Retro Gaming Australia

Out of the thousands of ads we have, I think this has to be among the worst I’ve seen.

Knife Edge was a forgettable rail shooter where you played as the gunner of an advanced helicopter. It was about as interesting as this advertisement.

From that awkward 2D to 3D transitional period.

3D Lemmings was an attempt to bring the classic puzzle gameplay of Lemmings into a fully realised 3D world. As 3D gaming was in its infancy at the time, the extra dimension wasn’t quite as well implemented as one would have hoped.

A guilty pleasure.

The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare was the family’s first original outing for 16-bit consoles. Bart falls asleep while studying for a test or writing a paper or something, and you have to round up the lost pages from his work in a variety of mini-games that range from good to downright terrible. This ad is for the later Mega Drive release – the game was exclusive to the Super Nintendo for a short time.

I’m too old for this shit!

Lethal Weapon is another in a long line of bad games based on decent action movies (well, the first two, anyway). The game is based on the rather crappy third entry in the series, and is just a straightforward run & gun platformer with little redeeming value – standard fare for Ocean.

They left out “Four times as hard!”

After the success of Double Dragon II: The Revenge on the NES, Technos decided to create an original version of Double Dragon III, rather than port the far more technically accomplished arcade version to the home systems. However, unlike The Revenge, the two versions of Double Dragon III share nothing in common beyond the same title.

Before The 3DO Company went crazy.

Army Men started life as a real-time strategy game that some would argue drew a lot of inspiration from the soldiers in Toy Story. Despite the mediocre to poor quality of later games in the series, the original RTS game isn’t actually that bad.

Clear the way!

Blast Corps is an oft-overlooked gem from Rare’s peak era. Players control various demolition equipment and must clear the way for a truck which is carrying enough nuclear armament to destroy the world. It’s one of those games that’s relatively easy at the basic level, but has some downright dastardly challenges if you’re going for full completion. This ad is from the UK release of the game.

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Divisive.

Castlevania‘s first trip into 3D was well received by critics at the time of release, despite what they try to claim years later. It was cast out of series canon by series producer Koji Igarashi in around the time of the release of Harmony of Dissonance, though his official stance is that Castlevania 64 is now a side story.

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Or Dynamite Deka, if you prefer.

Die Hard Arcade was an arcade brawler loosely based on the events of the film. It was the last game developed by Sega Technical Institute before they were wound up. The Die Hard license was attached to the game after it was completed – the game was originally called Dynamite Cop, a title retained for the game’s sequel.

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It’s been a while since we’ve had a foreign language ad on here, so here you go.

Golden Axe II was the Mega Drive exclusive sequel to Golden Axe. Unlike the later arcade sequel The Revenge of Death Adder, Golden Axe II is virtually identical to the first game, a factor not unnoticed by the media at the time. Sadly, The Revenge of Death Adder still hasn’t seen a home release in any form. This ad originates from Spain.

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