Shadow Warrior (MS-DOS)

Today I am finally taking a look at Shadow Warrior or (Shadow Warrior Classic as its now been rechristened), 3D Realms' second game after the legendary Duke Nukem 3D and also the last they ever finished. Though to be fair they'd already spent a decade making games as Apogee.

This came out in the wake of Duke Nukem's epic success, when games based on the Build engine were coming out every two weeks or so. No seriously, Redneck Rampage hit shops a fortnight before this and Blood came out 18 days later. After Quake these 2.5D sprite based shooters had been made obsolete overnight, so they had a limited window of opportunity I guess.

I've played this one before and though I can't remember how it plays or even if it's any good, I promise you that I will be 100% biased towards it due to nostalgia. But I'll certainly do my best to criticise it anyway.

Apocalypse (PSX)

I guess the symbol for the apocalypse is the anarchy symbol with a cross on top then.

Today I'm finally getting around to another requested game: Apocalypse on the PlayStation, starring digital Bruce Willis. In fact they're so proud of their Bruce Willis model they've even shown off its wireframe mesh on the title screen.

This was the second game developed by Neversoft, made just before they hit fame and acclaim with their Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. They actually made nine Tony Hawk games before switching over to make seven Guitar Hero games and a Band Hero. Apocalypse on the other hand got exactly zero sequels, but I'm sure that's no reflection on its quality. Probably.

Doom (MS-DOS)

The Doom franchise is 20 years old this year so I thought it'd be a good time to take a brief look at the original Doom, id software's fifth first person shooter (but their first to have four letters in its title and end with 'm'). The anniversary is actually 10 days into December but I'm impatient so you're getting this early.

I'll admit right now that I'm not going into this one even slightly blind and I doubt I'll be able to think of anything worthwhile to say about the game that you haven't heard a thousand times already, but it's not like I've ever let that stop me before. There's a Doom shaped hole in my website and that needs fixing.

To be accurate I'll actually be playing Ultimate Doom, not the ORIGINAL version of original Doom, despite the fact I've used the original title screen here. I apologise for the unnecessary confusion. Basically Ultimate Doom is Doom with the latest patch installed and a fourth episode bolted on, but there's at least one sneaky change to an earlier level.

Dragon Egg! (TurboGrafx-16)

Here's another requested game for you: Dragon Egg! on the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine console, released in 1991. Actually it's only really for the PC Engine as it was never localised for the West.

I imagine that the TurboGrafx would have been on the way out in America at that point seeing as the SNES had just launched the month before and the poor console had already been getting enough of a thrashing from the Genesis and NES. It got beaten so badly in fact that its successor, the PC-FX, wasn't even released outside of Japan, which might have actually been a good thing considering that...

Sorry, right, I'm supposed to be playing this Dragon game. I'll go do that then.

Immercenary (3DO) - Guest Post

Just for you, NINTONDO MAN.

I've never played this game before, but I can tell you exactly three things about it. It's for the 3DO. It's a first person shooter. And from the screenshots I've seen, it looks absolute complete and utter cack. Enjoy!

For folks who are interested in playing Immercenary at some point, I suggest you close this post immediately, if not sooner. This post is all spoilers... not plot spoilers, but game spoilers. If you've got Immercenary but haven't played it yet, play it. Don't even read the manual. Just play it.

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator (PC)

Here's another requested game for you. This time I'm taking a quick look at PC RPG Septerra Core, released in late '99. It came out between Final Fantasy VIII and Planescape: Torment to give it some context, though I don't know yet which it'll be closer to in gameplay. It could be a Diablo clone for all I know.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 (PC)

Huh, is that red rabbit's arm bracer melting? Oh wait, I think that's actually his tongue dripping.

It's been over two years since I played the original Jazz Jackrabbit for the site and I figured it was about time that I got around to the sequel. Plus I keep getting requests for it, so that was another big hint that it's overdue.