If you ask people who their favourite gaming heroes are, you can bet most of them will say Sonic the Hedgehog or Mario. Why wouldn’t they? The beloved plumber and lightning-fast hedgehog have been sitting pretty for decades as the undisputed kings of video gaming.
But what about those lesser-known heroes? The forgotten few who dared to dream big but lost all of their lives without a hint of a continuation? Well, here at Horror Geek Life, we haven’t forgotten them, and by golly, we’re not about to let you guys forget them either.
So brace yourselves for a trip down memory lane as we list our favourite forgotten retro gaming heroes.
1Special Forces Operative Roy Adams
Operation Wolf (Taito, 1987)
You need a hero you can count on when you’re out in the field, fighting a relentless enemy. You need a hero who, despite only being able to run to the right, will always have your back. A hero who is scared of no one and wields an Uzi like they were born with it in their manly hands. You need a hero like Operation Wolf’s Roy Adams!
Created back in the glory era of coin-op gaming, Operation Wolf was a side-scrolling shoot-em-up that allowed kids like you or me to take control of an ‘ultra-realistic’ firearm to rescue prisoners of war from a nondescript enemy (an enemy we all knew was evil because they had mustaches or beards).
2Hen-House Harry
Chuckie Egg (A&F Software, 1983)
How do you like your eggs in the morning? If the answer is fresh from the mutated backside of a giant blue chicken then you’re in luck!
Those of you reading this who were lucky enough to play video games that were pre-loaded onto cassettes may remember this little gem from A&F Software that saw you take on the role of a stylish chicken farmer, Hen-House Harry, a rotund little man in coveralls who risks his life time and time again to provide the world with some of that eggy goodness we all love so much.
The story of Hen-House Harry is a sad one, though; despite being the leading man in a million-plus-selling game that spawned a sequel and a modern PC-based remake, Harry never quite reached the level of fame enjoyed by his fellow coverall-wearing peers and quickly faded from the public.
3Dizzy
Various (Codemasters, 1987)
Video game developers really must have loved eggs because back in the 1980s, they were everywhere, and Dizzy was the literal King of the Yolkfolk.
Designed as the 8-bit home computer’s answer to Sonic and Mario, Dizzy bounced and rolled his way through various levels, collecting potions and other useful items that enabled him to complete his quest, which usually revolved around rescuing his fellow egg people, and trying to get it on with Daisy because game developers in the ’80s were weird.
Dizzy enjoyed a lot of success through the years, starring in 8 official sequels, numerous spin-offs, and an iPhone-friendly reimagining in 2015.
4James Pond
James Pond (Vectordean Ltd, 1990)
He’s suave. He’s dangerous. He’s … a fish?!
With a name as bad as the puns in this feature, James Pond, also known as Roboco,d was the underwater world’s answer to MI5’s super spy 007, solving crimes in the murky depths of the ocean, battling villains with equally terrible names such as Dr. Maybe and presumably, because this is set in British waters, avoiding getting trapped in six-pack rings or getting tetanus from rusty shopping trolleys.
5Daley Thompson
Track and Field/Decathlon (Ocean, 1984)
Way before sporting stars like Tiger Woods or Charles Barkley had their own video games, Britain’s ‘80s Olympian, Daley Thompson, was setting the standard in Daley Thompson’s Track and Field.
Track and Field was a realistic look at the Olympic Decathlon event, with photo-real imagery and state-of-the-art motion capture. Players were presented with the unenviable role of playing ‘generic white guy’ as they feebly attempted to shake their joystick quickly enough to make him outrun, out-jump, and out-throw the mustachioed Superman.
