How could this game's concept be described most accurately? Yeah, right - by telling which classic game it's a clone of! Two problems with this though: Nobody will know the original and (even worse) even I forgot the title! It was a sports game by Lucasfilm on the C64 (at least I think it was on this system). Edit: In fact it was Ballblazer by Lucasfilm on the old Atari. Thanks to Chris for reminding me!
Before he was banished from public view in order to stay in the pool or 'fly' over the fields forever, Rudi Scharping was the head of one of the biggest political parties in Germany: the SPD. In 1994, he managed to lose the most important election in spite of all polls having been in favour of the SPD mere weeks earlier. A few months before that, the results of the election of the European parliament turned out even worse for them. In spite of (or because of?) this game.
'Aces of the Deep' is IMHO the best part of the 'Aces'-series and by far the best WW2 submarine simulation. No other game could catch the intense battle of the German subs in the Atlantic in such realistic way like 'AoD'. Actual submarine and weapon developments, changes in convoy tactics, improving air cover of the Atlantic, historical events - everything you can expect is implemented in this game.
Alien Carnage, also known as Halloween Harry, is a sidescrolling action platform game. The story is that the earth is being taken over by aliens and the alien leader tells the goverment that if they do not surrender the planet in 24 hours, innocent civilians will be taken hostage and turned into zombies to help take over the planet. Harry is called upon to help save the people held captive by the aliens and to destroy the alien menace.
The ghost pirate One Eyed Jack (no relation to Twin Peaks) has kidnapped a little girl. A detective called Striker has located her, but just as he's about to free her again, a creepy clown doll comes to life and strangles him to death. Enter Striker's colleague: Edward Carnby, in a distincly more modern suit than the one he wore in the first game. Arriving at the mansion (appropriately called Hell's Kitchen), he's immediately faced with zombies... carrying machine guns.
When people start filming a western the local cowboy ghosts seem to dislike the idea and start causing mayhem. The only solution is calling Carnby, who will come, kick some asses, solve absurd puzzles and save an old friend.
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.
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!
Concerning its concept, "Biker Mice From Mars" straightfowardly had the successful classic "Rock'n'Roll Racing" in mind. Unlike the original, you drive motor cycles and other unorthodox vehicles around more or less well-built tracks here. Although the game produced by Konami labels itself as being "powered by Snickers", you permanently suppose that the programmers wanted to make fun of this ridiculous piece of chocolate-peanut-mush.
Blackthorne - the 2-D scrolling shooter that doesn't really scroll. That simple sentence is the most complete and accurate description I can come up with today. Looking back several years I can only ask myself: why did we love this game so much? Because we didn't know any better? Probably so. But then again, nothing can change the beautiful memories and give back the countless hours we spent in front of the small, low-quality 14" monitor playing what we thought was the greatest game ever made. Does this sound unfamiliar to you? Probably, if you have never experienced it.