Video Works by Jeremy Parish

Metroidvania Chronicles gets a new name and look, but it's the same old retrospective journey through the evolution of exploratory action-RPGs and platformers all the same. This time we jump ahead to 1984 and Utopia's treasure-hunting pyramid platformer Montezuma's Revenge. Other games of note this episode: Pharaoh's Curse, Spelunker, Jet Set Willy.


We bid farewell to the Black Box era of Nintendo games even as we welcome an NES powerhouse into the fold. Slalom sees UK developer Rare make its console debut with a high-speed downhill racing game and the most carefully rendered video game man-butts this side of Metal Gear.

Direct download: Slalom_retrospective_Rares_slippery_slope_to_fame___NES_Works_038.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 8:27am EDT

We're reaching the end of Nintendo's Black Box series of releases, and Pro Wrestling shows why: The NES library evolved beyond the basic experiences contained within the early Black Boxes. In this case, we have a remarkably well-designed wrestling game loaded with personality and memorable characters. Quite a change from all those earlier NES wrestling games... Also in this episode: Brief looks at Soccer and Volleyball.


The NES's third year in America kicks off in fine style with Capcom's Trojan, a fairly faithful (and slightly enhanced) conversion of a Kung-Fu style arcade hack-and-slash brawler. It's an interesting nexus for Capcom's history, and a promising start for NES's 1987 lineup.

Direct download: Trojan_retrospective_Apocalyptic_measures___NES_Works_036.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 8:21am EDT

The second volume of Game Boy Works comes to a conclusion (look for the book this fall!) with a look at the system's first Zelda-style game. Uhhh… kinda. Rolan's Curse offers a glancing tangent to the top-down action-RPG, but there's not a lot of substance here — just the appearance of the thing.

Direct download: Rolans_Curse_retrospective_Hackneyed_slash___Game_Boy_Works_112.mp4
Category:Video Games -- posted at: 8:19am EDT

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