Inspired by Deadspin’s excellent recurring Let’s Remember Some Guys series, let’s remember some video games.
- Dark Sector
- Bushido Blade
- Tobal
- Red Steel
- Solstice
- Vectorman
- Yoshi’s Cookie
- Faxanadu
- Beyond the Beyond
- Rival Schools
- Fester’s Quest
- Torin’s Passage
- Milon’s Secret Castle
- Joe & Mac
- Hexen: Beyond Heretic
- Kid Chameleon
- Lair
- Elite Beat Agents
- Black & White
- Brave Fencer Musashi
- Amazon Trail
- The Legend of the Mystical Ninja
God, I remember all those video games. What’re some video games you remember?
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.
Comments
55 responses to “Let’s Remember Some Video Games”
Toonstruck with Christopher Loyd, what a classic game.
Also Rebel Moon Rising another great PC game.
Indiana Jones & His Desktop Adventures. Pretty sure me and the guy doing the one playthrough on YouTube are the only people to have ever played it.
Pretty sure I am the only one who ever enjoyed it.
I loved the idea of the desktop games, as fast, accessible rogue-likes, I just never found them much fun. Even as their intended lunch time diversions.
There’s good reason for that. They weren’t much fun Badger old pal. Not much fun at all.
Was that like Yoda Stories?
Yes! I had Yoda Stories on Game Boy
I had it on PC. I remember playing it for hours and hours. I think there was a short campaign mode (of sorts) then it would just randomise the elements and you’d be playing the same handful of missions over and over again. It took me ages to realise because I never really got bored with it.
http://kotaku.com/5841946/this-star-wars-game-was-so-bad-they-should-have-made-more-of-them
Man I have an itch to play it again now. 😛
I remember that they had the demo of both on floppy disks.
Being a wee lad It never occurred to me that they were demo’s and I just assumed I wasn’t very good at beating them.
I played a demo of that!
I feel for your Reddy, the redeeming features include the opening credits with the picture of Indiana Jones, and the end. The end just because it let you know you would never have to play it again.
But you would play it again, because its raining outside, your sick of Monster Truck Madness, your 11 and you hate yourself.
Desktop adventures rocked!
These two niche games come to mind:
* Panzer Dragoon Saga
* The Legend of Dragoon
I remember the amazon trail, it came on a CD with my old Compaq Presario back in the days.
Never did too well in it, either i died from malaria or drowning from capsizing the canoe.
I never stopped thinking about Elite Beat Agents
And you never should. So weird and fun.
chips challenge
What, that’s it, you just list a bunch of titles that come to mind? OK then. Here are a couple that have been on my mind recently.
Tombi (PSX, cute, funny, excellent mix of platformer and RPG)
Gargoyle’s Quest (gameboy, I really like RPG/platformer hybrids)
Rent – a – Hero (PC graphic adventure, honestly not a great game, but the setting and idea of mercenary, princess saving heroes really stuck with me)
The Sting! (Open world heist game where you plan an operation by recording your actions, then replay them to see the outcome. Interesting idea, questionable implementation)
Man how great was Gargoyle’s Quest, spent many a day head butting windows on the Snes version, had amazing visual quality for a snes game as well. 😀
Oh yeah, Demon’s Crest was great. That intro, opening cold with a giant boss fight and then opening up to the 3D map view. Loved it.
Have been playing Tinker and the city of colours on ps4, treat it like a next gen Tombi and you’re in for some fun 😉
Never heard of that, but it looks really nice from the trailer. Might have to check it out, cheers!
Mannnnnnn Bushido’s Blade…. what an amazing fighting game for its day… loved being able to cut my friends legs and arms so they could only roll on the ground while i ran off to cut down BULK bamboo 😀
Still waiting for Bushido Blade 3* for PS2…then PS3…now PS4….damnit!
Still great to pull out and put the original disk into the PS3 sometimes and squint so the massive jaggies and block models aren’t so painful on a HDTV haha. But then you get used to it and the game is awesome once again.
2-Player versus, first to 50….go!!!
*BB2 was released overseas. Played a copy of it and they changed the mechanics a bit. Didn’t like it as much.
We do first to 100, only katanas allowed.
Using an emulator and save states i finally managed to play as the guy with the gun. Turns out he’s crap to play as.
My brother actually unlocked him legitimately.
His gun can block swords! But if you miss that first shot as soon as the fight begins, you’re screwed.
Well, there was Kengo, which is very similar to bushido blade without being able to disable limbs. Still though it was a superior game.
Then of course one of my favourite games on PS2, Kengo 2 aka Sword of the Samurai. Which was huge, sprawling ambiguous samurai chopper.
They made another called Kengo 3, which apparently was awesome but I never played it because I don’t speak Japanese.
Then they made Kengo zero and that sucked.
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
Remember this PC game.
Airbourne Ranger
Ports of Call
Leisure Suit Larry: Land of the Lounge Lizard and Passionate Patti in Pursuit of the Pulsating Pectorals
Turrican!
Hexen and Elite Beat Agents are the only ones I played on that list . Eek!
Something I’ve found interesting recently is that I have really fond memories of the games I never got to play as a kid. The ones that you read about in magazines or hint guides, or were told about by friends. Maybe you played them for an afternoon while visiting someone, but then never again.
These are the games that still hold magic to me. I never got to see behind the curtain, I just dreamed of the incredible experiences held within.
Later, as I started getting into game development, they were the ones that I tried to re-create. It’s a fascinating experiment to sit down and try to clone a game you’ve never played, then to go back and actually give the original a go.
After a friend of mine won a Westfield’s shopping screen and one of the cool things they bought was a Nintendo 64, I started buying Nintendo Magazine every month for about two years, because I was certain I would buy an N64 someday soon. I hoarded them for game guides and codes that I just knew would one day be useful, dutifully sticking the centrefold posters to the walls, gazing upon promotional images for games I would one day soon own and master.
Never owned an N64 until years later my girlfriend bought one on eBay with Mario Kart and a stack of old WWE wrestling games for $50. We played Mario Kart once and sold the rest of the games to Game Traders for $23,
Man, that story really nose dives at the end. It’s as if I got to the third page of a kids book and read ‘Hairy Maclary tested his luck, stepped into the street and got killed by a truck. Go to sleep. ‘
You should have tried the wrestling games. Some of the n64 ones were a lot of fun.
I’m an interesting guy stuck in an ordinary life, I’m afraid.
Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
MDK
Populous
Total Annihilation
I miss Bullfrog… TA is still one of the best RTS games of all time. Supreme Commander was good… but it wasn’t TA.
I’m an RPG fan, so here’s my list (not listing the obvious ones like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Tales series, etc.):
Terranigma
Secret of Evermore
Illusion of Time
Lufia
Lunar: Silver Star Story
Lunar: Eternal Blue
Saga Frontier
Jade Cocoon
Skies of Arcadia
Vagrant Story
Valkyrie Profile
Man I loved jade cocoon, still got the disc for jade cocoon 2 lying around somewhere. Now I’m going to have to find it so I can play through it again
Jade cocoon was excellent although unexpectedly short. This list is also missing suikoden 🙂
I have all the Suikoden’s, but never actually played them.
Keep seeing the articles on Kotaku about how 2 was the best game ever…I’ll get around to it one day. =P
Never got into turn-based RPGs but man give me Terranigma, Mana and Illusion of Time anyday.
Sub terrania, that soundtrack!
Harpoon 2 was a game.
Sid Meier’s Stealth Fighter F117-A: Nighthawk 2.0 was also a video game.
Remember Major Stryker? I do. It was a game.
Daffodil Quest III: Search for the Kingdom of the Golden Bulb was NOT a video game. >:(
The Last Ninja (and the sequel)
River Raid
Raid On Bungeling Bay
Eye Of The Beholder
Leisure Suit Larry (the original)
Solomon’s Key
Simon The Sorcerer
California Games
Trasnport Tycoon
Star Crusader
Blade Runner
KKnD
Burning Rangers
Rapid Reload
Bioforge
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Windjammers (The greatest Neo Geo game ever)
The mention of Joe and Mac makes me remember Power Spike Volleyball (they were next to each other in my bowling alley game room). I played that way too much.
Bahamut Lagoon
One of my all time favorite games growing up was Traffic Department 2192. Man did I get sucked into that story line and awesome game play. Thing is, no-one I’ve ever spoken too ever played it. Was I the only one?
So I’m guessing rather obscure games is the theme?
-Tetris Attack
-Bram Stoker’s Dracula
-Tiny Toons’ Buster Busts Loose
-Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage
-Stunt Race FX
-Uniracers
-Tales of Phantasia
-Threads of Fate
Scram, played on a DEC Alpha
Psychic5 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv74Jx5em9g
Wardner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVO1ZOS6jls
Elevator Action Returns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_8EsyHHrvw
Rygar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPuqr_aZZC8
Darklands
Sword of the Samurai on PC 1988
Covert action
Ravens Loft
Tenchu
Also anyone remember a Wizard RPG. It was released in the mid – late 90s. Was top down looked like an RTS. Like warcraft. You would basically battle through a map, at the end you would level up and save, then continue one. Was pretty fun.
Army Men was awesome imo.
In no particular order. Here is a list that I really enjoyed playing.
Quake 3 Arena
IK+
Leaderboard Golf
Way of the Exploding Fist
The Last Ninja
Jumpman
Wizball
Barbarian
Skate or Die
Uridium
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Sensible World of Soccer
Lemmings
Out of this World
Flashback
Speedball 2
Worms
Monty Mole
Mr Do!
Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
Double Dragon