Herpy Derpy Hungry Dinosaurs

I was looking for a random SNES game to write about, so I skimmed through a list of games and landed on Hungry Dinosaurs because it had a funny name and I've never heard of it. It was released in Europe under that title, and as Harapeko Bakka in Japan, but was never released in the US. It is a fairly mysterious game to me because I couldn't find much information about it online. All I really know is that it was developed by Magical Company and was published by Sunsoft. I couldn't find out much about Magical Company either, and all I know is they were around for about ten years and started out by porting Fatal Fury to some Japanese home computer. They never made any games I've heard of.

Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!

Nobody makes games like Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude! anymore. It seems increasingly rare that a game company takes a wacky subject and runs with it. I guess games are just too expensive to do something risky these days. Greendog is a 2D platformer for the Genesis released in 1992. It was developed by the Sega Technical Institute, Sega of America's group of programmers that created Comix Zone and Kid Chameleon, as well as assisted on various Sonic titles and Die Hard Arcade. The team was eventually fell apart with the cancellation of Sonic X-Treme, their Sonic game for the Saturn.

Game Boy Donkey Kong Makes Me Feel Foolish

Donkey Kong for the Game Boy is a deceptive game. A friend of mine left his copy of the game at my house a while back, but I didn't bother actually playing it because I've played Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600, the NES, and in arcade, and I thought “what is there really to see in another port?” So, yesterday I purchased a Game Boy Player because if something is capable of playing Game Boy games, I want to own it, and when I plugged it in my friends told me to put in his copy of Donkey Kong because he wanted to see his save game. I thought “what could there be to save in Donkey Kong? Does he have a really good high score or something?”

Duke Nukem In COLOR!

In celebration of the release of Duke Nukem Forever, I thought it would be nice to write about one of the many Duke Nukem games made by not 3D Realms during the 14 years it was in development. This one is the simply titled Duke Nukem made for the Game Boy Color in 1999. Don't let the box art fool you, this game is not a port of Duke Nukem 3D, which clearly would not have worked on the meager hardware, it is actually something of a remake of Duke Nukem II. You know, back from when Duke was one of the PC's better 2D platformers.

Things Donkey Kong Will Leave Off His Résumé

I wasn't sure what to write about today, but then a friend, whom I assume hates me, sent me this. Now, a logical person would think that, after seeing this video, I would be inspired to play Donkey Kong 64. In this case, logical people would be wrong, because when I saw this I didn't think about how terrible the game is, I thought about the only Donkey Kong related thing that is more terrible than Donkey Kong 64. Those of you unfortunate enough to have experienced it already know what I'm referring to, The Donkey Kong Country CG cartoon from the late nineties. The idea of a DKC series doesn't seem all that bad, it's a series with some quirky characters on a colorful backdrop, but anyone who has seen the series knows that it was not well executed.

Chakan: The Forever Man

When I first decided to write about Chakan, I figured it would be a quick and simple article. Sure it's a weirdly dark action platformer for the Genesis and Game Gear, but it was only one game that was only ported once, so how complicated of a history could it have? As it turns out, this undead pilgrim-looking guy has had a lot of behind-the-scenes drama. Chakan began life as an indie comic book that, as far as I can tell, was never particularly successful. Someone at Sega must have been a fan, because in 1992 it was adapted as a video game. The Genesis version was the first game developed by Extended Play Productions, who went on to exclusively make FIFA games for the next five years and then dissapear. The Game Gear version was developed by an unnamed Sega internal studio.

Wolfchild: A Werewolf With Laser Fists

Wolfchild is an action platform game by Core Designs. They are most known as the original developers of the Tomb Raider series, but before that they made games like this and Chuck Rock. It was originally released on the Amiga, but was ported to all the major consoles of the early nineties. The version I played was the one for SNES. It's a pretty unremarkable game mechanically, but it is memorable for the odd core mechanic and hilarious art design.