One of the planet's three suns is threatening all life as we know it. You are one of the few people who knows about it. On the way to the institute where you're supposed to try and save the world, disaster strikes already: Earthquakes destroy much of the subway system, killing all your fellow passengers. But these quakes also carve the way into a long-forgotten underworld full of machines and artifacts dating back to the early days of colonisation – and even before that.
Alien Invaders, the Gorgons, are running their final assault on the city of Atlantis. The last line of defense are three guns, two positioned at the sides of the screen and one in its centre. Their lines of fire are fixed: the middle one shoots straight up, the ones on the sides fire diagonally towards the centre of the screen. The player can select which gun to shoot with by moving the controller to the left and right.
Balance of Power is almost a simulation of the cold war. As one of the two major superpowers (USA or USSR) you try to gain influence without starting a nuclear war.
The rest of the world is serving as a playground for the enemies. Other countries are not directly conquered but you try to get the respective government on your side or to overthrow it.
Banshee is a very late arrival in the genre of shooters. In 1994, the gaming industry started moving everything towards 'three-dimensional' games, and classic concepts like this one slowly died out. Thankfully, this genre (at least the subgenre of 'vertical shooters') got one final hit with this game.
In the not-so-distant future (1999 to be exact), the nations of the world have at last recognized the need for peace to avoid mutual destruction and ensure the survival of the human race. The plan to achieve world piece is strongly reminiscient of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still: Automated weapons are unleashed, supposedly to exterminate anyone becoming an aggressor. Of course, technology goes awry, and the weapons are starting to exterminate all life on earth. The player jumps into a rusty old tank trying to blow up all the other thanks, fighters and flying saucers which now threaten humanity.
If at first you don't succeed.... Lure of the Temptress wasn't a very good game, but it did receive quite positive reviews - let's just say there are and were games which are even more overrated. After that, Revolution Software took their time to develop a successor - and they succeeded in a brilliant way!
The 'production secret' of 'Bi-Fi Roll' (greasy 'meatbar' imported from BSE-infected countries, hidden in a bread container), a single sheet of paper, has disappeared. Instead of taking the usual route of calling the lawyers to sue everybody in sight, Bifi can depend on volunteers who scout their cities for free, because they're aware that without constant supply of their drug, they won't survive for long.
You will play as Snake Logan, a top-secret CIA agent sent to the most dangerous mission ever - to deal with the hundreds of monsters attacking Metro City and destroying everythig in their path. No one knows why and you are our last hope. Original, no? Well, to make things even more difficult, your plane is shot while flying over Metro City and after salvaging the destroyed plane, you find one machine gun. Time to secure the perimeter.
Flames of nuclear war devoured the world, cities, towns, forests... all became a desert filled with mutants and survivors. But you are not only that, you are a leader on its way to join again this land.
Jake Stonebender is one of the regulars at the prolific bar where people from the past, the future and various mythological dimensions meet. Some visitors share their personal problems freely with the protagonist - dragging him right into them as he tries to solve them. How do you turn a series of short stories into a computer game? Make it episodical. Each of the episodes can be played independently with the bar acting as the place where short interludes take place. Interestingly enough, each episode is quite long on its own, resulting in a massive game when combined.