If you think you know of a video game that you find quite enjoyable, and hardly anybody knows of it, here's your chance to spread the word! :) Please provide links to where we can find them, unless the distribution is illegal (ROMs, warez, etc).
My list:
Holy Diver
Thanks to a tip from FODA, I was made aware of this game's existence. It's an old, Japan-exclusive NES game that is somewhat similar to Castlevania in themes and controls, except you use magic instead of a whip. It's a fun game, and very challenging too. It's difficulty could be described as "lethal", but thankfully it's not very cheap.
Doki! Doki! Yuuenchi
I accidentaly downloaded this one while trying to find a ROM for Doki Doki Panic. In it, you play as some soccer kid who's trying to rescue some random girl who's been kidnapped at an amusement park. The interesting thing about this one is that you become more powerful as your health gets depleted, allowing you to fight back even if you're on the verge of death. Bag of Magic Food already started a topic about this game based on a demo run I put together, so check it out.
Yuuenchi was never released in the USA, but it did experience a PAL release. The problem is, instead of playing as some baseball capped soccer player, you play as a naked troll from the toyline. It's amazing how a simple sprite swap can make a game so much worse.
Supaplex
An unabashed Boulder Dash clone for the PC with many more features, levels, and variety. Instead of 24 levels with six different difficulties, you have 111 unique levels ranging from "simple" to "
WHATTHEBLIP". It also has some new, explosive boulder types and one way gates.
Plus, the controls are a lot more fluid. That alone is why I like it more than the source material.
I'm not certain if its status has been made "freeware" yet, so I'm not providing a link. It's an old game so it won't work properly on modern machines even with the speedfix patch available. Thankfully there's a level editor called Megaplex that you can use the play the original levels without a hitch.
Eternal Daughter
If you like Metroid/modern Castlevania, you'll love this. If you're a fan of the philosophy of ancient game development, you'll love this. If you don't like games that kick you in the stomach and mockingly taunts, "Try it again, I dare you," you'll hate this.
Blackeye's webpage seems to be acting up, but I'll still provide the link.
Edit: Nevermind, found a working link.
Inherit the Earth
I came across this one yesterday from an image search with the term "ferret". It's best described as an old-school, Sierra-style, point-and-click adventure with a Redwall motif that results from a prominent The Secret of NIMH element, and it casts Fox McCloud as the lead. If you couldn't tell by now, yes, it's about talking bipedal animals, so if you have a thing against the idea of furries, this isn't for you.
I'll admit I have yet to play the meat of the game as the full game costs 20 bucks. The demo, however, has been generally favorable, so that's why it's making my list. The voice acting can be grating at times (it's better if you turn the sound setting down; on my machine the default settings had the voices blaring over the music) and the interface could definately use some work, but it's charming in it's own right. My impressions thus far reflect what I think of The Adventures of Robin Hood: nothing spectacular, just good, clean old-timey fun to be had by all involved.
What I'm pleased the most with, though, is that the company selling the game decided to retool it so this eleven-year-old program will work perfectly on modern machines and OS's. More companies need to do that. If some no-name company did it for a game nobody ever cared about, Epic and Apogee/3D Realms have no reason not to do the same.
I think a lot of the lines in just the demo alone are worthy of being on
Zany Video Quotes.
King's Quest Remakes
Speaking of old-school, Sierra-style, point-and-click adventures, AGD has decided to take it upon themselves to give a facelift to the first two games in the King's Quest series. The first one, while remarkable, isn't all that significant since it's basically a fresh coat of paint on top of the one Sierra provided years ago. The second one, however... wow. Just wow.
Don't be worried about any legal issues here. Sierra has
basically sanctioned these efforts, and it's not like it's
it's hurting them any.
