HAL

July 1988

Shooter

1-2 Players (alt)

Defender fans will shriek in horror when they discover all the changes Hal Laboratories has made to their favorite shooter.  The worst of these is that when you rescue humanoids, they no longer hang from the bottom of your ship until you set them back on Earth.  This takes a lot of the fun and strategy out of an otherwise competant conversion of the arcade game.

Ultra

July 1989

Action/Strategy

1-2 Players

Here's a game that may have been a little too ambitious for the NES.  Defender of the Crown features deep strategy, a wide variety of mini-games, and full screen intermissions which help advance a well written medievel storyline.  The NES version has all of these things, but you'll dread having to play the mini-games, which are as stiff and slow as a rusty suit of armor.

JVC/Lucasfilm Games

July 1992

Action

1 Player

You have to feel sorry for the citizens of Dynatron City.  They were looking for superheroes to help protect them from evil, and wound up with these guys, who look like extras from an episode of The Tick.  Anyway, you comb through the streets of Dynatron City, killing swarms of robots while trying to figure out why you're still playing the game.  That last part's really tough.

FAST FACT:  Defenders of Dynatron City wasn't merely restricted to the world of video games.  It was part of a franchise including toys and an animated television series which Lucasfilm thought would be a guaranteed hit.  Unfortunately, kids didn't find superheroes based on power tools especially exciting, making Defenders George Lucas's biggest failure since the film Howard the Duck.

Kemco/Seika

December 1990

Adventure

1 Player

If you ever wanted to star in a detective novel, now's your chance!  Deja Vu drops you in the middle of a deserted bar, with a mark on your arm and an acute case of amnesia.  It'll take some fancy flatfoot-work to figure out who you are, but if you're careless, you could wind up in a wooden box!  Deja Vu is a great game that's hampered only slightly by a clumsy interface.

Taito

January 1990

Action

1 Player

Kage's legend continues in the sequel to one of Taito's first NES games.  There's plenty of wire-fu action as Kage leaps insane heights and stands on the tops of bamboo trees, firing shuriken at any enemy who dares come near him.  It's an undeniably cool concept, but the gameplay isn't as exciting as it sounds, lacking direction and purpose.

TO BE CONTINUED...?:  Recently, the Legend of Kage series made a stylish comeback on the Nintendo DS.  So far, this game has only been released in Japan, but with Taito's parent company Square-Enix planning to bring Arkanoid DS and Space Invaders Extreme to the United States, it's entirely possible that this classic remake will find its way to America as well.

Kemco

June 1989

Strategy

1-2 Players

If you're looking for an entry level strategy game, something that will help you get acquainted with the genre, this might do the trick.  Desert Commander puts you in control of a user-friendly army of combat vehicles and infantrymen.  Everything is so straightforward and easy to learn that you'll be leading your soldiers to victory with just a little practice.

Acclaim/Imagineering

February 1990

Flight

1 Player

Space combat simulations like this one have been around forever, even before the NES was first released.  However, they can still be entertaining when designed well, and this one holds its own against others in the genre.  There are even side-scrolling missions which take place after you've hunted down and destroyed all the enemy ships in each sector.

Capcom

September 1990

Role-Playing

1 Player

This role-playing game is on a much grander scale than most... instead of a small party of characters, your heroes (all legendary warriors from Chinese history) have entire armies do their fighting for them.  Past this, Destiny of an Emperor is a pretty standard RPG, with all the usual conventions of the genre.  You buy items, get healed at inns, and go on epic quests.