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  • ActRaiser and Dragon Warrior III (Enix)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    ActRaiser and Dragon Warrior III Ad

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/165973401923/videogameads-actraiser-and-dragon-warrior-iii-ad

    The above ad for two classic Enix games is from circa 1993. At this time, the NES was seeing some of the most technically impressive releases in its life but even with extra hardware in the cartridges, it was no match for the graphics and sound capabilities of the recently released Super Nintendo.


    ActRaiser

    ActRaiser was a rather unique game and being released only a few months after the introduction of the Super Nintendo, was one of the earliest games available for it. The game combines the city/world building genre of games like Populous with side-scrolling platform action/adventure. This was one of the best early releases for the Super Nintendo. Not only did it have excellent gameplay but it did a good job showing off new graphics and sound capabilities of the SNES.

    Dragon Warrior III though it was released fairly late in the life of the NES was one of its best selling games ever. Dragon Warrior III is a role-playing game played from an overhead perspective with turn-based combat. As far as RPGs on the Nintendo go, The Dragon Warrior series was second only to the Final Fantasy series in popularity. Although the NES didn’t have the technical capabilities of the new SNES, Dragon Warrior III graphics, sound and music were still well done and it offered many hours of excellent gameplay. Enix (now Square Enix) had a reputation for producing very good games and these are two examples of why that is so.


    Dragon Warrior III

    There was a very limited port of ActRaiser for mobile phones in 2004 and there was a Virtual Console release for the Wii in 2007. There was also a sequel, ActRaiser II, developed for the SNES and released in 1993.

    Dragon Warrior III had several remakes over the years. The first was in 1996 for the Super Famicom though it was never officially released in the U.S. However, a Game Boy Color version based on the Super Famicom remake was released in the U.S. in 2001. It was the largest Game Boy Color game released in the U.S. at 32 Mb. There were other remakes for cell phones and the Wii that were only released in Japan. Most recently, an Android and iOS version was released in 2014.





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  • Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse (NES)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/165373883576/lordnosvar-castlevania-iii-draculas-curse

    The third entry in Konami’s Castlevania series returned to more of a pure platform game like the original Castlevania as opposed to having adventure/RPG elements like the second game. However, it did offer branching paths unlike the original. Dracula’s Curse is one of the best NES games and has frequently shown up on various top ten lists. There are a seemingly unlimited number of side-scrolling platform games for the NES but this one, and the Castlevania series in general, is near the top of the heap.

    Castlevania is one of the longest running Konami game series. The original was released in 1986 and it was 1990, near the height of popularity for the NES, when the third game in the series was released. Castlevania III is actually a prequel to the first game and features Trevor Belmont, an ancestor of Simon, the star of the original.

    Castlevania III was a very popular game so it isn’t very hard to find an original (though it won’t necessarily be cheap). However, it has been released for more modern systems as well. It was released for Windows in 2002, on Wii’s Virtual Console 2009 and on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Consoles in 2014. The Castlevania series is one of the most iconic in existence and Castlevania III is one of the better games in a series of great games. This is definitely one you should seek out and play if you have never played it.





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  • T&C Surf Designs (NES)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    T&C Surf Designs (1988)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/165390899896/caterpie-tc-surf-designs-1988

    Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage was released in 1987 and reminds me a little bit of California Games. In part, this game seems to be an advertisement for the surfboard manufacturer of the same name. Where California Games has multiple events, this game has only two: skateboarding and surfing.

    The skateboarding subgame is the better of the two. In it you maneuver through an obstacle course while performing as many tricks as you can. The surfing subgame works in much the same way. You are attempting to ride the wave all the way to shore while performing tricks and avoiding obstacles. It’s kind of like the surfing part of California Games with a few more complexities.

    Overall, the game isn’t great and there isn’t a enough to keep you interested for very long. The graphics are well done and the music is pretty good if limited but there just isn’t enough game. This would be a good game to rent if such games were still rented.

    You’ll have to emulate or find an original NES cart for this one because there have been no re-releases I know about. However, there was a somewhat better sequel called Town & Country II: Thrilla’s Surfari released for the NES several years later in 1992.


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