Niahak's Place

Crash ‘n The Boys’ Street Challenge – Action (NES)
Technos, Inc

For those who played River City Ransom or Super Dodge Ball, the graphics – and perhaps the engine – may look somewhat familiar to you. A similarly-done title, CNTBSC is one of the few sports games I have thoroughly enjoyed.

Solstice – Puzzle (NES)
CSG Imagesoft / Software Creations

I usually don’t like puzzle games that much, but Solstice intrigued me – not only because of its name, but also its difficulty. The game is played in a 3-d isometric grid – sort of – and plays sort of like what Super Metroid would play like, if it were a puzzle platformer.

Dragon Warrior 4 – RPG(NES / Var)
Enix

Enix’s most successful RPG series, Dragon Warrior is now up to its eighth entry – now, of course, rechristened its original Japanese name, Dragon Quest. The series has a long history of refining formulas (like Koei) to make a great, if traditional, RPG experience.

Gauntlet 4 – Action/RPG(GEN)
Tengen

Yet another version of the classic game originally in arcades, Gauntlet 4 manages to be a better game, in my opinion, than any other Gauntlet game.

The reasons are simple; multiple gameplay modes with a good deal of depth, good music, and an easy-to-use 4-player mode.

Legend of the Mystical Ninja – Action/Adventure(SNES)
Konami

For the last game of the second week, I’d like to call your attention to an excellent game that just didn’t do as well in the States as it should have.

Legend of the Mystical Ninja – one of the successful Goemon games in Japan – is a game that has such a nice system that it really deserves better (probably a better name, too).