Retro Gaming Australia

Solstice is an isometric puzzle game developed by Software Creations for the NES. It draws a bit of inspiration from early Ultimate/Rare isometric adventures on the ZX Spectrum. Respect++ if you can beat Solstice without exploits – I’ve always found it to be bloody difficult.

Rugrats was one of the great animated shows of the 1990s. The Rugrats Movie, on the other hand, is part of the show’s second run, with the pointless addition of Tommy’s baby brother Dil and other assorted characters, and a distinct loss of charm. The video games are terrible, as one would expect.

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is a beat ’em up for the Mega Drive and SNES based on the 1994 comic book crossover event of the same name where Spider-Man and Venom team up to fight a new symbiote called Carnage. The Japanese Mega Drive version, which is for all intents and purpose identical to every other version, is one of the rarest and most expensive Mega Drive games.

Sunsoft’s other Beauty and the Beast game was a beat ’em up intended for a male audience. Entitled Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast, this game had players taking the role of the Beast, who had to kick the snot out of anything that got in his way. It’s not very good at all.

Beauty and the Beast doesn’t exactly scream out for a video game adaptation, but Sunsoft did their darndest, releasing not one but two games for the Mega Drive based on the film. Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Quest was intended for a female audience, but the ladies tend not to look upon its simplistic gameplay favourably.

Before becoming the world’s greatest grill salesman, George Foreman was a two-time world heavyweight boxing champion. Foreman’s unlikely comeback, which saw him win his second title at age 45, was fodder for Acclaim to put him in a bunch of subpar boxing games, of which Foreman for Real was the last, and arguably the worst.