March 2016 – RETRO GAMESMASTER

Rainbow Islands

31st March 201624th May 2021 Peter Ward

Published by Taito America Corporation Developed by Taito Corporation Released 1987 Platforms Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy Color, J2ME, NES, TurboGrafx CD, Windows, ZX Spectrum Rainbow Islands was released in arcades way back in 1987, a sequel to the very successful Bubble Bobble this game is essentially a fast paced 2d platformer where the player has to outrun the rising tide and reach the top of the island using rainbows as makeshift platforms. The game was hugely well received and so it was only a matter of time…

Championship Manager 2

30th March 201624th May 2021 Peter Ward

Published by Domark Software, Inc. Developed by Sports Interactive Limited Released 1995 Official Site Championship Manager 2 Platforms Amiga, DOS When I first saw a friend of mine playing Championship Manager 2 on the Amiga I did not see what all the fuss was about, I mean sure I love footy games and I always enjoy resource management games also but this game looked like nothing more than a spreadsheet. How wrong I was! This game is one of the finest Amiga games of all time and despite there being no graphics whatsoever (it is…

Final Fantasy 3 aka VI

29th March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Published by Square Soft, Inc. Developed by Square Co., Ltd. Released Oct, 1994 Also For Android, Fire OS, Game Boy Advance, iPad, iPhone, PlayStation,PlayStation 3, PSP, PS Vita, Wii, Wii U, Windows Warning: If you have not played this game and plan to, there are spoilers in this review. Just a heads-up. Final Fantasy 6. Ask many people what they believe to be the best RPG’s and chances are this is on their list. As I write this review, I am listening to the soundtrack to Final Fantasy 6 and feeling nostalgic as I remember experiencing this game for the first time. We begin…

Wonderland Dizzy

27th March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Check out our Oliver Twins Interview Click Here I have been playing the Dizzy games from the days of my ZX Spectrum and played most of them and enjoyed the challenging platform and puzzles. I did manage to complete Treasure Island Dizzy and Fantasy World Dizzy. I also still own Dizzy on my Megadrive. I was astonished to read that an unearthed unreleased Dizzy game by the Oliver Twins had been found and uncompiled and debugged and released for free as a NES rom. I could not resist to try…

Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition

25th March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Published by SEGA of America, Inc. Developed by SEGA-AM2 Co., LTD., Sega AM3 R&D Division Released May 17, 1996 Platform SEGA Saturn The Sega Saturn version of the original Daytona USA (released in 1995) was a superb arcade racer that whilst not arcade perfect was amongst the finest racing games available on the console. The following year Sega released a follow up Daytona USA Championship Circuit Edition, this game fixes some of the flaws in the original but sadly brings new problems at the same time. Firstly the good, the graphics have been cleaned up considerably. The original…

Donkey Kong Country 3

24th March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Published by Nintendo of America Inc. Developed by Rare, Ltd. Released Nov 01, 1996 Also For Game Boy Advance, Wii, Wii U Released in late 1996 Donkey Kong Country 3 was the final game in the series on the Super Nintendo and despite not being as good as the earlier 2 games it is still a classic 2d platformer. The graphics are the same very high quality CGI that we have come to expect from the series (still hard to believe that this game is on Super Nes and not Nintendo 64). The soundtrack…

TMNT: Tournament Fighters

23rd March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Published by Konami (America), Inc. Developed by Konami Co., Ltd. Released Sep 04, 1993 Platform SNES During the early 1990’s 2 of my favourite things were Street Fighter 2 and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so when I heard there was a game that combined the 2 I was naturally very excited. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters was released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo and is totally fantastic and was a real change of pace for the Turtles as their previous games such as Turtles in Time were scrolling beat em ups…

SSX

22nd March 20168th April 2022 Peter Ward

Published by Electronic Arts, Inc. Developed by Electronic Arts Canada Released Oct 26, 2000 Platform PlayStation 2 SSX is a snowboarding game that was released alongside the launch of the Sony Playstation 2 console in Europe in November 2000 (yes that long ago). To be honest SSX was the only game worth buying for the first year of the console’s life and still today remains one of the best snowboarding games ever released. Essentially playing like a turbo charged version of 1080 Snowboarding (Nintendo 64) this game is so much fun, you can choose…

The Adventures of Batman & Robin

21st March 201624th May 2021 Peter Ward

Published by SEGA of America, Inc. Developed by Clockwork Tortoise Inc. Released May, 1995 Platform Genesis Released in 1995 for the Sega Megadrive The Adventures of Batman & Robin is a superb scrolling shooter/platformer based on the Animated series of the same name. The plot here involves the dynamic duo attempting to stop Mr Freeze from taking over the city, in addition to this Batman and Robin must also dealt with regular bad guys including The Joker and Two Faced. The game can be played by a single player or in two player co op…

Snowboard Kids

18th March 201624th May 2021 Peter Ward

Published by Atlus Co., Ltd. Developed by Racdym Released Mar 15, 1998 Platform Nintendo 64 Released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64 Snowboard Kids was a superb downhill snowboarding game with gameplay comparable to Super Mario Kart. This game has much to enjoy, firstly the graphics are lovely with chunky cartoon sprites and very colourful backdrops presented in that awesome soft crayon style that the Nintendo 64 excels in. The soundtrack is also really good especially considering that this game is on cartridge and not disc. The gameplay is solid gold and…