Retro Gaming Australia

Rampage World Tour was the…erm…”long awaited” sequel to the classic building smashing game. It was conceived and developed by Brian Colin and Jeff Nauman who created the original game, but doesn’t really push the envelope in terms of game design.

James Pond, as the name would suggest, is an underwater parody of James Bond. The game was developed by Vectordean and Millennium Interactive for the Amiga and Atari ST, but also received considerable attention when Electronic Arts published it for the Mega Drive.

Mortal Kombat 4 was the long awaited transition into 3D for the most violent fighting game series around. Arguments will continue to this day as to whether this was a good move. It’s worth playing for the hilarious ending cinematics, though.

The ultra violent show-within-a-show, Itchy & Scratchy, is perfect video game fodder. Unfortunately the geniuses at Acclaim got their hands on The Simpsons license for the majority of the 1990s and turned it into another half-baked platformer. Woe.

Ecco: The Tides of Time is the second game to feature Ecco the Dolphin. It picks up right where the first game left off, but it turns out that the Vortex Queen wasn’t vanished, and she’s travelled to Earth to build a new home for herself – hoping to sell Ecco to John West in the process.

Xenogears is a slightly more mature RPG than its contemporaries, featuring a heavy emphasis on theology and philosphy, including the works of minds like Nietzsche, Freud and Jung. If that doesn’t float your boat, it’s also got big robots.

1080 Snowboarding is the first snowboarding game developed by Nintendo. It was handled by members of the Wave Race 64 team. It has a pretty cool Trick Mode, though said tricks are quite difficult to execute compared to games like SSX.

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition is a Mega Drive specific version of Street Fighter II that encompasses both Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting. Playing the game without a six button controller was something of an exercise in annoyance, as you’d have to switch between kicking and punching moves with the start button, leaving you unable to pause the action.

X-Com: UFO Defense or UFO: Enemy Unknown is arguably one of the greatest strategy games ever made. You are the head of a new multinational organisation created to investigate and fight against an extra-terrestrial threat. This mostly involves leading your men to their death in some of the scariest turn based missions you’ll ever play.

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II – The Hidden Empire featured what was the first live action Star Wars footage shot in over 12 years when it was first released. The game features a decent storyline set in a post-Return of the Jedi era, but, like its predecessor, doesn’t really have much in the way of gameplay.