Category: Arcade and Action Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SEGA GAME PUBLISHER:SEGA Copyright 1996, SEGA Bug! is an above-average 3D platformer from SEGA that could be much more fun. Jennifer Reitz of Accursed Toys voiced her views that are similar to mine on this marginal underdog: “Bug! is essentially a 3D Sonic The…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:IncaGold GAME PUBLISHER:IncaGold Copyright 2000, IncaGold Air Offensive: The Art of Flying is a decent 3D shooting game from Inca Gold. The official word on game plot: “…as a fresh recruit, you will join the militia forces of the Archipelago in a desperate attempt…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Steve Turner & Matt Smith GAME DEVELOPER:Hewson GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Matt Smith Quazatron is a great remake of Hewson’s unique action/puzzle game that is widely considered one of the best 8-bit games of the era – and one of the many gems that never made…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Thomas Scholl & JP Hamilton GAME DEVELOPER:Rainbow Arts GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, JP Hamilton Cat’s Eye Chaos is an excellent remake of Logical, Rainbow Arts’ unique puzzler that is simple in concept but hard to master. Coded in Blitz Basic, the goal in Cat’s Eye Chaos…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Mirinae Software GAME PUBLISHER:Mirinae Software Copyright 1996, Mirinae Software Full Metal Jacket is a decent giant robot action game from Korean developer Mirinae. Viewed from a top-down perspective, the game plays like a cross between Zone 66 and Chaos Engine – although it is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Lemonade Productions GAME PUBLISHER:Lemonade Productions Copyright 2003, Lemonade Productions There’s a trick to this game… I had a few goes with Light & Shadow and I was quite set to give it a sound verbal thrashing and to send it on its way. Luckily…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Pieter Simoons GAME DEVELOPER:Crystal Shard GAME PUBLISHER:SpiderWeb Copyright 2001, Pieter Simoons Have you ever tried SubTerra? You should, if you like puzzles and brain-teasing games! Here’s a game that can be appreciated by people of all ages, provided they enjoy the manifold challenges posed by this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Nick Stadler GAME DEVELOPER:Project 2 Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Epic Megagames Copyright 1998, Project 2 Interactive One of the best side-scrolling arcade games ever made, bar none. Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a superb 2D platformer, a sequel to Epic Megagames’ earlier shareware classic Jazz Jackrabbit. In addition to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Loriciel GAME PUBLISHER:Hi-Tech Expressions Copyright 1989, Loriciel Crazy Shot is a fun shooting gallery game from French developer Loriciel. Basically you choose from a number of different shooting galleries, and shoot as many targets as possible within the time limit to rack up your…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Tressie GAME DEVELOPER:Pin-Ball Games GAME PUBLISHER:Pin-Ball Games Copyright 1998, Pin-Ball Games Judge Dredd Pinball is the first entry in the “Pinball Arcade” series, made by UK-based Pin-Ball Games Limited. The concept was promising: license a real-life pinball table and try to recreate the gameplay experience…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Scott Johnson GAME DEVELOPER:Rage Software GAME PUBLISHER:Xicat Interactive Copyright 1998, Rage Software Incoming is an excellent 3D shooter from Rage Software. True to Rage’s reputation as a leading action game developer, Incoming does not disappoint. Beautiful graphics, intense action, and a wide variety of locales, player-controlled…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Interplay GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1997, Interplay Atomic Bomberman is Interplay’s valiant effort at bringing Hudson Soft’s classic Bomberman to the 1990s. Richard Greenhill at The Games Domain has the lowdown on how this sequel stacked up against Hudson Soft’s own games: “For those unaware…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andreas Epper GAME DEVELOPER:Mad Data GAME PUBLISHER:Homebrew Software Copyright 1994, Mad Data Strong Lines is a decent Qix clone – basically the same game as Silk and Gal Pani X (both reviewed on this site). Presented with an empty picture window, your objective is to draw…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Merry Roger GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Merry Roger Pentamino for Windows is an excellent computer version of Pentamino, a popular Russian puzzle game that plays like a variant of Pentagrams. Each puzzle displays a shape made up of 1×1 square tiles, and 12 pieces…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Varcon Systems GAME PUBLISHER:Varcon Systems Copyright 1996, Varcon Systems Diamonds 3D is a fun 3D Breakout clone. In this game, the ball comes right at you in three-dimensional playing field. Your goal is still the same: hit the ball with your paddle to clear…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Derek Williams GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1985, Derek Williams Striker is a fun freeware clone of Atari’s Defender. As helicopter pilot, your mission is to navigate various tunnels in order to complete five missions of increasing difficulty. As you fly the helicopter through 2D side-scrolling…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Spidersoft GAME PUBLISHER:Expert Software Copyright 1993, Spidersoft Pinball 2000 is basically a budget version of Digital Illusions’ Pinball Dreams game, offering two tables from that classic, multiplayer support up to 8 players (turn-based), and very little else. Touted as a game that is “derived…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Leryx Longsoft GAME PUBLISHER:Flair Copyright 1997, Leryx Longsoft Leo the Lion is a below average platformer from Poland starring – well, Leo the lion. Think of the game as Disney’s Lion King, minus good cartoons and interesting gameplay. So what is left? A hodgepodge…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Appeal Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN Copyright 1997, Appeal Entertainment No Respect is a fun 3D action game from Appeal, published by OCEAN. In the game, you play a mercenary who flies a futuristic hovercraft-style vehicle in a fight against other mercenaries. Your goal is to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Dani Julien & Matthew Zacharias GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Dani Julien & Matthew Zacharias Gorilla 2: The Return is a superb fanmade sequel to Gorilla, Microsoft’s classic QBASIC game in which two gorillas fought to the death atop city buildings with explosive bananas. This…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Ultimate Play the Game GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Anonymous Jetpac PC is an excellent PC remake of Jetpac, one of the best action games made for the Spectrum ZX computer. Similar to good old Atari classics of yore, your goal in the game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eric Zimmerman GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Eric Zimmerman An interesting action game, Strain is an artificial-life inspired game developed by Eric Zimmerman with Peter Berry, John Sharp, and Patrick Heilman. The official blurb: “[using] the keyboard as a physical object (rather than as a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Takas GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Takas AeroStyle is an excellent freeform aerial combat shooter that sports a very intuitive mouse-driven interface, crisp SVGA graphics, and fun gameplay. Your goal in the game is simply to pilot a biplane similar to Sopwith and kill everything…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) GAME PUBLISHER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) Copyright 1982, International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) Black Box is an early PC version of a 1978 Parker Brothers board game of the same name that emphasizes logical deduction. Sort of a 3D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:IBM GAME PUBLISHER:IBM Copyright 1982, IBM Rocket Lander is a good – but very rare – conversion of the hit arcade game Lunar Lander. From Mobygames’ description: “The object of the game is to land a space craft on the landing pad while avoiding…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) GAME PUBLISHER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) Copyright 1982, International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) XWing Fighter is a decent BASIC game released by IPCO, the first PC publication, way back in 1982. You are an X-Wing pilot leading an attack…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) GAME PUBLISHER:International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) Copyright 1982, International PC Owners Inc. (IPCO) Seawolf is a decent BASIC game released by IPCO, the first PC publication, way back in 1982. You are the captain of a submarine who is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Sprite GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1997, Sprite Xadlak Plus is a very fun horizontal shooter from Japan, featuring excellent illusion of depth, parallax scrolling, and plenty of cool enemies and backdrops. Despite heavily ‘borrowing’ from other shooters (most notably Gradius series) and some pixellation of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Sprite GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Sprite Vampire is a great fanmade Castlevania-inspired game from Sprite, one of Japan’s oldest freeware developers. The game plays remarkably similar to Konami’s classic, except you now control a heroine. Armed with a whip similar to Konami’s hero, you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Anno Room GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Anno Room Second Age is an excellent 3D giant robot (“mechas” in Japanese) action game set in space. The game offers excellent mecha designs, fun gameplay, and a variety of modes including Story, Practice, and 2-player. You can…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Sprite GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1996, Sprite ZugyA is another excellent freeware shooter from Sprite, one of Japan’s oldest freeware developing team who was behind Vampire, a great Castlevania clone. Although the game’s graphics is not as sharp as GunViper or Amanagi, ZugyA has plenty…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Accend GAME PUBLISHER:Accend Copyright 1994, Accend One of the most elusive FPS games ever, Legend of the Seven Paladins (a.k.a. Rock ‘n Shaolin) is a decent Taiwanese FPS coded with Ken Silverman’s Build Engine. The game’s developer Accend apparently used the Engine illegally as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Anonymous Radio Zonde is a good-looking vertical shooter made by the design team of Dogma, a great fighting game you can find on this site. Although the graphics is excellent and the gameplay very smooth, Radio Zonde is unfortunately…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Derek Yu & Jon Perry GAME DEVELOPER:Blackeye Software GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Blackeye Software Mean Cuisine is another quality freeware gem from Blackeye Software, makers of the outstanding Eternal Daughter. This time, they brought us not another epic platformer, but a nice Pac-Man-style game. The designer’s…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SEGA GAME PUBLISHER:SEGA Copyright 1998, SEGA Last Bronx is a decent fighting game from SEGA that is a lot of fun, although it is not as good as Virtua Fighter series. Edward Fielding of the Games Domain says it all in his review: “A…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Saffire GAME PUBLISHER:Midway Copyright 1998, Saffire Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. is a little known, competent PC version of Midway’s Playstation and N64 game of the same name. Although the game is far from classics like the Tekken series, it is still much better than the horrible…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Impact GAME PUBLISHER:Digital Impact Copyright 1999, Digital Impact Cybermercs is a decent Diablo-style action/RPG hybrid that is disappointingly too shallow to appeal to fans of either camp. You controls cybernetically-enhanced mercenaries who has been recruited – naturally – by a government in its…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Raffaele Cecco GAME DEVELOPER:Hewson GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Sunteam Cybernoid is an excellent PC remake of a classic Spectrum/Commodore shooter, released by Hewson in 1988. Although it looks like a typical 2D side-scroller, only a few minutes with the game will reveal a well-designed balance between…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Bill Person GAME DEVELOPER:Segasoft GAME PUBLISHER:Segasoft Copyright 1998, Segasoft SCUD: Industrial Revolution is a decent top-down action game based on SCUD: The Disposable Assassin, a wacky and successful comic book hero created by Rob Shrab in 1993. You control SCUD, the yellow coin-operated assassin robot as…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1990, Compute! Publications One of the best Pong games I have ever seen, Bounce Zone is a 3D Pong game that is full of all the options you could ever want. You can change bat sizes, gameplay speed (although you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Mt. Dew & Glitch GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Mt. Dew & Glitch Emerald Miner is a fun “retro” arcade game similar to Digger and Dig Dug. The plot goes as follows: “you are Chuck Stone, sole nephew of Uncle Chip Stone, and you have…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jason Jones GAME DEVELOPER:Bungie Studios GAME PUBLISHER:Bungie Studios Copyright 1996, Bungie Studios Marathon 2: Durandal is a good PC conversion of the Macintosh FPS blockbuster of the same name. Although the game looks out of date and old-fashioned compared to other FPS’es on the PC during…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:John Ricci & Roger Pedersen GAME DEVELOPER:Villa Crespo GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1992, Roger Pedersen Combination Lock is an interesting game based on a never-aired gameshow concept devised by John Ricci. The object of the game is to earn the most money in two matches, rob the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Florent Bedoiseau GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Florent Bedoiseau Tombstone City is an excellent fanmade remake of Texas Instrument’s oldie of the same name, released at the dawn of desktop PCs in 1981. Your objective is simple: stay alive as long as possible to make…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Chili Con Valley GAME PUBLISHER:Chili Con Valley Copyright 2000, Chili Con Valley The last game by independent French developer Chili Con Valley (C2V for short) before going out of business, Valkyrie – The Magical Odyssey is an excellent shareware platformer that boasts huge and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Chili Con Valley GAME PUBLISHER:Chili Con Valley Copyright 1996, Chili Con Valley Described as the “best Breakout game in the world” by the French magazine PC Loisirs when it first came out, Krypton Egg is an excellent shareware Breakout game that boasts crisp and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Monolith GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, Monolith Smashset is a fun Breakout clone from Japan. The game introduces nice twists on the familiar bounce-the-ball formula in several ways. For starters, you don’t play this game from a 2D view, but an attractive isometric 3D view,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous Galax and Radias for Windows 95 are two fun shooters from Japan’s prolific freeware gaming ‘scene.’ Galax is a vertical shooter that boasts crisp anime-style graphics and fun power-ups, while Radias for Windows 95 is a competent fanmade…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:masaHG GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2003, masaHG Galax and Radias for Windows 95 are two fun shooters from Japan’s prolific freeware gaming ‘scene.’ Galax is a vertical shooter that boasts crisp anime-style graphics and fun power-ups, while Radias for Windows 95 is a competent fanmade…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Simis GAME PUBLISHER:EIDOS Interactive Copyright 1997, Simis Terracide is a fun 3D action game in the same style as Descent, although admittedly not as good. The plot is the “kill the evil aliens” cliche you have seen countless times, and the gameplay will be…