Retro game of the week: Journey to Silius (NES)

Journey to Silius is a NES game released in 1990, developed and produced by Sunsoft.
It has some gameplay similarities akin to Contra or Mega Man, and featured unusually strong music for that time; low-quality bass tones added depth to the usual square and triangle waves of the 8-bit machine.
Originally, the game was supposed to use the Terminator license, but after Sunsoft lost the rights, the game was further edited, primarily by changing the main character sprite.

Journey to Silius had five stages in total.
Not much, some will say. However, the main reason I remember Silius, besides the brilliant music, is because of its high difficulty. Five stages was more than enough. Needless to say, I never completed it. Don't think I ever will.

Get the soundtrack (25 MB) here, and click here to play the game in your browser.

2nd Download of the week: Helium Boy (PC)

Helium Boy is a nice Swedish-developed 3D platformer, of some sort. Gameplay is simple enough: Collect the stars, don't let the birds or ninjas puncture your balloons, and watch out for the water. You probably know the deal by now. Controls are a bit awkward at first, so I suggest you have a look at the tutorial before you play.

Download Helium Boy (11 MB) by clicking here.

Internet game of the week: Miestas (Flash)

If most games had even half the charm of this one, I wouldn't be complaining so much. Miestas is an all too short effort, but a very pleasant one. It has a delightful jazz tune to accompany its hand drawn, cut-and-paste graphics. Go on, solve a puzzle or two.
It'll put you in a good mood.

Follow this link to play Miestas.

Download of the week: Alex Adventure (PC)

Alex Adventure is a fine, almost surreal, little platform game with weird colours and strange creatures. Well, it is surreal, no doubt about it. Collect three different artefacts in this two-stage demo. Go ahead and try it.

Click here to download the demo (8 MB).

Retro game of the week: Alien Breed (AMIGA/PC)

Alien Breed is a top-down sci-fi shooter influenced, heavily, and unofficially, by the Alien films. It was released in 1991 by Team17 for the Amiga and later in 1993 by MicroLeague for DOS. It quickly became a classic. Team17 then decided to release a special edition of the game before finishing the sequel. This interim release came a year later, in 1992. Alien Breed Obliteration is a remake based on the interim version, rewritten from scratch with subtle improvements, featuring 15 new levels. Your mission is still the same though: blast your way through the alien invasion. It even has a co-op mode, so two players can once again team up and share the keyboard. Good times.

Click here to download Alien Breed - Obliteration (1.6 MB).

Internet game of the week: Space Bounty (Flash)

This might be an old game, but I'm enjoying it, so I'm putting it up anyway:
Space Bounty is a Flash shoot 'em up with heavy weapons and double-jumps.
Who doesn't love double-jumps? That's right. Here's a hint: Save your ammo.

Click here to play Space Bounty.

2nd Download of the week: FreeCiv (MAC/PC)

FreeCiv is a turn-based single and multiplayer strategy game, and as the name implies, it's exactly what it advertises: a free version of Civilization. Albeit being a poor mans version, its lack of flair and detail does not cripple the quality. It's still enjoyable, and it's still very much like the original Civ. And guess what? It's available for the Mac as well.

Click here for the MacOSX version (15 MB), and here if you want the XP version (7 MB).

Download of the week: Gesundheit! (PC)

This is, without question, one of the most impressive indie games I've mentioned here, all categories. Gesundheit! (by Matt Hammill) is stylish, beautiful and warm, gorgeously animated and cute beyond belief. Help an allergic green pig save a city from snot-eating monsters. The visuals are not the only aspect of Gesundheit! that deserves mentioning, since audio and the original toy-instrument soundtrack is really impressive too. This demo (v.1.1.2) contains a tutorial and twelve levels. It's wonderful.

Download Gesundheit! (39 MB) by clicking here. DO IT, NOW!

Retro game of the week: North & South (AMIGA/PC)

North & South was developed and published in 1989 by Infogrames (now Atari Europe), as an offshoot of the Belgian cartoon Les Tuniques Bleues, which is based on the American Civil War. A lot of people, not necessarily into games, remember this game, generally because of the real-time strategic battle scenes. I know I do. I used to play it on my friends Amiga along with other excellent titles like The Chaos Engine and Cannon Fodder. Gameplay is simple and functional. The strategic board map is separated into states and territories, which, if conquered, generates funds and soldiers with each turn. If the state features a train station, the attacking player is forced to complete a short side-scrolling mission through a fort to capture the state. On occasions, the player would also get the opportunity to capture an enemy train in a similar manner, as seen in the middle picture above.

The battle scenes, also considered the key action element in the game, is different from the platform sections and the strategic map. In this mode, each player controls an army consisting of infantry, cavalry and cannons. The battlefield setting where you fight it out is simple but well-balanced and detailed. Destructible scenery was nothing to expect back in 1989 - and the ability to do so made North & South feel special. Taking out the bridge was a good defensive strategy if outnumbered, but it took two well-aimed hits from the cannon, and time was always sparse. However, in every battlefield separated by either river or canyon, advancing armies could always use a secondary, indestructible passage across. The wealth of different game modes and the overall arcade feel that was evident throughout the game labelled North & South an instant classic. I've been trying to find a way to offer you the Amiga version since the DOS version looks like hell, but Amiga emulators are more complicated than I thought.
I'll include it in this post later, if possible.

Download North and South (1 MB) for DOS by clicking here. It should run on Windows.

Internet game of the week: Dice Wars (Flash)

I played a little bit of Risk 2210 AD last weekend, and I have to admit I'd forgotten how fun board games can be. As a reminder to you, here's Dice Wars. I'm not too sure about the rules and how they work, but the colours are crisp and it randomly generates every board, so it's good, clean fun. Give it a try.

Click here to play Dice Wars.

Download of the week: Lyle In Cube Sector (PC)

Lyle In Cube Sector (by Bogo) is a block throwing adventure game with retro style graphics and non-linear gameplay. You literally throw cubes on your enemies to take them out. Here's the "story": Lyle's kitty has been stolened [sic] and now he must journey through the wonked out lands of the Cube Sector to retrieve his meowmeow companion! How about that? This game looks and plays like a spoofed out Metroid.

Click here to download Lyle In Cube Sector (1.1 MB).

Internet game of the week: Tactics 100 (Flash)

My good friend Marcus, who keeps providing me with tips about nice flash games, sent me this link a few days (weeks?) ago, suggesting I should try Tactics 100. It's a pure Battle Chess spin off, but with the option to customize your team and characters. You can't do that in chess, last time I checked... It even has a multiplayer mode, people.

Follow this link and try it out.

Summer of Slime: Update

Look outside. Is the sun shining? You bet it is. And as a result of this, there has been a decline in the number of posts lately, and I can't guarantee things will pick up. Hopefully I'll review Sim City, Brothers In Arms and
Anno 1701 for the DS during this summer, maybe even some games for the 360, but since we have to buy each and every game things might not work out as planned. However, summertime in northern Sweden doesn't always equal sunny weather - if the temperature drops and the rains come in, well, then maybe I'll spend more time in front of the computer, and there'll be posts a plenty. Keep coming back.

Download of the week: Valdis Story (PC)

Here's a good looking pixelated 2D fighter RPG with combos, nice backgrounds and lots of bloodshed. This demo features two stages, a summon spell, and a few bosses.

Download the demo (7.3 MB) by clicking here.

Retro game of the week: Syndicate (AMIGA/PC)

Remember Syndicate? Of course you do. Otherwise you wouldn't be here. Without question one of my favorite games ever, Syndicate was developed by legendary, now defunct, company Bullfrog. It was, and still is, grand in scope and realisation. Sure, it looks a little stale in retrospect, but back then (1993) the isometric graphics were outstanding and detailed. Remember the commercial screens, advertising fake products? Remember the futuristic vehicles and the neon lights? Or was your tiny mind busy focusing on trenchcoats and lasers?

Syndicate, quite self-explanatory, was about guiding a team of agents around various cities in just about all countries of the world, performing duties for your syndicate; assassinating executives of a rival corporations, rescuing captured allies, persuading scientists to join your company, or simply wiping out enemy agents. You were also required to manage the funds to finance weaponry and tech upgrades, by means of taxing territories. More conquered territories meant more money, which in turn meant new cool stuff. The game itself was quite open-ended. All the countries avalible in the world map were, as I remember it, free to explore at any time, in what order you deemed appropriate. Solving the missions were also a matter of individual approach. When Syndicate came out, its rather graphic and indiscriminate violence sparked some controversy, which obviously only made it more popular with the kids. Glorious days.

Click here for some nostalgic footage.