Interestingly, every door in this place is locked so you have to explore each room, looking for code combinations to make progress.
Which is criminal because it is a tense, sprawling combination of Metroid and Impossible Mission, pitching the player into a maze-like enemy base looking for crucial diskettes filled with valuable information. Though successful in Europe, Sega's 8bit Master System console nose-dived in Japan and the US so this tough, multi-directional platformer has faded from memory. Return Fire (Silent Software/Prolific, 3DO/PC/PlayStation, 1995) Like the Monty Mole series, which made satirical references to the miners' strike, it says things about the country at that time. Wally is so distraught about the possibility of losing his job at the car factory, he sleep walks his way to a solution. Like Jet Set Willy, it is filled with surreal puzzles and weird enemies, but in its detailed depiction of Wally's modest terrace home, it reveals one of the charms of early-eighties British games: they weren't always about space heroes or ludicrous anthropomorphised critters they were sometimes about normal people worrying about everyday things. Created by lone coder Chris Hinsley, Pyjamarama is a platforming adventure, starring loveable everyman Wally Week who has forgotten to set his alarm clock, and must now wander the house in a somnambulist state, looking for the key to wind it up. Freedom Fighters (EA/IO Interactive, GameCube/PS2/Xbox, 2003)Įveryone of a certain age recalls Britsoft favourites like Jet Set Willy, Skool Daze and Attack of the Mutant Camels, but many of the more nuanced classics are slipping from collective memory. Meanwhile, many of the original development team went on to form Precursor Games and planned a spiritual successor named Shadow of the Eternals which sadly failed to hit its crowdfunding target last year. A proposed sequel never materialised, despite Nintendo renewing the trademark as recently as 2012. Critically acclaimed, but with its mature rating, Nintendo fans weren't quite sure what to make of it. The narrative and locations are creepy and unsettling, but the best part is the sanity meter which drops when you encounter enemies, causing visual disturbances and even tricking you into believing your TV has broken. The powerful artifact provides a portal to a selection of previous lives, all of which must be experienced by the player in order to prevent an ancient evil from re-surfacing. Developed by Canadian studio Silicon Knights and originally meant for the N64, Eternal Darkness is a fascinating Lovecraftian romp following student Alexandria Roivas as she investigates a book known as the Tome of Eternal Darkness. Resident Evil 4 wasn't the only standout survival horror experience on Nintendo's under-rated GameCube system. Alter Ego (Activision, C64/PC/Apple II, 1986)
And when the face huggers leap at you it is terrifying. There's also a brilliantly unsettling take on the movie's motion tracker sound effect that ramps up the scare factor considerably. Although movement is essentially limited to left and right (firing at doors lets you pass through them), the action is tense, and the importance of quick accurate aiming hints at the FPS genre to come.
Players have to guide six of the film's characters through the colony base, toward the queen's lair. It's essentially a prototype first-person shooter, complete with moveable targeting reticule. Aliens: The Computer Game (Software Studios/Electric Dreams Software, C64/Spectrum, 1986)Īctivision developed a higher profile tie-in with the movie, but this version is far superior and has lasting significance in game design terms. The first-person view and smooth sensation of movement were astonishing at the time (especially considering it ran on the older 16k Spectrum), and it no doubt prepared the way for future variations on the free-roaming driving game. Written by lone coder Mervyn Estcourt (who also produced a PC remake almost 20 years later), this remarkably progressive 3D chase game gets the player to ride a futuristic motorbike through dense woodland, attempting to track down and shoot enemy riders. 3D Deathchase (Micromega, ZX Spectrum, 1983) What have I forgotten? What crimes against video game nostalgia have I committed? Add your own favourites in the comments section.
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