Retro Gamer

I’ll go for Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, it looks and sounds amazing and is fantastic to play as well. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Assassin’s Cree

Blaze Entertainment recently excited Evercade owners with six new cartridge packs that will be heading to its systems by the year’s end. Utilising a Nintendo-style Direct structure, Evercade Showcase Vol 1 proved a big success for Blaze, with its hea

One of the things I’ve always loved about the early days of gaming is that it was always easy to identify a system just by looking at the graphics of its games. That’s a lot harder today, but during those halcyon days you could easily tell an Amstrad

PS3 delays have pleased reader Dan Parks, who says, “I’m not console-bashing or anything, I just think it would be better for everyone if Nintendo and Microsoft had a more even share of the market.” “The graphics are pretty good, but Willis’ quips ar

1 – Cars (THQ) 2 – Reservoir Dogs (Eidos) 3 – Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Legend Of Jack Sparrow (Ubisoft) 4 – Formula One 06 (Sony) 5 – The Godfather (EA) 1 – Prey (2K Games) 2 – The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth II (EA) 3 – Rocks

The Nintendo Entertainment System, and its Japanese counterpart the Famicom, need no introduction – if you’re reading this magazine, you’ll know that the 8-bit hardware catapulted Nintendo to a position of global leadership in the videogame business,

■ The player’s wizard is hopelessly outclassed against higher-level computer opponents. Level the playing field by beefing up your character’s defence (Magic Shield and Armour) and attack (Magic Knife, Sword and Bow). The latter items prove to be qui

Having had moderate success with Battlecars and Rebelstar Raiders in 1985, Julian Gollop subsequently unleashed what many consider his masterpiece, at least on the ZX Spectrum computer. Don’t let those unassuming graphics fool you – Chaos (sometimes

■ Each creature (and wizard) has a Magic Resistance rating which protects it from magical attacks and subversion spells. ■ Disbelieve is the only infinite-use spell. ■ Pressing ‘I’ during combat handily divulges a unit’s stats. ■ Unlike the Magic Woo

Being the platform that the game was created on, this is the superior version. Big, colourful graphics and great music that plays throughout all contribute to the atmosphere perfectly. The satisfying crunching sound effect when you eat people also ma

TYPE: WIZARD BUFF ALIGNMENT: NEUTRAL BASE CASTING CHANCE: ■ Magic Wings transforms you into a flying wizard, able to escape danger and attack from relative safety. TYPE: WIZARD BUFF ALIGNMENT: LAW BASE CASTING CHANCE: ■ Difficult to cast but an inval

Although the Famicom was the first Nintendo console to include a traditional control pad, the company had plenty of experience in designing controllers – and contrary to most companies, which drew upon arcade standards, Nintendo chose to use the expe

■ Not only did the NES version of Puzznic gain an extra 16 stages but it also included a bonus game, Gravnic, designed for expert players. “Are you ready for the next step?” asked the game’s manual. “Gravnic will really test your puzzle-solving skill

YOU’D PREVIOUSLY PROGRAMMED THE C64 VERSION OF FLYING SHARK. DID IT SUIT YOU, WORKING ON A SIMPLER CONVERSION? It did make a change doing something different than another scrolling game. It had its own issues though, for example making sure the block

■ This is the very first enemy that Lex encounters when he wakes up. It tries to put you back to sleep, but a solid kick sends it into your cell’s energy barrier, opening up the game. ■ Caynan was originally the former Mondite chief of security, but

There’s more to your trusty droid companion, B-12, than you might first suspect. Hunting around the world will see you find more of its memories. Just like a real cat would, the world of Stray is littered with opportunities for your feline to have a

■ Or Pachislot Aruze Kingdom Pocket Ohanabi, to give its full legal name. This rather tenuous inclusion is based on the real pachislot machine released in 1998, which has a fireworks festival theme. Of the many gambling games on the Neo Geo Pocket Co

>> We’ve been wandering around town picking fights this month, but we managed to squeeze a review of Street Fighter 6 in too. We’ve also got Lego Pac-Man Arcade, D Life, a truly gigantic book and the latest Katamari game for your consideration If you

It’s rare you get a coffee table book that’s so large it could almost be used as a table itself. The gargantuan size of Taschen’s new book makes a lot more sense once you peruse its many gorgeous high-res images, as the tome’s size really allows you

<“We’ve made some changes for the forthcoming release. If there’s one game I hope retro gamers will discover and enjoy, it’s Magic Bubble.” /> <“Our first project – and we nailed the gameplay. We’ll put it up against any beat-’em-up on the system in

Tars Nunian of the Marked Brotherhood has stolen the enemy Kisur war plans and is taking them to the Council on Astra Nova to stop a planned invasion. But his ship, along with the intelligent computer Thuvia, is diverted by a strange energy re

It has to be Scorpion. He was the first character I used in the arcade and his Fatality was one of the easiest to pull off. Plus, “Get over here!” has to be one of the most iconic sayings in videogame history. It’s a cross between Raiden and Kitana.

Moustaches, receding hairlines, thick-rim glasses and heavy ‘dad vibes’ were all par for the course at Video Games And Computer Entertainment (VG&CE). It was dorky, but I always liked it. Your Sinclair. Loved their anarchic humour, as well as their n

What’s the most technically impressive NES game? Batman: Return Of The Joker would be my vote. It’s better looking than the Genesis game and loads of fun. Big sprites, parallax scrolling and a great Sunsoft score. If you are including Famicom games t

Editor Darran ‘Castlevania III’ Jones darran.jones@futurenet.com 0330 3906443 Art Editor Andy ‘Final Fantasy’ Salter Production Editor Tim ‘Metroid’ Empey Features Editor Nick ‘Bucky O’Hare’ Thorpe Photographer Phil ‘Mega Man 2’ Barker Group Art Dir

» He’s fast, he’s blue and he’s the star of a Mega Drive mascot platform game. That’s right, it’s Socket! Wait, were you expecting someone else? No matter – we’re checking out this import exclusive, known as Time Dominator 1st in Japan, to see what a