Pilot your Raiden fighter

Let’s flash back to the year 1990 for a moment, and you’ll find yourself guiding your fighter plane in the most popular over-head vertical scrolling shooter arcade game of that time: Raiden (The title in Japanese translates to "Thunder And Lightning"). Sticking to the formula that became the standard of that era and genre, you will be piloting the experimental fighter know as the “Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter” through several levels while you blow up massive waves of alien warships with your missiles and bombs. Collecting powerups is a must if you want to survive long enough to battle the large and nasty bosses and defend Earth from the invading extraterrestrials.

Play a remake of this classic game that is called Raiden X, and blow those aliens back to where they came from! Also check out some cool Raiden tips and hints or learn a little about the history of the game taking a look at the Killer List of Videogames.

Altering the Beast

Let me tell you about this side-scrolling, beat ‘em up arcade game that is sure to make you raise your eyebrows in disbelief that some much awesomeness can be possible. You take control of a shapeshifting hero, who has been raised from the dead by Zeus himself in order to rescue his kidnapped daughter, Athena. Did I mention something about the hordes of undead, demons and level bosses that you’ll have to fight if you wanna get a chance to rescue her? Didn’t think so!

But worry not my friends, as beating some white two-headed wolves (hint, hint: Do you think this wolf might be the Cerberus dog of Greek Mythology? I do! ) will reveal the power-ups orbs (“Spirit Balls”) you need to increase your strength and size and eventually transform into a beast powerful enough to clean the floor with all of them. And that’s not all, as you can turn into a different one in each level. Becoming a werewolf, a dragon, a tiger, a bear and more you’ll get a set of special abilities with each creature, such as the dragon’s ability to fly.

Yes, you got it! It is no other than the groovy “Altered Beast”, developed by Makoto Uchida and released in 1988 by Sega. With Ancient Greece-inspired scenery, two player cooperative gameplay and lots of action, you are really missing out if you’ve never played this game. Luckily, you can go play this Altered Beast online version. Catch some tricks and hints at the Arcade History site, and if your in the read mood take a look at this funny review about the game (gifs and all!).

The Terrors (masks) of Splatterhouse

I must confess that the next game I’ll discuss used to scare the bejesus outta me when I was a kid. Considering that this side-scrolling beat ‘em up was released in 1988, and that it contains pretty violent scenes with some serious amounts of blood, levels full of corpses, demons and other disturbing creatures, it comes as no surprise that “Splatterhouse” was the first game to get a parental advisory disclaimer.

It also was a shock to discover many years later, that the main character actually was not Jason Voorhees -the killer from the Friday the 13th series of slasher movies, but just some guy named Rick who has to rescue his girlfriend Jennifer from the infernal creatures inhabiting The West Mansion (also known as “Splatterhouse” and supposedly the mansion of Dr. Herbert West, H.P. Lovecraft’s “Reanimator”). At the time everyone and their mother just assumed that this was a Jason / Firday the 13th arcade game and didn’t pay attention to the backstory, which states that Rick is under the influence of the “Terror Mask”, a Mayan (or is it Aztec?) sacrificial artefact that looks an awful lot like a hockey mask and provides the wearer with great strength.

Instead of the more classic style of scrolling fighters like Final Fight and such, you’ll be able to walk left and right but not forwards or backwards into the screen. You can use several weapons to fight off the horde of monsters you’ll come across, such as a meat cleaver, wood rods, bones and a shotgun.

I've read somewhere that they are making a remake for the next generation consoles, and I say bring it on! (but port it to PC too!). You can visit West Mansion: The Splatterhouse Homepage, a nice and pretty extensive fansite or the official site for the 2010 Splatterhouse remake to get more info about the game.