Forgotten Worlds (Arcade, 1988)

 

The very first game developed for Capcom's CPS-1 arcade hardware, making this an important historical footnote. This is what would happen if SCAT and Bad Dudes cross-pollinated. It's an arcade shooter very similar to SCAT (to the point that at first glance I nearly thought it was a prequel/sequel, or made by the same people) where you play as these two rad dudes as they fight their way through space to save Earth.

It also looks REALLY nice for 1988. Arcade games were punching on a whole different weight class in the late 80's. I'm not kidding, this looks insane visually. I thought it was from the mid-90's until I checked the year.

As usual, I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. Capcom's been doing a really good job resurrecting their old arcade games and preserving them with modern systems. Arcade games aren't something you'll just find in the wild, so they might be the most important games to make ports of for modern systems. Just to keep them from ceasing to exist entirely. I wish someone would port over the Aliens vs Predator arcade game where you can play as Arnold's character Dutch, as well as various Predators, while bashing your way through a horde of Xenos. It's so, so much better than the SNES beat 'em up. And basically nonexistent at this point in time.

Anyway, time for Capcom's first arcade game. It's called Forgotten Worlds but thanks to them it isn't a forgotten game.

Haunted Castle (Arcade, 1988)

The notorious arcade version of Castlevania 1 that only in recent years became a subject people were interested in (likely because of the total dearth of new 'Vania, so people are going back and mining what exists). Much easier to play now due to its inclusion on the new Castlevania Dominus Collection. While usually arcade versions came before their console counterparts, this one was actually released after the original Castlevania (or Vampire Killer on MSX2).

Gradius II (Famicom, 1988)

 

I somehow forgot about this game entirely when I covered the series on here a while back, and was reminded by its presence on the big list. I went from Gradius to Life Force to Gradius III and thought nothing of it because I figured Life Force was the second game. Well, it's more of a spinoff that became the second game in the U.S. by default.

Meanwhile there was an actual second game that wasn't released outside of Japan. To make things even more confusing, both this and Life Force were both released in 1988. Also, Nemesis II on Game Boy was called Gradius II in Japan, so there were two different Gradius II games. And there's also an arcade version of this game... that closely resembles the SNES Gradius III. My head is spinning like a kitten on a fast-moving record player.

Dragonball Movie 3 - Mystical Adventure (1988)

 

I don't know what to expect from this one, but I gotta say the prognosis isn't good...

Double Dragon (NES, 1988)

Time to check out one of the finest beat 'em ups on the NES. This game got the street fighting genre rolling on consoles. Later games like Final Fight and Streets of Rage would refine the formula, beating this series up and stealing its lunch money. For its time, though, Double Dragon was the trendsetter, the prototype. More on those other beat 'em ups at a later date, because right now we're goin' ham on the OG.

Ghouls n' Ghosts (Sega Genesis, 1988)

 Time for the mid-quell of the series. Somehow this one gets forgotten a lot in-between the NES' Ghosts n' Goblins and the Super NES' Super Ghouls and Ghosts. Probably a lot like this post, which I'm sandwiching between them in close-proximity.

How far can I get without dying in the Ninja Gaiden trilogy?

The answer? Not very far, as it turns out. Videos within.

Contra (NES, 1988)

Today I'm going to look at a game that takes everything awesome about the 80's, puts all of it in a blender, and hits EXTREME PUREE~!

This game is so rad, it should be called Badder Dudes.

It's time...for A Contra Christmas.

Zelda II: Adventure of Link (NES, 1988)

 Time to cover a Zelda game that I sorta skipped over before. If I don't cover it, it'll bother me, so here we go. This one suffers from the same thing that Castlevania 2, Dragon Quest 2, and Final Fantasy 2 on the NES suffered from: It reinvents something that was working fine before, to mixed results at best.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES, 1988)

The second game in the series is...well, how to say this. It is not like the others. It emphasizes exploration and collection of powers. It's a "proto" version of some of the later titles, rather than a straight-up action game like the original. It seems like companies were into trying entirely new things for their second game rather than sticking to what worked at the time, if this and Zelda 2 are any indication. Both are, to an extent, the black sheep of their series. Regardless, this is the first of many "Metroidvania" games. I originally wrote about this in 2010, but here's an entirely remastered post. The original post was legitimately not good and in dire need of editing.

While we're on the subject... what's up with the word "Metroidvania"? Shouldn't games of that style simply be referred to as "Metroid-esque" since Metroid did all this stuff first? "Metroidvania" is like referring to "Reaganesque" politicians as "Reagan/Perry-esque".

...well, maybe not quite that bad.

Altered Beast (Sega Genesis, 1988)

This is a game that got requested a while ago. I'd seen glimpses of it previously, and it definitely wasn't on my agenda. However, in this case I'm glad that I gave it a shot, because it's RAD TO THE MAX. I'll put it out there that if you have any games you'd like to see looked at here, go ahead and let me know in any given comments section.

In any case, this game is responsible for more emergency calls to Animal Control than any other game in history.

Life Force (NES, 1988)

Time for another NES classique. Man, Konami was AMAZING back in the day. They gave us Metal Gear, Contra, Gradius, Suikoden, Castlevania, and lots of other good stuff. Nowadays they're firing Hideo Kojima and just generally being the worst.

This game is licensed by Nintend. Get the O out.

Super Mario Bros 2 (NES, 1988)

 Today I'm taking a look at one of the biggest games of all time. Super Mario Bros 2 revolutionized the platformer genre and made vegetable-throwing into America's pastime. This game transpires not in the Mushroom Kingdom, but in the peaceful land of Sub-Con. It...isn't really all that much of a Mario game. Read on as we probe the depths of this fantastic work.

Golvellius (Master System, 1988)

Behold, a game that no one played. This was Sega's answer to Zelda... but how good was it? My last couple of posts (Gradius and Legend of Zelda) were pretty long-winded about the gameplay. For the next few posts I'm going to be a bit more to-the-point about these games and what I thought of them. There will be jokes. Punch and pie.