Category: Arcade and Action Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Taff System GAME PUBLISHER:Taff System Copyright 1994, Taff System K1 Tank is an oldie but goodie first-person action game from South Korea. The game puts you behind the wheels of K1 tank, mainstay of South Korean army developed by Hyundai based on the design…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SRX Software Production GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, SRX Software Production Storm Caliber and Messier are two excellent freeware shooters from Japan. Both games feature fun gameplay, imaginative enemy ship designs, and plenty of cool power-ups to use. The graphics are excellent, although it is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SRX Software Production GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, SRX Software Production Storm Caliber and Messier are two excellent freeware shooters from Japan. Both games feature fun gameplay, imaginative enemy ship designs, and plenty of cool power-ups to use. The graphics are excellent, although it is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Anonymous Hosen is a nice freeware puzzle from Japan that offers an innovative twist to Pipe Mania and similar games. Instead of connecting pipes together to channel water to the destination, your goal in Hosen is to connect rails…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Kouyousha GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Kouyousha Tamarin is a fun and unique freeware puzzle game that plays like a variation of Rubiks famous tile puzzles. The game is simple to learn, but hard to master. You basically move a 2×2 magnifying lens around the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tom Hall GAME DEVELOPER:Monkeystone GAME PUBLISHER:Monkeystone Copyright 2002, Monkeystone Hyperspace Delivery Boy! is a very fun action/adventure/puzzle concoction from Tom Hall, John Romero and Monkeystone, the company the two id Software legends founded after leaving Ion Storm in 2001. The first PC game from Monkeystone (who…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Famibe No Yosshin GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Famibe No Yosshin Cho Ren Sha 68K is another excellent shooter from Japans incredibly prolific freeware game development community. This vertical shooter boasts excellent 2D graphics, soundtrack, and a lot of neat ship designs, especially the bosses.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Sexy Death Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Sexy Death Entertainment XSynergy Gate is an outstanding 3D shooter from Sexy Death Entertainment, makers of Die Slave. The game is a vertical shooter that boasts excellent production values, jaw-dropping graphics (especially if you have a 3D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ryuuto Yamada GAME DEVELOPER:Yamada No Ana Project GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Ryuuto Yamada Another excellent game from freeware developer Yamada No Ana Project, who is dedicated to producing games based around the same cast of characters, led by a stubby construction worker and his friends. Like…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ryuuto Yamada GAME DEVELOPER:Yamada No Ana Project GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Ryuuto Yamada Another excellent game from freeware developer Yamada No Ana Project, who is dedicated to producing games based around the same cast of characters, led by Doka-chan, a stubby construction worker and his friends.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ryuuto Yamada GAME DEVELOPER:Yamada No Ana Project GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Ryuuto Yamada Another excellent game from freeware developer Yamada No Ana Project, who is dedicated to producing games based around the same cast of characters, led by Doka-chan, a stubby construction worker and his friends.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ryuuto Yamada GAME DEVELOPER:Yamada No Ana Project GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Ryuuto Yamada Another excellent game from freeware developer Yamada No Ana Project, who is dedicated to producing games based around the same cast of characters, led by Doka-chan, a stubby construction worker and his friends.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Luke Hodorowicz GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Luke Hodorowicz Malos is a unique strategy/action hybrid that plays like a board version of “Tag” game. As the official page describes, “…each level contains a set of red tags on a grid. As the player, you control…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Anonymous Magical Broom Extreme is another spectacular freeware shooter from Japan with jaw-dropping 3D weapon effects and very good gameplay. You control a cute little anime witch who shoots from her broom. The objective, naturally, is to make your…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Techland GAME PUBLISHER:Techland Copyright 2000, Techland Crime Cities is an excellent cyberpunk action game that deserves to be considered one of the best. This excellant game takes the atmosphere of The Fifth Element and adds a touch of Grand Theft Auto 3, although the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Alex Austin GAME DEVELOPER:Chronic Logic GAME PUBLISHER:Chronic Logic Copyright 2002, Chronic Logic Triptych is a great falling blocks game from Chronic Logic. If you think coding another Tetris clone is an unworthy pursuit for a designer of such original games as Pontifex and Bridge Builder, rest…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Claude Cueni GAME DEVELOPER:Phenomedia GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Phenomedia Smoke Attack is another fun freeware game from the Swiss division of Phenomedia, one of the worlds best promotional/tie-in game developers (an increasingly popular genre now commonly referred to as ad-games). Commissioned by Switzerlands Federal Office of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Birdman GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Birdman Stroke is a fun third-person freeware puzzle game with a simple premise: collect all the different color gems and exit. The catch is that the floor tile you stand on will disappear once you step away, so you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Sexy Death Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Sexy Death Entertainment Die Slave is yet another excellent freeware shooter from Japans rapidly growing freeware development scene. Similar to Vsys Gaiden and Amanagi, this horizontal shooter features full 3D graphics for everything from ships to asteroids…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Thorsten Kuphaldt GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous Dogfight is the best modern remake Ive ever come across of Sopwith, an early 1980s air combat classic. In addition to upgrading the graphics to SVGA with incredibly high details of both planes and scenery, Dogfight adds…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Claude Cueni GAME DEVELOPER:Phenomedia GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Phenomedia Catch the Sperm 2 is a superior sequel to the original Catch the Sperm, very popular promotional game developed by Swiss division of Phenomedia, arguably the worlds best promotional game developer today. Released as part of the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Twisted Pair GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Twisted Pair SnowMotion is a great freeware brainteaser from independent German developer Twisted Pair. The premise is so unique and innovative that its hard to believe nobody has come up with it sooner: your goal is to make…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jim Silva GAME DEVELOPER:Totally Screwed GAME PUBLISHER:Totally Screwed Copyright 2002, Totally Screwed If you liked River City Ransom, don’t bother reading this review. Just download this shareware demo and play. Ditto if you’re a fan of B-Movies and like the idea of: Jump kicking a zombie,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tim Cowley & Dylan Allison GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Whitespace Unlimited “Stick Figures Wield Guns In Bizarre School Sketch-Book Shoot Out.” Ultimately not as satisfying as Liero, this game is still recommendable. Although only one-player, you can play in teams or one-for-all deathmatch, a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Safrosoft GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Safrosoft Safrosoft’s RoX is not just well-polished with its lush graphics, it’s also one of the most successful puzzle-hybrids I’ve ever seen. Putting together the elements of Sokoban and Boulder-Dash, both popular games with many abandon- and free-ware fans,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Johan Peitz GAME DEVELOPER:Free Lunch Design GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Free Lunch Design Hope you’re hungry, ‘cos this is one tasty free lunch. Harold wears a hat and has a lot of time on his hands. He finds a really, really (infinitely, in fact: doesn’t the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:JJ Soft GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, JJ Soft Relax, friend. For this review, I am going to lead you into a dreamworld of happiness and colour, and it’ll read sort of like a hypnosis script; although not a particularly beneficial one. Unless you really…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Fallen Angel Industries GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Fallen Angel Industries A fun little game from the makers of the phenomenal Factor X, Biohazard sees you as a man affected by many diseases all together, each with its time of incubation. To avoid death, you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Loaded Studio GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Loaded Studio One of the best freeware action games I’ve ever played, Blip & Blop is (as its own programmers admit) a clone of Metal Slug: and the machine gun is practically the same as the famous Neo…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous The Ocean Battle is an exceptional freeware game – one of the few that boasts such outstanding production value that will make you wonder why they are released as freeware instead of shareware. The game puts you behind…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2002, Anonymous Amanagi is an excellent horizontal shooter from Japan that boasts excellent 3D graphics and gameplay. Formerly shareware, the game has been released into the public domain by the author. The animations are very smooth, the ship designs are…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Eurocom GAME PUBLISHER:EIDOS Interactive Copyright 1997, Eurocom Machine Hunter is a fun top-down military action game that deserves much more attention than it received. The plot is simple: it’s 2034, our mining robots on Mars have been reprogrammed by aliens, and you, of course,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous Gal Pani X is a fun clone of Qix, Taito’s famous arcade game with a simple gameplay: draw lines to create separate portions of the screen while avoiding nasties. Gal Pani X takes the concept one step further…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Simo Savolainen GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Anonymous Copyright 1998, Simo Savolainen Not to be confused with Simutronic’s multiplayer game of the same name, Orb Wars is a fun two-player shareware “caveflyer” game with a familiar concept: two players pilot their spacecrafts and try to destroy each other.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Argonaut Software GAME PUBLISHER:Philips Media Copyright 1997, Philips Media Alien Odyssey is a fun but little-known multi-type action game by Argonaut Software that is similar to Cyberia in concept: it’s got action, flight sim, adventure, and Full Motion Video (FMV) sequences all rolled into…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eddie Edwards & Jon Ritman GAME DEVELOPER:Cranberry Source GAME PUBLISHER:Philips Media Copyright 1998, Cranberry Source QAD is a disappointing 3D action flop from Cranberry Source, a small UK company formed by Jon Ritman, famous designer of several Spectrum computer classics including Head over Heels and Match…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:ZeroHour Studios GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Arts Copyright 1999, ZeroHour Studios A good example of a “great concepts, botched execution” game, The Creed is very innovative cyperpunk action/adventure that could have been the definitive game of its kind before Deus Ex comes along, if only the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SingleTrac GAME PUBLISHER:Microsoft Copyright 1998, SingleTrac Outwars is a fun, innovative 3D shooter/strategy hybrid from SingleTrac that feels like Looking Glass’ Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, except with a more stereotypical plot (think Starship Troopers) and “canned” NPCs but adding plenty of fun multiplayer…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:James Bunting GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, James Bunting Meteor is a fun top-down on-foot shooter game that is reminiscent of Cannon Fodder and Commando, among others. You play Sergeant Ash, diehard soldier whose mission is to recapture the control center of a space-based weapon…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Owen Thomas GAME DEVELOPER:ORT GAME PUBLISHER:ORT Copyright 2001, ORT CrossCraze is a great word puzzle game for 1 to 4 players that plays like a cross between Scrabble and a crossword puzzle. You basically compete with friends or against the computer by placing letters on a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Owen Thomas GAME DEVELOPER:ORT GAME PUBLISHER:ORT Copyright 1998, ORT TerraFire is a fun arcade shooter featuring excellent ray-traced graphics and smooth 360-degree parallax scrolling. As the games description says, you will pilot a ship …through heavily defended underground caverns, past wind tunnels, fire-walls and subterranean lakes.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Eric Solomon & Michael Haugrud GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1993, Michael Haugrud Black Box is a great PC version of a 1978 Parker Brothers board game of the same name that emphasizes logical deduction. Sort of a 3D version of Mastermind, your goal in this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Grenewetzki GAME DEVELOPER:Software Toolworks GAME PUBLISHER:Software Toolworks Copyright 1989, Software Toolworks Beyond The Black Hole is a decent cross between Pong and Arkanoid. Your goal is to use two paddles to make a rotating orb hit objects in the middle of the screen. The game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:George Pachikov GAME DEVELOPER:ParaGraph GAME PUBLISHER:ParaGraph Copyright 1993, ParaGraph Black Hole is one of the few games released by ParaGraph, one of the leaders in virtual reality/3D technologies. Designed by company founders George Pachikov, the game is a fun arcade/puzzle game that plays like a cross…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jim the Standing Bear GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Jim the Standing Bear Hua Rong Dao is a great PC version of classic Chinese sliding-tile puzzle game with a simple premise: on a 2D board, rearrange rectangular and square blocks of varying sizes to get…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ezequiel Cabrera GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Ezequiel Cabrera One of the best-looking and fun clones of arcade classics youll likely come across, PacVenture – Pac’s Odyssee is very nice Pac-Man clone that adds detailed SVGA graphics, 3D/isometric view, and a lot of diverse worlds…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tobias Hellman GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Tobias Hellman Space Hawk is a decent caveflyer multiplayer shooter inspired by Amiga classic Gravity Force. Formerly meant to be released as shareware, the game has been made freeware by the author. The concept is simple: equip your…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ville Nurmi & Mikko Tiihonen GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Ville Nurmi & Mikko Tiihonen Assault Wing is a fun shareware caveflyer from Finland that that has been released as freeware. If you have never played a caveflyer before, the idea is simple: two or…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Olli Lyytinen & Jaakko Lyytinen GAME DEVELOPER:Anonymous GAME PUBLISHER:Anoymous Copyright 2001, Olli Lyytinen & Jaakko Lyytinen A2 is a great sequel to AUTS, one of the best caveflyer shooters from Finland. A2 improves upon the original in every aspect, including 16-bit graphics, improved enemy AI, built-in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Adrian Maleska GAME DEVELOPER:Ikarion GAME PUBLISHER:Alternative Copyright 1997, Ikarion Project Paradise is a fun cyberpunk/fantasy action/adventure game that unfortunately was never released outside Europe. The setting is similar to Bullfrogs more famous Syndicate: in a dark future, only one powerful syndicate rules the world. Both technologies…