computer conversion. The facts: This is without question, a massive improvement over the Amstrad original. Graphics look tremendous, although perhaps a little gaudy in places. Sound is spectacular, considering most Amstrad games produced sound effects that could be bettered by a man, two spoons and a piece of paper, but that's not the case in this version - the programmers have produced some of the best music and sound effects ever heard on the CPC. This along with the gameplay, combine to provide an amazing conversion of the coin-op classic.     What's it like: R-Type on the CPC is a vault of mystery - unexplored and holding new secrets. It's ...