Ninja Gaiden is a media franchise based on action video games by Tecmo featuring the ninja Ryu Hayabusa as its protagonist. The series was originally known as Ninja Ryukenden in Japan. The word "gaiden" in the North American Ninja Gaiden title means "side story" in Japanese. The original arcade version, first two Nintendo Entertainment System games and Game Boy game were released as Shadow Warriors in PAL regions. As of 2008, the series has shipped over 7.7 million copies.
DragonStrike is a 1990 flight simulator based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy tabletop role-playing game. It is set in the Dragonlance campaign setting.
Vampire Killer, known in Japan as Akumajō Dracula, is a 1986 platform game developed and published by Konami for the MSX2. It is a parallel version of the original Castlevania, which debuted a month earlier for the Famicom Disk System under the same Japanese title. However, the MSX2 version was localized first in Europe and was published without the Castlevania branding that the franchise would start using abroad in 1987 when the NES version was released in North America. It was released on the Wii U's Virtual Console on December 17, 2014, in Japan.
The Magic of Scheherazade is an action-adventure/role-playing video game (RPG) developed and released by Culture Brain for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The game was released in 1987 in Japan and 1990 in North America. The plot is based on Middle Eastern folktales found in One Thousand and One Nights. It involves an amnesic hero traveling through time in an attempt to rescue the princess Scheherazade from the evil wizard Sabaron, who has summoned a horde of demons to bring chaos to the once peaceful land of Arabia. The Magic of Scheherazade is divided into chapters and incorporates elements of both action-adventure and RPG gameplay styles. In each chapter, the player character can freely explore an overworld in a top-down perspective. The player engages hostile enemies with various weapons and spells through both real-time solo action on the overhead map and random, turn-based battles fought alongside befriended allies.
Shadowgate is a black-and-white point-and-click adventure game published in 1987 for the Macintosh as part of the MacVenture series. The game is named for its setting, Castle Shadowgate, residence of the evil Warlock Lord. The player, as the "last of a great line of hero-kings", is charged with the task of saving the world by defeating the Warlock Lord, who is attempting to summon the demon Behemoth out of Hell. Later that year, a color version of the game was released for the Amiga and Atari ST, and in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Wizards & Warriors, titled Densetsu no Kishi Elrond in Japan, is an action platform video game developed by Rare and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in December 1987, and in Europe on January 7, 1990. The player controls Kuros, "Knight Warrior of the Books of Excalibur", as he sets out in the Kingdom of Elrond to defeat the evil wizard Malkil. Malkil holds the princess of Elrond captive in Castle IronSpire, deep within the forests of Elrond. The player fights through forests, tunnels, and caves, while collecting keys, treasure, weapons, and magic items.
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, known in Europe as Shadow Warriors II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, is a 1990 action-platform game developed and published by Tecmo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the second installment in the Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the NES and was released in North America and Japan in 1990, and in Europe in 1992. An arcade video game version was also introduced by Nintendo for their PlayChoice-10 system in 1990.
Magician is a side-scrolling action role-playing game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was designed by Eurocom Entertainment Software and published by Taxan.
Trojan is a side-scrolling action game developed by Capcom, originally released as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1986, and published in North America by Romstar and Capcom. Directed by Takashi Nishiyama, the game includes beat 'em up and hack-and-slash elements. It is a spiritual successor to the beat 'em up Kung-Fu Master (1984), which was designed by Nishiyama at Irem before he left for Capcom, where he evolved its gameplay concepts with Trojan. It is also considered a spiritual successor to Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985), which has similar side-scrolling action gameplay elements.
Conquest of the Crystal Palace, known in Japan as Matendōji is a 1990 Nintendo Entertainment System platform game developed by Quest and published by Asmik Corporation of America.
Wizards & Warriors X: The Fortress of Fear is a 1990 side-scrolling platforming video game developed by UK-based company Rare and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Game Boy handheld game console. Taking place after the events in Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II, the game features the knight warrior Kuros; he sets out to the Fortress of Fear to defeat the evil wizard Malkil, who, after 17 years of dormancy, has captured Princess Elaine and has imprisoned her there.
Kenseiden is a 1988 side-scrolling action role-playing video game developed and published by Sega for the Master System.
The Astyanax, known in Japan as The Lord of King (ザ・ロード・オブ・キング), is a side-scrolling action game developed by Aicom released for the arcades by Jaleco. A home version for the Nintendo Entertainment System, simply titled Astyanax, was released shortly after the arcade version but the NES version is decidedly different from its arcade predecessor in terms of story.
Dark Ages is a platform game written for MS-DOS, published by Apogee Software. It was the first shareware game to feature music for the AdLib sound card.
Myth: History in the Making is a 2D platform game developed and published by British publishing house System 3 for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Amiga CD32, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. It was also released on the NES as Conan: The Mysteries of Time. It was officially announced for Atari ST and a preview version was available, but the full version was never released.
Sword of Sodan is a hack and slash video game released for the Amiga in 1988 by Discovery Software, which also commissioned a port for the Apple IIGS. A scaled-down version for the Sega Genesis was released in 1990 by Electronic Arts, and in 1993 it was released for the Apple Macintosh System 7 by Bethesda Softworks.
Kingsley's Adventure is an action-adventure video game developed and published by Psygnosis exclusively for the PlayStation.
Quattro is a series of video game compilations released in the 1990s. They consisted of games developed by Codemasters. The NES versions were released as multicarts and were published by Camerica without a license by Nintendo.
Unreal is a video game released by Ubi Soft for the Amiga in 1990. The game, divided in 8 chapters, combined two different genres: In five levels, the player controls a pterodactyl-like creature in a pseudo-3D rail shooter environment. Three levels are side-scrolling platform games where the player controls a barbarian fighting monsters and solving puzzles. Ports for MS-DOS compatible operating systems and Atari ST were released in 1991.
Deathbringer is a 1991 side scrolling action game developed by Oxford Digital Enterprises and published by Empire that was released for the Amiga, DOS, and Atari ST.
