NHL ’94 enjoys a cult following, and is even hailed by some as the best hockey game ever made. For this third installment Electronic Arts brought in a new programmer, Mark Lesser, to develop the game. Lesser had previously worked in the industry designing handheld electronic games for Mattel including Auto Race, which was … Read more
NHLPA Hockey ’93 is the second game in the franchise, and the follow-up to 1991’s NHL Hockey. The game was renamed to reflect the addition of actual player names instead of just using their numbers. While this is a welcome addition, EA apparently felt that they could only afford to pay for one license, so … Read more
Gun.Smoke is a pretty unique game in that it has all of the game play mechanics of a vertically-scrolling shooter, but you don’t fly a plane or a space ship. You play the role of a wild west vigilante who kills the leaders of various groups of bandits who have been harassing the town of … Read more
In the early days of the NES, Excitebike was *the* game to have, and it’s easy to see why. Excitebike is a dirt bike-based racing game in which you race against the clock in either a time trial format or in a group of other riders. The object of the game is to navigate your … Read more
In Urban Champion, you fight an opponent who looks just like you but has bright green hair. Your ultimate objective is to knock him down a manhole, and this is accomplished through a series of fights. Each bout takes place in front of a building, and the objective is to keep hitting your opponent so … Read more
Donkey Kong was released as part of Nintendo’s early “Arcade Series”, in which they ported their own arcade titles to the NES. Although not a launch title, Donkey Kong was one of the original 30 games that were packaged in black boxes. For those who have never played the game, the object of Donkey Kong … Read more
NHL Hockey was the first hockey game to be released on a true 16-bit console, and until its release hockey fans had to make do with games like “TV Sports Hockey” on the Turbo Grafx 16 and “Blades of Steel” on the NES. NHL Hockey was a huge step forward from all previous hockey games. … Read more
Contra: Hard Corps should be one of the best games on the Genesis. In 1994, only a handful of memorable games were released for the system, and the Genesis could have used the help against the Super Nintendo’s increasing market share. Hard Corps has some of the most detailed and colorful graphics of any game … Read more
Today Mutant League Football’s violent game play seems silly and cartoonish, but back in 1993 it landed the game in hot water. MLF was caught up in the same furor as other titles like Mortal Kombat during the first real video gaming backlash in the early 90’s. Underneath the blood and guts however lies a … Read more