Introduction Metal Warriors was developed by LucasArts and published by Konami for the Super Nintendo in 1995. The player controls a pilot who leads a resistance force against an invading army, fighting mission after mission inside giant armoured mechs. Six different machines can be used, each with its own weapons and abilities, from a jet-powered…
Introduction Contra: Hard Corps was developed by Konami and released for the Mega Drive and Genesis in 1994, the only Contra game made for a Sega home console. It is set a few years after a devastating alien war and follows a special unit of the military, the Hard Corps, as they respond to a…
Introduction TAD Corporation released Toki in Japanese arcades in December 1989 under the title JuJu Densetsu, with Fabtek handling the North American release as Toki in February 1990. Akira Sakuma designed it around a premise no other platformer of the era shared: an evil sorcerer transforms the hero into an ape and abducts the woman…
Introduction Metal Slug 6 occupies an unusual place in the Metal Slug series’ history: rather than an official SNK release, it is a bootleg arcade board built by unlicensed manufacturers using Metal Slug 3’s engine and assets, remixing stages, enemy placement, and weapon balance into what plays as an unofficial remix rather than a genuine…
Introduction Shock Troopers was developed by Saurus and published by SNK, released for arcades in 1997 as a top-down run-and-gun in the vein of classic overhead shooters, letting up to three players choose from eight mercenary characters with different stats and weapon behavior. Missions branch across multiple possible paths through each stage, meaning a full…
Introduction Sunset Riders was developed and published by Konami, released for the SNES in 1993 as a home port of the 1991 arcade run-and-gun set in a cartoonish Wild West populated by bounty hunters and outlaws. Players choose from four playable gunslingers, each with slightly different weapons, hunting down a rogues’ gallery of wanted criminals…
Introduction RoboCop versus The Terminator was developed by Interplay and published by Virgin Games, released for the SNES in 1993 as a licensed crossover between two of the era’s biggest action franchises, based on a comic book miniseries by Frank Miller rather than either film series directly. The plot has RoboCop discovering that Skynet’s rise…
Introduction Wild Guns was developed and published by Natsume, released for the SNES in 1994 as a rail shooter blending Wild West setting with anachronistic robots and laser weapons. Players choose from a small cast of gunslingers and shoot enemies approaching from all sides of a fixed-perspective arena, dodging incoming fire with a roll and…
Introduction Gunstar Heroes was developed by Treasure and published by Sega, released for the Genesis in 1993 as the debut title from a studio founded by former Konami developers. Players control one of two Gunstars, mixing and matching two weapon types on the fly, force, chaser, lightning, and flame, to create four unique combinations before…
Introduction Cybernator, known in Japan as Assault Suits Valken, was developed and published by Konami, released for the SNES in 1992 as a side-scrolling mech action game set during a war between Earth and its space colonies. Players pilot a Powered Armor Suit that can walk, hover, and boost through stages, mixing a rapid-fire machine…
Introduction Contra III: The Alien Wars was developed and published by Konami, released for the SNES in 1992 as the series’ debut on Nintendo’s 16-bit console. The game continued the run-and-gun formula of its NES predecessors while taking full advantage of the SNES’s Mode 7 scaling and rotation effects, alternating traditional side-scrolling stages with top-down…
Introduction Alien Storm was developed and published by Sega, originally released as an arcade game in 1990 before being ported to the Genesis, blending run-and-gun shooting with beat ’em up combat across a campaign fighting off an alien invasion of Earth. Players choose from three members of the Alien Busters team, each with a distinct…