Games released on December 22
Seven games that still hold up, from Space Manbow in 1989 to Kingdom Hearts II in 2005
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Space Manbow 1989
Turns 37 this year MSX
An ancient defence system wakes as a huge battleship, and a pilot in a ship shaped like a fish flies out to destroy it, in a scrolling shooter whose energy bar powers up the weapons and survives a death.
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Batman: The Video Game 1989
Turns 37 this year NES
Batman goes through five stages of Gotham, from the streets to the chemical plant, the sewers and the cathedral belltower, and then the Joker, in a game loosely tied to the 1989 film.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The HyperStone Heist 1992
Turns 34 this year Genesis
Shredder shrinks Manhattan with the Hyperstone and the Turtles fight through five long stages and a gallery of bosses, in a Sega Genesis beat 'em up remixed from Konami's arcade games.
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Final Fight 3 1995
Turns 31 this year SNES
Guy, Haggar, Lucia and Dean fight to take Metro City back from a new gang after the fall of Mad Gear, with special moves, branching paths and an optional computer partner.
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Valkyrie Profile 1999
Turns 27 this year PlayStation
A role playing game drawn from Norse mythology, in which the valkyrie Lenneth gathers the souls of fallen heroes for the war of Ragnarok.
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SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium 1999
Turns 27 this year Neo Geo Pocket
Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters meet on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, in teams of two or three or one on one, and every fighter has a rival waiting halfway through.
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Kingdom Hearts II 2005
Turns 21 this year PlayStation 2
A year after Chain of Memories, Sora goes looking for his lost friends while fighting Organization XIII, across worlds where Disney and Final Fantasy characters live side by side.
