A few years ago LucasArts released Shadows of the Empire as one of the flagship Nintendo 64 titles. It was a mixed bag, consisting mostly of mundane corridor shooters. However, there was one stage which stood out among the rest: the snowspeeder battle at Hoth. Critics such as myself wished that Shadows could have been more like the first stage, nothing but exciting ground-level flight sequences. LucasArts took our ideas to heart, and incorporated German based developers Factor 5 (known primarily for the Turrican series on the 16-bit systems) to create Rogue Squadron. Rogue Squadron takes place right after the … Continue reading Rogue Squadron will woo Star Wars fans→
Konami’s "Contra Adventure" is clearly a big disappointment in the Contra series. This game should have been taken back to the drawing board for some serious rework. For those hardcore Contra fanatics who were anxiously awaiting this new sequel, put your gear up, unlace your boots, clean out your weapons, stash your ammo and hope for a better sequel next year. This year’s storyline basically goes like this: You must save the planet from Red Falcon and its alien brood by infiltrating the ancient Mayan Temple and putting a stop to the activity going on there. Your government feels the … Continue reading This Contra isn’t revolutionary→
Lucas Learning Ltd. has created a dream program for any Star Wars fans out there who ever fantasized of building their own droids. This game is called Star Wars DroidWorks and it amazingly combines entertainment and scientific learning all into one. Parents should have as much fun solving the many puzzles in the game as their children, making DrowdWorks a truly rare find. As you enter the program, you are told that the Empire, the bad eggs of the Star Wars universe, are busy building assassin droids at a hidden droid factory on the planet Tatooine. The Rebels need one … Continue reading DroidWorks uses Star Wars gang as a powerful learning tool→
Wow. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Interplay’s Heart of Darkness. One of the best things Interplay ever did was to divide its development houses into different areas of expertise. Heart comes from Tantrum, the action game side of the family. With low system requirements making it accessible to nearly anyone who bought a computer sometime in the past four years (66 MHz required), simple controls and a story line that appeals to both adults and children, Heart is destined for greatness. In early GiN industry awards voting (see our Web page if you have … Continue reading Heart of Darkness has soul of adventures past→
Who said that all action games had to involve a lead character running through corridors, shooting everyone in sight? Fortunately, a young man named Hideo Kojima changed this idea back in 1987 when he released a simple game to Konami entitled Metal Gear. The concept was unlike any other, as it required smarts and stealth, rather than brute force to complete your objective. MG was released for both the MSX computer in Japan, and on the Nintendo Entertainment System (under Konami’s Ultra Games label) with high success. Then, in 1990, two versions of Metal Gear 2 were released. The MSX … Continue reading Metal Gear Solid packs awesome punch→
Imagine a game where up to four players are navigating a top-down maze. They are constantly threatened by monsters, traps, thieves, curses and continually declining health. Their only means of survival is to find an exit on each level while collecting helpful items like scrolls, health, keys and various enhancement. Sound familiar? It should and it shouldn’t. I’m talking about Get Medieval by Monolith a great game out for the PC. But if you said "that sounds a lot like Gauntlet," give yourself half credit. Let me make something clear. Part of the appeal of Get Medieval is due to … Continue reading Get Medieval will woo Gauntlet fans, crush competition→
To win Captain Claw, a player must be a god–or at least play like one. This scrolling adventure game long descended from Pitfall, follows the journey of a ship-commander cat and his attempts to piece together a map and find the Jewels of Nine Lives. From Monolith Studios, the game spins off a DVD-ROM. But only between the game action does Captain Claw take true benefit of the digital versatile disk technology. As the adventure proceeds and the fierce feline works his way through levels, the story unfold in Saturday-morning-cartoon-quality bits. Unfortunately, on first installation, the cartoons were without audio … Continue reading Monolith’s Captain Claw DVD game not quite perrrrfect→
Gran Turismo is now available for the PC! Well, not exactly. Sure it would be nice to see Sony’s racing masterpiece released for the PC, but I’m afraid that won’t be happening for a while. Fortunately, I have found an alternative. If it’s not available for the PC, then how about patching your Sony PlayStation to a PC monitor? It can happen now, thanks to Aims’ new Jam! device, recently debuted at E3. The Jam device connects your PlayStation or Nintendo 64 from the A/V port (a special cable is provided for both systems), and is outputted into the VGA … Continue reading Jam device offers gamers high-resolution fun→
Well, there are some great Electronic Arts releases, and then there are just some okay ones. MotoRacer is one of those mediocre releases that doesn’t deliver too much in the way of details. It is a down and dirty, bare bones, get-on-your-bike-and-go kind of game. It is our observation that not much went into the development of this game. It almost seems that it was released to hold gamers over until Road Rash 3-D is released. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t have it’s good points. There is a thrill to this game, and if you’re looking for … Continue reading Moto Racer delivers the dirt, but not the details→
Reboot is a very enjoyable game, whether you’re a fan of the television series or not. For those who have not seen the show, it’s about a group of people who live inside a computer and have to protect the mainframe from intrusions like viruses and people playing games. The main character is the guardian of the mainframe, Bob. In the PlayStation version of the game, Bob moves effortlessly aboard his Zipboard, trying to rid the mainframe of tears that sap it of its energy. Control is accurate as you get the hang of the physics of the zipboard, sort … Continue reading ReBoot→
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