Game Review: Mickey Mania (Sega Mega Drive)

Developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Sony Imagesoft in 1994

Video games featuring cartoon characters, particularly those from the Disney pantheon, were a prevalent and successful genre throughout the days of the 16-bit consoles. With bright colours, family-friendly gameplay and a wealth of material to draw upon, they were an easy sell to gamers and, invariably, were among some of the best games available.

As I recall, there was a fair amount of hype surrounding Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse in the run up to it's launch. With bold graphics and detailed animation, the game was intended to be as close to an interactive Disney cartoon as possible.

Game Review: First Samurai (Commodore 64)

Developed by Vivid Image and published by Image Works in 1992

By 1992, the 16-bit revolution was in full swing. Sega was leading the charge across the pond in the U.S. with the Sega Genesis, whilst the Commodore Amiga 500 and Atari ST computers were finding their way into millions of households across Europe.

Vivid Image would release First Samurai for the Amiga and ST in 1991 and it quickly gained a reputation as one of the most impressive titles available at the time. The Amiga version, in particular, was renowned for it's sumptuous graphics and digitised audio effects, not to mention being a solid arcade action game. The game reviewed extremely favourably in just about all of the mainstream gaming publications of the day with Amiga Action, the magazine that I subscribed to, awarding it 94%.

Game Review: Double Dragon Reloaded

Developed by Magggas and released in 2017

Download: https://gamejolt.com/games/double_dragon_reloaded_alternate/255630

Those of you who have followed me on YouTube for a while will know I'm a big fan of Double Dragon, possibly the greatest of all 80's side-scrolling beat 'em ups. It was practically impossible for me to walk past a cabinet running the game and NOT put 10 pence in the slot for a quick game!

Whilst on my travels through the interwebs, I came across an OpenBOR project that really caught my eye. For those unfamiliar with OpenBOR, it's basically an open-sourced version of the Beats of Rage engine, a development kit designed specifically to allow developers to create side-scrolling beat 'em up games. There are numerous games available to download and try out, but this has to be my favourite so far!

Game Review: Syndicate (PC)

Developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts in 1993

Set in a dystopian future where the wealth and power of corporations rivals that of governments, Eurocorp perfects a new microprocessor, known as the CHIP. Inserted at the base of the neck, the chip alters the perception of the host so that they see the world as they wish to; the ultimate hallucinogenic. However, the CHIP also gives host corporation access to any memories and information present in the host's brain, including bank details and other sensitive information.

As an executive within one of these syndicates, it is up to you to take control of global CHIP production using your team of cybernetically enhanced agents and to ruthlessly crush all who might stand in your way.

Game Review: First Samurai (Commodore Amiga)

Developed by Vivid Image and published by Image Works in 1991

In one of my previous videos, I referred to what I considered to be the triumvirate of games that defined the era of the Amiga home computer: Shadow of the Beast; Agony and First Samurai. Each of these games raised the bar in terms of what we could expect from a computer game. In my opinion, First Samurai stands apart from the other two games as it not only looks phenomenal, but it is the most fun to play.

The game had an attract mode that features the first level boss, the dragon. I remember standing outside a Tandy's store-front, simply gazing at the game running on a TV in the window display. The TV was actually a small black and white portable, which would have come nowhere near doing the game justice, yet it still looked amazing!

Game Review: Dick Tracy (Commodore 64)

Developed and published by Titus Software in 1990

Back when I started doing longplay videos, I knew I was going to start with the venerable Commodore 64. It's library of software was enormous and I owned a great many games during it's lifespan, but I had no idea which game to choose when starting out.

I could have picked from any of the critically acclaimed jewels in the C64's crown, but the first thought that leapt into my mind was to start with one that was so abysmal that anyone who played it would remember the experience for decades to come.
At the time of recording I knew nothing about codecs, cropping videos and I didn't even bother to write these reviews; something I'm keen to correct with this new video.

Game Review: Phobia (Commodore 64)

Developed by Tony Crowther/David Bishop/John Cook and published by Image Works in 1989

It's been a while since I've covered a C64 game, so I thought I'd rectify that by taking a look at Phobia, a horizontal shoot 'em up by Tony Crowther and David Bishop.

The Galactic Emperor's daughter has been kidnapped by an evil entity known only as Phobos. This dastardly individual has retreated so a distant solar system and it's fallen upon your shoulders to embark on a rescue mission and take out Phobos in the process.

Unfortunately, things have been made a little more complicated by the fact that the princess is being held inside the system's sun. Your ship's hull cannot hope to withstand the sun's heat, so the only means of protecting yourself is to locate components of a special shield that has been scattered across other planets in the system. To make matters worse, each planet has a defence system that taps into the human psyche, playing on all manner of underlying fears and phobias that must be conquered if you are to succeed.