Category: Arcade and Action Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Mirinae Software GAME PUBLISHER:Mirinae Software Copyright 1996, Mirinae Software Erachacha is a cute and enjoyable platformer from Korean publisher Mirinae Software, starring a cute goblin of the same name. The plot is typical Oriental folktale about ghost, but probably is exotic for Western gamers:…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Allen Blum III GAME DEVELOPER:Apogee GAME PUBLISHER:Apogee Copyright 1993, Apogee Major Stryker is a fun top-down shooter from Apogee that features smooth parallax scrolling, detailed EGA background graphics, decent controls, and diverse enemies. There?s nothing here that breaks the mold, but even if the action is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Apogee GAME PUBLISHER:Apogee Copyright 1991, Apogee Dark Ages is one of the earliest shareware platformers published by Apogee, and one that is among their worst. The plot: you are the prince and heir to the land’s greatest kingdom. Garth, a wizard of immense power…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jim Norwood GAME DEVELOPER:Apogee GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1993, Apogee Bio Menace is a typical but quite enjoyable early platformer by Apogee. Despite the clich? defeat-aliens-that-invade-Earth plot, Bio Menace offers huge levels, fun power-ups, and detailed EGA graphics that is a step above Commander Keen (the engine…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:WAH Software GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, WAH Software Phobia 2 is a simple but fun top-down shooter by the finnish Wah-Software. You are a space marine with a simple goal: survive as long as you can, and kill anything that moves. There is an…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Gee Whiz! Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Gee Whiz! Entertainment Copyright 1996, Gee Whiz! Entertainment Zombie Wars is the superior and little-known sequel to classic shareware platformer Halloween Harry (a.k.a. Alien Carnage) published by Apogee. The plot picks up where the first game left off: the gang…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Gorilla Systems GAME PUBLISHER:Gorilla Systems Copyright 1996, Gorilla Systems FlipOut! is an addictive, funny, and unique puzzler from Gorilla Systems, first released for Ataris Jaguar console. It is very difficult to describe the unique game concept of FlipOut!— it is most similar to those…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Technology Edutainment Network Laboratory GAME PUBLISHER:7th Level Copyright 1997, 7th Level HeliCOPS is an excellent futuristic 3D shooter in the same style as Terminal Velocity, but with a much more diverse gameplay. You play a cop working in Tokyo who pilots the helicop an…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Zero Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Zero Entertainment Copyright 1996, Zero Entertainment POP! is an addictive and unique action/puzzle hybrid from Zero Entertainment that combines lots of hot air with humorous and brain-teasing scenarios. Your job is to guide Pop, a cute balloon dog, to the moon.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Zero Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Zero Entertainment Copyright 1997, Zero Entertainment AlphaNatix (pronounced Al-Fanatics) is a fun and unique puzzler from Zero Entertainment. First (but unfortunately only) in the Action-Word series, the best way to describe the game is Marble Madness meets Scrabble. Like Atari’s long-gone…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Piranha Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Piranha Interactive Copyright 1997, Piranha Interactive Best considered as the sequel to zany Dilberts Desktop Games developed by the same company, Revenge of The Toys is a great collection of fun mini-arcade games you can play from your desktop. The games…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Edward Kilham & Kalani Streicher GAME DEVELOPER:Ronin Entertainment GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1996, Ronin Entertainment Neo Hunter is an ambitious cyberpunk action/puzzle hybrid that unfortunately is bogged down by repetitive action gameplay and far too difficult puzzles. At first glance, the games combination of futuristic setting,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Psygnosis GAME PUBLISHER:Psygnosis Copyright 1996, Psygnosis Giant mech battle games are all the rage these days. From Mech Warrior to Krazy Ivan, theres nothing like climbing into a giant robot and kicking some metal butt. After all, Ripley sure seemed to be having a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Glenn Broadway & James Sharman GAME DEVELOPER:Sales Curve Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1997, Sales Curve Interactive SWIV 3D is a fun follow-up to SWIV, classic Amiga overhead shoot-em up which was in turn the sequel to Silkworm. Games Domain said it all about the appeal of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:FutureVision GAME PUBLISHER:Merit Studios Copyright 1994, Merit Studios Command Adventures: STARSHIP is a decent space combat action game that plays similar to Accolade’s classic Star Control 2, but without the intricacies of any storyline to get in your way 😉 Well, okay, there IS…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Anonymous Azutama is a fun anime-style snowball fighting game, similar to Black Eye Software’s SnowBrawl. The game features characters from the manga (Japanese comic book) series called “Azumanga Daioh”. The gameplay is straightforward: “kill” the required number of opponents…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Blackwell GAME DEVELOPER:Virtually Real GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Virtually Real AuroraDibularos is a cute little driving action game from Virtually Real, makers of Destruction Carnival and other fun freeware games. Simple concept: stay on course for as long as you can, collecting power-ups and bonus…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Pyros GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Pyros Pyros’ Mobile Miners is a decent attempt at revamping the classic 2-player tank combat game Tunneler for the modern day. It doesn’t quite succeed in retaining the addictive gameplay, but it’s still worthy of mention. Essentially instead of…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Innerprise GAME PUBLISHER:Innerprise Copyright 1989, Innerprise Final Orbit is a mundane top-down giant robot action game that plays like the arena portion of BattleTech 1, except a lot more boring and repetitive. Essentially you pilot an egg-shaped robot from top-down, shooting everything in sight…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Housemarque GAME PUBLISHER:GameTek Copyright 1994, Housemarque Stardust is an excellent arcade shoot ’em up that is the clone of classic Asteroids game, and the precursor of Housemarque’s superior Super Stardust released years later. The premise is simple: shoot all the asteroids and other baddies…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Chris Lattner GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1996, Chris Lattner SpiffyPilot is a fun futuristic action game created as a senior project in high school. As the official description puts it, “…you control a ship that can jump, shoot, turn, and accelerate. So far, you can…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Anonymous ABM Command is one of the numerous clones of classic arcade game Missile Command, but this is one of the more faithful ones, with the familiar gray towns and green laser streaks across the sky. If you don’t…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1991, Anonymous One of the first truly good two-player games, Tunneler is best described as the multiplayer version of Digger: two players (using the same keyboard, i.e. hotseat mode) each control a tank that starts out on his/her own base…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:PLBM Games GAME PUBLISHER:PLBM Games Copyright 1997, PLBM Games Gravity Well is one of the better modern remakes of classic Lander. The objective is straightforward: calculate the speed and direction correctly to land your lunar module on each of the bases. Gain more points…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:CAPCOM GAME PUBLISHER:CAPCOM Copyright 1997, CAPCOM A short-lived but excellent entry in CAPCOM’s intermittent line of Mega Man series that is much more famous on console systems than on PC, Mega Man X4 is an excellent platformer that every arcade fan should definitely play.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:CAPCOM GAME PUBLISHER:CAPCOM Copyright 1996, CAPCOM A Reploid scientist named Dr. Doppler begins creation of a new city for Reploids, which will bring a new era of peace to the Reploids and humans. But something goes terribly wrong, and now Mavericks have begun to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:CAPCOM GAME PUBLISHER:CAPCOM Copyright 1995, CAPCOM The first Mega Man game to be produced and marketed in-house by CAPCOM, Mega Man X is an excellent all-around platformer and a capable port of the hit console series. As with earlier games, Mega Man X follows…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Hi-Tech Expressions GAME PUBLISHER:CAPCOM Copyright 1992, CAPCOM Mega Man and Mega Man 3 are two first PC versions of CAPCOM’s blockbuster Mega Man (Rockman in Asia) series of anime platform games. In one of their worst marketing mistakes, CAPCOM gave the task of converting…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Hi-Tech Expressions GAME PUBLISHER:CAPCOM Copyright 1990, CAPCOM Mega Man and Mega Man 3 are two first PC versions of CAPCOM’s blockbuster Mega Man (Rockman in Asia) series of anime platform games. In one of their worst marketing mistakes, CAPCOM gave the task of converting…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:SEGA GAME PUBLISHER:SEGA Copyright 1997, SEGA Sky Target 3D is SEGA’s rather half-hearted attempt to modernize its arcade classic Afterburner for the 1990s. Nothing much to say about this game, other than the fact that it looks and plays like Afterburner, except the enemy…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Beam International GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1997, Beam International Get ready for more nights of masochistic puzzle goodness, because the Lost Vikings need your help once again! In this excellent sequel to The Lost Vikings, the three brothers (Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:GameTek GAME PUBLISHER:GameTek Copyright 1997, GameTek Mutant Penguins is a fun, cute little action game that plays a bit like Lemmings crossed with real-time strategy games like Command & Conquer. The largely irrelevant plot begins with radio and television transmissions from Earth bouncing around…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Taito GAME PUBLISHER:Interplay Copyright 1999, Taito Darius Gaiden is an excellent albeit 5-years-late Windows conversion of Taito?s 1994 hit arcade shoot ?em up of the same name. The plot is inconsequential, but anyway: your objective is to take back the planet Darius from the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Inline Design GAME PUBLISHER:Inline Design Copyright 1990, Inline Design One of the most unique and addictive puzzle game Ive ever come across but also sadly one of the most obscure, Darwins Dilemma is slightly derivative of the old Evolution game, but is much more…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Gossett GAME DEVELOPER:Solid Rock GAME PUBLISHER:Solid Rock Copyright 1992, David Gossett Defender of The Faith is a unique action game based on the story of King David in the Bible. The game is broken into six platform-style levels, each based on an episode in David’s…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Stephen Curtis GAME DEVELOPER:Visionaires GAME PUBLISHER:Visionaires Copyright 1992, Visionaires Gnome Alone is a little-known PC conversion of a little-known Amiga game, developed by UK house Visionaires. In this unique action/strategy game, you play a gnome who, other than being alone, is trying to keep his garden…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Brainchild Design GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1998, Brainchild Design Oh no – Robotron has escaped his familiar walled enclosure and robotic badguys: and is running amok in a Tron Lightcycle! Quick, bounce rubber balls at him!” This is sort of what Quadnet is like. But…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Image Works GAME PUBLISHER:Image Works Copyright 1991, Image Works Interphase is an average action game from Mirrorsoft that disappointingly squanders the license of Neuromancer, classic cyberpunk novel it was based on. Interphase offers two gameplay modes: a typical 2D view of the building you…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:ionos Productions GAME PUBLISHER:ionos Productions Copyright 1997, ionos Productions WarHeads is a simple but very addictive shareware game from ionos Publishing, done in the vein of the classic artillery duels of early computing days. The game is set in an unexplored quadrant of space,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Marti Wong GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Marti Wong Little Fighter 2 is an outstanding sequel to Little Fighter, one of the best beat-em up games ever made, bar none. Like the original classic, Little Fighter 2 is cute, charming, incredibly addictive, and free 😉…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Costa Panayi & Ignacio Gil GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Ignacio Gil Deflektor is an excellent PC remake of the original (well, back then it was) and difficult puzzle game designed by Costa Panayi first for the Spectrum computers. The idea is to rotate various…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Dan Richardson GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2001, Dan Richardson This is the excellent PC remake of Jet Set Willy II, a good sequel to the classic Spectrum game that is unfortunately not as fun to play as the original The game is more or less…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jouni Miettunen GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1994, Jouni Miettunen DRroboWHOids (a name that makes you want to scream at the designer) is a great PC remake of Daleks, a classic UNIX puzzle game that got a new life on the Macintosh as Classic Daleks. In…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Carl McLawhorn GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1988, Carl McLawhorn Ball Race is a unique racing game from Carl McLawhorn, most famous for his multiplayer Trek game in the early 1980s. The game basically lets you race a ball (which looks like a billiard ball) against…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul D’India GAME DEVELOPER:Webfoot Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, Paul D’India The Fourth Generation is a decent side-scrolling shooter from Webfoot that looks good, plays good, but unfortunately is too repetitive to go up against the likes of Gradius. The game can be played in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:PseuDOS GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, PseuDOS A lackluster side-scrolling shooter from Webfoot — one of the worst from this prolific shareware publisher. Not much good to speak of for this clunky shooter designed by Pseudos: boring ship designs, boring levels, and a quite…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jean-Michel Martin GAME DEVELOPER:Webfoot Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, Webfoot Technologies Wrigglers is a fun reflex-oriented puzzler that places the concept of Snake/Nibbles in a puzzle-based environment. The concept is simple: you are a worm (“wriggler”) who must eat all the food on each level.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ian Parberry GAME DEVELOPER:Webfoot Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, Ian Parberry SubHunt is a fun 3D submarine action game designed by professor Ian Parberry and a team of his students at the University of North Texas Recreational Computer Laboratory (which was one of the first…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Roy Manz GAME DEVELOPER:Webfoot Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, Webfoot Technologies Farocar is a fun brainteaser that is similar to classic Soko-Ban, except the levels are not as imaginative. Your objective is to control the ?car? with the arrow keys to push all the game…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Axel Meierhoefer GAME DEVELOPER:XLM Software GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1997, Webfoot Technologies Crazy Gravity is a great rocket-flying game similar to Gravity Force for the Commodore 64. The goal is simple: fly through a system of caverns with your silver spaceship, take freight on board, and…