The world is in turmoil, most of it having been simply erased from existence by the time-altering Emperor Griffon. Only the small town of Palm Brinks remains, firmly sealed in by the city walls that stop its inhabitants from even seeing the outside world. But one boy, the young inventor Maximilian, wishes to see what lies beyond the gates. He is given ample encouragement to escape when Griffon's forces enter the town with the singular desire to capture him. Outside, he witnesses the destruction wrought upon the land and joins forces with time-travelling Monica on a quest to save the past, present, and future.

Like its predecessor, Dark Chronicle is half dungeon romp and half city management. As Max and Monica progress through the randomly-generated arenas full of two-handed combat, they uncover blueprints for construction and begin to rebuild the surface world. Unlike the original, these blueprints may be used over and over to create truly freeform lands and populate them with characters of their choosing. Further time must be spent mastering the complex weapon development, playing golf and fishing minigames, and even constructing a fully functional Victorian-style giant stompy robot.

Dark Cloud is really two games in one, with the hero Toan exploring randomly-generated, monster-filled dungeons in one half, and building and organising entire towns in the other. The town items must be recovered from Atla stones dotted around the dungeons, and carefully rebuilt back on the surface. As Toan progresses through the various lands, new characters are recruited to the cause and may be switched around at will. The key to progress lies in weapons, attaching magical items to them in order to power up and then sealing that power in to level them up. Care must be taken, however, not to let them break, as a broken weapon is lost for good.

See Dark Chronicle.

Or to give it its full title, Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle. The disembodied purple tentacle, Purple Tentacle, having discovered Dr. Fred's toxic waste machine, has developed arms and an overwhelming desire to take over the world. In an effort to stop him, Dr. Fred has enlisted the help of geeky Bernard, heavy metal-loving Hoagie, and medical student Laverne and sent them through time. Kind of. The journey was only a moderate success, and now they're spread out over time and must work together to repair their Chron-o-Johns and put a stop to the evil tentacle.

With Hoagie in the past, Bernard left in the present, and Laverne in the tentacle-controlled future, play involves taking control of all three simultaneously. The unlikely heroes must walk around the cartoony flickscreen landscapes, picking up and using objects in the right way to solve almost-logical puzzles. Events in one time can affect the other, so it is often necessary to utilise time travel in order to progress. Interaction with the environment and its inhabitants is done using a SCUMM system, clicking on an on-screen verb and then the object. Conversations (with the likes of John Hancock and a talking horse) are often multiple choice and are optionally in "talkie" format.

Controversy surrounds the assassination of Fame Douglas, the founder of the Dead or Alive championship. Even more controversial is the new tournament, Dead or Alive 2, being managed by one suspected of great evil - one possibly even responsible for Douglas' death. A variety of skilled warriors have signed up for the tournament, each with their own reasons and an individual fighting style to see them through. Fights are played out over fully 3D arenas, often with multiple tiers which allow for back-breaking falls among the more traditional hits, blocks, and counters. Matches may be strung together in a number of forms, including the cutscene-peppered Story Mode, tag-team knockouts, and the intense time-based Survivor.

Your mission is to fire a laser into a receiver. Each of the 60 levels is a single screen, viewed from overhead. They are populated with walls, mines, mirrors, balls, and the occasional fancy item like refractors. In order to "unlock" the receiver, all of the balls must be destroyed by the laser. This is fired constantly from a fixed source, and the only control you have is over the mirrors. You must angle them to maneuver the laser toward the targets. If you hit a mine, or fully reflect the laser, is begins to overheat. Add to that a tight time limit, some tricky level design, and gremlins that can change the mirrors, and you have quite a task.

Since the beginning of time, the forces of good and evil have been fighting for absoulte control of all creation. Humanity brought about a turning point in this confrontation, in a period known as the Sin War. Angels and demons attempted to lure people under their control in the mortal realm, but this was just was the Hells wanted. While the Prime Evils were focusing their attention on man, the Lesser Evils initiated a revolution, overthrowing their power and banishing them to the world of the humans. A select group of mortals, known as the Horadrim, knew of this exile and hunted down the weakened demons. Eventually they were caught and imprisoned in magical stones to be buried for good-- or at least, that was the plan. Diablo, the Lord of Terror, has awakened and corrupted the town of Tristram, controlling the people and managing to free himself.

Word of the evils - and riches - in Tristram has spread throughout the world and attracted the attention of many an adventurer. You take up the role of one of these, either a Warrior, a Rogue or a Sorcerer. Beginning your quest in the ruined town, you must venture underground through the many isometric dungeon levels, destroying the minions of evil and reaping the rewards for doing so. Combat and magic, and a unique skill dependent upon your class, are key to your survival, and the remaining townspeople will sell you anything you may need. Diablo's strong point is its randomly generated dungeon: every level has a unique layout filled with unique treasures (and hordes of nasties), so no two games are the same.

Evil has survived. After Diablo invaded the town of Tristram and was stopped by a brave adventurer, the people believed that they were safe. They were wrong. Diablo possessed the body of the warrior and is seeking out his Prime Evil brethren, with whom he can unleash all of hell into the mortal plane.

And so you lead your character through four distinct acts in search of the demon, completing sidequests in each to allow your passage. Each act consists of a friendly town and a randomly-generated network of areas populated with hordes of evil types ripe for the bashing. This time, however, the journey is mostly above ground - but that's not to say that it doesn't get harder. Character development is at the heart of Diablo, and each of the five player classes has their own set of skill trees which can be explored with combat experience. There are also thousands of possible (randomly-generated) items which can be mixed and matched in a "paper doll" inventory system to further boost your player.

The expansion disc to Diablo II brings with it death and destruction. Baal, the last remaining Prime Evil and Lord of Destruction, has resurfaced and is looking to avenge the death of his brothers. He plans an assault on Mount Arreat, the sacred resting place of an artefact that separates the mortal plane from the realms of heaven and hell. Should he destroy the stone, there would be nothing stopping the forces of evil from taking over the world.

This is a good excuse to add an extra Act to the game, with new locations, missions, and people to populate it. There are also two new player classes, the melee expert Assassin and shape-shifting Druid. Diablo's famous item generation system has also been given a massive overhaul, with hundreds of new words and new items to combine them with.

The first of a long-running series. The evil wizard Zaks is terrorising the kingdom, and it is up to you, as Dizzy, to save the day. Dizzy is an egg with boxing gloves. That doesn't stop him traversing a side-on flick-screen land, but it does mean that he can only carry one item at a time. Sometimes, these items will destroy a particular type of enemy. Others, they are to be used in solving a puzzle. The ultimate goal is to create a potion to destroy the wizard, but there are plenty of sub-puzzles on the way.