Category: Arcade and Action Games

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:DMA Design GAME PUBLISHER:Psygnosis Copyright 1989, Psygnosis To cut it short: Everything that made the Amiga version of Blood Money one of the most enjoyable shoot’em ups ever is missing is this PC conversion. So what’s left is a mediocre game– the great soundtrack,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Paul Hunter & Ed Scio GAME DEVELOPER:Psygnosis GAME PUBLISHER:Psygnosis Copyright 1991, Psygnosis Armour-Geddon is a unique 3D combat sim with a nice strategy twist. Your mission: destroy a heavily defended laser weapon by building a fight force and gathering new technologies until strong enough to stop…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Anthony Wilkes GAME DEVELOPER:Electronic Zoo GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Zoo Copyright 1990, Electronic Zoo Electronic Zoo’s Xiphos is relatively unknown first-person sci-fi shooter that recalls Ian Bell’s classic Elite in interface and style, although with a much more simplified and narrow scope. The plot is your typical blast-the-alien…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Team 17 GAME PUBLISHER:Team 17 Copyright 1995, Team 17 One of the best platformers Amiga, the PC version of Team 17’s classic Superfrog is a faithful reproduction of the original (minus the excellent Amiga soundtrack). The game is a good example of a flawless…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Argonaut Software GAME PUBLISHER:Virgin Interactive Copyright 1994, Argonaut Software Creature Shock is one of the worst games ever made and a poignant example of how shallow gameplay can kill the game despite whiz-bang graphics. Let’s first get the (very thin) plot out of the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Game Factory GAME PUBLISHER:Game Factory Copyright 1995, Game Factory One of the best top-down shooters ever made, but also one of the most unknown due to lack of distribution, Baryon takes you on a cruise through alien-infested territory as you collect power-ups and shoot…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ronny Wester GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1996, Ronny Wester The much better sequel to CyberDogs, C-DOGS is a top-down viewed freeware action gem for up to two players, who control elite soldiers about to right the wrongs of the world and cure the bad guys…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ronny Wester GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1994, Ronny Wester Cyberdogs is a simple top-down viewed freeware shooter, where you control a marine (or two in co-operative mode) through a slightly maze-like randomized-looking level in pursuit of different objectives, such as finding some items or defeating…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Miika Virpioja GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 1999, Miika Virpioja Wings is not the old unreleased (though widely traded) Amiga WWI-flight simulator by Cinemaware: it’s yet another of those Finnish games about flying little (usually v-shaped) ships around in a cave, properly armed for a violent…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Selwood GAME DEVELOPER:Domark GAME PUBLISHER:Domark Copyright 1989, Tengen APB is a decent conversion of Atari’s 1987 arcade classic. A fun cartoon-style action game where you slip into the role of Bob, a police officer. Officer Bob patrols the big city in his squad car. Every…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tahir Rashid GAME DEVELOPER:SEGA GAME PUBLISHER:SEGA Copyright 1989, SEGA A decent PC conversion of hit arcade game by SEGA, Alien Syndrome is an addictive top-down action blast. Like the arcade game, there is a two player option, which has the obvious advantage of doubled killing power,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Christophe Andreani GAME DEVELOPER:ERE Informatique GAME PUBLISHER:Accolade Copyright 1988, ERE Informatique Published by Infogrames in France (Europe?), and published by Accolade in most other countries, Bubble Ghost is a simple and fun action-puzzle game in which you control a ghost and have to lead your bubble…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Steve Coleman GAME DEVELOPER:Arcadia GAME PUBLISHER:Arcadia Copyright 1988, Arcadia A decent, “light” action game for 1 or 2 players, Aargh‘s premise is simple: play as either a gigantic lizard or lumbering giant to destroy prehistoric villages. Simple concept, fun execution. You need to watch out for…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Robert Jaeger GAME DEVELOPER:Parker Brothers GAME PUBLISHER:Parker Brothers Copyright 1984, Parker Brothers PANAMA JOE. That’s what they call him ’round these parts; though no one knows his real name or where he comes from. But one thing’s for sure, PANAMA JOE’s a daredevil from the word…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Creative Edge GAME PUBLISHER:Panasonic Interactive Copyright 1995, Creative Edge Baldies is a fun action/puzzle game featuring follically-challenged “Baldies.” Baldies offers an extended gameplay experience that fuses the elements of Dune 2, Populous, and Lemmings, with over 80 levels, 15 special weapons, and five 3D…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:DMA Design GAME PUBLISHER:Electronic Zoo Copyright 1990, Electronic Zoo Welcome to Odin’s world. A land full of good and evil, within which you must become Brian, The Viking Child, whose heroics have been foretold by the prophets and recorded in the oracle of the…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Prestige GAME PUBLISHER:Prestige Copyright 1992, Prestige Locomotion is a decent action/puzzle game with nice VGA graphics and adlib music. The game principle is not new and widely known but well executed. Navigate trains to their destination stations by switching the lines. Things get harder…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:X-ample GAME PUBLISHER:Prestige Copyright 1994, Prestige Doofus is a decent jump’n run by Prestige with colorful graphics, smooth sprites and surprisingly smooth scrolling even under Windows. Also features some nice adlib tracks by Thomas Detert (666). Not too many interesting new ideas in terms…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Jeff Gamon & Robert White GAME DEVELOPER:Unlimited Software GAME PUBLISHER:SEGA Copyright 1990, SEGA Another SEGA arcade conversion done by Unlimited Software. Altered Beast is a typical arcade side-scrolling beat’em up game. You all know it anyway. The conversion doesn’t look too good graphically but plays fairly…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Dreamworks Interactive GAME PUBLISHER:Dreamworks Interactive Copyright 1997, Dreamworks Interactive Dilbert’s Desktop Games is a fun diversion for your computer that unfortunately becomes quickly repetitive. Dilbert is best known, of course, as the daily comic strip by Scott Adams that has become extremely popular in…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Curt Toumanian GAME DEVELOPER:LIVE Studios GAME PUBLISHER:LIVE Studios Copyright 1990, LIVE Studios I’ll let MobyGames’ excellent rap sheet for this great action/puzzle collection speak for itself: “Future Classics Collection is a collection of five distinctly-themed, well-balanced games that stress action and strategy equally. Future Classics was…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Domark GAME PUBLISHER:Domark Copyright 1991, Domark PC conversion of Taito’s 1990 arcade game Super Space Invaders ’91. As you would expect, it’s the classic shoot’em up you all know, updated with lots of different extra weapons, various background graphics, a co-operative two-player mode and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Domark GAME PUBLISHER:Domark Copyright 1991, Tengen Well, to make it short: Pit-Fighter is a horrible conversion of Atari’s arcade beat’em up. The arcade game was actually very good with nice digitized sprites and some cool effects, but the animations and graphics of the PC…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Domark GAME PUBLISHER:Domark Copyright 1990, Tengen Back in the late Eighties, Atari Games lost the Tetris license to Nintendo. Rather than admit defeat, the company instead set out to out-Tetris Tetris with a brand-new tile puzzle game for the arcade titled Klax — a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Scipio GAME PUBLISHER:Hudson Copyright 1993, Hudson Yo! Joe! is a nice two-player jump’n run game by Scipio, published by Hudson/Play Byte (Blue Byte). The option for two players to play together is not seen very often in this kind of game, so this differentiates…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Emerald Software GAME PUBLISHER:US Gold Copyright 1989, Emerald Software Moonwalker is a typical movie-licensed title with various different action levels, although it’s quite unique in a sense that it’s based on a musical movie– starring Michael Jackson, no less. The game has 4 levels,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Cedric Mullillan Jr. GAME DEVELOPER:Team 17 GAME PUBLISHER:Team 17 Copyright 1993, Team 17 Body Blows is dead average conversion of Team 17’s Amiga beat’em up classic. Features the usual arcade, a tournament and a two player game mode. Nice and easy controls. Nothing fancy here definitely…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Team 17 GAME PUBLISHER:Team 17 Copyright 1994, Team 17 Fairly good conversion of the third game in Team 17’s popular Alien Breed series for the Amiga. Tower Assault the only other game after to the first one that made it from the Amiga to…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Andreas Tadic & Peter Tuleby GAME DEVELOPER:Team 17 GAME PUBLISHER:Team 17 Copyright 1993, Team 17 Excellent conversion of Team 17’s big 1991 Amiga hit. Alien Breed is a top-down science fiction shooter somewhat inspired by the movie Alien in terms of plot and atmosphere. Gameplay, though,…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Crew242 GAME PUBLISHER:Lifetimes Copyright 1995, Lifetimes Future Dimension is a very cool arcade quality shoot’em up by Crew242 and Lifetimes. The game features great fast graphics and nice in-game MOD music. There are 3D levels as well as the classic vertical and horizontal scrolling…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:David Spicer GAME DEVELOPER:Codemasters GAME PUBLISHER:Codemasters Copyright 1993, Codemasters A cute little platform game starring you as Steg, the slug (yes, slug) whose objective is to rescue little larvae (slud kiddies) from imprisonment. Similar to Lemmings, you are given the specific number of slugs you must…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Webfoot Technologies GAME PUBLISHER:Webfoot Technologies Copyright 1996, Webfoot Technologies H2O is a fun action/puzzle game that adds nice twists to the tried-and-true Tetris clones. As the name suggests, H2O is about water– lots of it. Drops of water fall from the top of a…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Neon Studios GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN Copyright 1996, Neon Studios A solid PC conversion of Neon’s PlayStation 3D action shooter Tunnel B1. You glide around with your B1 hovercraft through dark futuristic tunnels shooting everything that moves. Overall, this is a nice action shooter with decent…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Image Works GAME PUBLISHER:Mirrorsoft Copyright 1990, Mirrorsoft Less-than-average conversion of Atari’s arcade game Blasteroids, which hit the arcades in 1987. Ok, compared to the excellent arcade game this PC version looks and plays like a bad joke. 😉 The object of the game is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Manfred Trenz GAME DEVELOPER:Sun-Project GAME PUBLISHER:Rainbow Arts Copyright 1990, Rainbow Arts Ok, let’s face it: Factor 5’s Turrican II was one of the best games to see its light on the Amiga and is probably the best action game ever produced on any platform. 4 years(!)…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Frank Prasse & Martin Gaksch GAME DEVELOPER:Palladix GAME PUBLISHER:Rainbow Arts Copyright 1990, Rainbow Arts Rock ‘n Roll is a cool action/puzzle game by Rainbow Arts that adds a lot of nice touches to the roll-the-ball-to-the-exit norm of action/puzzle games. The Amiga game just rocks and is…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Brain Bug GAME PUBLISHER:Rainbow Arts Copyright 1994, Rainbow Arts Lollypop is a good jump’n run game (there aren’t that many good ones for the IBM-PC) by Brain Bug. One of the later games Rainbow Arts released. Very cute! The in-game graphics are excellent and…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Golden Goblins GAME PUBLISHER:Rainbow Arts Copyright 1989, Rainbow Arts Fun mini-games collection comparable to Epyx’s sports series, but set in an unusual scenario of a circus. Circus Attractions was published by a company called Golden Goblins. I only heard very few from them back…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:US Gold GAME PUBLISHER:US Gold Copyright 1991, US Gold Fairly poor action game based on the “Mafia” movie series of the same name. Yet again another typical movie-licensed title – as seen so often from U.S. Gold. Features five scenes or levels loosely related…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Emerald Software GAME PUBLISHER:Brderbund Copyright 1989, Emerald Software If It Moves, Shoot It! is a classic top-down shooter by Emerald Software. The graphics in general are very well drawn, especially the detailed level backgrounds. One of the few classic shoot-em ups on the PC.…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Martin Kenwright GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Image Design (DID) GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN Copyright 1992, Digital Image Design (DID) Nowadays, DID is famous for having developed ground-breaking flight sims like TFX, EF2000 and F-22. But before that there was Epic, a 3D space combat simulator. Back then in 1992, this…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Frank Prasse GAME DEVELOPER:Assembly Line, The GAME PUBLISHER:Audiogenic Copyright 1990, Audiogenic A faithful conversion of Gottlieb’s 1989 arcade game that was practically unknown outside Germany. Exterminator is an unusual shoot’em up with some nifty ideas, although it may be too strange for most people. The plot…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Ian Upton GAME DEVELOPER:Audiogenic GAME PUBLISHER:Audiogenic Copyright 1990, Audiogenic Another nice little puzzle game that’s just right to play in that little break, Loopz is a faithful PC version of classic Atari game for the Atari ST computer. The game idea is fairly simple: place random…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Audiogenic GAME PUBLISHER:Audiogenic Copyright 1988, Audiogenic Impact! is a quite good Breakout clone by Audiogenic with simple graphics but they do their job quite well. The bonus-system works a bit different to the usual Arkanoid way, in that you pick up an “extra-increaser” item…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Herman Serrano & James Hutchby GAME DEVELOPER:Rainbird GAME PUBLISHER:Rainbird Copyright 1990, Rainbird Weird Dreams is a very original surrealistic action/puzzle hybrid that is frustratingly difficult. The premise is strange but simple: you are a hospital patient, being put to sleep during a surgery. You then start…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Geoff Crammond GAME DEVELOPER:Firebird GAME PUBLISHER:Firebird Copyright 1987, Firebird One of the most original games of all time, The Sentinel is one of Geoff Crammond’s early games, and quite an unusual one for him as it is everything but a racing game. The PC version, like…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Tim Roberts & Andrew King GAME DEVELOPER:Firebird GAME PUBLISHER:Firebird Copyright 1989, Firebird P-47 is a good PC conversion of Jaleco’s arcade game of the same name. A decent side-scrolling shoot’em up set in World War II. Two players can fight their way through at the same…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:Banpresto GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Banpresto A cute action game starring Skuld, the goddess from hit Japanese anime Ah! Megami-sama! (Ah! My Goddess!) series, Skuld is a fun mini-action game that features great animation, sounds, and addictive (albeit simplistic) gameplay. True to her job…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER:Choopan Rattanapooka & Prapapan Thongmuang GAME DEVELOPER:Freeware GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, Choopan Rattanapooka & Prapapan Thongmuang A fun computer version of well-known “spot the difference” games that were popular in kids’ magazines, Picture Hunter features dozens of images to. Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who…

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs GAME DESIGNER: GAME DEVELOPER:ZapSpot GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware Copyright 2000, ZapSpot A fun and innovative variation of Taito’s classic arcade game Qix, FenceOut is a fun little game in which you are a farmer who must set up fences to domesticate wild animals. Your goal in FenceOut is to…