NiGHTS Into Dreams
I will never shut up about NiGHTS, so if writing this review will allow me to talk about it, I’m going to!
First off, if you love any of SEGA’s classics and have heard a lot about NiGHTS but you’re not sure if you’ll like it, I would HIGHLY recommend you give it a go. This game is really cheap on Steam these days, which makes sense because game itself is 20+ years old so by today’s standards is ‘worth less’, I guess. However, if even eight dollars (or however much it may be in your country, for US it 8 dollars which is pretty inexpensive) seems like a lot to you to be paying for a game released in 1996 that you’re not even sure if good… IT GOES ON SALE SO OFTEN. I literally got my copy of the game for like, $2 I think? And trust me when I say it’s worth much more than just that. You’re getting a really fun, arcade experience that’s very light on PC usage for almost free. Definitely a wise choice, if you’re looking for something like that.
– Real player with 24.5 hrs in game
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This is definitely a recommendation, but a bit of a cautious one at that.
NiGHTS Into Dreams is one of those classic titles from the 90’s that had a cult following well after its release. I remember the Wii sequel unveiling hyping people up-a small number of people, but a number of people nonetheless. Significant enough to note on this review, at least.
NiGHTS Into Dreams is also one of those 90’s games that was trying to figure out how to make 3D gameworlds work. Just two years prior to NiGHTS the team responsible for developing it (Sonic Team) released Sonic 3&K. Originally intended to be a 2D game, the team switched to 3D and was more or less at a loss as to how to effectively make an experience that was enjoyable and easy to grasp and handle. They even made a new controller for the Sega Saturn to effectively control the character in the game. It was really just a standard pad with an analogue stick-something the original saturn controller lacked-which goes to show you how new the entire concept of 3D was at the time.
– Real player with 19.0 hrs in game
Ecco™: The Tides of Time
First Impressions: Better than the first one. When I need to lookup how to get out of area 2 in a strategy guide though when it’s not apparent in-game I am less interested. May return again at a later date. Not sure if I appreciate having to play the rail-shooter game, jumping through rings to move between stages/areas either.
3/5
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
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Ecco: The Tides of Time is a direct sequel to Ecco the Dolphin. It was developed once again by Novotrade, later known as Appaloosa Interactive, along with Sega of America, I believe. Released in 1994. 16 Meagbit ROM. Uses passwords.
It got Sega CD version which has a differently composed redbook soundtrack, albeit both Genesis and CD ones are good in their own right. This one is more dramatic, so to say. Oh, and some FMV scenes. And it got port to 8-bit Sega machines. Heavily cut down, albeit level layouts and puzzles are different.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Fenimore Fillmore: 3 Skulls of the Toltecs
After i’ve finished the second of Fenimore adventures, i wanted to take back the very older first one,that i abandoned many time ago in its first release, now in this new remastered version it gains new shining light and value revealing to be a really solid game.
Now that i finally was able to complete it i have to say i am amazed and speechless from how good the puzzles were, i never expected this but this first one is even better than the second, altough i was stuck for few days in some nasty puzzles, after solving them i can say that altough the average level here is set on Hard, nothing is impossible or too much illogic, all has its own sense and works like a charm.
– Real player with 28.6 hrs in game
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This was one of first adventures I played at the time of release in 1996 and I have good memories of it. There were some serious problems with distribution back then and today the English only copies are very rare collector items and extremely expensive (I saw copies offered for thousands dollars). So it’s good that it is available again for affordable price as a digital copy.
The remastered version was not released in perfect state with some bugs and missing features but developers do care, already improved lots of things and listen to the players suggestions.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
Fenimore Fillmore: The Westerner
A very solid graphic adventure, the strongest part is represented by the puzzles that are really good (and this, has always been the factor N1 in any adventure).
The artworks are of average quality but are lovely painted with extreme cure, the same for the cinematics that are really funny and enjoyable to watch.
One of the things i mostly missed was the option to accelerate the slow walking and the fast exit from a scene, that would have speeded a lot the things making a little less stressing the gameplay, i also experienced few crashes in some points that forced me to reload a previous checkpoint.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
a cute point & click, old school style. thoroughly enjoyed it. no probs running on my pc except for one or two freezes, but luckily regular auto saves negated any disasters. without giving any spoilers, there was also a very nifty bit after the main ending, at the beginning of credits. fun!!
– Real player with 14.8 hrs in game
Maniac Mansion
“Maniac Mansion” is one of the first point and click adventures of LucasArts (published back in 1987) and one of the games that set the tone at the beginning of the genre’s golden era. Beautiful colorful aesthetics, clever puzzles, multiple characters, fantastic humor and iconic music are some of its characteristics. Yet, it’s gameplay logic is still a little bit primitive compared to the following LucasArts' games and I’m not a big fun of deaths and dead ends. But it is one the most classical games out there so you have to play it.
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game
LucasArts classic wacky adventure and a predecessor of an even bigger classic – Day of The Tentacle. Nostalgic point’n’click not without its flaws.
The set-up is simple and is largely left off-screen – you and a few of your friends (which you get to choose at the beginning of the game) need to rescue your girlfriend Sandy from being kidnapped by Dr. Fred for experiments. Starting at the gate of not-very-maniac-looking-yet mansion, you’re making your way in to find a place that manages to have nuclear reactor, gigantic telescope, man-eating plant and strange, walking tentacles all under the same roof. Oh, and there is a basement. In which you, no doubt, will be held on multiple occasions. So… Where’s Sandy? Why is everyone talking about some meteor? How can a tentacle be depressed? All these questions will be answered as you’re finding your way around a strange house, trying to avoid its mad inhabitants, opening lots and lots of doors and collecting a hell of a lot of useless stuff, in the best point’n’click fashion.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
Alone in the Dark 1
For anyone who doesn’t already know, this is the very first survival horror game every made. It first released in 1992 on floppy disk, 1993 on many Japanese computers of the time and on CD-ROM, finally releasing on the 3DO in 1994.
Before this review turns into a history lesson about the entire survival horror genre, I’ll get on with the game itself.
Positives:
Despite the character models looking very rough-around-the-edges today, I think there’s a certain charm to them.
Considering this is the first game of its genre, it gets terrifying at times!
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Alone in the Dark 1 AKA the first game in the Alone in the Dark series is a classic horror game, it has its problems but let’s get into the story.
First off you can play as one of two people in this game Emily Hartwood the niece of Jeremy Hartwood or Edward Carnby a private investigator dealing with paranormal shenanigans.
Anyway after the death of Jeremy Hartwood, Emily Hartwood goes to the Derceto house to find out why her uncle killed himself.
Or you play as private investigator/paranormal investigator Edward Carnby, who was hired by Gloria Allen an owner of an antique store to go to the Derceto house to get an old piano with secret drawers.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Challenge of the Five Realms: Spellbound in the World of Nhagardia
It’s an open world RPG game with a great plot, but with an uncommon interface. After you are familiiar with the interface, the gameplay is fantastic. It’s an underated gem. If you liked games such as Ultima VI, you will like this one too. The game has it’s funny moments, with references to other games. You can even encounter the Avatar (the protagonist of the Ultima’s series) as one NPC. Yes, humour predominates on the dialogues, contributing for an agreable experience. However, i suppose the game was launched before it was fully tested, because it has some annoing bugs, the more relevant is the sudden acceleration of the mouse sensivity. Nothing so important that stops you from playing and having fun with the game, though.
– Real player with 72.5 hrs in game
LOVE this game. Reminiscent of KQ or Q4G.
May I, in a completely non PC way, suggest suggest Millenials and curmudgeons need not apply unless they have more than one brain cell and imaginative potential.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
D: The Game
As a fan of the late Kenji Eno (R.I.P) and the now defunct WARP Studios games, I was really happy to see that D (WARP’s first game to be released outside of Japan) is now easily accessible on Steam.
D was originally made for the short lived 3DO in 1995 and was ported to the Sega Staurn, PS1, and MS DOS (which is this version). The gameplay is akin to 1993’s Myst, with the entire game being an fmv. Yet, unlike Myst, everything is fully animated. So if you want to get somewhere, you are going to have to walk there using a pre-set path. It’s kinda slow, but it really helps build the atmosphere.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
I own this game on Playstation, 3DO, Saturn and now on Steam, and I don’t regret paying for it again, even though it hasn’t aged well, and even though this is a fairly mediocre DOSBox port.
D is an on-rails horror-suspense game from the 90s. You play as Laura Harris, daughter of Dr. Richter Harris, a famous physician who, for some reason, has suddenly decided to murder everyone in his hospital and disappear inside the building. You have two hours (in real time) to figure out why, with no saving, interactive movie-style.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Dragon’s Lair
The 1980s. Ronald Reagan, Rubik’s Cube, MTV, and in the arcades, games like Pac-Man, Centipede, Space Invaders, Defender and others are eating up the quarters of America. Jump ahead in time a little and a new technology, the laser disc player, is brought into the arcade in the form of a game/animated movie called ‘Dragon’s Lair’. In this game, the player ‘plays’ the movie, that is, at certain points in the game the player is given the option to choose how the character moves. Choose the right option and the story continues, choose wrong, and the character faces a gruesome demise.
– Real player with 19.0 hrs in game
Back in ‘83 when this game first came out, we had a single arcade in our small city (that’s not so small now) that had Dragon’s Lair. Many of us fell in love with the game and a new challenge was present in our community arcade… to beat the dragon and save the princess. I dumped way too many quarter’s into this game and came back late from lunch on more than one occassion. The owner of the arcade had installed a monitor above the machine so others could watch while you played. In time I had developed quite a few followers that I think figured I was most likely to complete the game. Some would even let me play ahead of them even though they had their quarters lined up. A couple of times other people even paid for me to play the game. One afternoon, it finally happened. Amidst a small crowd of people surrounding the machine I reached the Dragon’s Lair. Of course I didn’t beat it the first time, but I played again and much to the enjoyment of the crowd, I defeated the dragon and we all saw the end of the game. I was very proud to have been the first person in our city to have defeated the game.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Earthworm Jim 2
I used to play this a lot as a kid; it was one of my favorite games to play. I will admit, this particular version is not exactly what I was hoping for. There is one level missing, which was the timed soil level. And sometimes the audio cuts out. I might be shooting something and all of a sudden anything that isn’t the music stops playing. Sometimes it turns back on and sometimes it doesn’t. This can make the puppy love levels difficult, because sometimes he’ll throw a puppy and you won’t hear it or see it due to being on the other side of the screen.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
It’s the DOS version of a game, yes. Unlike EWJ1, there is no superior Windows version, to my knowledge, so it’s a bit hard to complaint about, especially when fan-patch exist (in EWJ1 Guides section of Steam) to slap DOSBOX up into proper shape. It’s in-between 16-bit and 32-bit ports, mostly being like upgraded Genesis version in graphics and having CD quality audio.
Yet it’s missing the platforming level with the amazing dirt physics, so I guess I can just slap a thumb down and be down with it, go play other versions. But otherwise it’s not bad. Unlike the first game it’s has proper gameplay code, controls and hit detection.
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game