Metal Storm

A game by Tamtex and Irem for NES, originally released in 1991.

CONTEXT
Metal Storm was never a terribly popular game, despite the fact that it was published by Irem, the company behind R-Type and a longtime publisher/developer of games on the NES. The game also did not benefit much from its 12-page cover story in Nintendo Power.

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 1991, Heritage, Irem, NES, Tamtex

Shatterhand

A game by Natsume for NES, originally released in 1991.

CONTEXT
In the NES era, before they started extracting ore from the seemingly bottomless Harvest Moon and River King mines, Natsume was a somewhat more adventurous company. They released games in several genres, including a number of noteworthy action games: Abadox, Shadow of the Ninja, S.C.A.T., and Shatterhand. None of them really took the world by storm, but they were each interesting in their own way.

Shatterhand was developed by much of the same team as Shadow of the Ninja. The game was originally released on the Famicom in Japan as Solbrain. It was a licensed title based on a TV show called Tokkyuu Shirei Solbrain, and it featured a storyline and main character from that show.

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 1991, Heritage, Jaleco, Natsume, NES

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters

A game by Nintendo and Tose for GB, originally released in 1991.

CONTEXT
The original Kid Icarus and Metroid games share a common history. Both were developed by Gunpei Yokoi, father of the GameBoy (as well as the Game and Watch, VirtualBoy, and the WonderSwan). They shared the same game engine and both had scores composed by Hip Tanaka. Each of them had a followup on the original GameBoy, which were also developed by Yokoi, and again they shared the same game engine.

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 1991, GameBoy, GB, Heritage, Nintendo, Tose

Metroid II: Return of Samus

A game by Nintendo for GB, originally released in 1991.

CONTEXT
The first two entries in the Metroid series are close cousins to the first two games in the Kid Icarus series. Both Metroid and Kid Icarus began their lives as NES games sharing the same game engine, and both were developed by Gunpei Yokoi and scored by Hip Tanaka. Their GameBoy sequels, Metroid II: Return of Samus and Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, also shared the same game engine and were produced by Yokoi.

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 1991, GameBoy, GB, Heritage, Nintendo

Mercs

A game by Sega for Genesis, originally released in 1991, based on the Capcom arcade game from 1990.

CONTEXT
Mercs was originally released to arcades in 1990, and supported 3-player simultaneous play. The game was later ported to home consoles, with the standout port being the Genesis version. While the Genesis version dropped the 3-player in favor of a solo outing, it also offered an Original Mode, which offered a new story, a longer campaign, new bosses, and an RPG-style upgrade system.

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 1991, Capcom, Genesis, Heritage