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FCI/Compile |
October 1987 |
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Shooter |
1
Player |
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This was the first
game to use artificial intelligence to tweak the game's
difficulty to your liking, while you're playing
it! While you won't notice its effects on the
gameplay, Zanac's quality will become obvious the minute
you pick up the controller. One of the first
shooters on the NES, Zanac is also one of the best
thanks to its addictive gameplay and great
power-ups.
FAST FACT:
Zanac was only the beginning of a long series of
vertically scrolling shooters by developers
Compile. These games include Gun*Nac on the NES,
M.U.S.H.A. on the Sega Genesis, Space MegaForce on the
Super NES, and most recently, Zanac X Zanac on the
Japanese Playstation. |
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Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
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Nintendo |
December 1988 |
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Action/Adventure |
1
Player |
|
Nintendo took the Zelda
series in an entirely new direction with The Adventure
of Link... a direction which compromised many of the
game's best qualities. The side view perspective
took the emphasis off puzzle solving (Zelda's strong
point) and put it squarely on combat (er... not Zelda's
strong point). It's still a good game... just not
a good Legend of Zelda game.
FAST
FACT: Like its predecessor The Legend of
Zelda, The Adventures of Link was manufactured with both
a gold and grey cartridge. The gold cart came
first, and the grey one was offered when the game was
re-released in the 1990's. Ironically, this late
release makes the grey cartridge more valuable than the
gold one! |
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Konami |
March 1993 |
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Action |
1
Player |
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Space ninjas are cool... but
sappy environmental themes from the 90's aren't.
As far as this writer is concerned, fighting litterbugs
is a waste of a perfectly good ninja, and Konami wasted
the talent of their designers by making them create this
game. Sure, Zen has detailed graphics and a
thumping soundtrack, but the underlying game is
frustrating and not even remotely fun. |
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Meldac/Live Planning |
September 1991 |
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Shooter |
1
Player |
|
Here's a game that'll leave
you scratching your head... your disembodied samurai
head, to be specific. Zombie Nation is a
horizontally scrolling shooter with a few unique ideas,
along with a whole lot of lousy ones. Your
enormous head soaks up damage like a sponge, and lethal
attacks seem to come out of nowhere. This makes
the game aggravating, and oh yeah, pretty
awful. |
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