Ufouria is a (side scrolling) platform adventure video game. You begin play as Hebereke (Bop Louie in PAL regions), a penguin (though in PAL release he is more humanoid and looks like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man), and must explore the world on which you and three other friends crash landed. As you encounter the new characters you must fight them to make them recover their memory. Once you have recovered all 3 other characters you are then searching for Temple Keys which will lead back to your home-world of Ufouria.
The world in which you interact is free form, meaning that you can wander around as you please. To get to new areas you will need to get power-ups and/or new characters with their own abilities. Character switching is done as needed, not defined by levels. Sections of the game have bosses and mini-bosses which include the characters which have not had their memory returned yet.
The third title in the Ultima series, this was the first game in the series to feature a party of adventurers instead of a single player. It also had large, detailed towns with many people to talk to, and a separate combat engine where your party fought multiple monsters in a turn-based tile-based system.
The story? After the defeat of the evil wizard Mondain and his mistress Minax in the previous two Ultimas, peace has returned to the land of Sorsaria. Times passes and eventually geological disruptions and a resurgence of the monster populace occur, and it is soon learned that Mondain and Minax had conceived a child named "Exodus" before their death. Now that child has become an adult with the power to avenge the death of his parents. Obviously, it falls upon you the hero to find and stop him.
The fourth game in the now well-established Ultima series featured an improved version of the Ultima IV engine, with color graphics and better character interaction (you could now have actual conversations with NPCs). But what really makes Ultima IV shine is its radical departure from any other RPG made before or since in terms of the story and goal.
Instead of building up your character by any means possible in order to face the Ultimate Evil in a big bang up showdown, in Ultima IV you were trying to become the Avatar, a role model of sorts for the people of the land. This meant upholding the "eight virtues" and basically trying to become a better person. In most RPGs you chose to be a just/nice hero because the people you'd help would usually provide you with some nice equipment for your services, but in Ultima IV you helped people not for a reward or to advance the plot but simply because it was the "right thing to do". The game actually frowns on behavior that was typical of most other RPGs, such as backstabbing fleeing monsters or picking up everything that wasn't nailed down even if it didn't belong to you. The game keeps track of all your actions, so if you went about killing and looting like in most RPGs, you'd never finish the game.
This VERY different approach to the game's ultimate goal is what makes Ultima IV famous so many years later, and became the sort of design philosophy that made all the following Ultimas so unique in their genre.
Of course, the game still has plenty of traditional RPG elements such as dungeons to explore and hostile monsters to kill, as well as a typical final "Holy Grail" type quest where you had to find the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom to complete your transformation into Avatarhood.
Ultima 5 uses the basics of the Ultima 4 engine, an overhead perspective of Britannia or one of many towns or dungeons, which use a rosette-compass 3D view. Many actions are expanded, including much more world interactivity and much deeper characters than the 'signpost' NPCs of Ultima 4.
In Ultima 5, you, the Avatar and Hero of Britannia, are called back to deal with a new threat - the tyrant Blackthorn, who, after the disappearance of Lord British, now rules the land by enforcing the virtues upon the will of the people, corrupting their meaning in the process. Behind Blackthorn are the Shadowlords, anti-thesis to the three Principles. Their meaning and origin are explored later in the game, rounding out an immersing world and very meaningful plot.
You, the avatar from the other Ultima adventures, see a gate appear from the world known as Britannia where you have gone on countless adventures. This can only mean one thing: Britannia is in trouble again. You step through the portal to see gargoyles looming over your body which is on some kind of slab. Suddenly, Iolo, Shamino, and Dupre, your friends from previous Britannian adventures come to your rescue at just the right moment, and your adventure begins.
In Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Lord British, the King of Britannia, tells you of a new peril that has befallen the land. Gargoyles have been attacking everywhere, and are currently present at all eight of the sacred Shrines of Virtue. You must fight off the gargoyles at the shrines, and find the runes that can seal them from further invasion from the gargoyles. However, things are not always as they seem, and you will be led on many adventures, and interaction with hundreds of people, and gargoyles.
To travel the vast world of Britannia, you will walk on foot, buy a skiff to travel rivers, acquire the deed to a ship which can bring you across oceans, and eventually contruct your own hot-air balloon that can carry you anywhere you want. You are also aided with a moon orb, a strange stone that can transport you instantly to almost any town or shrine. This game is full of puzzles and riddles in the form of dungeon exploration, and in actuality, the game is less combat-based than most role-playing games. In combat, players can equip various weapons and armor, and up to 48 different spells. Part of the challenge, of course, is finding a teacher for these spells, and the components to cast them. Actions are menu-based, when the avatar performs an action, several options such as "look", "talk", and "item" come up.
Another notable feature is the "Karma" system. Since the player is the avatar, an example of goodness, some actions such as stealing from houses and lying to characters will hurt the Karma score. Low Karma results in a loss of experience when a character dies, and the game cannot be finished if Karma is too low. The game will take most players around 20 hours to complete, but can take up to 40 or 50 if they care to find out all of the game's many secrets and puzzles.
After producing a few Ultima games that took place in various realms other than Britannia, Origin Systems has placed the Avatar back in a very familiar environment for Ultima VII: The Black Gate.
Many things have changed since the glory days of Britannia after the Avatar set things right in Ultima VI: The False Prophet. It has been 200 years in Britannian time since then and the world is truly in a sorry state. The Shrines of the Virtues have fallen into disuse, savage racism against the Gargoyles has forced them to reside almost entirely in a single area and a debilitating disease is sweeping the countryside.
To further exacerbate the situation, a cult-like organization known as The Fellowship is offering entirely too easy answers to all of life's problems and a huge demonic entity calling itself The Guardian is promising massive destruction across the land. Needless to say, Britannia needs the Avatar's aid now more than ever.
Previous Ultima games, since the 1983 release of Ultima III: Exodus, have had generally the same main interface -- main screen in the upper left, characters on the right and other information on the bottom. Ultima VII: The Black Gate breaks the mold and uses a completely new layout.
The entire screen is the playing area and other information only pops up as a "window" of sorts. Characters are handled with a "paper doll" view that serves as the repository where equipment and weapons are placed for use. Conversations (with their corresponding character portraits) also pop up and pause the action.
Ultima VII: The Black Gate features 256-color VGA graphics and offers no support for lower formats. Musical support, conveyed through dozens of MIDI songs, is available for both Ad-Lib and SoundBlaster compatible cards. The game's effects use SoundBlaster technology, providing an alternative to the PC speaker sound effects of previous Ultima games. As the main story unfolds, the Avatar comes upon situations requiring deep thought as well as more standard combat-oriented problems that are dealt with easily. There are dozens of different styles of weapons and armor available and combat is handled through real-time movement with your party user each controlled by a specific pre-scripted AI style of your choice.
From the city of Trinsic, where the quest begins, to strange locales like the Ethereal Plane and your final confrontation with The Fellowship and The Guardian, Ultima VII: The Black Gate attempts to provide players with a memorable, unique CRPG. The game, as in previous titles in the series, combines classic RPG style with anachronistic real-world dilemmas about race, religion and revolution.
This game is not a flight sim, way too unrealistic for that. It's a mission based game along the lines of EA's 'Strike' series, with a somewhat generic dogfight bit before each mission. If none of this sounds interesting to you, I urge you to keep reading, because this game is much more than it appears at first.
Firstly, this is in Japanese. But you don't really need to know the language to understand what you're supposed to do. Basically the useless ''Destroy this'' mission briefings & story are in Nihon-go, the rest of the text (the important stuff) is in English. Plus, this is not the most complex Famicom cart out there. For the dogfights, obviously you attack the enemy. For the mission parts you destroy what your little compass thingy points to (and the game shows you a picture of your target beforehand). Every time you destroy something required to beat the level, your pilot yells a decent sounding ''Yeah!''. Kinda lame, but still cool for some reason
At first glance, Ultimate Basketball appears to be an update to the classic Konami basketball game, Double Dribble. After all, it features seven teams as opposed to four, and the characters and court backdrops and undeniable more detailed and colorful. Double Dribble was released around the Christmas of 1989, so maybe Ultimate Basketball, released in September of 1990, was the heir to the throne.
Ultimate Fighter has four distinct modes of play (Story, VS Tournament, Battle and Animation), giving the game more variety than the average brawler. There's turn-based combat (attack, dodge, use magic), one-on-one fighting action, and side-scrolling action (complete with boss battles, ninjas to kill and items to collect). However, gameplay is hampered severely by sluggish controls, slow characters (karate experts, wrestlers, boxers, etc), and repetitive action. Adding to the misery are flat backgrounds, moments of unintentional humor, a slow frame rate, weak, repetitive sounds, and a haphazardly thrown together concept.
There are two modes you could play in, Ultimate League Soccer and World Cup. If you play Ultimate League Soccer, you will just play one game, that's it. If you play World Cup, you will play a series of games and try to win the World Cup. You should start off playing on the Ultimate League Soccer mode if you're new to this game. When you want to be a champion, play in the world cup mode.
Now let's pick teams shall we? The best overall team is Germany and the worst overall team is the USA (big surprise huh?). You should obviously play your first game as Germany and against the USA. After you play for a bit, find out what category you aren't too good at. If you're great at defense, but struggle scoring goals, then play with a good offensive/skill team. If you think you are good at all categories, find which category you would like most such as accuracy. Or if you want a real challenge, play as USA and against Germany.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a special edition Mortal Kombat 3 that includes many of the features not included in the final edition due to limitations. First released in the Arcades in 1995, the storyline yet again traces Shao Kahn's ploy to take over the Earth Realm, this time by the resurrection of his wife Sindel by his shadow priests.
Brace yourself and pick from 23 instantly selectable fighters from across the universe, faces both old and new to the series. Male Ninjas include Sub-Zero (masked form), Reptile, Noob, Ermak, Scorpion, and Rain. Female Ninjas include Jade, Mileena, and Kitana.
Cyber-Ninjas new to the Mortal Kombat series include Sektor, Cyrax, and Smoke. Other fighters consist of the street wise Stryker, American Indian NightWolf, Special Ops Sonya and Jax, escapee Kano, the unmasked Sub-Zero, Kung Lao, evil queen Sindel, priest sorcerer Shang Tsung, Bruce Lee look-a-like Lui Kang and the clinically dead Kabal.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 features three modes of play: the standard one-on-one affair; two-player, two-on-two battles; and the newly added tournament mode, which allows up to eight players to take turns fighting in a knockout competition to find out who is the true champion.
For those of you who are content to play Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 in single-player fashion, players can choose from four destinies (novice, warrior, master, and master two), each with distinctive battle plans, though the final three battles always involve an endurance match, Motaro and Shao Kahn in battle.
Fighting locations implemented in this special edition of Mortal Kombat 3 include a desert (with Cyrax stuck in quick sand, endlessly wiggling to save himself), a New York street, a Portal entrance, Shao Kahn's Lair and the realm portal, among other new and old backdrops. Game options include handicaps, violence control (blood and fatalities), full control configuration, and the ability to select from five difficulty levels.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3's only real new features are the assortment of old characters that were not in the original Mortal Kombat 3. Also, there are some new backgrounds and finishing moves, along with the eight-player tournament mode. New secret fighters and codes have been added for MK enthusiasts to try and work out.
There are many worlds besides our own, many realms where both good and evil hold sway. For centuries, Shang Tsung of the Outworld has sought to control the Mortal Kombat tournament for his own ends. Now a new champion must arise from our world that will fight to the bitter end and put an end to Shang Tsung's ambitions. This video game series was so popular that it spawned both a live-action and an animated TV series, and a live-action movie starring Christopher Lambert as Rayden.
It is the considered opinion of most video game experts that the MK games are more hype than they are substance. Their opinion is that they are flashy SF2 clones that don't always deliver the goods. That didn't keep Midway from selling copies by the bucketful, and the Mortal Kombat franchise has been one of its most profitable ventures since its inception. Perhaps its reputation as a violent game with lots of blood-letting during the fights is what gave the series its overhyped reputation.
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, is essentially the same as MK3 but with several "enhancements," including more blood and gore during the fight scenes.
Updated version of the classic arcade game with improved graphics and sound. The idea is still the same, though - try to mark off as much territory as you can without any monsters catching you or the Qix touching an uncompleted border line.
Has the same basic gameplay as the original, but this time your enemies are giant monsters who bounce around the playing field. Unfortunately, the original's simplistic but appealing graphics are gone. If you don't mind these flaws, then it's a unique and addictive game.
Ultimate Stuntman must fight through 8 worlds with 4 stages each (3 in 8) to face the villainous Dr. Evil. After each third stage, you will fight one of his Androids, with the final boss being Evil himself.
Ultimate Stuntman is largely an action game, with the bomb disposal being a puzzle game. It's really varied in that sense - there are multiple varieties of play so I will list the controls separate from each other.
You start with three lives, and you can continue a level if you die. The game seems to choose checkpoints at important sections of the level. There's no indication when you've passed one, however.
If you lose all of your lives, you can Continue. However, this takes you to the first stage of the World. For instance, if you lose all lives in 7-4 and choose to continue, you will start over on 7-1.
This game is based on 'Ultraman', a famous Japanese live-action superhero series that has had numerous sequels and spin-offs since its debut in the 1960s. Generally, the main character is a normal human who uses an alien device to transform into a giant red-and-silver (sometimes with blue) creature called an Ultraman to combat alien monsters with the help of a special military team. Some of the subsequent shows in the series include 'Ultraseven', 'Ultraman Leo', 'Ultraman Taroh', and 'Ultraman Tiga'.
U.N. Squadron is an aerial combat game from the developers at Capcom. The game is set up to scroll from left to right with enemy crafts entering the fray from both sides of the screen. There are three selectable characters in U.N. Squadron, each flying a different type of war plane. Shin, the game's only female fighter, flies an F20 Tiger Shark. Mickey, a slim, blonde hero, wages battle in his F14 Tomcat. Finally, Greg, a portly, bearded hero with dark hair, destroys enemies in his A10 Thunderbolt. Two players can play U.N. Squadron simultaneously using different pilots.
Before each flight mission, players have the opportunity to buy weapons, shields and fuel to bulk up their planes. During each mission, pilots earn additional money to be spent on subsequent missions. Each mission includes numerous small enemies -- in the air, on the ground or in the sea -- several mid-size enemies, and one large, strategic enemy target. Players can usually dispatch the smaller enemies with one shot, while larger enemies will only fall under a barrage of shots. U.N. Squadron features eight levels.
Set sail on the high seas as a sixteen-year-old in search of his destiny. The setting is 16th century Europe, and you are the only one left of a once noble family. Both your grandfather and father tried to make names for themselves as sea captains, but they succumbed to the perils of the ocean and met watery graves. Your goal is to restore your family's good name by achieving fame and fortune, by being a merchant, pirate or trader.
Created in the tradition of Pirates!, Uncharted Waters is a game where you can own a fleet of ships, travel to ports in search of goods, hunt for treasure, fulfill different tasks for royalty, and battle enemy fleets. You begin the game in the year 1502 and must rise from the rank of Page to Duke before 1522. How you achieve this is up to you. Besides being able to save your progress via battery backup, the game allows you to enter your character's name and the names of your ships.
The second game from an original series of historical simulations by the acknowledged masters of the genre. The first one is only mildly interesting, but the second one is fantastic and makes a great counterpoint to MicroProse's Pirates! Gold.
Uncharted Waters 2 - New Horizons, is executed well thought out, with six different ship captains representing six different countries from which to choose, including one female.
