Knight Arms is one of those hard to classify action
shooters. It features alternating 3D into the screen, ala
Star Fox and Space Harrier, action then it changes to side
scrolling shooting similar to Gradius or Thunder Force
III. For some impressive scaling and feel of depth, with a
good game wrapped around it, check out Knight Arms.
Other Notable Games:
Aquales is going to get slammed as a Cyber nator clone
but it was released shortly after the first game in that
series (Target Earth on Genesis) and before Cybernator.
That is another article altogether though. Aquales is a
giant robot action game that has a lot in common with
newer titles such as Ranger X (wepaons) on Genesis and
of course Cybernator (character designs) on Super
Nintendno. If you have an X68000, Aquales should be in
your game library.
Rygar fr om Tecmo also made the jump to the Shar p
X68000 in all of its arcade glory. Forget the NES port
that was understood as quite good, especially for the time,
this version is much better. Die-hard fans will want this
version while everyone else can save a few bucks and
enjoy the Atari Lynx port (which is better than the NES
game) or just play the arcade original if you can. For
X68000 owners, here is another great game to wave in the
air.
There were even a few Neo Geo ports for the X68000,
much like for home consoles in North America, including
a rather impressive port of Viewpoint. Played from a
view that was similar to that of Zaxxon (angled 3/4 view),
Viewpoint is known for its challenge and variety in
enemies. Slinky’s and gears aren’t all nice and fun.
While North American gamers may never have gotten the
X68000 officially, it is just another Japan exclusive
gaming computer that would have been cool to have here.
It would have definitely competed well with the consoles
of the time and could have held its own against the Amiga
line of computers and the Atari ST. Too bad Sharp
Electronics was not better equipped in the management
department to have brought this over at a reasonable price
point. Who knows, it might have suffered like the NEC
Turbo Grafx-16 did with a lack of quality games here.
38