Introduction DuckTales was developed and published by Capcom, released on the NES in 1989 as a licensed adaptation of Disney’s popular animated series of the same name. Players control the wealthy adventurer Scrooge McDuck, using his signature cane both as a weapon to bounce on enemies pogo-stick style and as a tool to smash open…
Introduction Hudson’s Adventure Island was developed and published by Hudson Soft, released on the NES in 1988 as a loose adaptation of Sega’s 1986 arcade game Wonder Boy, reworked with an original cast and story after Hudson lost the rights to use Sega’s characters directly. Players control Master Higgins, a shirtless island adventurer racing left…
Introduction Elevator Action Returns was developed and published by Taito, released in Japanese arcades in 1994 as the sequel to the studio’s 1983 original, Elevator Action. Players once again control a spy infiltrating tall, multi-floor buildings, riding elevators and escalators between levels while shooting enemy agents, collecting secret documents from marked red doors, and avoiding…
Introduction Puzzle Bobble, released outside Japan as Bust-A-Move, was developed and published by Taito, released in arcades in 1994 as a spin-off built directly from the world of Bubble Bobble. Players aim and shoot colored bubbles from a cannon at the bottom of the screen up into a shrinking field of bubbles above, matching three…
Introduction Three Wonders, known in Japan as Wonder 3, was developed and published by Capcom on CPS-1 hardware, released in arcades in July 1991 as an unusual multi-game cabinet offering players a choice between three entirely different games on a single board. Midnight Wanderers: Quest for the Chariot is a fantasy action-platformer following a hobbit-like…
Introduction Bubble Bobble was developed and published by Taito, released in arcades in 1986 under the direction of Fukio “MTJ” Mihara. The game follows Bub and Bob, two friends transformed into bubble-blowing dragons, as they climb through 100 single-screen levels trying to rescue their girlfriends and reverse the curse turning them into monsters. Rather than…
Introduction Donkey Kong is Nintendo’s original 1981 arcade platformer, the coin-operated cabinet that later inspired the NES home conversion, built around four distinct single-screen stages that each represent 25 meters of a construction site Mario, then called Jumpman, must climb to rescue Pauline from the giant ape Donkey Kong. The first stage has players navigating…
Introduction Darkwing Duck was developed and published by Capcom, produced by Tokuro Fujiwara with a score by Yasuaki Fujita, adapting Disney’s 1991-1992 animated series into a platformer that reached North America in June 1992 and Europe the following year. It followed the same basic Mega Man-derived formula Capcom had already used successfully on 1989’s DuckTales,…
Introduction RoboCop for the NES was developed by Japanese studio SAS Sakata and published by Data East in 1989, following on from Data East’s own 1988 arcade version but built as a distinct, console-tailored adaptation of the Paul Verhoeven film rather than a straight port, with Ocean bringing it to Europe in 1991. Players control…
Introduction Tiny Toon Adventures was developed and published by Konami, directed by Kazuyuki Yamashita with programming by Yuji Shibata, art from Kazumichi Ishihara and Hirotaka Fukuda, and a score credited to Jun Funahashi, Masae Nakashima, and Satoko Miyawaki, releasing in December 1991 as the animated series’ first video game adaptation on any console. Its stage…
Introduction Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers was developed and published by Capcom, produced by Tokuro Fujiwara off the back of his work on titles like Mega Man 2 and Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and released in North America and Japan in 1990 following Europe the next year. It was Capcom’s second Disney-licensed platformer after 1989’s DuckTales,…
Introduction The Goonies is a 1986 platform game produced by Konami and based on the Richard Donner film of the same name, released for the Family Computer in Japan in February 1986 but never officially published outside the country on cartridge, though Nintendo did bring a US-exclusive arcade conversion, VS. The Goonies, to PlayChoice-10 and…