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[A Black Falcon]

Unlike previous Game Opinion Summary lists, this one isn't complete. So far I have only completed the 28 games I have that start with letters A and B. After the intro section, a full list of the 211 Genesis games I have will be in this post, then following posts will have the initial list. I will continue working on this list, but I don't have any more written yet so it'll take a while.

This article is also on my site here: http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=245 (Link for part 1, A + B games)

Intro

The Genesis is one of the best systems ever! Sega released the Genesis in August 1989. It initially did okay, and Sega did outpace semi-incompetent NEC's Turbografx-16, but the NES still reigned supreme. However, in 1991 that all changed with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega's legendary classic. While I probably had heard of the Genesis before Sonic, it was Sonic that made me, along with a lot of other kids, pay attention to Sega for pretty much the first time; I have no memories of even remembering about the existence of the Master System, in the '80s... but a lot for the Genesis in the '90s. Behind Sonic's success in the West, Sega rapidly expanded, and in 1993 was #1 in the US home console market. Sadly, after that Sega started making mistakes which, combined with their smaller size compared to the competition, would eventually drive them out of the market. But before that they had a lot of success, and the Genesis was their peak. The Genesis is Sega's best and most successful system, and I like it a lot. That's part of why this list took so long -- it's a list I've wanted to make for quite some time now, but I kept putting it off in favor of easier lists for systems I don't like quite as much as the Genesis. I'm glad to finally be posting the first part of the list, even if it is just a part.

During the '90s, I had more personal experiences with the Genesis than the other 4th-gen home consoles. I love all three of the major 4th-gen consoles, the SNES, Genesis, and Turbografx, but the Genesis is the one of them I have the most nostalgia for, certainly. While I did not own any home consoles until I got an N64 in 1999, the NES, Genesis, and N64 are the systems I played the most at friends' houses back in the late '80s and through the '90s. So, I have a lot of nostalgia for the Genesis, more so than I do for the SNES. Sure, I read Nintendo Power and got a Game Boy in 1993, but the Genesis, not the SNES, is the system I played a lot more of. While I've always liked Nintendo the most, for console-game developers, I always liked Sega as well; in the SNES vs. Genesis console war I didn't dislike either one. It was only when Sony entered the industry that there was (and still is) a major player I couldn't stand. On top of that, the Genesis is, on my list, Sega's best console. Both systems are great, and I can't choose which one I like more; I always just say that they're tied overall, and for me it really is true. Looking up the numbers I've put next to games in my game-collection spreadsheet, the Genesis has more games I've given a 9 or higher to, and this advantage gets bigger if you include its addons the Sega CD and 32X, but the SNES has a slightly higher average score.

Notable Game Lists

My favorite games (the order is NOT certain, these could be in almost any order, other than S3&K definitely being the best.):
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1. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
2. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
3. Sonic the Hedgehog
4. Mega Turrican
5. Outrun 2019
6. Aladdin
7. Adventures of Batman & Robin
8. Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
9. Streets of Rage 2
10. Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar

Honorable Mentions: Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, Ranger-X, Contra: Hard Corps, Vectorman, Golden Axe, Alisia Dragoon, Hardball III, Rocket Knight Adventures, Wonder Boy in Monster World, The Lost Vikings, Rolling Thunder 2, Universal Soldier, Golden Axe II, Truxton, Gauntlet IV, Warsong, Phelios, Micro Machines, Viewpoint, Blades of Vengeance, Comix Zone, Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition, Sub-Terrania, Beyond Oasis, Roadblasters, Warsong, The Lost Vikings, Crusader of Centy, and many more! (see full Genesis list for more)

My 10 least favorite Genesis games I have (in alphabetical order, not prioritized)
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Battle Squadron, Combat Cars, DJ Boy, Fun 'N Games, Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones, Mallet Legend's Whac-A-Critter, Rastan Saga II, Super Battleship, Technocop, Quad Challenge. Dishonorable Mentions: Taz-Mania, Mario Andretti Racing

Special Awards
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Best Music and Best Overall Audio-visual presentation: The Adventures of Batman & Robin
Most Impressive Technical Graphical Achievement: Red Zone
Most Important Game: Sonic the Hedgehog
Best Gameplay: Sonic the Hedgehog (series)
Best Addon: Sega CD

Genesis Games I Have - 211 titles [Note: the 6 games in the Genesis 6-Pak cartridge count as 6 games for the purposes of this list, so I actually have 205 individual Genesis cartridges.)
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In Update 1 -- posts 2 through 5 in the thread
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Adventures of Batman & Robin, The
Air Diver
Al Michael Announces HardBall III
Aladdin
Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle
Alien Storm
Alisia Dragoon
Altered Beast
Animaniacs
Arcus Odyssey
Arrow Flash
Asterix and the Great Rescue
Atomic Runner
Batman: Revenge of the Joker
Battle Master
Battle Squadron
Battletoads / Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest
Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast
Beyond Oasis
Bio-Hazard Battle
Blades of Vengeance
Blockout
Boogerman: A Pick & Flick Adventure
Bubba 'n' Stix
Bubsy II
Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble
Burning Force
--
Update 2 - in posts 13 to 15 of the thread
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Cadash
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Chakan
Championship Pro-AM
Columns (in Sega 6-Pak)
Columns III: Revenge of Columns
Combat Cars
Comix Zone
Contra: Hard Corps
Cool Spot
Cosmic Spacehead
Crack Down
Crusader of Centy
Cyborg Justice
--
Update 3 - posts 17-18 in the thread
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Death Duel
Decap Attack
Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
Devilish: The Next Possession
DJ Boy
Duel, The: Test Drive II
Dynamite Headdy
El Viento
ESWAT: City Under Siege
Eternal Champions
Ex-Mutants
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Update 4 - Posts 19-21 in the thread
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Faery Tale Adventure
Fatal Rewind
Fire Shark
Forgotten Worlds
Fun 'N' Games
Gadget Twins
Gaiares
Garfield: Caught in the Act
Gargoyles
Gauntlet IV
General Chaos
Genesis 6-Pak
Ghouls 'N Ghosts
G-LOC: Air Battle
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude
Gunstar Heroes
--
Update 5 - Posts 22-24 in the thread
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HardBall '94
HardBall!
Haunting Starring Polterguy
Instruments of Chaos Starring Young Indiana Jones
Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings
James Pond 3: Operation Starfish
James Pond II: Codename RoboCod
James Pond: Underwater Agent
Jewel Master
Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns
Junction
Jungle Book, The
Jurassic Park
Kid Chameleon
King of the Monsters 2
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In update 6 - posts 31-32 in the thread
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Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters
Light Crusader
Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar
Lost Vikings, The
Lost World, The: Jurassic Park
Lotus Turbo Challenge
Lotus Turbo Challenge II
--
In update 7 - posts 33-34 in the thread
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Mallet Legend's Whac-A-Critter
Magical Taruruuto-kun (J)
Mario Andretti Racing
Marsupilami
Marvel Land
Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter
Mega Turrican
MERCS
Mick & Mack: Global Gladiators
Micro Machines
--
In update 8 - post 35
--
Darwin 4081 (J)
The Lawnmower Man
NBA Jam (1994)
Newman Haas' Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell
NHL '94
NHL '96
NHL '97
--
Update 9 - in posts 37 to 39 in the thread
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Ooze, The
OutRun
OutRun 2019
OutRunners
P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star IV
Phelios
Pier Solar and the Great Architects
Pirates! Gold
QuackShot Starring Donald Duck
Quad Challenge
--
Update 10 - posts 44 to 46 of the thread
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Rambo III
Ranger-X (Ranger X)
Rastan Saga II
Red Zone
Revenge of Shinobi (in Sega 6-Pak)
Risk
Ristar
Road Rash
Road Rash II
Road Rash 3: Tour de Force
RoadBlasters
Rocket Knight Adventures
Rolling Thunder 2
Rolling Thunder 3
--
Update 11 - posts 49-51
--
Samurai Shodown
Shadow Blasters
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
Shadowrun (1993)
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Shining in the Darkness
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Socket
Soldiers of Fortune
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 2 & Knuckles
Sonic Spinball
--
Update 12 - posts 53-55
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Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic 3D Blast
Sorcerian (J)
Space Harrier II
Spider-Man -- X-Men: Arcade's Revenge
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Spider-Man and Venom: Separation Anxiety
Splatterhouse 2
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine -- Crossroads of Time
Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition
Streets of Rage (Sega 6-Pak)
Streets of Rage 2
--
Update 13 - posts 56-58
--
Strider
Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns
Subterrania
Summer Challenge
Sunset Riders
Super Battleship
Super Hang-On (Sega 6-Pak)
Super Monaco GP
Super Monaco GP II, Arton Senna's
Sword of Vermilion
Syd of Valis
Target Earth
Task Force Harrier EX
Taz-Mania
--
Update 14 - posts 60-62
--
Taz in Escape from Mars
Technoclash
Technocop
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Hyperstone Heist
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters
Thunder Force II
Tinhead
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure
Toki: Going Ape Spit
Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics
Trouble Shooter
Truxton
Turrican
Twin Cobra
Tyrants: Fight Through Time
--
Update 15 - posts 63-65
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Ultimate Qix
Universal Soldier
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Viewpoint
Wardner
Warrior of Rome II
Warsong
WeaponLord
Whip Rush
--
Update 16 - posts 68-70
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Space Invaders '91
Winter Challenge
Wiz 'n' Liz
Wolfchild
Wonder Boy in Monster World
[Monster World IV]
World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck
X-Men
Zero Tolerance
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Zoom!

 

[A Black Falcon]

Sega Genesis Game Opinion Summaries
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28 summaries are in this update: Adventures of Batman & Robin, The, Air Diver, Al Michael Announces HardBall III, Aladdin, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Alien Storm, Alisia Dragoon, Altered Beast, Animaniacs, Arcus Odyssey, Arrow Flash, Asterix and the Great Rescue, Atomic Runner, Batman: Revenge of the Joker, Battlemaster, Battle Squadron, Battletoads / Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team, Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest, Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast, Beyond Oasis, Bio-Hazard Battle, Blades of Vengeance, Blockout, Boogerman: A Pick & Flick Adventure, Bubba 'n' Stix, Bubsy II, Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Burning Force.

Best Games This Update: Aladdin, Adventures of Batman & Robin, Alisia Dragoon, Blades of Vengeance, Beyond Oasis.


Adventures of Batman & Robin, The - 1-2 player simultaneous. The Adventures of Batman & Robin, by Clockwork Tortoise and published by Sega, is a fantastic run & gun action game, and is my favorite game in the genre on the Genesis. I know that most people's favorite is Gunstar Heroes, but I much prefer this game myself; I'd put that game third, behind this and also Contra Hard Corps. Yes, this licensed game is that great! With outstanding graphics that show off the power of the Genesis, an exceptional techno soundtrack, two player co-op play, and lots of action, this game is a must-have classic. In the game you can play as Batman and/or Robin, and have to make your way through some long levels, as you defeat the various enemies from the show. The levels are few, but each one is extremely long and has multiple areas and miniboss fights before you get to the final, stage-end boss. The end bosses are always impressive. There are several weapons to pick up, all projectiles -- this is a run & gun, so it's a shooting game. The enemies will shoot a lot of bullets at you, so do your best to dodge! You do have health in this game, shown by a ring of health blocks around your life counter in a corner of the screen, but while dying will not be immediate, it will come frequently thanks to the volume of enemies, and enemy attacks, you will face. Either characters' basic weapon is a boomerang, but better ones are available, including a stronger straight shot, and a spread shot. You CAN fire diagonally in this game, thankfully! It's very much appreciated. Holding down fire does a strong attack. Make sure to collect the weapon powerups, because they're important! With only the basic attack power, you're in trouble. You lose weapon powerups when you die, so stay alive too. Make sure to collect all the health-refilling hearts you can! In addition to your standard ranged attacks, you also have a few melee attacks, and these don't lose power. You have a slide, jump-kick, and a punch. The slide is great, but won't make you invincible like the Contra Hard Corps slide. The punch and jump kick are powerful, but only works at close range of course. Still, they're great moves, very useful.

So, this is a great game, with a constant stream of cool encounters to face. The game does have two issues, though. First, it's incredibly hard. The Adventures of Batman & Robin has only a handful of levels, but they are all extremely long multipart stages with several bosses in each one. Actually beating this game will take a SERIOUS effort; you have limited continues and lives, and there's no saving of course. The levels can be tough, and bosses have a lot of health and take quite some time to take down. Fortunately bosses do have health percentages shown on screen. I've gotten maybe 2/3rds of the way through the game, but not any farther. The game gets harder and harder and harder as you go along. This game requires a huge amount of memorization, but with effort you will slowly get farther. I just wish that I didn't have to go back to the beginning of the game so often, because having to go back to the beginning every time I run out of continues is frustrating. Also, within each area, the game has very limited graphical variety. In the first stage for instance, you're looking at the same couple of buildings again and again. Get used to the repetition. There are only a few enemy types in each stage, too, so you'll see each one a lot. This isn't uncommon for a 4th gen game, of course, but it is noticeable. The cool graphical effects are also noticeable, though. The screen warps around, they pull off scaling effects such as wrecking balls zooming in and out of the screen or bosses twisting around, characters are fairly well-animated and look great, and more!

In addition to the platformer levels, there is also one fairly long shmup level in the middle of the game. It's even more repetitive than the platformer levels, with basically only one background you're flying over for the whole long thing, but I think it's pretty fun. The sense of depth is impressive, too -- it's not just parallax scrolling here, it really looks like those buildings are moving by below you! Really cool effect there. Shmups are fun, and while this isn't a great shmup, it is a good one. Overall, with action this furious, against numerous enemies with projectiles all over the screen and with no slowdown in sight, these faults are forgivable. The backgrounds may repeat, but they're visually impressive all the same, and the constant action never stops! There is lots of variety between levels, also. The amazing music helps as well, certainly; this game has one of the best, most technically impressive soundtracks on the Genesis, hands down. The composer, Jesper Kyd, did some of his finest work here! It's all fast, up-tempo techno, and the pounding beats are perfect for the chunky electronic sounds of the Genesis sound chip. The music tracks are long, too. The title-screen track is over nine minutes long! This is one of the best soundtracks on the Genesis. Overall, in graphics, music, gameplay, level designs, boss fights, and everything else, The Adventures of Batman & Robin is absolutely exceptional, easily one of the best run & gun games of all time. It's not quite as great as the Metal Slug games on my list, and it's so hard that I don't know if I will ever manage to finish this game, but it's one of the best after the Metal Slug games. Buy this game, absolutely no question. There are Adventures of Batman & Robin games on other platforms, but this one is Genesis-exclusive -- the SNES, Game Gear, and Sega CD games of the same name are entirely different titles. Clockwork Tortoise did also make the Sega CD game, but it's completely different from this one! It's a scaler-style driving combat game. It's absolutely INSANELY hard, but pretty great as well! See my review in the SCD thread.


Air Diver - 1 player. Air Diver is a mediocre first-person rail shooter-style game, in the vein of Sega's G-LOC but much worse. After getting this game it immediately disappointed me, and my opinion on it hasn't changed. Air Diver clearly wants to be a harder version of G-LOC, but the problem is that they made it far too difficult! This is a very challenging, frustrating game, and the Genesis hardware holds it back as well; this game needed hardware sprite scaling and rotation, but this system doesn't have that. The game seems to have a sci-fi setting, and you're in a futuristic fighter plane, saving the world from the enemy forces, but the enemies are mostly in fairly normal-looking jets, except for the massive sci-fi spaceship bosses. Visually, this is a rail shooter with an inside-the-cockpit view. The cockpit takes up far too much of the screen, leaving only a relatively small amount of the screen for the actual game. Despite this the scaling is very choppy as I said, and following enemies as they fly around is difficult. The radar is key, but even there it's tricky. For controls, one button is for guns, one for missiles, and one for maneuvers such as loop-the-loops, with a direction. As usual in the genre, in each stage you fly along a set path, and have to kill the enemy planes along the way. Once you take out the tough miniboss at the end, you fly up into space and take on the real boss. The key for minibosses is to use loops to get behind them once they fly behind you; otherwise they will kill you every time. Try Up+C, that might be the right command. following a set path killing the enemies, and then fight a large boss at the end of the stage. The regular enemies aren't too bad with practice, though you will have many random deaths from their nearly-impossible-to-track missiles, but the minibosses and main bosses are kind of ridiculous! This game really is too hard for its own good. It's hard enough to dodge the missiles in After Burner and G-LOC games, but it's even harder here, and the game punishes you more by setting you back a good ways each time you die. The dying gets old fast, and I've never gotten far into this game at all. I admit that G-LOC is a bit easy, so maybe there is a place for people who really want something like that but hard, but they went too far the other way on hardwre that can't quite do this kind of game well, or at least it doesn't here. G-LOC for Genesis runs a lot better than this game does, and it's much more fun too. Just stick to that one, though hard game fans might want to check Air Diver out. For me, though, when I played this game again for this summary I liked the game slightly more than I thought I would, but it still is kind of bad. Air Diver is for masochists only.


Al Michael Announces HardBall III - 1-2 player simultaneous, battery save (can save a game in progress as well as a season). Hardball III is my favorite baseball game ever made! It's true. Well, the original PC version of this game is. This Genesis port isn't quite the equal of the PC game, thanks to its downgraded graphics and absent real-players option, but otherwise this is a great, great game I highly recommend at least trying. Yes, the players in this game are made up, and the teams are just named for their cities; there is no license here. However, the game does have every single one of the real baseball stadiums from 1992 in the game! How many cart-based baseball games from this generation have that? They're good representations, too, they look just like they should. Being able to play in Fenway Park instead of Generic Stadium 3 makes a huge difference, even if the players aren't real. The Hardball series was very popular on computers from the mid '80s to mid '90s, and it's a bit more simmish than most console baseball games of the time. Instead of being one of those NES-style games where you view the field from a zoomed-in view, Hardball III's field view shows the whole field on one screen, or at least, it goes to the outfield in one screen; there are three angles, for left, center, or right field focus, but you can always see everything you need to on one screen. This makes for a dramatic difference from your usual 8 or 16-bit baseball game with their suffocatingly close-in cameras; in Hardball III, you can actually field like you should be able to! For one example of this, I never, ever play this game with the optional ball target markers on. You can tell where a ball is going to go based on watching the ball and its shadow, and the arcadey crutch of "go here to catch the ball" target circles is entirely unnecessary and, for me at least, unwanted. Hardball III's graphics are a bit small, but they're good. It's much lower resolution than the PC game, but that can't be helped. The game does have some good sound and music, including voiced announcing and several nice music tracks.

The field view isn't the only unique thing about Hardball III, either. The batting/pitching mechanic is also somewhat unique, and so is the impressively full-featured feature set! First I'll talk about the batting view. Hardball III has two options for this, a behind-the-pitcher view or a behind-the-batter view. I generally much prefer the batter view, and almost always play exclusively with that view. In the classic Hardball games, the game works with just a stick/pad and one button. And yes, it works great this way! Simple menus appear for the pitcher and batter before each pitch. From here the pitcher selects a pitch, and the batter a swing type, Normal or Power. Power will hit the ball harder, but the sweet spot is smaller, so it'll be harder to get a hit. Pitchers have two to four pitch types each, from a selection of six or so pitches in the game. Batters can also choose to steal or hit-and-run here, and the pitcher can change defensive player alignments (to do a shift, for instance), or try to throw out a player on base. After choosing a pitch, you then can sort of aim it; this isn't one of those silly games whre you make a curveball by waving the ball around in the air with the d-pad, but pressing the directions after selecting a pitch will aim your pitch towards that area. Hitting is HARD in this game, and getting used to the batting is very, very challenging. You can move around in the box, and holding a pad direction will angle your swing. Good luck getting hits, you'll need it! You'll lose a lot at this game before finally starting to get used to it. For those without the patience, this might be the games' biggest flaw, because there are NO difficulty settings to be found here -- you've just got to get used to it and try to figure out how to actually get hits. Of course, players all have a bunch of stats. Pitchers get tired, too, so warm up relievers when your starter tires.

Of course, as the name suggests, this game is also fully voiced with voice samples by the very well-known sports announcer Al Michaels, who actually is still around as an announcer, mostly for football I believe. It's very pasted-together stuff, with lots of silly broken sound bits, but it's classic stuff and I love it. "Next up, the THIRD baseman, number SIX ty Four"... Just getting this much voice into a Genesis game is impressive, really! The save features are impressive too. When I got this, I was NOT expecting the PC games' save-game feature to be present here -- the idea of a console baseball game where you can actually save a game in progress was still near-unthinkable two or three generations AFTER this game! And yet, as I said earlier, it's here. You can pause a game in progress and save it. You can save your season progress too, which is great. There are various season length options, from 30-something games to a full 162. You can play as several different teams in the same season, interestingly, if you want. One thing to note, though -- this game uses the 1992 season, so there are only two divisions per league, East and West, and there are only 26 teams total. That's how it was when the game came out. The game also has a batting-practice mode, and a home run derby mode. You can also play a single game of course. You can watch an AI-versus-AI game too, amusingly. The game also lets you fully edit the league and league championship names and the logos for all of the teams, if you want to draw in the real names and logos. You can also edit all the players, though just buying the PC version with the real-players expansion would be a lot easier than inserting them all yourself! Sure it's the 1992 players, but as this is two-divisions anyway, it fits. Overall, I've been a huge fan of Hardball III ever since I first played the game for PC somewhere around 1995, and I still am. It's a hard, hard game, but is truly great! It may be partially nostalgia, but on either PC or Genesis, in my opinion Hardball III is the best baseball game ever made. Play it. Also on PC. Thre is a Super Nintendo game called "Hardball III", but it is NOT in fact a port of Hardball III; instead, it's a port of the downgraded Genesis sequel, Hardball '94. The Genesis version of that game is reviewed below, but on SNES, it's even worse: they cut out the battery save, shamefully! Just awful. Skip that and get the Genesis games, Hardball III and '95 particularly. Hardball III for PC and Genesis is the best baseball game ever made. Play it.


Aladdin - 1 player. Aladdin was one of the most popular Genesis games during the system's life, and it's very easy to see why! Genesis Aladdin is a game I did play during the system's life, and I thought it was pretty amazing. Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie, which I'm sure helps, but Aladdin is a fantastic game which holds up great. It has a few issues, but is very good overall; Aladdin the Genesis game is almost as great as the movie is. This game is a platformer, and unlike the inferior SNES game, you get a sword in this one. You can throw apples at enemies in both games, but on the SNES you're relegated to just jumping on heads. The Genesis game is better. The game was directed by Dave Perry, and while Earthworm Jim might be his most popular game, Aladdin is my favorite one of his games and the only one of his platformers I love. This game was developed by Virgin while Perry still worked there, but Disney was brought in to help out, and actual Disney animators did the art used for the sprites in the game. It shows, as the animation in this game is some of the best of the generation! Virgin's games had great animation even without Disney, but with them the results are very impressive. The level graphics are also fantastic; this game is incredible looking all around.

Aladdin isn't just about great graphics, though. The game also has great gameplay and level designs, too. Generally I am not a big fan of highly-animated platformers like Prince of Persia, or the gameplay of other Dave Perry Genesis platformers, but Aladdin plays better than those other games. This is sort of in that style, so you do need to get used to how Aladdin moves and jumps, He has momentum, so the goal is fast and fluid movement. Aladdin should be in motion most of the time. One nice thing is that while this is a challenging game, Aladdin has a very well-designed difficulty curve. At first even the first level may seem hard, but once you get used to the controls and how Aladdin moves, it's easy. For instance, it's not until some levels in, in the Cave of Wonders, that you finally have to deal with instant-death pits. It's there that the game gets hard, and indeed I have never managed to beat this game, sadly enough. I've played the game enough over the years that the levels up until the Cave of Wonders aren't much of a problem, but The Cave of Wonders levels are tough, and you have limited continues and no saving. This game rewards practice and repeat play, and it is fun enough that I'll keep trying to finish this. Aladdin is mostly a straightforward game where your goal is to reach the end of the level and maybe also get some key items. There are some other things to collect along the way, though, including health items, gems to spend in the hidden stores for lives and continues, and access to the bonus minigames. There are two minigames, a wheel of chance which can give you stuff, and a bonus game where you play as Apu the monkey, and have to grab good items and avoid bad ones. The Abu minigame is fun, but the wheel is just random luck.

But again, one of the best things about Aladdin are the level designs. Levels are good-sized and complex, and exploration is always important. Exploring the levels is quite fun. They are full of enemies, ropes to climb on, platforms, and collectables. I already mentioned teh absence of death pits until well into the game, but another great thing about Aladdin is that unlike some other Dave Perry games on the Genesis, most notably Global Gladiators and Cool Spot, Aladdin has very, very few blind jumps. For me at least, this makes a HUGE difference! Blind jumps are extremely frustrating, and I really don't like them much because of it. Aladdin doesn't have that problem, thankfully. The game can be tough, but it's not unfair about it. Sure, sometimes I find the disappearing platforms or the flying section in the Cave of Wonders frustrating, but the game makes me want to keep coming back until I get better. The game has a great variety of enemies for the time, too, and they're all animated well. Each level both looks and plays differently. From the city to the dungeon to the cave of wonders and beyond, Aladdin is a great, great game, one of the best on the Genesis. Anyone with a Genesis should definitely have Aladdin! Also on Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and DOS PC. The Game Boy ports aren't anywhere near as great as the original game. (Game Boy Advance Aladdin is a port of the SNES game.)


Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle - 1 player. Alex Kidd's only Genesis game isn't that great, unfortunately. I haven't spent much time with most of his Master System games, though the first one seems decent but hard, and The Lost Stars is okay until you beat it a few minutes later. The series kept changing in gameplay, but this game tried to get back to the style of the original game. It's just too bad that it doesn't look and play better. Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle isn't a great looking game for the Genesis, and it's very frustrating and has design problems, too. This game is way too hard, for one. And not only is it hard, but it's sometimes random as well. The game has regular rock-paper-scissors battles, and they're pure guessing games. Guess right, you win; guess wrong, you lose a life. It's an absolutely absurd mechanic to put into a tough platformer like this one! This is one of the games' bigger problems, but the platforming isn't the greatest either. This game doesn't control nearly as well as a good platformer would. The levels are good-sized and full of stuff to collect, but it's too frustrating to play for me to want to actually stick with this one. I got the game hoping it would be okay, but it's a disappointment for sure. Probably skip it. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


Alien Storm - 2 player simultaneous. Alien Storm is an isometric beat 'em up. It's very much like any of Sega's other beat 'em ups of the era, such as Streets of Rage and Golden Axe, except it's got a sci-fi theme, unlike the others. Sega's beat 'em ups were some of the best in the genre, so it's great to have another one! I didn't play this game as a kid, unlike Streets or Rage or Golden Axe, though, and don't like it nearly as much as those games. Still, it's a quality game, and the core action is very well done, as always in Sega beat 'em ups. You play as one of three characters, but even though they have guns, they only shoot a few inches, so as to make this like a traditional beat 'em up instead of a shooting game. This is kind of annoying; I have a gun, why can't I shoot it more than an inch? Ah well.

 

[A Black Falcon]

As for the actual game, it's okay, but pretty average stuff. Alien Storm is one of Sega's earlier beat 'em ups on the Genesis, and it's one of their weaker ones. Walk to the right, attack the aliens, and repeat. Most of the game is like this, but the game does have a little more variety than most beat 'em ups -- once in a while the game mixes things up with some target-shooting-style segments. Here, you move a cursor around the screen, shooting at aliens and the environment. These segments are moderately amusing, but aren't anything special, and I don't think they add that much to the game. They do add even more to the 'but why can't I shoot far the rest of the time?' question, though. I know, the answer is "it's a beat em up, that's how they are!", but some later Sega beat 'em ups manage to include guns; Die Hard Arcade, Dynamite Cop!, and especially Zombie Revenge have them. It would have been nice if this game was more like a 16-bit version of that. It'd have made it stand out a little, which as it is the game does not do. This really is just a generic Sega beat 'em up, with alien enemies instead of thugs or medieval warriors.

Graphically, the game looks okay. It has that classic '80s Sega look, which is great, but it's a bit too familiar, as the art design is a lot like other, better Sega games. Despite all the problems I have with it, though, overall, Alien Storm is a good game. The good core beat 'em up gameplay makes up for a lot, and it's great that it does have two player co-op too; Sega's all do, but third-party 4th gen beat 'em ups didn't always. And the art design is good; the aliens have that classic Sega style. Even so though, overall this game is just above average, and isn't as great as Sega's two main Genesis beat 'em up franchises. It's worth a play sometime, though, if you like the genre. Arcade port. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


Alisia Dragoon - 1 player. Alisia Dragoon is a pretty fantastic side-scrolling platform-action game with design from the anime studio Gainax and developed by Game Arts. One of Game Arts' only cartridge games on the Genesis (they mostly worked on the Sega CD), this game is pretty fantastic! Alisia Dragoon is one of the best games like this around, and it's got some unique design elements as well that make it unlike anything else. In the game, you play as female mage Alisia, who has to save the world from evil. It starts out in a fantasy world, but gets weirder later on. There's some great variety of settings and enemies in this game! It's always throwing new things at you. Alisia Dragoon is designed extremely well, but it is a really tough game. This is one of those short but super-hard games that were popular back in the 3rd and 4th generations; there are only eight levels, but getting through all of them will be a serious challenge! Alisia Dragoon looks and sounds good, as well. The game isn't one of the system's best-looking games, and definitely has that color-poor Genesis look to it, but the art design is great, and spritework pretty good overall. The music is catchy and high-quality as well.

The best thing about the game is its gameplay, though. Instead of your average melee-range attack, or a normal gun, Alisia shoots lightning out of her hands! This lightning automatically attacks every enemy on screen in the direction you are facing, so when facing right you shoot all enemies to your right, and facing left you shoot all to your left. There is a magical charge meter on screen, so you can't just hold the button down; if it runs out you have to stop shooting until it refills. If you wait for the meter to fill up all the way, you'll do a 'bomb' type attack that damages all enemies on screen some. Alisia has four helper summon animals as well. You can switch between them anytime if you pause the game. These summons fly behind you and shoot at the enemies as well. There's a small dragon, a dragonfly, a fire wheel thing, and one other one. The summons will level up as you use them, too, until they max out at third level. Each level up increases their power and gives them more health. There are also pickups to add to Alisia's health bar, and you can also find hidden continue statues. Explore every level thoroughly looking for secrets! There are plenty to find. All of this might make it sound like the game isn't that tough, but it is! Enemies can come at you from any direction, and it's often hard to avoid them. Enemies are numerous and avoiding damage is often near-impossible. The games' many bosses also can be fairly tough, as well, and can deal out plenty of damage if you get hit. The boss fights are another standout element of this game; you face everything from mages to dragons to aliens, and more! So yeah, this is a hard game. Making it harder, while Alisia and the summons have health bars, and the four summons actually each have separate health, if you die, unless you've gotten a continue, that's it; there are no continues by default, and there's no save system of course. Harsh! Of course I wish it had a save system, I almost always do in games which don't save, but this is a fantastic, addictive game, and it's kept me coming back again and again. The game rewards memorization and exploration, and the controls are fantastic. The games' graphical design is also great, and the music is good. Alisia Dragoon is an outstanding game, play it!


Altered Beast - 2 player simultaneous. Altered Beast was a launch title for the Genesis, and it was the original pack-in game with the system in the US. I don't have much of a memory of this game from the time, though, and looking at it more recently, it's not very good. Honestly, as much as people like to criticize the first Turbografx-16 packin, Keith Courage, I like that game a lot more than I do this one! Altered Beast may have better graphics than Keith Courage, but in gameplay it's subpar at best. The two are quite different kinds of games, but still, Altered Beast is not that good. Altered Beast is a side-scrolling beat 'em up, essentially. The game has some platforming, but for the most part you just beat up the enemies as they come at you. If you collect the powerups, which you need to, after a while you will power up and turn into an animal form, as the games' name suggests. These beast forms are much stronger, but you lose them after finishing each level, of course. Argh. As in many side-scrolling beat 'em ups, Altered Beast is an extremely simplistic game. Beat 'em ups really benefit from moving to that isometric perspective, because being able to move in another dimension adds a lot to the games! Here, there just isn't enough to it. Worse, what is here isn't that good. I dislike side-scrolling beat 'em ups in general, but the better ones are a lot better than this. In Altered Beast levels are short, the challenge level uneven, level designs bland, and enemies repetitive. Other than the admittedly nice '80s Sega artwork and the two-player co-op mode, there's not too much good to say about this game, honestly. I know some people like it, but I don't at all. Altered Beast gets boring very quickly. It's blandly designed and not much fun to play. Altered Beast is not one of the worst Genesis games, but it is below average for sure. Arcade port, also on Sega Master System, PC Engine (TG16), and PC Engine CD (TG CD), and on various computer platforms as well. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


Animaniacs - 1 player. Animaniacs for the Genesis is a puzzle-platformer based on a '90s Warner Bros. cartoon that I didn't watch much back then. You control all three of the Animaniacs as you go through levels, beating enemies and solving puzzles. In gameplay, it's sort of like a second-rate The Lost Vikings. Unfortunately, "second-rate" is just as important as "Lost Vikings" is. I'm a big fan of The Lost Vikings, and have loved the game ever since I got it as a kid, but this game is nowhere near its quality. Animaniacs isn't bad, but for a game from Konami, I was expecting better! This game is okay but somewhat disappointing all around. Graphically the game looks okay, but not great. The system can do a lot better than this. Sure, the Genesis's 64 color limit is a problem, but other games manage with it a lot better than this one does, and the sprite work isn't anything special either. The music is mostly forgettable as well. Things don't improve much when you start playing. Animaniacs is an average game, nothing more. Each of the three Animaniacs has a different ability which you will have to use in certain places in order to get past the puzzles and obstacles and progress. All three move together, but you can switch which one you're playing as with a button. The games' puzzles are generally simplistic and easy to figure out, sadly. Controls are serviceable, but not the best. This makes the game more of a traditional platformer than The Lost Vikings, since you're not controlling each one separately -- the other two will just follow the one you're controlling around. This is good, because a lot of this game is comprised of fairly standard platforming, it's not all puzzles. However, this also means that the game isn't nearly as unique as The Lost Vikings is; it's more much generic, and a lot less interesting. The game does present some challenge, though, so it's not all easy; it's easy to die, and finishing a whole Scene (chapter) is tough. The game sends you back a bit too far if you die, and continues mean restarting the whole scene. The game is made up of four Scenes, each broken up into a bunch of stages. The game does have passwords, but only for the Scenes; if you get a game over near the end of one, it's back to the beginning with you. This gets quite frustrating, as the levels can take a while to get through, and the controls could be better as well. This is a short game, but I lost patience with it long before the end. Overall, Animaniacs is okay. This is an average game, and can be some fun, but isn't nearly as good as Konami's better platformers. Fans of the show might like it more, though. Konami also made Animaniacs games on other platforms, but they are entirely different from this one; it's Genesis-exclusive.


Arcus Odyssey - 2 player simultaneous, password save. Arcus Odyssey is an isometric action-RPG from Telenet's Wolfteam studio that feels a bit like a Gauntlet game, but Japanese and without monster generators. This is a fairly good game with some flaws that make it hard to finish. This game has four playable characters, each quite different. The game has only eight levels, but they are reasonably long, and get longer as the game progresses, so this game is not short unless you are quite good at it. The action is fun at first, as you go around, kill enemies, and explore the stages. The game controls well and looks decent, though this is a Telenet game so it doesn't look great. There is a decent variety of enemies, but they do respawn, and that is one of the games' issues. The main problem here are the stage designs, which quickly get frustratingly mazelike. Unfortunately this game has a somewhat close zoom, large, mazelike levels, and respawning enemies, and these factors combine to create frustration. Sure, you do get a password after each level for your progress and character, and that's great, but that requires actually finishing levels to get, and I've only ever managed to get halfway through this game, as much as I do like it. It just gets too hard. If the game had had a map I think I'd stick with this a lot more, but without one I like this less than I perhaps should. Overall though, Arcus Odyssey is worth a look. Genre fans probably should pick it up if you find it cheap. Even if they are usually flawed, Telenet games are at least interesting. This is a Genesis exclusive in the US. The game originally was also going to release on SNES in the US, but that version was cancelled when Sega bought Renovation, Telenet's US branch, when Telenet gave up on publishing games itself outside of Japan, perhaps Telenet's first step towards their falling apart; Telenet was mostly dead by 1995. At least we did get this Genesis version. In Japan there is also an Arcus series of first-person dungeon-crawler RPGs, on Japanese computers and collected on Sega CD, which I believe this game is an action-RPG spinoff of. This is the only game in the series with a Western release.


Arrow Flash - 1 player. Arrow Flash is a bland and average horizontal space shooter from ITL which was published by Sega in Japan and Europe. It is an okay game with some strengths, but I've never liked it much. This was one of the first shmups I got for the Genesis after buying the console in 2006, and it immediately disappointed me with its average graphics and tedious, subpar gameplay. Arrow Flash is decent, but it's far from great, and there are much better shmups on the Genesis than this. Sega of America must not have thought too much of this game, because they didn't publish it themselves and instead let the third-party publisher Renovation release the game in the US. This is something Sega of America did sometimes between the late '80s and mid' 90s, but while sometimes it's hard to tell why they did it because the externally-published first-party titles are good, such as OutRunners or Columns III on Genesis, in this case my guess would be that they just didn't think this one was good enough to release. That shmups were one of the most popular genres in Japan into the early '90s but didn't quite hit that level of popularity in the US also could be a factor.

I should discuss the game itself, though. For positives, Arrow Flash has okay graphics with some interesting stage backgrounds, good music, a female protagonist, and plenty of challenge. Playing the game again for this summary, I really noticed the music, I had forgotten how good it is. And while a fair number of shmups do have female protagonists, it still is a nice thing to see. The game can be frustrating, though, as whenever you die you lose all your powerups and reset to the most basic weapon with no speed powerups. It's painful stuff and makes the game very challenging. There is a shield powerup, but if you get hit too many times or get hit without one, you lose everything. This is one of those games where yo ucan be cruising along killing the enemies no problem, but when you die, you will soon die a lot more times in a hurry. Bullets and enemies are often fast and very hard to avoid, adding to the frustration; the level designs here are not great. And the game has limited continues, so you will need to play well in order to finish this game. I haven't managed that yet, this game is challenging. The art design is fairly bland as well; some shmups have better ship designs than others, and this isn't one of the better ones. So, overall, Arrow Flash has bland visuals only spiced up with some wavy backgrounds, a good soundtrack, mediocre and sometimes frustrating level designs, and average-at-best visuals. The game has a few high points, but it's definitely more bad than good. Only play it if you really like shmups or find it for really cheap. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


Asterix and the Great Rescue - 1 player, password save. Asterix and the Great Rescue is an average-at-best platformer published by Sega. I liked the Asterix comics quite a bit as a kid, and have some of them I got as a kid in the late '80s and the '90s, but because of its general unpopularity in the US, very few Asterix games have released here. Unfortunately, this isn't one of the better ones. It isn't the worst either, but for the only Asterix game I own and one of the only ones with a US release, I was hoping for better. But no, this is just one of Sega's many average Western-made licensed platformers they released this generation. It isn't the worst of them, but is far from the best, either. On the positive side, Asterix and the Great Rescue has decent graphics, you can play as either Asterix or Obelix, and the gameplay is sometimes okay. I also like that it retells the story of one of the Asterix comic books. It's just bland and sometimes frustrating, as this game gets hard fast. You need to attack enemies, not jump on them, to hurt them, and your attacks have very little range. The controls needed work. The level designs aren't the best either; this is a European-developed game, and it shows in the game design. While your goal in each level is to reach the magic potion at the end of the stage, there are some puzzle elements here to mix up the usual jumping and hitting. You have to use magic powers in certain places in order to progress. You'll just need to figure this out, the game doesn't give any hints about what you should do. Up+C switches powers, and then C uses one; this is important to know. It'd have been nice to see something introducing the powers and such, as a more modern game would do. Otherwise, the level designs here are bland and generic. The backgrounds and enemies are inspired by the comic, but the game looks only okay, visually. It's average stuff, overall. The game is also kind of slow and boring, as Asterix and Obelix move slowly and you can't run. I do like that the game has a password system, though, it does have that going for it at least. The sprite work is also nice and looks like the cartoon, and the game does provide at some challenge at times. But even as an Asterix and Genesis fan, I can't recommend Asterix and the Great Rescue; it just isn't all that fun, and seems to have been made on a budget. This is a below-average platformer I can't really recommend except maybe to series fans, and even there, you can do better. This is far from an awful game and can be moderately entertaining as you try to figure out how to get through each stage, memorize the obstacles and jumps, and learn where to use the powers, but still, you can do much better and I lost interest a few levels in to the game and never went back.


Atomic Runner - 1 player. Atomic Runner is a pretty good Data East game based on the arcade game Chelnov. I did a review of this game several years back, and it's quite good! Atomic Runner is pretty much an auto-scrolling run & gun, so it feels part platform-shooter like Contra, and part shmup because the screen is always moving. The game takes a bit of getting used to, but the mix works well with a bit of practice. The game controls quite well, looks good, and plays great. This is a high-intensity game with nice, varied visuals, lots of enemies and challenges to face, and a good difficulty curve that is challenging but not too difficult, with practice. I did eventually finish this game, and had great fun doing so. Visually this Genesis version is in some ways improved over the arcade original thanks to some improved backgrounds. I would say more, but just go read my full review! This game shows how a platformer/shmup hybrid can work very well. Atomic Runner is a great game I highly recommend. Arcade port.


Batman: Revenge of the Joker - 1 player, password save. Batman: Revenge of the Joker is a port of Sunsoft's second NES Batman game, Batman: Return of the Joker. Despite the name change, beyond a visual upgrade, not much of the actual game has changed. Not only has not much changed, but in fact many people prefer the NES version of this game over the Genesis, though I only have this Genesis version myself. This game is an okay platformer, average or a bit above average overall. Maybe I like this game more than most, but I do like Revenge of the Joker. This isn't one of the best Batman games, for sure, but it isn't bad either. In the game you play as Batman of course, saving the day yet again. The game is moderately long and pretty tough, so the password system is welcome and a big help. I strongly prefer it when games don't require you to replay the game from the beginning every time, so I like this. The game has big graphics with large, well-defined characters, and looks good, though some signs of its NES roots do show in the game and level designs. This is a straightforward game and your goal in every level is simply to move to the right along a fairly flat path until the level is over. NES platformers more often than not only scroll in a single direction at a time because of hardware limitations, and this one is no exception. Still, the game has solid, responsive controls, interesting challenges to work your way past, a solid difficulty level that challenges you as much as expected from a Sunsoft game, and some decent graphics and music even if they aren't among the system's best. If you find the game for a reasonable price, absolutely pick it up. Enhanced (?) port of the NES game Batman: Return of the Joker.


Battlemaster - 1 player, password save. Battlemaster (aka Battle Master) is a somewhat complex action-RPG that I don't know if I can recommend to anyone not playing the game in an emulator, because the passwords are up to 78, yes, seventy-eight, characters long. That's insane. Besides that big problem though, there are some interesting things going on here. This is a quite obscure and flawed game and I got it knowing nothing about the game. Battlemaster is clearly a port of a computer game, and I'm sure the computer version is better; it probably doesn't have 78-character passwords for a save file, and the framerate is surely higher than the unacceptably low, single-digit-framerate slog of the Genesis version. This is an ambitious game and I want to like it, but it's just so flawed on consoles that I can't quite. Still, Battlemaster is an interesting game with some strengths. The game is a top-down action-RPG. You are on a quest to save the land from evil, of course. First, you choose a class, either fighter, mage, thief, or merchant. You can also choose a race, human, elf, dwarf, or orc. Each race and class combo is a preset character (and they are all male), but still, you can choose which one you want. Each class does play differently, so your choice matters. Fighter class characters start out alone, but the other three will have AI-controlled companions along with you, for instance. All classes will get more followers as you progress, though. Stats and abilities vary as well, though all classes have the same basic controls, with melee and ranged attack buttons for your hero. Your quest will be long and I've never gotten too far into it, but there is a large world to explore as you progress. The game is made up of a long sequence of areas in a larger world. As you reach new areas you can travel between them from the pause menu if you want, or need, to revisit earlier parts of the game.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Survival will be difficult and unlikely, however, because the levels are full of powerful monsters and more than a few traps, and you can't easily save your progress. Getting anywhere in this game will require a lot of memorization and skill; you'll die over and over and be sent back to the start again and again. Enemies are tough and can be numerous, those traps will kill, and your AI companions, if you have them, are hopelessly stupid. and are often nearly useless, if you can even keep them on screen. There are formation options, but they get stuck on things CONSTANTLY. Pathfinding is a huge problem here. The graphics aren't the best either, because you play the game in a fairly small window. I like the graphics and art design, it's got nice-looking fantasy art, but everything is small and the game runs incredibly slowly. Also, there is a large border around the screen, and a good 40% of the right side is taken up with a large interface showing your characters' health, mana, inventory, and such. I really wish I could see farther, it'd be great. The game also gives you no direction about where you should be going in each of the levels, leading to a lot of aimless meandering in monster-filled wilderness. While I like action-RPGs, I don't like randomly wandering around in games not knowing what I should be doing, and this game has a lot of that. The high difficulty level and frustrating party manipulation are big problems as well. This game has a large initial learning curve that I haven't gotten over yet, though I do kind of want to someday. Few people online seem to have given this game much of a chance, and with its extreme challenge, awful pathfinding, 78-character passwords to save your progress, and slow gameplay it's not hard to see why. Still, with time perhaps this game gets good; I'll have to give it a more serious try sometime. There is a very nice guide to the game on GameFAQs that really is required reading for anyone who wants to figure out this game. Despite everything, I like some of what I see while playing the game. Amiga port also available on Atari ST and DOS PC. Any of the computer versions are probably much better than this one.


Battle Squadron - 2 player simultaneous. Battle Squadron is a bad vertical-scrolling shmup. This EA release is a port of a European Amiga game, and its European computer roots are clear as soon as you look at the game. That isn't the problem, though; Euro-shmups aren't always great, but some are very good, such as Firepower 2000/Mega SWIV. This game, sadly, is not any good at all. Battle Squadron looks okay in that classic European Amiga style, but the graphics are drab and mediocre. The controls have issues too, with sometimes questionable hit detection and a too-slow ship speed. The game also has an obnoxiously high difficulty level, invisible enemies at times, and more. Yes, Battle Squadron makes a bad first impression, and it doesn't get better with time. People who like overly difficult shmups might like this, but they could just play a better game instead, so I don't know if this game is for anyone other than huge Euroshmup fans. This game has a lot of issues that make it as bad as it is. Again your ship is too slow; obstacles (those walls in the sub-levels particularly) can be hard to predict and avoid, and enemies can shoot at you from behing you off the screen after they have flown past so you will constantly die from bullets you never saw if you are near the bottom of the screen; you die in one hit and dodging the bullets, even at the easiest setting, is difficult when enemies and bullets always fly straight at you without any hint of bullet-patterns to dodge; enemies take many hits to kill particualrly on lower weapon-power levels and, of course, you lose a weapon power level when you die, of course while, again, you die in one hit; there is only one music track that plays during gameplay and it's only average; and more. It's bad.

For positives the game does have two player co-op and difficulty settings, but it isn't any better with two people than it is with one, so just play a better game instead. Oddly, instead of regular difficulty settings, in Battle Squadron you can choose your lives and continues and how many and how fast enemy bullets are. Normal difficulty settings might have been better, this feels like they couldn't decide how to make the game -- fast bullets, or slow? Who knows, just put it in the options... it doesn't really work. It's a very hard game on any setting, though; even on the easiest setting I've never gotten too far into this somewhat short game. Oh, the game does have a somewhat unique level setup. There is one main level, with multiple sub-levels scattered along it. The main level will loop if you get far enough, but you'll need to go into those sub-levels to beat the game and they are tough. It's really not worth it. Overall, Battle Squadron is a bad game that only masochistic Euroshmup fans might enjoy. I'm not one; Battle Squadron is probably one of the worst Genesis games I own, in my opinion. Amiga port; apparently the Amiga version is a bit better, with mouse controls and better visuals.


Battletoads / Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team - 2 player simultaneous. Battletoads Double Dragon is, really, the second full Battletoads game. Developed by Rare, the same team as the Battletoads games, the "Double Dragon" side of this game really amounts to only some cameos. I don't mind this myself, as I like Rare's games a lot more than Technos's Double Dragon series. The first Battletoads is a great classic, stratospheric difficulty level or no. This sequel is still pretty good, but I think I like the first game more. Battletoads Double Dragon is a beat 'em up. The Toads, along with Billy and Jimmy, are off to stop the Dark Queen and the Double Dragon villains, who have teamed up. The five heroes set off for the Dark Queen's spaceship, to destroy it from the inside, and once they arrive the game begins. The first Battletoads has a great deal of level variety, but this sequel has much less; most stages are about you beating things up, usually from an isometric perspective but sometimes side-scrolling. It's disappointing that Battletoads' interesting variety of stages has been replaced with a much more traditional beat 'em up style, but the first two levels of Battletoads were surely the most popular ones, so Rare probably decided to focus the sequel more on that. It was an understandable choice, but it does result in a somewhat less interesting and unique game. At least the beat 'em up action keeps changing settings and styles, so for a beat 'em up it is pretty good, but the first game was more.

This game has a lot fewer levels than the first game as well, and a much lower difficulty level. The game is entirely set on a large spaceship, so there isn't as much setting variety as in the first game either. This is still a hard game, make no mistake, and I haven't finished it, but I have gotten farther in this game than I have in NES Battletoads. The one Turbo Tunnel-style dodging stage is a LOT easier than the levels of this style in the NES game, for better or worse, and afterwards the game returns to more beat 'em up action. This is a fun beat 'em up though, with similar gameplay to the first level of Battletoads, but with some new additions and a lot more game like that to play. The enemies come from both franchises, and there are plenty of amusing touches thrown in as you progress; Rare's sense of humor is present in this game, and it can be amusing. The Toads' reaction faces are great, for example. Visually, though, the game looks only okay. Despite releasing in 1993 Battletoads Double Dragon was a NES game first, you see, and the SNES and Genesis versions are just ports. As a result the sprites are quite small and unimpressive compared to those in most Genesis or SNES-exclusive beat 'em ups. The last SNES Battletoads game looks a lot better than this one, for example, because it wasn't first designed for a last-gen system. Despite these issues though, Battletoads Double Dragon is a pretty good game. This was the first Battletoads game I actually owned; I didn't own the Game Boy Battletoads games in the '90s, never have had either for SNES, and got this game in '06 or '07 not too long after I got a Genesis. Battletoads Double Dragon is not the Battletoads game most people think of when they think of the franchise, but it is a good, fun beat 'em up with some varied action, fun combat, a fair challenge, and good two player co-op action. This is a good game worth playing. Also on NES and SNES; I think the SNES version might be the most highly regarded? This version looks fine as well, though, so get any version really. Note that probably thanks to licensing reasons this game has never been re-released for digital download on any platform, so if you want it you need to buy the now somewhat overpriced cart releases.


Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest - 1 player. Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest is a below average platformer with some simple adventure game elements. Sunsoft may have been one of the greats of the NES era, but they fell fast after that, and this not-so-good Western-developed licensed platformer that they published is an example of that. This game has good, well-drawn graphics that look a lot like the movie, but the gameplay isn't as good as the visuals. Belle's Quest is a bit interesting as a Disney-licensed platformer where you actually play as the female lead from the movie, a quite rare thing before the '00s outside of The Little Mermaid and Pocahontas games, but the tedious, bland gameplay more than makes up for that, unfortunately. Belle's Quest is a short game, but most players probably won't keep playing through to the end, and they aren't missing much. The controls are only okay, and I'm never sure when I'm going to take a hit or avoid it, for one. So, in Belle's Quest, you play as Belle. There are four levels in this game that bring you through some parts of the movie, with a few minigames along the way. Naturally everything is expanded on versus the film; even a game this short can't just retell the movie just as it was. A good chunk of this game occurs in the earlier parts of the movie, from before Belle meets the Beast, though some is later. Combine this game with the below Beast game and you get a videogame retelling of most of the film, albeit a very mediocre one; it really feels like the two should be one game, but they were split in two in order to make more money by selling the game twice. Still, the game does have good graphics. The cutscenes, both between levels and occasionally during them, look great, as close to the movie as the Genesis can do, and the ingame graphics are well drawn. They repeat constantly in most levels, but what little there is looks good. On the subject of repetition, though, both games reuse a LOT of the same background and enemy sprites, and the soundtrack is also mostly identical in both games, so expect very little difference between the two.

The main difference between the two games is that Belle's game is more of a simple adventure/exploration game, while Beasts's is an action-platformer. Belle cannot attack, so you just have to jump or duck to avoid enemies when you see them. It's not much fun, though there aren't huge numbers of enemies at once so it is doable. Belle has eight health per life, and it's plenty. This game is only moderately challenging at best, but the designers tried to make up for how rarely you will die most of the time with things like annoying mazes and poorly-explained (though very simple) puzzles. Of the fours levels, the first is the best; it's set in Belle's home village. This level has some conversations with the villagers, a simple stealth mechanic as you avoid Gaston, a minigame, and some simple conversation puzzles. It's somewhat fun. The rest of the game isn't as good, sadly. The second level is an annoying maze in the forest; the third, a long and somewhat tedious level where you explore the Beast's mansion; and the last, a short butt tough trip through a snowy forest on horseback. Several more minigames are scattered through the game. At the end there is no final boss fight against Gaston, play the other game for that. This game does have the more complete ending, though. Overall, Belle's Quest is below average but not awful. The game is far too simple and repetitive; after the first level most of the adventure elements are lost in favor of maze-wandering and the final action sequence; you can't fight back against enemies; and the third level drags on for longer than it should. The repetitive and boring stages are a big problem in both of these games. Still, playing a classic Disney-license action game where you play as Belle is interesting; this is the only such game from the '90s. But sadly, that and the visuals really are the only positives here. I can't really recommend Belle's Quest, though big Disney fans might want to check it out. Just don't expect it to be all that good, or fun.


Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast - 1 player. This is the other one of Sunsoft's two Genesis-exclusive Beauty and the Beast games. This time you play as the Beast, and gameplay is much more actioney. This might sound better than the slow and boring Belle game, but actually this game is probably even worse, with its too-high difficulty level the biggest issue. First, the visuals and sound mostly are the same as the other game. Backgrounds are again unbelievably repetitive. The first hallway goes on for minutes, looping the same 1 1/2 screens worth of background over and over and over! Little is new here, it's just rearranged for the new game style. Yes, that first-area background is also seen in Belle's game. It's nicely drawn, but kind of awful when it's all you are looking at it for so long. Now, the Beast can actually attack, so this is a faster-paced game with plenty of enemies to fight. It's got combat, instead of mazes. Unfortunately, it's not good combat. The controls are not the most responsive, the Beast's attack range is short, and enemy hitboxes are weird so it's hard to tell when you will hit an enemy and when you will be hit. And you can't take many hits before you go down; only four, each with half-hits, though some enemies do a full hit of damage instead of just a half. The Beast will go down a lot faster than Belle does in her game, basically; this seems backwards.

This game can be a challenge, but not for the right reasons. The Beast's controls a lot like Belle, so controls are not great. This is a bigger problem in an action game; it could use tight, precise controls but doens't really have them. Dealing with the Beast's large hitbox is also frustrating, when faced with never-ending waves of small, fast-moving enemies. Memorization is key; expect to get Game Overs regularly and have to start again from the beginning. You only get one continue in this game. I hate that stuff. Unlike Belle's Quest this game has bosses as well, and they're tough. Memorization will get you through the levels eventually, but the bosses will require more work, and I don't really want to do that, not with a game as lacking in fun as this one is. Roar of the Beast is certainly beatable, but it's too hard for its own good; I can't see many children sticking with this one long enough to beat it, unless they had nothing better to play. The ending is lacking, too -- it ends right after you beat the final boss, pretty much, lacking the final scenes of Belle's game. At least there is a final boss, though, of course, though I don't know if I'll ever actually try to beat it; I saw the ending by watching it on Youtube. Roar of the Beast is a frustrating game probably not worth the effort. Overall, while I like the visuals and concept of these two games, both of them are below-average disappointments not really worth playing. If you are going to play one, though, stick with Belle's Quest. The much easier difficulty level makes that one more fun to play than this one. I got this game expecting bad things, becuase I already had Belle's Quest, but thanks to the controls and enemy patterns, it's worse than I thought it would be. Overall, Belle's Quest and Roar of the Beast are nice-looking games whose graphical promise is lost in a sea of repetition, iffy controls, and frustration.


Beyond Oasis - 1 player, battery save to cartridge, 6-button controller supported. Beyond Oasis is a quite good top-down action-RPG with a good combat system and beautiful, well-animated graphics. This game is one of the Genesis's three good Zelda-esque action-RPGs, along with Landstalker and Crusader of Centy. Of the three Landstalker is my favorite, but all three are very good games absolutely worth playing. In this game you play as an Arabian prince, off to save the kingdom. Your quest won't be a particularly long one, but it's a lot of fun along the way so I don't mind the length. The great gameplay and fantastic graphics are more than enough to make Beyond Oasis a must-play for any Zelda fan regardless of length. This is one of those games that shows how good Genesis graphics can get. The game is set in an anime-esque fantasy Arabia with magic and genies, and as you progress your hero will gather together various magical powers, each tied to a genie. It's a great setting, and one more games outside of the Prince of Persia series could use. The blue genie has water powers, red for fire, and such; unoriginal, but it works. The magical genie summons look cool, too, and will follow you around once summoned. You have separate inventories for weapons and healing items. With a 6-button controller, buttons X, Y, and Z give direct access to the overworld map screen and both inventories; it's helpful. You can save at any time in the overworld on the pause menu, but you can't save in a dungeon. More original for the time is the combat system. While you can hack and slash, Beyond Oasis has a variety of weapons, each with different moves and abilities. Only the default weapon has infinite uses, while the others are limited-use, but you get enough of them so that you should always have some when needed. Combat is fluid, well animated, and great fun, and is probably more complex than combat in other games like this in the 4th generation. This game plays just as well as it looks.

The game isn't just about combat, though. Like Zelda, Beyond Oasis has exploration and puzzle-solving elements as well as fighting. There isn't as much wandering around an overworld as there would be in a Zelda game, however; this game is more linear. The style works, though, and keeps the game moving. There is still a fair amount of exploration, though, and the puzzle elements are well done. Some combat is simple 'kill the enemies' stuff, but other times you will have to use magic powers or special weapons in the right place in order to progress. What you need to do isn't always obvious, so thought is required. It helps that it's always clear where you should be, though, so at least you know what area to look in to solve the current puzzle. This is a fairly fast-paced game that is a lot of fun to play. Overall, Beyond Oasis is a beautiful-looking game with fun, varied combat, decent puzzles, and more. The Arabian setting and magic add to the game as well. This is a great game I highly recommend. The game also has a sequel on the Saturn, Legend of Oasis, but I haven't played that game yet, sadly. (Defenders of Oasis on Game Gear is actually an entirely unrelated traditional RPG that Sega tacked the name onto for Western release.) This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


Bio-Hazard Battle - 2 player simultaneous. Bio-Hazard Battle is a fairly good horizontal shmup made by Sega. It's actually Sega's only internally-developed shmup for the Genesis, surprisingly enough. The fantastic soundtrack and two player co-op play might be the strongest points about this game. The graphics don't quite match up to the music, and the game has some balance issues, but still, it is mostly good. In Bio Hazard Battle, which was titled "Crying" in Japan, you can choose to play as any of four different bug-styled ships. Two have one set of weapons, and the other two a diffrent one. The homing laser one pair of ships has seems to be by far the best weapon though, so there's no reason to choose the other two ships once you know which ones have the homing laser. The games' weird, unique visual theme extends through the game, though the graphics in general are only good, not great; the Genesis can do better than this. Some of the enemies do look pretty cool, though. You fight lots of strange bug enemies. Gameplay here is fairly simple, too. Fly to the right, dodge enemy fire and obstacles, pick up powerups, and shoot everything; that's pretty much it. This game does not have the depth of a Gradius or R-Type, it is a simpler game. The game is plenty challenging, though. Enemies are numerous, bosses can be tough, and the game does have walls that will kill you instantly. Getting past the bosses in this game will take a lot of practice and repeat play, but for some reason I mind this less in shmups than I do in, say, platformers. This game is great fun, and while I haven't beaten it, it's something I come back to fairly regularly. Flying along with either one player or two and blasting baddies with that homing laser is great. And yes, I do particularly love the games' fantastic atmospheric-electronic-music soundtrack. It's really good. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Blades of Vengeance - 2 player simultaneous. Blades of Vengeance is a great sidescrolling action-platformer game published by EA and developed by Beam Software. EA published five fantasy action-platformers on the Genesis, and of them this is the best one. Beyond that, the game is probably the best game EA released for the Genesis! Yes, Blades of Vengeance is a fantastic and under-rated classic. This game has two player co-op, three playable characters, great graphics and music, and a more complex combat system than many other games of this kind of the time. The key to combat in Blades of Vengeance is learning the blocking system. While you crouch you block and are invulnerable to any attacks coming at you from the direction you are facing. Enemies will often be attacking from both directions, though, or will move past you, so it can be tricky to avoid taking damage unless you are careful. And you'll need to be careful, because this game is quite difficult and unforgiving. There are eight long levels in Blades of Vengeance, each has a boss at the end, and you have limited lives and continues and no saving. Repeat play and memorization are the only way to make any progress. Fortunately, the game is very fun to play and has a fair amount of variety, as well. Each of the three characters, a female warrior, male warrior, or male mage, plays differently, so your choice of character really does matter. There is also character progression partway through, as you get upgrades during the game that change your outfit and weapon; the female warrior gets a ranged weapon when she updates, most notably. She is the default and probably best character, while the mage is the hardest one to play as. The male warrior is tougher to play as because he never gets a ranged attack. Oh, yes, the female character is very scantily clad, but at least the male warrior is also wearing little beyond a Conan-like loincloth, and the costume upgrades add a lot more clothing, even for the female character, so that is nice. Character, enemy, and background graphics are all great and show off the Genesis's power very well.

One great thing about this game are the great level designs. Levels are not just straight corridors, but are large, fairly complex areas. Levels are mostly a linear path, but there are many side areas along the way. Levels are loaded with traps and secrets, so while you need to be careful as you wander around, exploration is very rewarding. There is a fair amount of variety between levels as well, though the later levels have a few too many somewhat similar-looking castles. Still, the graphics are great. The game does keep introducing new enemies though, which get trickier to deal with as you go along. Those green lizardmen that first appear well into the game are tough! I love the amount of strategy this game requires; each enemy and boss requires learning something new, and even once you know what to do, executing on that is tough. Blades of Vengeance is a difficult game in execution as well as in strategy, and I love that about the game. The soundtrack is really good as well. This game does not use that generic Gems Genesis music-making software that a lot of third-party games used, and instead has great music that gets a lot out of the Genesis audio chip. Overall, Blades of Vengeance is a very good, top-quality game with good graphics and music, great gameplay with more strategy in its combat than most Genesis games, good level designs loaded with stuff to find, and more. Very highly recommended! Great game.


Blockout - 2 player simultaneous. Blockout is a Genesis version of the 3d-well Tetris game that released on computers at some point in the '80s. I remember disliking Blockout, or Blockout clones, for the PC back in the early '90s, and I still definitely prefer regular 2d Tetris. Still, Blockout is an interesting game with some awesomely early '90s cover art and very challenging gameplay. This is definitely a game which requires a lot of strategy to not be terrible at. The basic concept here is Tetris, but in 3d. The gameplay area is a well-like pit made up of many levels. Pieces start at the top, and drop down from there one level at a time. You can choose how many levels deep the well is in the game options, to affect the difficulty, but the default is about ten, so the well in this gmae usually has a lot more levels than that in Nintendo's 3-D Tetris for the Virtual Boy, a game clearly inspired by this one. I like 3-D Tetris more than Blockout, but this game is the original. Pieces are 3d Tetris-like groups of cubes. They will vanish if you fill a whole layer of the well with blocks. It is vital to try to keep the well as empty as possible at all times, because this game, unlike 3-D Tetris, does not have a display at the side showing what is in each level of the well. Instead, you'll just have to try to remember what's underneath whatever block is on top. It's not great; Blockout can seem easy and slow as long as you can keep the field mostly empty, but as soon as things start to fill, it'll go wrong fast, probably more so than in regular 2d Tetris. The 3-d element makes this kind of game harder to play than a 2d puzzle game, but it is an interesting challenge.

Visually, Blockout looks fairly plain. The cover may be an awesome early '90s group of colorful blocks, but the game itself looks fairly plain. Blocks are wireframes until they hit ground, when they turn solid-colored. The field is a wireframe well on a black background, nothing fancy. Music is okay, but not great. This game looks like the early-ish release that it is, and has a minimal graphical presentation. There aren't a lot of modes and options either, beyond choices for the well's size, and some basic 1 player infinite or 2 player versus modes. The controls are somewhat complex as well. The Genesis only has three buttons and one d-pad, so the controls here are a bit harder to get used to than 3-D Tetris for the VB, which uses both d-pads and all four face and shoulder buttons that system has. Each face button modifies what the d-pad does. Without a button, you move the block around the current level of the well. Beyond that, you've got to remember which button rotates the block vertically, which rotates it horizontally, and which spins it. It's easy to forget which button does which. Still, Blockout is an interesting game that is worth a look if you like puzzle games. I wasn't sure if it would be worth getting considering my general dislike for 3d-well Tetris, but when I saw the great cover I couldn't resist, and it was a good choice. The game may not have great visuals or sound, the controls are confusing, and I miss VB 3-D Tetris's diagram showing what is on each level of the well because that makes this kind of game much easier, but still, Blockout for the Genesis is a good puzzle game worth a try if you like the genre. I do recommend 3-D Tetris for the VB to anyone with one of those systems, it's the better game, but Blockout, the game which inspired it, is also a decent game. This game is a serious mental challenge which can be fun to face. Arcade port also released on the Lynx and numerous computer platforms -- PC, Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Apple IIGS, Mac, and PC-9801.


Boogerman: A Pick & Flick Adventure - 1 player, password save. Boogerman is a platformer by Interplay. The game mostly tried to sell itself based on its gross snot, boogers, and fart-focused character and world design, but underneath that extremely juvenile aesthetic is, in fact, a good platformer. The gameplay is fairly standard, but it's well-made and plays well. This isn't a game I played in the '90s and once I got classic consoles the theme did not interest me, but when I learned that the game runs in the The Lost Vikings engine, I wanted to try it; The Lost Vikings is a game I like a lot. I got this game last year, and it did not disappoint. Boogerman really is pretty good! Boogerman may be a standard 4th-gen Western platformer, but it's better than most such games. Sure, this isn't the best game, but it is good. This game didn't need the ridiculous theme, it'd have been good with any visuals. I do kind of like how green everything in this game is, though, since that is my favorite color.

So, Boogerman is a game about a middle-aged overweight eccentric millionaire who has a secret identity, Boogerman. He's invesitigating a mad scientists' machine, when he sneezes on it and gets pulled into a portal! Here the game begins, You can jump on enemies, but also have projectile weapons. The main one is a booger flick, and there is also a powerful belch attack you can charge up. Yes, this game is a juvenile comedy for sure, but while some things are just juvenile, I do like Boogerman's character; he is well-drawn and funny. I like his big grin as he runs around. So yeah, even someone like me who has never really liked potty humor much can find something to like here. Enemies are also well-drawn and amusing looking. Backgrounds don't look quite as nice as the sprites, but they are okay, at least. The good comic-book style art design helps a lot here; Boogerman is a somewhat nice-looking game, visual themes aside. But no, what makes Boogerman good isn't the graphics or theme, though, it's the gameplay, controls, and level designs. Interplay used a good engine for this game, which means the game controls well. Boogerman has tight, responsive controls. You do need to be careful when jumping on enemies because if you miss you will take damage, but that's where the ranged attacks come in handy. Also you can take several hits, so the game doesn't have one hit deaths. Boogerman's cape is his life meter; it changes colors with each hit.

The level designers did good work as well. This game does have more complex level designs than some games, so levels are not just a straight path, but it's not too hard to figure out, and the password system is a big help as well so once you do beat a level you don't have to play it again. While the game does have nice animation this isn't a game in the Prince of Persia or Aladdin schools of highly animated platformers, just a conventional one with a silly theme, but I like this kind of game better than those, most of the time. The game also doesn't have have blind jumps, avoiding one of the major faults of some of the major third-party platformers of the time. The game has large levels to explore, lots of enemies to fight, many items to find scattered all around, and such, as usual. Toilets and giant noses act as warps, and outhouses are checkpoints. Exploring the levels is fun, as you try to find stuff and the way to the next stage. Enemies you kill do stay dead, so if you backtrack to look for stuff you won't have to fight enemies again, thankfully. It is fun to explore the levels. Graphics aside this may sound like a lot of 4th-gen platformers, but Boogerman is better-designed than most, with tight, precise controls and good level designs backing up its solid visuals. So yes, I recommend Boogerman. This isn't just some grossout game, it is a good game platformer fans should pick up. Also available on SNES. The game has been re-released on Wii Virtual Console (Genesis version).


Bubba 'n' Stix - 1 player, password save. Bubba 'n' Stix is a side-scrolling platform-puzzle game by Core Design. It's sort of a platformer crossed with an adventure game, albeit one with a very limited inventory. This is a short but tricky game with fairly nice visuals, a unique and fun concept, and some good puzzles. The game has good graphics with a nice cartoony art style. You play as Bubba, a hickish boy zookeeper wearing a backwards baseball cap and overalls (with no shirt) who was abducted by aliens and found himself on an alien planet, where the game begins. He also found an alien which sort of looks like a stick, called Stix. You work together in this game. While this game does have some platforming, in that you can jump and thre are platforms to jump on,you can't jump on enemies; that will hurt. You have to hit them with Stix, instead. However, most of the challenge, and gameplay, in this game comes from trying to figure out the puzzles that keep you from moving forward in each stage, not from combat or platforming. Your main form of interaction is using Stix. You can swing or toss him at enemies, put him in holes in order to make a step to get up a cliff with, and more; you will have to figure out more uses for Stix as you go. This may be a short game if you know what to do, but really, it's only short if you figure out the puzzles quickly. Figuring out what to do can be tricky, but that's the whole point of the game, of course. The game will give you a password before each of the five levels. I like the bright, colorful cartoon graphics. Bubba looks appropriately silly, and things like trees with eyes that follow you while your back is turned are amusing as well. There's some nice animation here. This game can be frustrating though, when you're stuck and have no idea what to do to proceed. Still, Bubba n Stix is mostly good. The game is short and sometimes frustrating, but it is also good-looking and well animated, and the puzzles are more good than bad. I do wish that there was more content in this game, but there is enough here to make this worth getting for sure if you like puzzle games. Check it out. Also released on Amiga and Amiga CD32, though I think the Genesis version came first.


Bubsy II - 1 player. Bubsy II was the first Bubsy game I got, and it definitely did not exactly make me want to like this series. Bubsy II is a poor platformer much more frustrating with fun. With a health bar, passwords, and such maybe it could be alright, but it doesn't have those things. Bubsy is one of those games 'inspired' by Sonic, but while it has Sonic's speed, it doesn't have Sonic's great level designs, gameplay, graphics, or much of anything else. I like large platformer levels well enough, but it's no fun when every time I get hit even once you die and get sent back to the last checkpoint, and it's hard to avoid taking hits when you run anywhere near as fast as you can in this game. But moving around slowly isn't any fun either, so really there is no good solution here other than to not play this game. And that's what I recommend, not playing this game. Bubsy II has mediocre-at-best controls, sometimes annoying level designs, random licensing tossed in (Bubsy uses Nerf guns), a high difficulty level, and little fun or rewarding gameplay to be found. Bubsy II is a pretty bad game; it is, overall, a failure. Don't bother with this. I should note, some people say the first Bubsy is a better game than this one, but this one is so bad that it doesn't make me want to try that one. Oddly enough though, I do like the much-despised Bubsy 3D for the PS1. Yes, really. Go figure. Also on SNES and Game Boy.


Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble - 1 player. Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble is a Western-made platformer published by Sega in 1996. You play as Bugs Bunny, as the name suggests, playing through some of his more famous cartoons from the great Looney Tunes series. Looney Tunes is the best animated series ever, so I've wanted to try all of the Looney Tunes games. This game has nice graphics, but the gameplay has issues and is a bit below average. Even so, I do like it more than Sunsoft's also mediocre SNES Bugs Bunny game. But as a 1996 game, yes, this is a fairly late release for the Genesis. The game looks it; Double Trouble has pretty good graphics with some nice pre-rendered art with large, detailed sprites, as fitting the Donkey Kong Country-inspired style of the time. While the game plays like a standard platformer, your goal isn't just to run to the right. Instead, each level has a mission you must accomplish. Pay attention to the briefing text scrolling by at the bottom of the level-select screen, because it tells you what you'll need to do. You get two levels to choose from at first, and have to beat both of them before you unlock the next group of stages. In the first level for instance, you have to stay just ahead of Daffy Duck, luring him to run past all of the signs so he flips them from rabbit symbols to duck symbols, as in the classic cartoon where Bugs is turning Rabbit Season into Duck Season to save himself from Elmer. You've got a time limit and if you take too long Elmer will shoot you, but if you keep moving these stages aren't too hard once you learn them.

There are several stages with each basic level concept, but each cartoon has its own goals. In the other starting level, you need to jump off of a bull from the bullfighting cartoon in order to grab bombs and land them on piles of wood, to blow them up and make holes. Then you go underground into some somewhat mazelike webs of tunnels, looking for items while avoiding lions. I like the games' variety, but the controls and hit detection are an issue; with large sprites and many obstacles, hits often feel hard to avoid, and Bugs' controls are a bit loose and slippery. Daffy is always right on top of you in the first level, for instance, and avoiding those lions isn't easy either. You do have a health bar, but it will drain fast. The game also has limited lives and continues and no saving, though, so repeat play will be required. I wish it wasn't; this game is okay, but not fun enough to make me want to play it over and over in order to get to the later stages. Ah well. Still, while it is below average, this game isn't all bad. It is definitely worth a look for Looney Tunes fans, and maybe platformer fans in general if you find it cheap and want a flawed platformer with more variety than most of the time. Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble isn't great, but it is an okay C-grade game some people will enjoy. Also on Game Gear. I got that version first; it's very much like this one, but with very small graphics and some gameplay downgrades. The Genesis version is better.


Burning Force - 1 player. Burning Force is a pretty good Namco rail shooter. You play as a future policewoman taking her computer-world test to join the force as a hover-bike police rider. The test is five days long, and each day is made up of three stages. First there are two normal stages, then a boss stage. This is an early-ish release for the Genesis, but has pretty nice visuals for the time; the scaling looks better than Sega's early rail shooters for the Genesis. The game does have somewhat slow forward-movement speed and not the best draw distance, and those are surely part of why the game plays as well as it does. After Burner or Space Harrier II on Genesis are much faster games, and struggle more as a result. Also, unlike most rail shooters, in most of Burning Force you are stuck to the ground, jump-pads aside. Those jump pads are nice, though. You only take to the air in a plane for boss levels; the rest of the time you ride a ground-based futuristic hover-bike. This is kind of unfortunate, but the game has a good amount of variety despite this, with lots of enemies, bullets, and obstacles to try to avoid. Also, the simpler design does make the game easier to play and probably helps it run better on the hardware, too. Burning Force is a bit choppy of course, as all scaler games on systems which don't have hardware scaling are, but again the game runs reasonably well, so when you die it generally is your fault. You do have multiple hits per life, and can choose how many lives per continue you get in the options. You can also choose Easy or Hard difficulties. Burning Force has okay but not great graphics. It really looks like an '80s arcade game and has that visual style to it. Still, even if they don't play better, Sega games like Space Harrier II do look better than this game. This is a fun but fairly simple game. You just ride forwards, shoot the baddies, and pick up weapon and point powerups when you need them while dodging enemy fire. Levels do eventually get harder, but Burning Force isn't as tough as Space Harrier. Bosses are trickier, as each has a specific weak point you need to shoot at, but still this is a straightforward rail shooter. It works, though, and is quite fun to play. Burning Force is a good game worth playing. Arcade port.


More to come after I finish some more batches of games. I won't reserve posts, I'll just link stuff in the OP if/when people post in between.

 

[Piston Hyundai]

if you are reading this, please help

I am trapped, buried under piles and piles of text

Seriously though, you should consider looking into a better way to organize all of your reviews both in this thread and on your website. It's presented in a pretty overwhelming way.

 

[MAtgS]

Animaniacs - 1 player. Animaniacs for the Genesis is a puzzle-platformer based on a '90s Disney cartoon that I didn't watch much back then.

Troll post, right?

 

[@MUWANdo]

if you are reading this, please help

I am trapped, buried under piles and piles of text

Seriously though, you should consider looking into a better way to organize all of your reviews both in this thread and on your website. It's presented in a pretty overwhelming way.

For real.

If you absolutely insist on typing voluminous walls of blah, add some HTML anchors to your blog and list each entry as a link instead of a text dump, it'll save you about eight hundred million posts.

 

[Stephen Stills]

Woah woah woah

No Battle Mania? The second one is the second best game on the system IMO. You should check it out!

 

[A Black Falcon]

Troll post, right?

Gah, I'll fix that. As much as I love Looney Tunes, my favorite cartoon series ever, I didn't really watch Animaniacs (or Tiny Toons), but still, I should have gotten that right.

if you are reading this, please help

I am trapped, buried under piles and piles of text

Seriously though, you should consider looking into a better way to organize all of your reviews both in this thread and on your website. It's presented in a pretty overwhelming way.

In a forum there isn't a better way of organizing things; I think this works just fine. On the site, though, it would be nice to be able to have links in the contents page go straight to summaries instead of just to the top of the page that summary is in, but I'm not sure if you can do that in Wordpress? If you can I would like to know how.

Woah woah woah

No Battle Mania? The second one is the second best game on the system IMO. You should check it out!

I have the first one, that got a US release. It was called Trouble Shooter in the US, so it's on the list under that title. I don't have the import-only sequel Battle Mania Daiginjou, though. So far I've only got that one Japanese game for this system... I'll get more someday. Pretty much any import shmups for the system are pretty expensive, though...

 

[Bakkus]

This is insane. Hats off to you, A Black Falcon. To make it even better I would also suggest you provide links to gameplay footage from these games.

 

[Industrialist]

In a forum there isn't a better way of organizing things; I think this works just fine. On the site, though, it would be nice to be able to have links in the contents page go straight to summaries instead of just to the top of the page that summary is in, but I'm not sure if you can do that in Wordpress? If you can I would like to know how.

Use anchors.

Jump into HTML view.
Before the title of the review, put:-

<a id="#gamenamehere"></a>

Then when you link to the game in your contents list, use

http://yourwebsitename.com/pagename#gamenamehere

 

[A Black Falcon]

Use anchors.

Jump into HTML view.
Before the title of the review, put:-



Then when you link to the game in your contents list, use

Thanks very much for this tip, it's great. Going back and adding these to all the old articles will take quite a while and I haven't done much of that yet (only the TI-99, really, so far), but I'll work on it. You can see the results in my just-finished letter C update on the site here: http://www.blackfalcongames.net/?p=249 I put a table of contents at the top, in addition to putting that in the main site contents page as well. Both link to each individual summary.

Oh, one mistake in what you wrote here -- in the anchor in the original article, you don't put a # before the name; you only put that in the link. I first tried it as you type it here and the link didn't work until I tried it without the # in the original name. Still though, great tip and it will make the pages better.


So that said, it's on to the next update!


This time, 13 summaries of the games that start with the letter C. There are a lot of very difficult games in this update. Some are pretty good, others not as great, so it’s a nice mix of quality… but in terms of challenge, only a few games here aren’t hard. That’s okay though, the Genesis has a lot of good but hard games, and games like Comix Zone and Contra Hard Corps are great examples of that!

Update Contents
————–
Cadash
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Chakan
Championship Pro-Am
Columns III: Revenge of Columns
Combat Cars
Comix Zone
Contra: Hard Corps
Cool Spot
Cosmic Spacehead
Crack Down
Crusader of Centy
Cyborg Justice

Genesis Game Opinion Summaries, Letter C


Cadash – 2 player simultaneous. Cadash is an okay side-scrolling action-RPG by Taito. This is a port of the arcade game of the same name. The graphics and gameplay are very similar to the arcade version, but there are a few missing features in this Genesis version that really do hurt the game when compared to the arcade or Turbografx-16 versions. But first, the game. In this game you can choose two playable characters, the Warrior or the Mage. In two player, one person plays as each one. This is a sidescrolling fantasy action-RPG where you walk around killing endlessly respawning monsters as you train yourself up enough to be able to fight each areas’ boss. The graphics and sound are okay, but not great. Levels are reasonably well designed, and while this is a linear game with a clear path to follow, yo uaren’t just always walking to the right, level designs are a bit more involved than that. There are also some tricky jumping puzzles at times, to add some variety. The two player co-op mode is great and is defnitely the way to play the game, if you have someone else good at this kind of game and with a lot of time, that is. Cadash does not have any saving on any platform, so you’ve got to play the whole game in one sitting. Unless you use cheatcodes you have limited continues as well. This is a real problem; this is a tough game, particularly at the beginning, and having to either cheat or constantly start over isn’t fun. Probably the best thing to do is grind up some levels right at the beginning of the game. That isn’t fun either, but at least you’ll be able to make it through the first area.

After the first boss you then finally reach a town where you can heal and buy items. It would have been better if you could do this at the starting castle as well, the game is probably a bit too hard right at the start, but you can’t. And then I eventually get game over and it’s back to the beginning of the game unless I cheat. Seriously, this is why almost all action-RPGs have save systems, they’re needed in this kind of thing! Still, Cadash is an okay to good game. On the good side the visuals are decent enough, there is some variety, two player co-op is nice, and the game will certainly present more than enough challenge. However, the graphics aren’t great, the game essentially requires grinding in order to progress, it should have had a save system, and two of the playable characters from the other versions have been removed in this Genesis release. That is the main cut I referred to earlier; the Ninja and Priestess, probably the more interesting and better two characters from the arcade and TG16 game, aren’t in this one. I don’t know why they cut them, but it was an unfortunate decision which hurts the game. Still, despite all its flaws, Cadash can be some fun. If you find it cheap pick it up. It is an average game for the genre overall, though. Arcade port, also on TurboGrafx-16. The TG16 version is the way to go, though it also has no saving and requires cheats if you want to continue.


Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse – 1 player. One of the Genesis’s first great platformers, Castle of Illusion helped show off some of the capabilities of the Genesis, and it’s a pretty good game as well. Castle of Illusion predates Sonic, and definitely doesn’t have Sonic’s speed as this is a somewhat slow-paced game, and as usual from Sega at the time the difficulty is high, but the great level designs, variety, puzzle elements, graphics, and music all combine to make this a quite good game. As the name suggests, in this game you play as Mickey Mouse, and as usual in videogames you have to rescue the girl; Minnie was kidnapped by your requisite evil witch. So yeah, the story is sexist unfortunately, but the game is good. Castle of Illusion is made up of only five levels, but each has several stages and won’t be too easy to finish. This is one of many Sega games on the Genesis that I haven’t managed to finish. Castle of Illusion is an approachable challenge, but it will take practice and quite a bit of repeat play to get through. You have limited continues, so you will have to regularly start the game over, and that’s where I get frustrated and quit; I really do strongly prefer to not have to redo things I’ve beaten before in games. This game isn’t easy unless you have it all memorized, and I don’t.

This game is more than good enough to be worth that effort, though. Castle of Illusion controls well, though the controls are a bit weird. Mickey walks, runs, and jumps as usual, but you have to hit jump again before landing on an enemy to do a butt-stomp or you will take damage. This is a bit annoying even once you do get used to it. You also need to be careful to land on enemies on the top, not the sides, even with a stomp. Mickey can also throw projectiles, though these are limited. You only have one walk speed, however: slow. The visuals along the way look good, though. Castle of Illusion has bright, colorful graphics, and each area is different looking. There is a good amount of enemy variety as well. Enemies fit to each setting, from the toyland world to the dark forest. Later Genesis games look even better than this one, particularly in spritework, but for an earlier release this looks great. The parallax scrolling backgrounds are nice as well. More importantly, the game keeps mixing things up as you go forwards. This is a platformer, but the game does have exploration and puzzle elements to it. Later games in this series would emphasize this side of things more, but even this first game has some mazelike stage layouts, tricky bosses that take practice to figure out, secrets to find, and more. I really like the stage variety. Sometimes you go right, other times up, other times multiple directions. Sometimes you are on solid ground, and other times you’re jumping on platforms in the sky. There is a lot to see here. It is possible to be stuck sometimes and not know what to do to progress, but still, overall there is a lot more to like than dislike about the level designs. The music is good as well. The Genesis soundchip can do more than this, but Castle of Illusion’s tunes sound good and have a cheerful tone that fits Mickey’s character well.

Overall, Castle of Illusion might be the Genesis’s best platformer released before Sonic the Hedgehog. The game is challenging, the graphics, while good, don’t quite match up to later releases for the system, the pace is slow, and I really wish you had passwords, but otherwise this is a great game which deserves most of the praise it gets. With good graphics, varied levels, lots to see, and more, Castle of Illusion is a classic. There is also a Saturn port of this game that was only released in Japan. Sega also made a Game Gear/Master System game of the same name, but it’s a different game with the same concept.


Castlevania: Bloodlines – 1 player, password save. Castlevania Bloodlines is a good, but somewhat disappointing, game in Konami’s iconic platform-action series. I have, in the past, frequently been critical of Bloodlines. It’s a pretty good, B-grade game for sure, but it followed up two of the best action-platformers of the generation, Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood, and isn’t nearly as great as either one. This game feels more like a followup to the NES Castlevania games than either of its predecessors. Some people like it for that, but I don’t. Worse, though, as with Contra below, Konami made this game harder for its Western release… and again just like Contra, they made it far too hard. What they did to the continue and save system in this game is unforgivable and kind of breaks the game.

First though, the good. Castlevania Bloodlines is a sidescrolling platformer that plays a lot like a NES Castlevania game with a few elements of Super Castlevania IV tossed in. The game has two playable characters, John Morris or Eric Lecarde. One has a whip, and the other a spear. Each can access a few areas that the other can’t, which is nice. One can attack diagonally while on the ground but not while jumping, while the other can attack diagonally while in the air but not while on the ground. The controls are good and responsive as usual in the series, but that is an incredibly annoying limitation that shouldn’t have happened; Super Castlevania IV got it right in letting you attack diagonally at any time, this limitation was a bad idea. But at least you have SOME diagonal attacks. The game has only six levels, but each one is long; this design, of having few long levels, is common in many (though not all!) of Konami’s Genesis games, perhaps to save money on a platform Konami clearly considered secondary by not having to design as many areas as they would in a SNES game. The story mixes in elements of the Dracula movie mythos, most notably the Bram Stoker’s Dracula story, into Castlevania. Unlike the usual castle-based setting, in this game you travel all over Europe; each stage is in a new place. I like the variety. Visually, the game looks okay, but lacks the polish of its SNES and Turbo CD predecessors. This game clearly had a smaller budget than either of those games, that’s for sure. Still, there is a reasonable amount of variety within each stage. Each level is made up of several parts, often with different settings, and there are usually minibosses in each level. The stages have variety, and some have nice visual effects, most notably the reflective water and the spinning Leaning Tower of Pisa. The music is also great. It doesn’t match the music in its two predecessors, perhaps because the SNES sound chip and CD audio are more suited for orchestral-style scores than the more techno-suited Genesis chip, but still, Bloodlines does sound good to great.

Apart from the cheaper feel compared to its console predecessors, though, my main issue with Bloodlines are the ways Konami messed with the game for its Western release. In Japan, Bloodlines gives you a password when you get game over that lets you continue from the beginning of the level you died in. You get two continues per game before you reach that game over and get a password. Passwords start you with a full load of lives and continues, so you can keep trying on each level as long as you want with no punishment, once you have reached it. Dying definitely punishes you, because levels are long, but it’s a doable challenge and I very much want this version of the game. In the West, however, the game is an insanely annoying punishing challenge. Konami changed things so that now you get a password only after beating a level, and the password saves your lives and continues into the password! Now, when you get game over, that’s it, start again from your last password. This transforms the game into an extremely frustrating game where you need to repeatedly replay levels over and over, trying to die fewer times so as to save some of those precious lives and continues. Any death means a life permanently lost, unless you find a 1-up. This is utterly unlike the continue system in every single other TV console Castlevania game ever made; all other console Castlevania games, and almost all of the handheld games, have infinite continues from the beginning of the level you are currently on. Almost all also allow you to save your progress by password or save file. The Western version of Bloodlines is the only Castlevania game ever to have both passwords AND limited continues that are saved to the password, and it was a terrible design decision that really hurts the game. Overall, though, Castlevania Bloodlines is a good game despite its faults. The game looks decently nice, plays well, has some nice variety and good level settings, and sounds good. Despite all my complaints I do like the game overall, even in its frustrating Western incarnation. Bloodlines is no Rondo of Blood, and that is a negative, but it is a good game. If it wasn’t getting a bit overpriced now I would certainly recommend it. Get the Japanese import version if you want to have fun; I’ll need to do that for sure, someday!


Chakan – 1 player. Chakan is a super-difficult platformer that seems to have been designed mostly to make, well, a super-difficult platform-action game. The game is based on a comic book license, and has a dark tone with brooding music and a dark color palette. It fits the ‘edgy’ style of a lot of Genesis games well. You play as Chakan, an immortal, and unhappy, warrior. You’ve got to destroy all evil if you ever want to rest. Good luck with that, I’ll never see the end of this game and nor will most players. Chakan may be immortal, so you can keep trying as many times as you like without ever seeing a Game Over screen, but when a game is this hard that’s not much of a help. The game has four levels you can play at the start, with many more levels after that that if you somehow manage to beat all of the first four. Chakan is longer than many platformers of its time, apparently; the shortest longplay on Youtube is an hour and a half long. You can’t save either, of course, as usual from a Sega game. Thanks. Apparently the game has two endings, one normal and another if you beat the insanely hard final boss, but there’s next to no reward at all if you beat it; the designers must have presumed no one would.

Visually, Chakan is a decent-looking game. The graphics and art design are well designed, but are a bit average for the system. The music is similarly good but not great. Chakan is a large character, which looks good visually, but this makes gameplay harder because things come at you from just off screen far too often; you don’t have much draw distance with sprites this big. Blind jumps are, as a result, a big problem in this game. If you fall in a pit that counts as a death, it’s back to the main level-select area with you, and this will happen often with pits you couldn’t see. Stronger enemies can take a ridiculous numbr of hits to defeat, as well, and if you run out of health, it’s back to the level select. I’ve never gotten very far at all into this game; I kind of like the style and visuals, but the game is unapproachably hard, and I don’t like blind jumps. Overall, I’d call Chakan a below average game, though fans of very hard games will surely like it more. Maybe check it out if you find it for cheap, though; Chakan is interesting, regardless of its issues.


Championship Pro-Am – 1 player. Championship Pro-Am is a port of Rare’s popular NES racing game R.C. Pro-Am. This is one of four NES games that Rare ported over to the Genesis, before they were bought by Nintendo. I covered another one earlier, Battletoads Double Dragon. R.C. Pro-Am was a very popular racing game on the NES, and it’s still great fun here! This game has okay graphics and fun but very simple gameplay. You race an RC car along walled-in tracks. The controls are skiddy, but you quickly get used to them. It controls just like the other games in the series. When you hit a wall you bounce off it, angling into the road, so you will eventually finish even if you don’t turn. Still, this is a tough game and skill and memorization will be required in order to get deep into it. You move on if you finish in the top three in each race, and fail if you finish below that. You only get three continues. I like the gameplay in this series a lot, and this game is as good as any of them there. RC Pro-Am games are very simple, but lots of fun. This is a fast game with a nice sense of speed. You zoom along, make the turns with the help of the on-screen map, and try to pick up as many of the powerups and weapons as you can that are scattered around the track. There are tire, acceleration, and top speed upgrades, along with bomb or missile weapons. You can only have one weapon or the other at a time, as always in the series. Stars add ammo for your current weapon.

The problem is that enhanced visuals and music aside, absolutely nothing here is new. This game is essentially the same exact game that released on the NES four years earlier, but with better graphics and music. I do like the visual and aural upgrade, and the sense of speed is probably improved here, but because of its simple design originally, the game feels dated compared to other Genesis racing games. None of the added features found in R.C. Pro-Am’s sequel on the Game Boy, which released before this game, or its sequel on the NES which released soon after are present here, so there is no multiplayer, no choices in the upgrade system, and the game still is an endless title that goes on until you lose, instead of having an ending as the sequels have. There is a limited number of tracks, but they will repeat if you manage to finish them all. All Rare did here was port over an old game, upgrade the graphics, and replace the NINTENDO letters you can collect in the game with CHAMPION ones. I wish that they had at least put in multiplayer, that would have been fantastic. For what it is, though, Championship Pro-Am is great fun. RC Pro-Am is a simple series, and I do prefer Micro Machines in part because those games are harder and require a lot more skill to be successful at because unlike this series the raceway is not walled in in Micro Machines and bumping into things doesn’t knock you ahead, but this is a fun little game that’s fun to race around in once in a while. There is challenge too, if you want to get through all the tracks and loop the game, so it isn’t easy, just simple to learn. I like Championship Pro-Am, it’s a good game. I just wish that they had made a new game instead of a feature-unaltered NES port. This version is better than the original, but the sequels on GB and NES are, overall, the better games.


Columns III: Revenge of Columns – 1-5 player simultaneous (with Sega multitap). Columns III is, of course, the second and final Columns game on the Genesis. There was another arcade game in between the first one and this, to explain the name, but I’ve never played it. Anyway, this is a puzzle game in Sega’s long-running Columns block-dropping puzzle game series. This time the game is Egyptian themed, instead of the supposed Phoenecian theme of the original Columns. Columns III is one of their first-party games Sega allowed other publishers to publish in the US, and I can sort of see why; this is an okay game, but not great. Columns III is a fairly bare-bones game, particularly if you are playing alone. This game is heavily focused on multiplayer, that’s for sure. The only modes here are a single player vs. CPU quest with three difficulties or multiplayer modes for two to five players. There is no endless mode, oddly enough, even though the original Columns was all about endless play and this game adds a few new features. In single player, you will only ever see one bland stone-block background and one music track; other backgrounds and music are exclusive to the multiplayer modes, annoyingly enough. There are sprites of your opponent in single player, but they are very simply drawn and have minimal animation. Overall this is not good design, don’t lock so much out of single player! There should be a music selection, at least. There are three difficulty levels to choose in the single player game, but that’s the only option, and if you know how to play Columns even Hard isn’t too tough to beat.

In terms of gameplay, Columns III is very similar to the original game, but with some additions to the multiplayer. As before, stacks of three gems drop from above. You can rotate the order of the gems, but cannot turn the blocks, so all pieces you drop will be three vertically-stacked titles. Your goal is to match 3 gems of the same type in a row. It’s simple, but works. Columns is no match for the best block-dropping puzzle games, but it is a fun little amusement here and there. It’s a bit easier to play than some other puzzle games, and that isn’t all bad. The game now has a display showing the next piece you will get, and a counter for special attacks as well. This is the number below the next-piece display. 3 points add to this meter when you make a 3-in-a-row match, 6 points for a 4-in-a-row, and 12 points for a 5-in-a-row. The counter maxes at 30, so pay attention to it; there is no indicator when it’s full. Hitting a button uses meter, with a minimum use of 10. 10, 20, and 30 each use a different ability, lowering your block field and raising the enemies’. Some powerups also can raise your blocks or lower the other players’. You also get a special powerup for each match you win that you can use at any time in the pause menu. I like the added strategy that having to deal with an opponent brings, it’s a nice challenge. Still, as a single player game, Columns III is lacking. The single background and music track get old, and there is no gameplay variety. The multiplayer options are better, and this is probably your best option for 3-plus player Columns on a home system, though, so it is well worth getting for that, if you have the right multitap. But as a single player game Columns III is strictly average. I like it because I like this genre, but non-fans can skip this without missing too much. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Combat Cars – 1-2 player simultaneous. Combat Cars is Accolade’s take on RC Pro-Am, pretty much. This is a top-down sci-fi combat racing game. Unfortunately, while I want to like it, the game has some critical design flaws which mostly ruin the game.. Combat Cars is unbalanced, has poor controls, and is absurdly difficult. As a result, it’s not nearly as much fun as it should be even for someone who likes top-down racing games as much as I do. To start with the worst thing about this game, you have, effectively, one life and no continues in the main championship mode here. No continues, no extra lives, no saving. Finish out of the top three positions on any race in the game and you lose, try again from race one. There isn’t even a ‘Game Over’ screen, you’re just dumped to the high-score entry screen and then back to the title. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the like in a game like this. Of course, this game demands memorization to succeed at; you won’t beat races after the first few on your first try. Combat Cars is a fast game with skiddy controls that are hard to get used to and tracks loaded with sharp turns and obstacles that will slow you down if you don’t get turns just right. Memorization is the only way to proceed, but with the game kicking you back to the start after every single failure, it’s not worth the hassle. There isn’t a course map on screen during play, either; it’d be nice if there was. This is an awful combination. Thankfully there are some cheat codes that make the game more playable, though really emulators probably are the best way, sadly enough. Even with them, however, this is a flawed game that only the dedicated will get far in due to the super-skiddy controls. There is a two player splitscreen co-op mode, which is nice, but why play this when you could play Micro Machines instead?

Presentation-wise the game is better, but does have issues. In this game you can play as eight different futuristic combat racers. However, the only ones worth using are the ones with homing missiles; the rest are near-worthless, pretty much. Don’t pick them. Visually Combat Cars looks nice, but not great. This game is about on par with the first Micro Machines game, visually. This is a strictly top-down game which doesn’t really push the hardware, but it does *look nice enough for the time. There is a nice variety of track settings as well, which is nice. The music is okay but not too memorable, but does have some decent tunes. This should have been at least an average game, and with better controls and a continue system it could have been… but it was not to be, sadly. I love futuristic racing games and top-down racers, but I can’t defend this one. Combat Cars is a bad game and while I like some things about it, it’s probably is the worst racing game I have for the Genesis. Accolade came close here, but their mistakes are sadly crippling.


Comix Zone – 1 player, 6-button controller supported. Comix Zone is a very good side-scrolling beat ’em up from STI and published by Sega that released in 1995. This is a game I noticed at the time, and I thought it was really cool! Comix Zone and Vectorman are probably the two Genesis games from ’95 that I remember best, and the game is indeed very good. Comix Zone didn’t sell nearly as well as Sega hoped, but it is a great game I highly recommend, even if it’s excessively difficult as some Genesis games tend to be. I don’t mind that, it’s really great regardless of that I’ve never gotten past halfway through the game, Comix Zone is almost certainly my favorite side-scrolling beat ’em up ever! So, Comix Zone is a side-scrolling beat ’em up, but it is an unconventional one with puzzle and adventure elements as well as platforming. It also has a very unique visual style. You are Sketch Turner, a somewhat implausibly buff comic book artist, and the supervillain from your comic has come alive, warped you into your own comic, and is drawing new pages as well! The game sticks with the comic-book theme throughout, as each level is called a “Page”, and all game play areas look like panels from a comic book. I love the look of the game, the panels are a unique mechanic and look great. The graphics in general look great, actually. Comix Zone is a later release for the Genesis, and it really shows; this game has fantastic, very well drawn visuals that get the most out of the Genesis’s limited color palette. The game does have some slowdown when a lot is going on on screen, but mostly it runs well, and it always looks very good. The game has a great synth-rock-style soundtrack, also. While not the absolute best, it’s probably one of the better soundtracks on the system. Presentation-wise, Comix Zone is fantastic and is a real showcase for what the Genesis can do.

The gameplay is very good as well, difficulty aside. While there are only six pages (levels) in this game, each one is reasonably long. This game is made up of many single-screen panels, so there isn’t a lot of scrolling except between panels. This works fine, and serves to focus you on the current area. The game has branching paths in each page; though they all lead to the same places in the end, which ones you choose does matter. Comix Zone has an inventory system, you see; this isn’t just a brawler. A six button controller is highly recommended for this game, it gives you quick access to your inventory — X, Y, and Z each use the item in that slot on screen. You can only have three items at once, so sometimes you will need to choose what is more important. Memorization will be key here, because sometimes you don’t know what you’ll need until you go to the next panel, and you cannot go back to a previous panel once you have advanced. It’s important to search each panel, both as Sketch, and by letting out your rat companion from its space in the inventory. Your pet will turn off traps, find hidden items, and more! It really is essential stuff. When faced by a wall of barrels, you do NOT want to have to break them down with your fists, as each punch drains some health and it will take many hits to destroy them. Instead, just use that dynamite that your rat found hidden behind the panel earlier in the page! So yes, memorization is key here, and I very much wish that the game had a save or password system between pages, but the game is rewarding as you figure out what to do to progress past each puzzle or action challenge.

As for the combat, it isn’t too complex, but does have a bit of depth. You have only one button for fighting, items aside. You can do attacks at different heights by pressing up or down along with the button, though, powerful attacks with a combo of punches, and jumping attacks, though, so there is a reasonable variety. Some items also can act as weapons, knives in particular. Generally don’t use dynamite on enemies though, save that for key obstacles. You also have a strong attack that drains health (hold down attack to use it), but this should be avoided because health is precious. Enemies often will block, so you need to use a mixed variety of attacks in order to get hits through. Sometimes there are scripted sequences such as the one at the end of the first page where you punch a guy through several panel borders, tearing open the page; that’s pretty cool. There’s never been a comic book game that more feels like it really is taking place in a comic book than this one! The game is hard, though. Enemies can be tough, and the game is unforgiving — health it does not refill between pages, only if you use one of the very few healing items, and you get only one life per continue and start with zero continues. You do get a single continue each time after beating the bosses on pages 2 and 4, but the one added chance won’t keep you alive for long. Comix Zone demands a lot of repetition, and I keep dying in page 3 or, at the best, 4. There is a stage-select cheat, but I’ve always wanted to try to beat this game legit, so I haven’t used it… ah well, I don’t mind; what I have seen in this game is amazing. If it was easy it probably wouldn’t be as fun, the challenge keeps you coming back again and again for more! And that code does exist. Overall, Comix Zone is a fantastic game, and it’s probably a bit under-rated as well. The game has very good graphics and music, a great sense of style, is unmatched at sticking to its comic-book theme, has branching paths and some depth to its combat system, and has puzzles along the way to keep things varied. Your usual side-scrolling beat ’em up is a tediously simplistic affair, but this is about as far from that as you can get, and so while not perfect, this is the best game in its genre on any platform. Comix Zone is really great, play it! Also available for Windows 3.1/95 PC and, in Europe only, Game Boy Advance. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Contra: Hard Corps – 2 player simultaneous, 6-button controller supported. Contra: Hard Corps is another one of the Genesis’s amazing, but incredibly difficult, games. This game is a side-scrolling run & gun game in the popular Contra series. Despite its excessive difficulty, Contra: Hard Corps is easily my favorite Contra game. As with Castlevania Bloodlines Konami messed with the game in negative ways for its Western release, but even if I’ll probably never beat the US version of this game, it’s really amazing. What makes this game so great, then? Everything, really! Contra: Hard Corps has fantastic graphics, lots of great visual effects, an outstanding soundtrack that is ideal for the Genesis’s sound hardware, great, extremely responsive controls, lots of awesome bosses to fight, branching paths with a total of 14 levels between all of them, an actual story for the first time in the Contra series, four playable characters including the series’ first female playable character, constant high-tempo action, good level designs and challenges, and more! Contra: Hard Corps really is the complete package, and difficulty aside I don’t have much of anything bad to say about this game, except that it IS still a Contra game, and while Contra games are fun, personally I like the Metal Slug series more. But of the Contra games this is the one I like best and have played the most; it’s the only Contra game that gives the Metal Slug series a run for its money, for me. Some series fans dislike this game because it is different from previous games, with a more Gunstar Heroes-inspired focus on boss fights and flashy visuals, but I think this style works better than classic Contra, myself. It surely also helps that I probably have more nostalgia for this game than most any other Contra game, admittedly, but regardless, it’s great.

This game is a sequel to Contra III: The Alien Wars for SNES. The story is told over the course of those 14 missions, and there are multiple endings so you will not see the whole story even if you do manage to play great enough to reach one of the endings. The levels have a huge amount of variety and the game is constantly throwing new challenges and obstacles at you. This is a beautiful game with lots of sprite scaling and rotation, showing off how well Konami could program for the Genesis when they pushed it hard. This is easily Konami’s most technically impressive Genesis game. If it is a response to Treasure’s Gunstar Heroes, well, Konami outdid Treasure for sure in my book! The level designs are as varied as the graphics, too. Rarely will you just be walking to the right and shooting; instead, flying stages, many boss fights, vertical sections, and more keep the game interesting. This is an incredibly fast-paced game which is constantly changing. Each route through the game is very different as far as I have managed to get, and I’m sure it keeps that up to the end in each path. The soundtrack is almost as great as the graphics, and has just as fast a tempo as the gameplay. The music almost seems sped-up at times, but no, this is how it is supposed to be. The game controls great, too. You can run and shoot with the buttons, and with a 6-button pad, X through Z or pressing A while holding B will switch between two firing modes, one where you can move freely and the other where you stand in place and fire in any direction. A 6-button controller isn’t essential, but it s nice to have the command on a single button. One key move is the slide. Press down and jump and you slide, and while sliding you are invincible. Mastering the use of this is essentially the only way to finish the Western version of this game, but it is great that it is here. Awesome work all around, in graphics, design, and gameplay.

Really the only downside to this game are the changes Konami made for the Western release. As with Castlevania on the Genesis, this game also was made far harder than it was originally intended. In Japan, this game gives you three hit points per life and you get infinite continues. It is a very hard game, but with patience you will finish it. Someday I will definitely get a region-modded or import Genesis so that I can play this version of the game; I’d miss out on understanding the story, sure, but at least I’d be able to get to the end! In the US version that is unlikely. Here, you die in one hit and have only 5 continues. This makes the game exponentially harder, and forces you to start the game over constantly as you run out of continues. Sure, eventually you will get a bit farther in as you learn the next bit of the game, and the game is rewarding in that regard, but I hate having to start over because I don’t know what to do in some boss in level three or four, it’s frustrating! The Japanese version is better designed. This is a memorization-heavy game where learning enemy and boss patterns is absolutely key, and sending you back to the start frequently is kind of unfair; you can’t get through this on your first try, you need to die a bunch to learn what to do in each area. It’d ahve been better if they had 1 or 3 hitpoints and infinite or limited continues as options you could choose between; that would be ideal to satisfy both those of us who want to have fun with the game, and masochistic types who are great at this kind of game and want a serious challenge. Even so, though, as it is Contra: Hard Corps is an amazing game. It may be too hard, but with fantastic graphics and sound, great level designs full of constant action and technically impressive bosses, great controls, and more, Contra: Hard Corps is a must-have classic that I can’t recommend enough. It really shows of what Konami could do with the Genesis when they seriously tried! For me, this is as good as Contra games get. Buy it. Sadly the Japanese version is region-locked, but if you can play that, play it instead (or also).


Cool Spot – 1 player. Cool Spot is a platformer from Virgin. This is a licensed platform-action game starring the 7-Up Spot, the lemon-lime soda 7-Up’s 1990s cartoon mascot. 7-Up soda was more popular then because Pepsi did not introduce its own lemon-lime soda, Sierra Mist, until 1999; before that many restaurants serving Pepsi sodas had 7 Up who now would have Sierra Mist instead. Spot is a round red circle with legs, arms, and, of course, some ‘cool’ shades to have some of that ’90s attitude. He’s got a good design which fits the mid ’90s very well. This is a nice-looking but average game. The game looks a lot like Virgin’s other Genesis platformers such as Global Gladiators or Aladdin, but plays a lot more like the former of those two games than the latter, unfortunately. Cool Spot has good graphics and animation, as expected from the developer, but the game has some design issues. Though it is an okay game, Cool Spot doesn’t play as well as it looks.

This is an exploration-based platform-action game. You need to collect a minimum percent of the red dots on each stage, then find the cage holding a jailed spot, and only then can you progress. Levels are, as a result, large, open, and exploration-heavy. Fortunately at the start there aren’t too many death pits, but that will gradually change as you progress. Enemies are numerous and fast-moving. Spot moves quickly as well, so enemies often hit you before you even saw them coming, and those death pits can be impossible to avoid. You shoot in this game to kill enemies, instead of jumping on heads, but because of the speed, and Spot’s loose, slippery controls, many hits are inevitable. Fortunately you do have a life meter, so the game doesn’t have one-hit kills, but still this is a frustrating game. Making things worse, you have no continues at all unless you find them in the game, so you’ll be starting this one over from the beginning a LOT. I don’t like that, of course. This game may not be quite as ruined by blind jumps as Global Gladiators is, but the numerous fast enemies help make up for that gap.

Despite its problems Cool Spot can be fun to play. This is a somewhat fun game to play, but the slippery controls, high speeds, death pits, and somewhat aimless levels drag the game down. Blind jumps over death pits are bad design, particularly. They pretty much ruin Global Gladiators and Taz-Mania, and this game is worse because of them as well. An element of chance in a game is fine, but forcing players to take that kind of chance, in a game with limited lives and no continues or saving, is not fun. Trying to creep through the levels slowly enough to shoot enemies before they hit you also isn’t fun, not when Spot’s natural pace is quite quick. I also would probably prefer a more focused game overs the large, sprawling, collection-focused levels in this game. Still, there are things to like about Cool Spot. The game has very nice graphics and production values, decent music, a different setting in each level, lots of stuff in each level to find, and some okay level concepts. Still, overall Cool Spot is an average game. I had hopes for Cool Spot when I got it some years ago, but didn’t like it as much as I hoped, and I never have played this game much, I don’t have enough fun to want to face trying to memorize the game. I do like the art design both in the game and in the manual, though. Only get this if you like the Virgin school of platformers beyond Aladdin. Also on SNES, PC, Amiga, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Master System. The game was successful and has a sequel, Spot goes to Hollywood. That game is an isometric action-platformer, so it’s a different kind of game from this one, but I’ve never played it.


Cosmic Spacehead – 2 player simultaneous (minigame only, main game is 1 player), password save. Cosmic Spacehead is a platform/adventure game from Codemasters. This is one of only two games Codemasters published for the Genesis in the US, along with Micro Machines; I have both. Their other games only released in Europe. This is a comedy space adventure game, and it’s amusing stuff. The game is a sequel to Linus Spacehead, a somewhat similar game for the NES. I haven’t played that one, only this. Cosmic Spacehead has a nice cartoony art style with reasonably well-drawn graphics. You are Cosmic Spacehead, a boy in a superhero-style costume with a “C” on the chest, and are on an adventure in a somewhat Looney Tunes-esque retro-future world. I love the look of the backgrounds. Those background graphics are great, but the sprites are only okay; they look a bit amateur at times, and don’t match up to the environments. The game starts out as a traditional adventure game. You walk around, collect items, and try to figure out where to use them, and such. You control your character directly, but also can move a cursor around the screen. Pressing a button switches between controlling the two. Here you have five commands, Look, Pick Up, Talk, Give, and Use. As a console game on cartridge this game does not have nearly the volume of text that a PC game of the time probably would have, but there is a fair amount of it, and with dialog options along the way as well. This is an amusing game with a decent sense of humor.

As you figure out what to pick up and where to go, you will play side-scrolling platformer segments in between adventure areas. Codemasters was probably trying to make the game more interesting for kids than just a straight adventure game would be, but the mix is a little odd. The platformer is decent, but it’s nothing special, visuals aside. You just walk to the right, avoiding enemies as you go because you can’t attack them; it’s average stuff at best. The platformer stages are short, as well. Fortunately most of the game is in the adventure portion, so this is mostly an adventure game, but perhaps it should have been only an adventure game, though I guess some variety to mix up the usual item-based puzzle-solving is okay. The game has some tricky puzzles and difficult platforming at times, so while the game isn’t too long, it is challenging. Linus Spacehead isn’t a great game, and it never did hold my interest long enough to finish the game, but it is a fun little game worth a look. It’s definitely something I will return to sometime to play more of. Also on PC, Amiga, Master System (Europe only), and Game Gear; this is a remake of Linus Spacehead’s Cosmic Crusade for the NES. (The first game is Linus Spacehead for the NES.)


Crack Down – 2 player simultaneous. Crack Down is a good top-down action game for the Genesis from Sega. I have finished this game; it’s not particularly difficult, surprisingly enough, even in single player. The game has ugly, basic graphics in a small window, but the good stealth-action gameplay makes up for any visual shortcomings. You have to kill the enemies in each level, get to certain points to deal with bombs, and get to the exit. You will attach to walls when you get near them, something fairly original at the time. Just running around and shooting will get you killed, so you need to take it slow. With a little practice it’s not too hard, but it is a lot of fun; this game is good fun regardless of its visuals. I did a full review of this game several years ago, so go look that up, it’s better than something I can write in the more limited space I have here. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Crusader of Centy – 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Crusader of Centy is one of the three great top-down action-RPGs on the Genesis. The game was developed by NexTech, and while Sega published it in Japan and Europe, they didn’t release it here, and Atlus brought it over instead. This game is the most expensive of the three today, but unfortunately for your wallet, it’s also a very good game that anyone who likes the genre definitely should play! I do like Landstalker a bit more than this game, but Crusader of Centy is also great. Right from the first moment, Crusader of Centy’s main inspiration is obvious: it’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The visual look of this game is about as close to LttP as you can get on the Genesis. particularly in the environments; sprites have an anime-style look that is a bit different from . The game is colorful and very well drawn; it’s impressive stuff for the Genesis, though Beyond Oasis does outdo it visually. Aurally, the game sounds good, but not amazing. Centy doesn’t match a Zelda games’ incredible soundtrack. The sprite work probably doesn’t match a Zelda game either, though I have my issuees with LttP’s sprite work as well. Either way though, this is a good-looking game which impresses, though the music isn’t quite as good as the visuals.

Crusader of Centy has a large world to explore. While it isn’t exactly the same as Zelda, this game plays even more like Zelda than Beyond Oasis or Landstalker do. This is definitely the most directly Zelda-like game on the Genesis. The story is one of the ways this game distinguishes itself from Zelda. Centy has a surprisingly interesting and weird story. You play as a somewhat generic teenage boy hero, but while the game doesn’t have a lot of text there is a fair amount, and the plot is unique. Your hero can talk to animals, and in fact, through most of the game you can ONLY talk to animals, not other humans. Yeah, the story is a bit odd and unique. You do do a lot of basic help-the-animal quests, but that’s fine. The gameplay is what matters most in games, not the story. But I do like that the story isn’t just a standard heroic journey, it has a unique twist.

And in that gameplay, Crusader of Centy is a pretty good game. The game doesn’t quite match Zelda’s quality, and it really is a blatant clone, but still, it’s good. This game is broken up into areas, so unlike Zelda, but more like Beyond Oasis but with bigger levels, it doesn’t have one contiguous overworld. The style works fine. Each area in the game looks different, and you can travel between them from an area-select map screen. In town areas you will find some minigames, to mix things up a bit. That’s always nice to see. In exploration areas you walk around, kill monsters, and try to figure out puzzles. Combat is simple, as you just hit a button to swing your sword, but works well enough. You can jump, nicely, with the right ability; that’s nice, though Zelda did it first, as this game released after Link’s Awakening. You’ll hop between platforms, push blocks, find switches, kill monsters to open paths, and such. Some puzzles that use the special abilities you have equipped… or rather, the animals you have following you. As you progress you will get various animal companions, and each will give you different powers. You can have two following you at a time, so this works a lot like items in Zelda. As you might expect, you get them from beating bosses, generally. This game never gets really hard, but I’m fine with that because it’s fun along the way. You wander around, fighting enemies and solving puzzles for animals, with the help of your animal companions. The game looks nice and sounds okay. This is a very good game overall. However, it gameplay is VERY similar to a Zelda game, and Zelda does this slightly better. Also, this game is highly overpriced now, and perhaps hard to justify at its currently inflated prices. Still, if you can afford it, definitely get Crusader of Centy. It’s a pretty good game well worth playing.


Cyborg Justice – 2 player simultaneous. Cyborg Justice is an isometric beat ’em up made by Novotrade and published by Sega. This is a cool-looking game with a great concept and lots of moves, but also flawed, incredibly repetitive gameplay and design. Overall this game is average to below average, but it’s the fun kind of average. Cyborg Justice may not actually be good, but it’s good stuff anyway! In this very Genesis-ey concept, you play as a robot and have to defeat an army of enemy robots. You can create your robot at the start, which is cool; there are at least a half-dozen parts each for your arm, leg, and torso slots, and your choice does affect how the game plays. This is a fairly standard isometric beat ’em up, but instead of just button-mashing you do have moves to learn in this game. If you want to succeed at Cyborg Justice, reading a guide to learn how to do the moves, the rip-apart-the-enemy moves in particular, is highly recommended. The old staple of the genre, the jump-attack, is also effective and does quite a bit of damage, though actually hitting enemies with it can be tricky because you need to jump from just the right spot in front of an enemy to hit them. The gameplay and controls are somewhat slow and clunky and hard to get used to, but it is nice that there are moves to learn. Still, I wish the game played better. The game is playable once you learn what to do, but there is no flow in this games’ combat, and moves may or may not work when you try to do them. Different robot types have different moves, too, interestingly.

The game has good graphical design as well, with some nice-looking robots and decently well drawn backdrops. However, everything is extremely repetitive. There are three stages in each location, and all three are just palette-swaps of the same exact environment. Each stage is just a straight walk to the right with absolutely no variation; don’t expect any kind of interesting level design here, you won’t find it. There are probably only a couple of screens worth of actual background to see in each location, repeated far too much. Along the way you will fight enemies, but the only other things that appear are occasional pit or magnet-freeze trap circles. The pits must be jumped over, and this can be tricky because of the somewhat clumsy controls, while the circles are just spots to avoid. Otherwise, you just walk to the right. There is no more variation in enemies than there is in backgrounds, either, as most everything you fight also seems to come straight out of that same character creator you used at the start. Yes, it creates a fair number of robot variants, but you’ll see the same designs over and over and over as you play, with little new added. Cyborg Justice is a tough game, too. There are five difficulty levels and they definitely affect the games’ challenge level, and you can select whether you get 1 to 5 health bars per life, but enemies can do the same moves you can, and some bosses will use those instant-kill tear-apart moves on YOU! These mean an instant game over no matter how many health bars you have left, and you only get two continues per game. And with how repetitive and bland the game is, it’s hard for me to want to keep playing this game enough to get deep into it. I do like some things about this game, the graphical design and concept most importantly, but the gameplay is sadly lacking. Overall, Cyborg Justice is average at best, and could have been a lot better. It’s too bad. Still, the game can be amusing, so give it a try if you find it cheap and like beat ’em ups. Plodding along ripping apart or jumping on robots is fun, once in a while, until the frustration and repetition set in.

 

[Lord British]

Adventures of Batman and Robin

Holding down fire does a strong attack

It's been a while since i've played but I think that releasing fire is what actually powers up the weapon.

That's a game that, in my opinion, is too hard for its own good. The levels could stand to lose a good two to three minutes off their length, and the shmup level needs to be slashed by about 3/4, it's so long and samey.

Would be one of my favourite games ever if they just made it that tiny bit less repetitive.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Covered in this update: D and E games, and a game I forgot from C from the Genesis 6-Pak
--
Columns (from Genesis 6-Pak)
Death Duel
Decap Attack
Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote
Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf
Devilish: The Next Possession
DJ Boy
Duel, The: Test Drive II
Dynamite Headdy
El Viento
ESWAT: City Under Siege
Eternal Champions
Ex-Mutants


Columns (from Genesis 6-Pak) - 2 player simultaneous. Columns is Sega's first major puzzle game. This game was released in the wake of Tetris's smash-hit success, and filled the need for a puzzle game from Sega. Columns is no Tetris, but it is a decent game that can be entertaining to play, even if it isn't as great as the best block-dropping puzzle games. Columns has three modes, 1 player endless, 1 player Flash mode, or two player versus. In Flash mode you have to clear a certain flashing tile to progress to the next screen, while the others are self-explanatory. In any mode, blocks drop as vertical stacks of three gems. In Columns the blocks are always a three-tall pile of pieces, that is the games' main distinction. Gems disappear when three or more of the same kind touch, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. So, Columns is simple, but there is some strategy to it. You have to always keep in mind when dropping a piece how it'll line up three-in-a-row connections. The field is not huge, so you need to keep making a steady stream of matches in order to keep going. Fortunately that's not too hard, and sometimes in Columns massive combos will empty big chunks of the playfield without your even trying. The game eventually does get challenging, but I don't find Columns as hard as, say, Puyo Puyo or Tetris, and it's not quite as fun as those games either. The vertical-only orientation may be distinctive, but it is also restricting; sometimes I wish I could rotate pieces horizontally. I know a few later Columns games do allow that, but this first one did not, and nor does Columns III on Genesis. As for the graphics and sound, Columns looks and sounds okay, but that's about all. This is a very early Genesis game, and it looks it. Still, overall, Columns is a decently fun little puzzle game worth playing once in a while. I like puzzle games, and though Columns does have some flaws, overall it is above average and well worth having in some form. I've got it in the Sega 6-Pak, Sega's great collection of six early Genesis games. It is also available individually. Arcade port, also on the Master System, TurboGrafx-16, Game Gear, and more. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Death Duel - 1 player. Note that with a 6-button controller you need to hold Mode down on power on with this game for the controls to work correctly. Death Duel is a somewhat odd first person robot fighting game from Razor Soft. This is an 'edgy' game for the time, with a tough name and a bit of blood and sexuality. Death Duel is no Mortal Kombat, though; this game is about giant robots and monsters shooting at eachother, and the violence is somewhat tame today. Still, you'd never see this game on the Super Nintendo, though it's not that good either. The story is that in order to save the Federation from rival powers, you need to fight ten duels to the death. If you win, glory; if you lose, the game over screen explains how people now revile your memory while looking at your (unseen) corpse. Yeah. Winning won't be easy until you know what to do against each foe, though. This is a shooting game, but it's as much puzzle as it is shooter because you must use the correct loadout of weapons against each enemy in order to win, and you won't know what that is unless you look up a guide or guess correctly. Good luck. The game has a first person view. There are two aiming modes. In movement mode you move left or right with the dpad, but the cursor is locked to the center of the screen. By hitting Start you switch to aiming mode, and now you can't move your robot but can move the cursor around the screen. Enemies are moving all the time, though, so aiming mode is mostly useful for adjusting cursor location, not for actual combat. The enemy robot moves left and right in front of you, and there are some breakable shields in between the two of you that either can destroy with weaponfire. Each enemy robot is made up of numerous parts which you will have to independently destroy, because enemies are only destroyed once all of their parts are blown up. You automatically lose if you run out of health or ammo, or if your robot's parts are too damaged to continue. Between levels you buy weapons from a shop.

It's a decent system, but the game is more frustrating than it could be. In order to make this short game longer, unless you know the exact right weapon loadouts to use you have no hope of winning after the first match or two. You can only sometimes change weapons after losing and the game punishes you by carrying over damage incurred in your failed attempt so you can't just buy a full set of weapons the next time if you do go back, annoyingly, so sometimes just starting the game over is easier than continuing. That's just not right. I don't find the puzzle element of this game fun, the game punishes you too much for guessing wrong. Your ammo runs out very quickly and does not carry over between missions, so you really need to know what weapons to equip against each foe to have a chance. Trying to get the most points possible to spend in the shop for the next enemy is also critical, both during battles and in the shooting-gallery minigame between each stage. Sure, conceptually it's nice that the game isn't just a mindless, simplistic light-gun-style shooting game, but this isn't really better, not with as annoying as it can be to play. Visually the game is only average, also. The robots do look decent, but graphics are, for the most part, not too great, and the music is average chunky Genesis techno. I do kind of like the soundtrack, but it's not too memorable. Overall, Death Duel is an interesting, but not that great, game. If prices in the store were cheaper, so you could afford to buy more stuff, and the game let you respec after each failure with no punishment maybe it'd be better, but the core gameplay isn't anything special either. Tracking enemies can be annoying because they move around quickly, causing you to waste ammo firing at enemies who have moved by the time the shots get to where the enemy is. Their movements are not predictable either, so luck plays a bit too large of a factor here, though skill matters as well, certainly. Of course teh game also punishes you too much for failing to guess what weapon you need, so as to force you to restart the game over and over to make this maybe 15-minute game take much longer to finish. Overall, Death Duel isn't that good. The game is amusing in short bursts, but isn't fun or engaging enough to really be worth playing.


Decap Attack - 1 player. Decap Attack, or DecapAttack, is an average-at-best platformer with a comical horror theme to it. This game is from the same developers of, and plays very much like, Kid Kool on the NES and Psycho Fox on the Master System; gameplay-wise, the three games are sort of a trilogy. DecapAttack is one of the first games I got for the Genesis after getting the system in 2006, but it's not a game I had played before that. The game started boring me almost immediately, and I'm not sure if it was actually worth getting. I know some people like this game, but I don't at all. This is a fairly quick-moving game, and you often have to make blind jumps, and memorize segments in order to make it through jumping puzzles because of the games' momentum system. This is really annoying and not good. Also, Decap Attack, like those other two games, has a weird attack system where you attack with an extremely short-range punch. In this case, it comes from a weird creature living in your torso, fitting the undead-monsters theme of the game. You can also throw this thing at enemies, but it doesn't come back automatically, which is a problem; you have to go pick it up. And no, you can't jump on enemies, that hurts you. Attacking enemies in all three of these games is sometimes frustrating and poorly designed. Levels are not fun to play, either; they are too long and tedious, on top of the poor mechanics and frustrating jumps. Visually the game looks decent to good, and I like some of the graphics, but the gameplay just isn't any fun at all and the few times I've played this game I usually turn it off even before getting game over just bcause of how frustrating and boring it is. Don't bother with this bad game, it's one of the worst Japanese-made Sega platformers on the Genesis in my book. This game doesn't quite make my bottom-10 Genesis games list, but it's close. Note that the Japanese version of the game plays the same, but has entirely different graphics with a different theme based on a licensed anime; it was redrawn for the West to remove the license and presumably fit the market better, I guess. I haven't played the Japanese version but imagine it's mostly the same, visuals aside.


Desert Demolition Starring Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote - 1 player. Desert Demolition is one of the Looney Tunes-licensed platformers Sega of America published on the Genesis. This quite nice-looking game was made by Blue Sky, the same team as the Jurassic Park and Vectorman platformers, and is in between those two in quality. While Taz-Mania was far and away the most popular of Sega's four Looney Tunes games, it's also the worst of them. This game, on the other hand, might be the best. It's no Vectorman, but it is a good little game. For Sega's best Genesis Looney Tunes game it's either this or Taz: Escape from Mars, but I think I might like this game more. Some of that might be that I always loved Road Runner, while I didn't care about or watch the '90s Taz cartoon. This is the best Road Runner game I have played; other Road Runner platformers are usually too fast for their own good and are ruined by slippery controls and mountains of blind jumps, but though this game is fast and you do have blind jumps when playing as the Road Runner, the game is great fun despite that thanks to good design.

Desert Demolition distinguishes itself from other Road Runner games not only with its good graphics and solid design, but also its faithfulness to the cartoon, variety, and ability to play as Wile E. Coyote instead of the Road Runner in two separate routes through the game. This is a short game with only maybe five levels per character, but the high replay value makes up for that. Each character plays very differently and plays the levels in a different order, so playing as both is strongly encouraged. As the Road Runner, you move around very quickly as usual in Road Runner games. However, it works here because you won't find much in the way of death pits in this game, so you can explore around without constantly dying. Levels are large and well thought through, and are fun to explore. Desert Demolition is a Western platformer, so like many of the time levels are large and open, and exploration is important. Your goal is to get to the end, but there are multiple routes along the way. The level designs are decent to good, and the levels are nicely large. The Road Runner is trying to reach the end of each stage without getting caught by Wile, while picking up lots of powerups along the way. As either character you have only a one minute timer at the start for each stage, so as the Road Runner you need to pick up time-extend powerups and keep moving in order to not die. Wile will appear from ACME boxes and various other trap locations as you move around each stage, while other pickups give you points and hourglasses give you time.

As Wile E Coyote, though, the game is slower and more deliberate. Wile doesn't zoom around, so you can take your time more as him. You do have a run button, but even there you are under control. In order to keep that timer from running out, Wile must catch the Road Runner regularly; that is how you get those hourglasses. So, you've got to chase that roadrunner and do your best to leap on him with your leap attack! It's a different playstyle from the Road Runner, and might actually be even more fun thanks to the slower pace and chase-focused gameplay. You almost never can play as Wile E. Coyote in Road Runner games, and it's awesome that you can in this one. The animations are just great as well, and really add to the game every bit as much as the very nice backgrounds do. Since this is a Road Runner game it is set in the American deserts, of course. The visuals are all very well drawn and look great; this game does a good job pushing the Genesis hardware, visually. This is one of those later releases for the system that shows what it can do. The audio is cool too -- instead of a normal soundtrack, the game plays music while your character is moving, and it changes tempo based on your speed. It's cool stuff which fits the series great. Overall, Desert Demolition looks great, plays well, and has a nice amount of variety with two very different characters to play as. Exploring levels is fun, and running away from or chasing the other character while also looking for items is a nice challenge. This isn't a long or particularly hard game, though the tight timers can be tricky sometimes, but it's a fun one that many people overlook. This is a good game that I like, and it's well worth playing. Pick it up!


Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf - 1 player, password save. Desert Strike is an overhead-isometric flight combat game from EA. It's part shooter, and part sim, making for a somewhat unique mix when combined with the perspective. This game was very popular at the time, and its massive success led to a long-running series through the '90s. However, I've never liked this game very much, or the other two 4th-gen Strike games either. Desert Strike isn't a bad game, and for the time it might even be good, I just don't find interesting to play or much fun. I do like the two 5th-gen Strike games slightly better, but still, I've never quite gotten why this game, and series, was so popular. Part of might be that the theme clearly was inspired by the first Gulf War of the early '90s. EA did a good job capitalizing on the war against Iraq with this games very Saddam Hussein-like villain and desert setting. The gameplay has to have kept people interested once they got past the theme, though, and that's where the game loses me. Desert Strike is not a fast-paced shooter, but it is not a simulation game either. It's in between, too boring to be a shooter but not nearly deep enough to be a real sim. The game has only four missions, each on a different map, but each is absolutely huge with many objectives to complete. I've never beaten the first mission, as much because of a lack of interest as anything. There are passwords between missions, but not between objectives, unfortunately. Visually the game looks okay, with reasonably well drawn sprites, but the realistic military theme isn't something I find too exciting and the desert all looks the same. The music is strictly average.

So how does Desert Strike play, then? While the game looks sort of 3d due to the isometric angled perspective, the game is, control-wise, two-dimensional. You can only move around at a set altitude over the ground and cannot control your height. All four subsequent Strike games use this same exact mechanic. It keeps things simple, but sometimes height control would be nice, though it would add complexity as well due to the difficulty of targeting things in 3d. Anyway, enemies can be on two planes, in the air on level with you, or, more commonly, on the ground shooting up at your copter. While moving forward your copter will angle down, because that's how helicopters work, so you can shoot downwards while moving, or straight ahead while standing still. You have several weapons to use, including machine guns and various missiles. All have limited ammo which definitely can run out, so learning where the ammo pickups are on the map is important. If you stop over a pickup, you can use a winch to get the item, whether it is ammo or health. Avoiding damage is impossible, as enemies fire too much to avoid it all, so just try to stay alive. You can't be too cautious, however, because the game also has limited fuel. If you take too long, and run out of fuel and can't find any more refills, you crash and lose a life. If you run out of lives, game over, try the mission over. That will take a while. It's a challenging, somewhat boring, and not particularly fun game, and I'd rather not put the time in to this game it demands. I'm sure some people will really like this game, though, so it is worth checking out, whether or not you like it. For me though, this is an average game at best. Still, Desert Strike was a hit and was EA's best-selling game up to that point when it released in 1992, so they ported it to many platforms. Desert Strike is also on the SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, DOS PC, Amiga, Macintosh, Master System, Lynx, Game Boy Advance, and PSP (in the EA Replay collection). I don't know which is the best version, but this is the original one -- the game was developed first for the Genesis.


Devilish: The Next Possession - 2 player simultaneous. Devilish is an interesting ball-and-paddle block-breaking game in the style of Arkanoid or Breakout. This is a difficult game with nicely drawn visuals and some original concepts, but poor ball physics and no continues. I do like this game, but it could have been a lot better. You don't get any continues in Devilish, so it will take a while until you're good enough to get far, but the game is reasonably rewarding as you play it more and get a bit farther each time, if you can ever get used to the weird, random ways the ball bounces, that is. In Devilish, you play as a prince and princess who were turned into paddles by a demon named Y. You'll have a fair number of levels to beat here, each with a boss at the end to work through. The bosses are difficult and can kill your ball easily, so practice and memorization are essential, along with some luck as well. Despite their plight, they take off to defeat him as they are, using a magic ball that appeared as their weapon. The game has either one or two player cooperative play, which is great, and does have difficulty settings though it's hard on any of them.

So yes, as that may suggest, you have two paddles in this game, one at the bottom of the screen and one a bit above it. The upper paddle can be rotated either flat, left vertical, or right vertical by hitting a button, and can move all the way up the screen with up and down. It's very useful stuff! The lower paddle, however, is locked to the bottom and can just move left or right, to try to save the ball from going down the bottom. This game scrolls, and sometimes goes sideways instead of just always moving upwards, which is interesting. Making a blockbreaking game with scrolling is somewhat unusual, but for the most part it does work. As the ball bounces around and breaks through things the screen will scroll up along with the ball, to keep it in view, and you can't go back, of course; you lose a life when the ball goes out the bottom, though that is not true for the sides of the screen. The game has a nice variety of blocks, powerups, and enemies to whack the ball with, and because you can move that upper paddle around, you won't have teh usual Arkanoid/Breakout problem of that one block you can't get to in this game, which is great.

Visually, Devilish has detailed art with a dark fantasy visual theme. It's a bit Alien-like, actually, at times. I like the graphical detail, though the game clearly didn't have the biggest budget. The music is okay but not great. Overall, Devilish is a good game with some interesting things that make it worth a look for sure if you like blockbreaking games, but also some drawbacks. The ball physics, tough bosses, and zero continues are its main faults, but with nice visuals, unique gameplay for the genre, decent mechanics most of the time, and some variety, Devilish is more good than bad. I like Arkanoid-style games, and this one is a fun challenge to try playing once in a while. There is also a Game Gear version, though I think it's a bit different. Devilish got a remake many years later on the Nintendo DS from Starfish. Unfortunately, the remake might be worse than the original, though most of Starfish's DS and Wii classic remakes are also worse than the games they follow up so that isn't surprising; Monkey King is a lot worse than Cloud Master, and Heavenly Guardian, while good, isn't quite as good as Pocky & Rocky.


DJ Boy - 1 player. DJ Boy is a bad beat 'em up from Kaneko. This game has poor controls, mediocre design, zero extra lives or continues so if you die once you have to start the entire game over, is single player only in a genre which is far better in multiplayer, and has a racist-stereotype character which they censored for the US release, too (it's the first boss). Kaneko was not known for making great games, and this one is no exception, unfortunately. You play as DJ Boy, a hip urban youth in this game straight out of Japanese stereotypes of America. He's on roller skates, permanently. This means that you slide around with slippery control. This fits the skates, sure, but is kind of annoying. Visually, DJ Boy is an early Genesis release and looks it. The graphics are okay but not above average, and it's hard to understand why there is no two player support, though it's easy enough to just play a better beat 'em up on the system which does. As far as the gameplay goes, this is basic stuff all the way. You just slide around, punch and kick people, and repeat. There is no depth here beyond hitting both attack buttons for a hit to both sides. Considering that you have only one life and no continues, try to avoid taking damage when you can if you want to survive long at all. Really, your only task in this game is to memorize the levels so as to avoid traps and enemy attacks. However, it's not fun, it's far too easy to die, and the controls aren't great. You will do better with practice, and this isn't the worst beat 'em up around, but there isn't much of a reason to put that kind of effort into a game this poor. Skip it. Arcade port.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Duel, The: Test Drive II - 1 player. Test Drive II: The Duel, whichever order you put the title in, is a racing game from Accolade ported over from the PC. This game has sprite-based cars in polygonal 3d worlds, with the single-digit framerate you expect from a 4th-gen title that attempts to use polygons. The first three Test Drive games were popular racing games in the late '80s to early '90s, and this game was the first time the series came over to consoles. There wouldn't be another Test Drive game on consoles until the PS1 version of Test Drive 4 in 1997. For anyone who knows newer Test Drive games, though, this one is a bit different from the style of the series from TD4 and on. While Test Drive II is not a simulator, it tries to be a bit more realistic than other racing games of the time. The 3d graphics are one element of that, as they allow a much more realistic world than you can do with top-down or linescroll graphics, and the slow-paced gameplay also fits that theme. In this game you choose one of three real licensed high-end sports cars and one of three tracks. This game has long, point-to-point races made up of multiple stages each, so three is actually a reasonable number; each one will take a while to finish, if you finish at all. This style, with long multi-stage point-to-point races in a semi-realistic car racing game, is one you also see in EA's later first Need for Speed game. NFS1, particularly the original 3DO version, was probably inspired by Test Drive. Due to the better hardware that is the better game, but Test Drive II does have some things going for it, for car fans particularly. I'm not one, this is probably why I find the game somewhat boring. Still, it's an okay game, framerate aside.

First, you choose a track and car in the menu. Each race is, as the title suggests, a 1-on-1 race of you against an AI opponent car. You only have one opponent, so you'll either win or lose, nothing in between. The games' pace is slow thanks to the slow framerate and realistic speeds, but that doesn't mean that it will be easy. There are a lot of civilian traffic cars on the road to avoid, though, so it's not only the two of you alone. Tracks are often quite narrow, and some are on cliffsides and the like, so avoiding the traffic while staying on the road can be difficult; this is a major part of the games' challenge. If you hit anything you lose a life, and you get five lives per race. If you run out of lives it's game over. Your car has limited fuel, so make sure to stop at the periodic gas stations to refill. If you run out you will be returned to the last gas station you passed, losing a bit of time in the process, though you won't lose a life for this, thankfully. Finishing all of the sections of a track without running out of lives will be difficult, but with practice it's surely possible. Is it fun enough to be worth the time, though? Well, I don't regret buying this game, but it's not something I've played a lot of either. It is interesting to see what the Genesis can do polygon-wise, but the low framerate makes enjoying the game difficult. The original PC version, on a more powerful system, is probably better, though I haven't played that myself. That version also would probably save your best times, while here you'll need to write them down if you want them recorded; Accolade didn't put a save chip in the cart, sadly. Also, of course, I strongly prefer less realistic, fast futuristic racing games over this kind of more realistic approach. Still, Test Drive II: The Duel is an okay game worth getting if you see it for a few bucks. PC port also on the Amiga and maybe other computers. The computer versions are better, but this game is okay.


Dynamite Headdy - 1 player. Dynamite Headdy is a platform-action game by Treasure. You play as a robot rejected from the factory who goes through a sequence of quite silly and crazy adventures... if you can survive them. While Treasure's shmups are usually exceptional and three of them are among the best ever in the genre, their record with platformers is more mixed. They've made some good ones like Mischief Makers, but also some that aren't as good, like Stretch Panic. This game is pretty good, but I don't love it quite as much as some. Treasure games usually have some kind of gimmick that the game is designed around. Dynamite Headdy is for the most part a standard platformer, but its unique element is suggested by the title -- your cute cartoony robot guy can throw his head around. You attack enemies that way, so you use projectiles to attack in this game and not jumping. You also can use your head to can grab on to certain points to vault up to higher platforms. You also can find a wide variety of alternate heads which give you different powers, including homing attacks, higher jumps, shrunken size to fit in narrow passages, and many more. The game has great graphics with bright, colorful designs and some nice visual effects that show off how well Treasure knew the Genesis hardware. The rotating 2d/3d platforms in one stage a bit into the game are particularly awesome looking. The bright and colorful look has to have been inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog but with a different, toys-and-robots aesthetic, but it does look good.

This game can be great, crazy fun as you fight off the many robot enemies. While the game is supposedly a platformer, with how much shooting you do and the constant barrage of bosses sometimes it feels as much like a run & gun game as a platformer. I'm sure Gunstar Heroes fans love this game, there are definite similarities between the two games even if this isn't always as fast-paced as that game is. I like both games, but they do get a bit crazy; sometimes it's hard to follow what is going on on screen, as you spin around attached to a cat-slinky-robot thing for example. Fortunately you can take a lot of hits, but the health meter is just a colored light in the upper corner of the screen, not a meter. I wish there was a health meter to make it clearer about exactly how much health you have left. And on that note, this is a very hard game. The Japanese version is a lot easier, but the Western version of Dynamite Headdy is unforgivingly difficult, and you don't get any continues either; one game over and it's back to the start of the game. I haven't finished it yet. I'd kind of like to try the Japanese version, it'd be fun to play a version of this game that isn't super hard. You really would need to memorize everything in this not-short-for-the-time game to have any chance of winning the Western version. There is a level-select cheat at least, if you want to use it. Apparently some cutscenes were cut back on in the Western version too, disappointingly, though some do remain. The game has a good sense of humor, so they are missed. I like the game, and it is worth playing to get better at, but I wish that they had put in both difficulties as options, instead of just making everything a lot harder. Also, this game has many Secret Bonus Points scattered around the game, but apparently collecting them does nothing, so there isn't much of a reason to go back and play this again if you finish it other than to just experience it again, or get those secret bonus points for no reason other than to get them. Mischief Makers' system, which unlocks more of the ending based on how many of the major collectibles you've gotten, is better.


El Viento - 1 player. El Viento is a good platformer from Telenet, published here by their US division Renovation. As with all Telenet games the game has issues, as Telenet never released a game without at least some problems, but the good is more than the bad, here, for sure. This is a very anime-esque game set in 1920s America. You play as Annet, a mysterious girl from Peru, on a quest to stop some badguys from resurrecting a demon and conquering or destroying the world with it. Naturally, she wears a skimpy, and somewhat odd-looking, outfit, but it's rare to find a 4th-gen console game with a female protagonist and Annet is a reasonably strong character despite her costume. The game has cutscenes between each level telling the story. The plot doesn't entirely make sense, but that's okay, it is better than nothing. Ingame, the game has average graphics, decent but not great music, and solid level designs and gameplay. Annet controls okay, with your usual run and jump, and attacks with projectiles. She can run fairly quickly, but this game isn't Sonic fast. The pace is just about right. As you progress through the game you will get magic spells to use, which you use by holding down the attack button to charge up for them. Using these is a bit clumsy, as you can't move while charging but often will want to use spells in bossfights, so you'll have to try anyway. This game isn't polished, but it is fun. Each level is different, and it's amusing to see this games' quite stereotyped version of 1920s America. '20s America means gangsters of course, so one level is in a gangster-infested warehouse in Chicago. You also go to the Grand Canyon, among other places. Each level is different, and the level designs are good. The game does slow down a lot when Telenet shows off their attempts at getting things like sprite scaling and rotation working on the Genesis, but it's nice that they tried, and there aren't many such parts. The game keeps mixing it up with new challenges. You'll fight people on motorcycles, tanks, demon-worshiping magic-users, and more, and each level has an entirely different setting as you chase the villains and try to stop their plot to destroy the world. Yeah, this is an amusingly weird game, though the story gets dark as you get farther in. This is a challenging game and finishing it won't be easy, but it is rewarding and you should get farther each time. El Viento is a good game well worth playing, and it's probably one of my favorite Telenet games. They made two more games in the franchise, Earnest Evans (Genesis, also Sega CD in Japan) and Annet Again (Sega CD, Japan only), but this is the best one.


ESWAT: City Under Siege - 1 player. ESWAT is a side-scrolling platform-action game by Sega. This is an earlier release for the Genesis, and definitely looks it; the graphics here are not great. Gameplay is a little better than the visuals, but the game has some issues there as well. ESWAT for the Genesis was clearly inspired by the original Shinobi, except with a character with a jetpack and a variety of weapons. I love jetpacks in games and like Shinobi, so the core design here is good. You play as a police officer. For the first two levels you're just a normal guy, but after level two you get a power-armor suit, complete with jetpack. The game gets even harder at this point. Throughout, you move very slowly, and turn around slowly as well. You can shoot left, right, or straight up, but not at diagonals. Because of your slow, frustrating controls, hitting an enemy straight above you can be hard; you'll need to fire up, miss slightly, turn around, edge back a bit, try to aim up again, fire up... it's not great. The game should have had diagonal attacks and better movement control. Visually, each of the eight levels has a new setting, but there are only so many enemies, and the graphics are pretty mediocre compared to a lot of other first-party Sega titles on the system. The music isn't too great either. Playing this game again now for this summary I liked it more than my mostly negative memories of what I thought of the game from when I got this game in the late '00s, but it's still a flawed game. Still, I like Shinobi and Rolling Thunder enough to want to play this game even though ESWAT isn't as good as any classic Shinobi or Rolling Thunder game.

This is a hard game for quite a few reasons. ESWAT has some difficulty and lives-per-continue options, but it's hard on any of them. You do have three continues, but only in the Western version; the Japanese version has no continues at all. Beyond that the controls are, as described above, slow and not great, so avoiding enemy fire can be hard. And worse, you have absolutely no invincibility after being hit, so if an enemy gets on top of your sprite, or if you are hit by a wave of fire, you'll lose hit points FAST, and you do not have many of them to lose. It's very easy to go from full health to almost dead in a second, and health refills are few and far between. Memorizing enemy locations is absolutely critical if you want any kind of chance in this game, and it gets frustrating starting from level two. Bosses also are difficult and require a lot of memorization to get past, if you don't just give up or go look up what to do online. That's not all, though; ESWAT punishes you further for dying, as if you have a weapon other than the default one equipped when you die, you lose it. And since there are not weapons in boss rooms, if you die at a boss, that weapon is gone until your next continue, if you have any left. It's really frustrating stuff; I understand punishing players for losing, but making boss fights essentially impossible just because you died once is not fair, and yet that's exactly how this game works! Without the charge-shot attack many bosses will be ridiculously hard, but one death with it and it's gone. It's really frustrating stuff. After dying on a boss once it's basically over, just give up and try again next continue or game. Playing the game for this summary I got to the end of level three, which is as far as I've ever gotten into the game I believe, but all the problems I just described made me not really want to keep trying, after getting stuck there. ESWAT is an okay game and there are some good things about it, but with mediocre visuals, bad controls, no invincibility on hit, and more, overall ESWAT is a disappointment. Sega could make great platform-action games, but though I like some things about it ESWAT isn't one of their better ones. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Eternal Champions - 2 player simultaneous, 6-button controller supported (and very highly recommended). Eternal Champions is a fighting game by Sega of America, and this was a popular and highly-marketed game. The game is basically comic books crossed with Mortal Kombat, but not quite as good. Eternal Champions is, literally, a difficult game to like, though; this game is HARD, and the AI will wipe the floor with you unless you have practiced a lot and can do the moves. Make sure to have the manual or a good guide before playing this game, you need it. The game plays okay, but it's not Capcom or SNK-caliber. This is a standard, special moves-based fighting game, but it doesn't have quite the near-perfection of controls and moves you'd find in those games. Oh, do have a 6-button controller, you do NOT want to try to play this with only three buttons. The game uses a Street Fighter-style six button layout. The modes here are only the usuals for a fighting game of the time -- a championship where you fight against the others and then the boss, a versus mode, training, and options. The story here is that a group of people good at fighting who were just killed at various points in history have been pulled into a fighting tournament by the master, or something like that. Only the winner will be rewarded with life; all the others die. The game has decent comic book-style art design, and the character designs are good. The graphics are extremely dithered, which doesn't look great on modern pixel-perfect TVs, but that is common in 4th-gen games. Overall Eternal Champions is okay, but I just don't find it very fun to play. The game is unapproachably difficult, decent but not great looking, and only okay mechanically. It plays well enough, and I don't really dislike Eternal Champions, but I've never tried to get good enough at this game to beat the story mode, either. The game has a sequel on Sega CD that I don't have because of how I don't like this game too much, and two spinoffs -- X-Perts for Genesis and Chicago Syndicate for Game Gear, each starring a character from this game. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Ex-Mutants - 1 player. Ex-Mutants is an okay platform-action game based on a comic book, developed by Malibu, a mid '90s comic and videogame company, and published by Sega. The game is based on a comic which I know nothing about by Malibu's comic book arm. The game highlights a team of six mutants, but you can only play as two of them, one male and one female; you need to rescue the other four. Some ex-Malibu developers would go on to make The Adventures of Batman & Robin, but this game isn't quite on that ones' level. It is better than Malibu's Batman Returns game for the Genesis, however. The name clearly was "inspired" by X-Men, but the concept here is sort of the reverse of that series -- this game is set in a post-apocalyptic world, and everyone else are mutants while your characters are among the few humans. The game has a story which is told between missions. A lot of the mutants are evil, though not all. There sure are plenty of them for you to fight, though. These characters aren't as memorable as Wolverine and co. so I can see why it didn't take off, and the character art for the humans in this game particularly isn't great. The environments are average looking at least, though, and the game is a quality, fun game even if the visuals are only average. In addition to some environments, I also like the voice samples; both playable characters have some voice quips they'll say during the game. They will also encourage you in text form sometimes when you die. That's nice. The game does have limited continues, so it'll take practice to finish despite having only six levels. You get a lot of continues, but it's easy to lose lives, particularly in levels such as the quite frustrating mine-cart stage. This isn't the hardest game, but it isn't easy either. The mine cart stage aside the difficulty here is reasonably well balanced.

This game is heavy on shooting and exploration. As in many Western platformers of the day you have good-sized levels to explore. There is always one path forward, but there are often multiple routes and lots of secret areas to find full of weapons and other powerups. You can only hold one sub-weapon at a time, and these have limited ammo, so you will need to make choices about which one to take with you. Some of the many powerups just get you points, but the health and weapon powerups are vital, and there are 1-ups as well. Exploration is worthwhile; try attacking or blowing up suspect walls, sometimes hidden areas are behind them. The game has a nice variety of challenges to overcome, and there are quite a few different enemy and trap types. Most enemies are exclusive to one level, so you're not facing the same exact foes throughout. Traversing the levels is a fun challenge, as you try to avoid lava fountains, swinging axes, guns in the walls shooting you as you travel on ladders, and more. There are also bosses every other level, and they do have on-screen health bars, which is great. Overall, Ex-Mutants has only average graphics and fairly standard gameplay, but it's a fun, reasonably well-designed game, and I like it. That mine-cart level is a pain, but otherwise this game is good.

 

[A Black Falcon]

18 games covered in this update
--
Faery Tale Adventure
Fatal Rewind
Fire Shark
Forgotten Worlds
Fun 'N' Games
Gadget Twins
Gaiares
Garfield: Caught in the Act
Gargoyles
Gauntlet IV
General Chaos
Genesis 6-Pak
Ghouls 'N Ghosts
G-LOC: Air Battle
Golden Axe
Golden Axe II
[Golden Axe III - have in collections only]
Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude
Gunstar Heroes

Best games in this update: Golden Axe, Golden Axe II, Gauntlet IV


Faery Tale Adventure - 1 player, password save (36 character password to save). Faery Tale Adventure is a top-down Western RPG by New World Computing and published by EA. You play as a prince or three, having to save the world from evil or something. I can't really say too much about this game because it's not a kind of game I have ever liked, but I can tell a few things about it. First, the game is not great on consoles; the game was designed for computers, and was compromised in the porting process. This is a big game with a large world to explore and action combat. This is a somewhat non-linear game, and the game tells you essentially nothing about what you should be doing when you start; this is a big issue for me, as while I know a lot of people love them, I do not enjoy these open-world games where you're just supposed to randomly wander around until you figure out what to do, where you can go, and where you will die. The visual look is probably inspired by Ultimas V-VII, though I haven't played either those games or the PC Faery Tale Adventure games so I don't know how well this game compares. The overlong passwords do not make me want to try too hard to figure out this game. The controls are not very good either. The game was originally designed for a mouse, and playing it with a gamepad just doesn't quite work. You move around with the pad as usual, but there is a menu of options in the status bar that you access with B. You will be using this clumsy menu CONSTANTLY as you have to switch between talk, pick up, buy/sell, inventory, pause, equipment, and more. Yes, all of those options require hitting B to pause the game, selecting the one you want in the box in the corner of the screen, hitting C to select that option, and often then hitting C again to use that option. Then hit B five seconds later to switch to another option. Then somebody kills you, try again. With a mouse this control system would be tolerable, but with a gamepad it's horribly annoying. The game does have okay music and somewhat nice graphics with decent art design and better visuals than some early Genesis RPGs, but I don't like this game at all. With save files and a mouse I'd probably play the game a bit more, but the basic gameplay of wandering around lost and not knowing where to go while dying constantly whenever I try to go anywhere is not fun at all. Even on PC I never wanted to play games like this, and playing this downgraded port does not change my mind on that. Play the original computer versions if you want to try The Faery Tale Adventure. The game also has a computer-only sequel. Or better yet, stick to New World Computing's best series, Heroes of Might & Magic for PC; those games are fantastic! Port of a PC and Amiga game.


Fatal Rewind - 1-2 player simultaneous. Fatal Rewind is a pretty cool but very frustrating puzzle-platform-action game published by EA. This is a port of a European computer game. EA ported a lot of PC games to the Genesis in their first few years of support for the system, and this is probably one of the better ones, if you can tolerate maze-heavy games. In this game you are a person in a robot suit, and are a participant in one of those futuristic death games popular in fiction. This is a one or two player game; it's pretty cool that this game has two player co-op support. You can jump with Up (common in European computer games) or C, fire with B, and use items... by hitting jump, or a button combo, or something. You can walk on horizontal walls if you jump at them; that's pretty cool. Hit down to grab items, of which there are many. There are a variety of weapons to collect, health powerups, and shapes that act as keys. This is a fast-paced game, and your robot zips along nicely. You will need that, though, as death is following you only a moment away! Your goal in each stage is to get to the top before the rising liquid below reaches you; fall in the water and you're dead. The levels are made up of thin platforms, mostly horizontal but occasionally vertical; there are no diagonal-angle platforms in this game, and all platforms are thin. There are some nice parallax backgrounds in the stages, though. The graphics are good for an early-ish Genesis game, and the music is great. Fatal Rewind has some very good electronic music that helps encourage you to keep trying, important in a game this reliant on replaying again and again.

And you will be replaying the game again and again, as this is, at its core, a maze game. The path to the top is not obvious and levels loop around horizontally so you will never reach a left or right edge. Levels are designed to make use of this fact; stages aren't too big, but can take a while to finish because of how often you'll be going back and forth. You wander around, explore, and figure out which keys go in which doors, because keys and doors are a big part of this game. If you take the wrong route you will die for certain as the water will catch you, or you will jump or fall into it, try again. And of course, you have limited lives and continues to figure all this out in, so success at this game will only come with a whole lot of memorization. You'll need to keep straight which route to take in each level, which key to pick up first, and where each one goes, and then will need to execute on that while avoiding the enemies. Enemies are another unique element of this game, on that note; there are no enemy robots on the paths you explore. Instead, enemies are all flying objects that zip around the screen in formation irregardless of where the platforms are. They can really get in your way, but if you kill all enemies in a wave a small health powerup will float up out of the last one, which is nice if you can jump and get it. Playing Fatal Rewind is, overall, fun but frustrating. I like the graphics and really like the soundtrack, and the game controls well and can be fun to play, but the grind of having to memorize everything in every single stage in order to have a chance of finishing the game is daunting, and while I definitely like this game, I never have gotten anywhere near the end. With passwords every few stages or something this would be a much more fun game; it is impossible to beat this game on the first try, what you need to do in each stage takes a while and that wall of water following you up the screen moves quickly so you can't make many wrong moves and survive. This game is not fair, but it's still fun most of the time despite that. Despite its faults, Fatal Rewind is a good game worth playing. Amiga port also on Atari ST, but this kind of game probably plays better with the Genesis's multi-button controller than it would on the Amiga. In Europe this game is known as "The Killing Game Show".


Fire Shark - 1 player. Fire Shark is a great vertical shmup from Toaplan, one of the top shmup developers of the day. Fire Shark doesn't get quite the attention of some other Toaplan shmups of the time such as Truxton or Twin Cobra, but while those games may be better, this game is very good as well. From Tiger-Heli to Truxton II, most of Toaplan's vertical shmups are very similar in a lot of ways, and Fire Shark is no exception. This game is very much Toaplan, and anyone familiar with their shooters will immediately be at home with Fire Shark. When I got this game I wasn't expecting too much, because when I got this in 2011 the only Toaplan games I had were the mediocre Tiger Heli for NES and the subpar Genesis port of Twin Cobra, but this one is great. The basic concept is similar to those games, but it's a bit faster and easier here, and it isn't broken like the Genesis version of Twin Cobra. Toaplan was a great shmup developer, and this game is a fine example of why. The game has good controls, first. Toaplan shmups always control well, though often ship movement is a bit slow. It is like that here, but the speed is manageable, this isn't Tiger-Heli slow. You've got a couple of weapons to choose from, including a forward gun, a flame laser shot, and a straight laser. The weapons here are clearly fantastic, more so than the machine-guns-only weapons of Daisenpuu, for example, though the general gameplay of the two titles is very similar. The game has your typical Toaplan graphics and sound, with okay but not great graphics and sound. The game has a large status bar on the left side, a feature all Toaplan vertical shooters on the Genesis share. Their Turbografx shmups don't have that, presumably for screen-resolution reasons -- the Genesis usually runs at a higher resolution than the SNES or TG16. The music is classic crunchy Genesis electronic music. It's good, well composed stuff. The game looks decent and sounds nice, but never will really impress in either respect.

This game is different from Truxton or Twin Cobra in difficulty, though -- while those two games are extremely difficult, Fire Shark is a conquerable challenge. This is the sequel to Sky Shark, an arcade game that got a mediocre NES port. You play as a time-travelling World War II pilot defeating an evil superpower which has taken over the world in the future, not that the game itself ever tells you this. The plot is a bit weird, but you'll see next to none of it in the game, which is just fine; the game's about shooting stuff, not story. And the shooting is great. Unoriginal or no, the game has great gameplay with very well designed enemy patterns, a good weapon selection, decently nice graphics and sound, and very good controls. Toaplan's greatest skill is at level design and game flow. Enemy patterns are all well thought through and varied, and the game is great fun to play. There is a boss at the end of each of the ten stages, and they are all fun challenges. And while beating loop one on easy isn't too hard, and in fact I have beaten a loop of this game, something I have not yet accomplished in any of Toaplan's other vertical shmups (I have also beaten Zero Wing for Turbo CD, but that's horizontal), but I don't mind that there is a Toaplan shmup I can finish. I've come close to finishing in Daisenpuu Custom for Turbo CD, another one of Toaplan's easier shmups, but haven't quite beaten the game... but I did better at this one. I didn't beat Hard mode, though, and the game does loop over into each higher difficulty setting after you finish one, so if you keep going it'll get plenty hard. There is also a slight addition to the ending if you finish it on Hard, sort of like the Genesis version of Truxton. Overall, Fire Shark is a very fun shooter. All you need to do is fly up while shooting the enemy tanks, planes, and ships before they can shoot you, but that will be a challenge... a fun challenge. With three powerful weapons at your disposal you stand a chance, so long as you can stay alive. Eventually you will be able to, at least on Easy. It's a rewarding game you will get better at, and a great starting point for those inerested in getting into Toaplan shooters. Highly recommended! Arcade port.


Forgotten Worlds - 1-2 player simultaneous. Note that with 6-button controllers you must hold Mode and cannot use a 6-button controller at all if you're using a controller extension cable, it will not work. I use both an extension cable and 6-button controller, so I've got to get out my 3-button controller for this game, annoyingly. The 3-button controller just isn't quite as responsive or comfortable as Sega's 6-button pad is... ah well. The game is worth it, though, because it's good. Forgotten Worlds is a horizontal shmup, originally by Capcom in the arcades but this Genesis port is by Sega. You play as a pair of flying muscled guys; they don't have jetpacks, they just fly because it's cooler like that. This is a very early Genesis game and you can tell, but the game plays well despite some issues. I don't like this game quite as much as its great spiritual predecessor Hyperdyne Sidearms, which was released on arcades and on the Turbografx, but it is a good, well-made game. Both games, and Sector Z before them, allow you to fire multiple directions in order to hit enemies coming at you from both directions. In Sidearms you had separate fire buttons for left and right, a simple setup that works well, but this time the game uses two buttons to rotate your character, while the third fires. This allows you to fire in any direction, but it makes for more complex controls than Sidearms, as you will be frequently rotating to the direction you need, instead of just tapping the other button to instantly fire the other way. While it is nice to shoot any way, the clumsier controls are a drawback for me, versus its predecessors. There is an autofire option where you shoot all the time and only need to worry about rotating, but the game does autofire if you hold B, so it's not essential even if it can be nice sometimes. Another thing I prefer about TG16 Sidearms over Genesis Forgotten Worlds is that this game has absolutely no continues; when you die without a health refill item, it's game over, start again from the beginning. That's no fun, having a couple of continues really would have made the game better.

During play, you move your burly flying muscleman around, shooting at the enemies who attack from all sides. The game has good level designs with some variety, obstacles to shoot or avoid in some stages, plenty of enemy types, and more. There are also some decent parallax-scrolling backgrounds. There is slowdown far too often, though, one of the signs of the games' early release date, and while this game looks decently good, later Genesis games look a lot better. The music is also average at best. This is a tough game too, particularly thanks to the absence of continues. Bosses can be tricky, as well, unless you learn their patterns well. To help you out, early in each stage there is a shop you can, and should, enter. Here you can buy powerups, an extra life, helper orbs that add to your firepower Gradius-style, and more. Buy everything you can, it's essential, and shops only appear once a stage so you won't get another chance soon! You can also buy a cryptic hint for how to fight the next boss here, but using a guide might be more helpful if you're stuck. Overall Forgotten Worlds is a good game, but it's not great. The slowdown, sometimes average graphics and sound, clumsy controls, and lack of continues all hold the game back, as does its unfortunate incompatibility with 6-button controllers on controller extension cables. Still, if you find it affordably, pick it up; the game can be good stuff, particularly with a friend. Arcade port, also on TurboGrafx CD. The arcade version is in various Capcom arcade collections for newer systems. The Turbo CD version has no parallax and is one player only (unless you use a code that just lets a second player control your 'bit' helper orb), but has much better music and more detailed graphics than the Genesis one, so each has advantages over the other.


Fun 'N' Games - 1 player. Fun 'N' Games is bad Mario Paint-inspired minigame collection. The game has three main modes, creation, games, and some little toy things. None are very good. For creation, there is painting and music composition. The painting mode is decent, with a nice variety of colors and patterns you can draw on the screen with. There are also a bunch of black and white outlines of pictures to fill in if you wish. There's only one brush width, though, and no mouse or saving support, so drawing is a bit clumsy compard to any game on a computer or with mouse support such as that in Mario Paint, the game this one obviously tries to copy. Worse, you cannot save anything in this game as there isn't a save chip in the cart, so you'd better take a photo of the screen if you don't want to lose your creation. Or better, use virtually any drawing program for any computer ever, they are all better than this. The music program is even more pointless; it's a fairly simple thing and doesn't match Mario Paint's. And again, no saving your creation.

The 'games' side has three bad minigames to try. First is Mouse Maze; this is the best thing on this cart, and it's not great. Mouse Maze is a Pac-Man knockoff, only with small mazes and maybe ten dots per stage. Enemy AI is pretty terrible, and this game is not exactly the next Pac-Man to say the least, but it's not utterly horrible, which makes it better than the other two games. Second is a terrible light-gun-style space shooting game. You use the controller and not a gun, of course, and move a target cursor around the screen, pointing at enemy robot things as they fly around and trying to hit all of them. With bad graphics, no variety, no way to avoid taking damage, and more, this is a terrible, horribly unfun game. And last is a subpar whack-a-mole minigame. It might be amusing for five seconds... probably not, though. And last, the game has two little software toys which let you mix and match people and scenes. Ha ha, I can make a person with a head, body, and legs that don't match! I'm sure little kids might be amused by these for a few minutes, but I doubt it'll last much longer than that and there is nothing here for people over age five or six. In conclusion, Fun 'N' Games is a terrible waste of time and space. While when it released I could see getting this for a young child who did not have a computer or a Super Nintendo (PCs were expensive back in the early '90s!), today there is absolutely no reason to even consider wasting your time or money with this debacle. Fun n Games is awful and one of the worst Genesis games I own. Also on SNES and 3DO; I've never played the other versions, but they're probably just as bad. If the 3DO version lets you save your creations it'd be better than the others, but I don't know if it does. I don't think any of the three have mouse support, even though mice do exist for all three platforms.


Gadget Twins - 1 player. Gadget Twins is a weird ... shmup, I guess... from Europe that was published by GameTek. This is a horizontal game. As in most shooters, you control a plane and fly to the right, but you can't shoot. Instead, you punch with a short-range boxing glove attack. The game has a money system and shops where you can buy powerups as well, money is in chests as well as enemies, and you'll need to break through walls and such to progress, so this is a quite nonstandard 'shooter', or puncher I guess. So, this game is unique, but is it good? Well, it's okay, but not great. T his is a difficult game which shares some common flaws of European games of its day, including no invincibility on hit and no saving. The absence of hit invincibility means that if an enemy touches you you will lose health until you get away, so while you have a health bar, it'll drain fast if you mess up. And since you have to get very close to enemies to hit them, you WILL mess up unless you are very good at this game. You attack with one button, and switch attack directions with a second. The third button enters shops. There is only one rotation button, so to you'll need to hit that button three times to attack an enemy behind you if you are currently aiming down, for example. This is a real problem and makes an already difficult game harder. The game does look nice, though. The game has a good cartoony art style with an underwater theme, and nice parallax backgrounds as well. The European-cartoon look works great and makes the game fun to look at. I like the various silly enemies, including various fishes, crabs, robots, and more. The two player co-op play support is pretty nice as well. The music is decent, but forgettable, stuff, though, but overall the presentation is pretty good. The gameplay doesn't quite match up, though.

The biggest problem with this game is the difficulty, with the bosses, controls, and that health system as major culprits. Having to get up very close to enemies in order to attack them can make for some tricky situations, and the boss fights in this game are a bit too hard. Those controls, with the clumsy single-button rotation system, make this worse. Bosses take a lot of hits to kill and can damage you quickly with cheap attacks you can't avoid because of how close you have to get; the first boss is way harder than a first boss should be, and it only gets harder after that. You only get three lives per continue and three continues until it's Game Over, start again from the beginning, if you even beat a level; levels are long, so this may or may not happen. I like the various weapons you can buy, though. You start out with only small fists to attack with, but as you progress the periodic shops will give you access to better weapons, and it's a good idea to buy them if you can afford it. When you die and it's not a game over you respawn where you died, and here you do have a moment of invincibility. You drop a weapon when you die, so make sure to pick it up if you can or else you'll lose it. Despite the games issues playing Gadget Twins can be fun, particularly in co-op. The nice graphics and game variety add to the game, even if it'll be a struggle to see much of it. Overall, though, Gadget Twins is an average game. It might be worth trying if you see it cheap and you have some tolerance for European games of this era. It's also Genesis-exclusive, I don't think it's a port of some computer game.


Gaiares - 1 player. Gaiares is a very difficult, but popular, shmup from Telenet, published here by their US division Renovation. I've heard a lot about how good this game is, but it's not one I had played much of until a few years ago. Once I did, though, I quickly found that its reputation for difficulty is very well earned. Gaiares reminds me a bit of Valis games or their extremely unpopular Turbo CD shmup Legion, in that enemies come at you very quickly and from all directions, making the game as much of a trial of frustrating memorization as it is anything else. I've never liked this style of Telenet game, and I don't care for Gaiares either. Hard games can be fun, but this one isn't, it's just frustrating. The game does have some good points, though. The graphics are decent, with better visuals than many early Genesis releases. Still, compared to later Genesis games, Gaiares looks only okay. It does have parallax scrolling and some decent ship designs, but it's nothing special either. The art design is decent, but not great, as usual from Telenet. The music is decent to good. It has some good compositions, but isn't anything I find memorable. The game does have a surprisingly long intro cutscene, though the story is extremely generic and not that good. The evil female pirate ZZ Badnusty is threatening Earth, and you, male hero, and your prototype fighter are the only hope for the survival of the human species! With a game this hard humanity is probably doomed, sadly, though the whole 'guy saves the day from the evil woman' plot is definitely questionable. Gaiares has eight levels, all fairly long and difficult. At almost an hour for a longplay video, Gaiares is probably a bit above average for the time in length, among shmups. I've never gotten past level two or three, though; you have limited lives and continues here, of course.

 

[A Black Falcon]

In game design, this is mostly a conventional shooter, though you feel a bit under-powered, particularly if you aren't powered up -- and losing power is very easy. The game does have one unique feature here, though -- Gaiares doesn't have your usual weapon powerups. Instead, you have a special gun which takes the power of the enemy you shoot it into. As you shoot more enemies, or one enemy multiple times, the weapon will level up and increase your weapons' power. You can get a shield and some helpers, but otherwise your powerups come from the enemies. It's a good concept, thouhg you get de-leveled a bit too easily when you hit anything, and even with the stronger weapons your ship feels a bit weak. That's fitting with the game in general, though. Gaiares is a punishing game. You get sent back to the last checkpoint when you die, and checkpoints are a bit far apart at times and it's easy to lose weapon power as enemies zoom in at you fast and are hard to dodge at times. Still, the game can be fun to play; this is an okay game. Even so, I was hoping that I'd really like Gaiares, but I don't. Maybe in 1990 this game was impressive, but later on the Genesis got many shmups far better than this one, that are actually fun to play, have better graphics and art design and even better music, and are just much better balanced all around. There is enough decent shooting action here that Gaiares is an average game overall that some people overrate. Fans of masochistically-hard shooters absolutely should check out Gaiares if they haven't already, though others will probably want to stay away. Arcade port.


Garfield: Caught in the Act - 1 player, password save. Garfield: Caught in the Act is a platformer by Novotrade that was published by Sega in 1995. As a late release for the system you might expect well-polished visuals, and the game delivers. The gameplay isn't nearly as good as the graphics are, but this game does look very, very good. This game may not be one of Sega's better-known licensed Genesis releases, but it is a very nice-looking game with some beautiful visuals that captures the style of the comic strip well. I have always liked the comic strip Garfield even if it repeats the same few jokes endlessly, and this came captures the look of the series well. In this game Garfield broke his TV, and in his failed attempt to repair it created a monster machine which has warped him into his television! So, you've got to work your way out by collecting the TV remote at the end of each stage. The setup reminds me a bit of Gex, though this game isn't as expansive as that one is. The game has fantastic use of color, and makes use of the Genesis's rarely-used hardware shadow capabilities that allow the system to display more colors on screen than you usually see. I have no idea why more games didn't use this function, but this game does at points and it looks great. Garfield is also very well animated, and looks different in each of the games' six levels, fitting the theme of the stage, so he wears a pirate hat and uses a wooden sword in the pirate level, a vampire cape and shirt in the horror level, and such. It's a nice touch.

However, things start going downhill as soon as you stop looking at the screen and start playing the game. Garfield's controls are not precise; this game is slippery and frustrating to control. Garfield will constantly slip off of the edges of platforms you think you're on, get hit by things that probably should have missed you, and such. This makes platforming kind of annoying. It also can sometimes be hard to tell what you can jump on and what you can't, making jumping something of a guessing game at times. Fortunately the game doesn't have much in the way of instant-death pits, but still, it is an issue. Your main attack is very short-ranged, as well, so it's easy to get hit while trying to hit enemies. You can take ten hits before you lose a life, but running out isn't hard with controls this hard to get used to. On top of that, the difficulty is unbalanced. The first level of this game is a somewhat frustrating one with some mazelike qualities to it, and the first boss isn't easy either, and there is a puzzle element to the bossfight that is not obvious. Oddly, the second level and boss are quite a bit easier and more straightforward than the first, so if you can manage to keep playing past the bad first impression the game makes it does get easier, though it doesn't get much more fun. In between levels are some amusing little bonus stages, and also a hub-world stage inside the television where you go from level to level.

It is great that the game has passwords, though; having any kind of save system is a somewhat uncommon thing in Genesis platformers. It'd have been nice if the game gave you passwords after each stage instead of only after you get game over, but having them at all is fantastic. Even so though, Garfield: Caught in the Act isn't a very good game. With only six not-too-long levels, this is a very short game, first. If you don't quit in irritation, this game won't take long to finish. The game is also unbalanced and has some control problems. However, the game is beautiful to look at, and for Garfield fans it may be worth sticking with just to see what's going to come next. The Vampire-Odie and Dino-Odie bosses are particularly clever. And though it is sometimes frustrating, it is nice that there is more to this game than just walking to the right and hitting things. Still, overall this game is disappointing. Only graphics and Garfield fans should check it out. Maybe watch a video of the game, it does look good.


Gargoyles - 1 player. Gargoyles for the Genesis was Disney's first attempt at making a game itself, and not just farming out its licenses to external studios. They chose to make a Genesis-exclusive platform-action game, based on the pretty good TV series of the same name. Gargoyles was an interesting show with a darker tone than most Disney work, and I did like it at the time, though I didn't play much of this game back then. You play as Goliath, the lead Gargoyle. The game is okay, but flawed. Somewhat similarly to other Disney games of the day such as Virgin's The Lion King, the game has beautiful, impressive graphics, but iffy gameplay with poor combat and sometimes frustrating controls. And that's really the contrast here, between the very good visuals and the often not-great gameplay. Copying Sonic much like a lot of platformers of the day, there are three levels in each setting, followed by a boss fight. Levels are usually fairly large, also, and take some time to traverse. This means that while the game looks great, you will be seeing a lot of each setting. Even if the environments repeat, though, the work done on environment and sprite design in this game is very impressive for the time. Characters also animate very well.

For the most part, graphics aside Gargoyles is a conventional Western platformer. The game has big levels, exploration, stuff to collect, platforms to jump between, and enemies to fight along the way. As you are a gargoyle, you have some great mobility in this game. Goliath can attach to and crawl along any non-spiky wall or ceiling surface, do a nice gliding double jump that adds a lot of distance, do a charge attack (run and then hit B), do a ground-strike (hit A while in the air), and more. While the controls are a bit frustratingly loose at times, I like the platform jumping, and the verticality in levels that your wall-climbing allows is great. However, combat here is pretty bad. While fighting B is your regular attack, and A plus a direction close to an enemy will grab and throw them. Regular enemies aren't too hard to beat, though they can be annoying at times, but bosses are much harder, unless you find repeatable patterns you can get them in or exploit glitches. I beat the second boss by ducking right in front of him and then hitting B until he died, for instance... yeah. It took a while, but that's much easier than the 'real' fight; that kind of bug should have been fixed. Fighting is this games' biggest weakness, and there is a lot of it in the game. Still, I like some of the platforming challenges here. While levels are linear, you will often need to figure out some simple puzzles along the way, to find walls you need to break through with a charge, pull-chains that act as switches to turn on or off things you will need to progress, and such. I like some of the levels here, and figuring out each stage is fun, when the controls aren't getting in your way. Overall, Gargoyles is an average game with great graphics but poor controls. There is enough to like here that it may be worth playing, both to see the various environments and for the platforming part of the game. Note that Gargoyles won't work on a Genesis 3 system, and often doesn't work on clone Genesis consoles, because it was programmed to use some hardware glitches that those systems fix.


Gauntlet IV - 1-4 player simultaneous (with multitap), password save (30-digit password for saving each character plus 10 digits for progress in the current dungeon). Gauntlet IV is a top-down multiplayer action-RPG in the great Gauntlet franchise. This Genesis version was made in Japan by M2 for Tengen, Atari Games' console division. I've loved the Gauntlet games ever since I played the first game in an arcade, and it's still a favorite series of mine. This Genesis Gauntlet release is an interesting, and sometimes overlooked, one. The game has four modes, Arcade, Quest, Battle, and Record. The game is one part upgraded port of the original arcade game, and one part all-new Gauntlet game with more RPG elements than any Gauntlet game before it. In Japan this game actually was just called Gauntlet, but they added the "IV" to the title for the US because the last Gauntlet release before this one here was "Gauntlet III" for the Lynx. This is a great game with good graphics and a fantastic soundtrack, and it's a real under-rated classic of the Genesis library! It's also interesting for being the only Japanese-made Gauntlet game, all others are American. The long passwords are kind of a pain, but they are one of the few problems with this great game. This is a Gauntlet game, so there are, as usual, four classes to choose from: Warrior, Wizard, Valkyrie, or Elf. They look and sound similar to the first game, but with better visuals than the NES versions, of course. Gauntlet IV looks good but not great. Arcus Odyssey and Dungeon Explorer for Sega CD both probably look better, but this is a decently nice looking game, and it plays fast, without slowdown. Each of the five areas does look different, which is nice. There are also voice clips for each character, just like the arcade original; this is something that the NES games didn't have. The soundtrack is better, and really is a standout feature in the game.

The gameplay is standard Gauntlet action-RPG fun. You walk around exploring mazelike levels while killing the numerous enemies that spawn from monster generators as you look for exits. Shooting the generators levels them down, weakening the enemies which spawn from it, until finally they are destroyed. You start with a lot of health, but your health steadily drains, so you need to keep moving in order to not die. Gauntlet Legends' home ports would finally get rid of this, and that was for the best, but this game does use it, unfortunately; it's a feature put in to keep people pouring quarters into the machine that a home game didn't need. At least you can buy health from the store; this isn't something all Gauntlet Legends home ports let you do. Levels also have keys and magic potions. Using a potion kills the enemies on screen, and each key can open one door. There are multiple routes through each dungeon, so sometimes your choices for which doors to open do matter. That's Gauntlet, and it's a fantastic formula which is as great now as it ever has been. The main additions here are experience points and a money system, with a larger inventory beyond just magic potions. The NES version of Gauntlet also added in some RPG elements, but this game goes much farther with it. Fortunately it was well thought through here; the leveling system in this game is well-designed, unlike, say, Dungeon Explorer for Sega CD and its somewhat busted system. I like the addition of more items to buy too. Levels, and items you can buy from a store in the hub area, are ideas that Gauntlet Legends would pick up and expand on, but within the Gauntlet series they were here first.

While the version of arcade Gauntlet is pretty good and has a bunch of nice options including difficulty, continues, and more, I have barely touched the arcade side of this game; the main feature here is the original quest mode, and it's great. In Quest mode, as in the main game each player chooses a character, or enters their 20-character password. The game has a hub area you start in, with four dungeons to play through and two shops to buy items from. Each dungeon has 20 levels and then a boss at the end. After you beat all four, then the fifth and final one unlocks, to go to the final boss, for a total of 100 stages. It's a good-length game, but each stage doesn't take too long, so this game probably isn't too different in length from the later Gauntlet Legends games even though it has far more stages. If you can't finish an entire dungeon in one sitting, you can get your password for the current dungeon; these are the 10-digit passwords. I guess you could have one for each dungeon if you're working on all of them at the same time, but it's a better idea to focus on one at a time. Your main character password will save if you've beaten a boss, but not progress in a dungeon. It's better this way, 20 digits is long enough. As for the other two modes, the battle mode is a versus arena where players can fight eachother. It's kind of pointless. Record mode is a bit more interesting, though. It's basically the arcade game, but with passwords added, and you can't die -- instead you lose points when you lose health, which matters in this score-based mode. Remember that arcade Gauntlet is endless and just loops around to the start when you finish it, so score is the main reason to play it anyway. I like games to have endings, so this is one reason I prefer Quest mode, or NES Gauntlet 1, which also has bosses, passwords, and an ending.

In conclusion, Gauntlet IV is fantastic. I'll get the flaws out of the way first: the passwords are long, graphics aren't improved over the by-1993-dated original arcade game, and they kept the health-drain system. None are major problems. With either one player or four, Gauntlet IV is great fun. Of course, as with all Gauntlet games the game gets better with more players to work together with, but it is fun even by yourself. This game is a good reason to get a Genesis multitap, though. Exploring levels looking for hidden breakaway walls, fighting the enemies, collecting gold, magic, and keys, and upgrading in the shop all are great fun features. The soundtrack deserves the high praise it gets, also. The original Gauntlet was a brilliant game, and this collection here includes both a great port of the original game, a new spin on it in Record mode, and a fantastic RPG-ish Quest mode, all in one! This really is a must-have game and is one of the best action-RPGs of the 4th generation. The Gauntlet arcade game portion of this game is available on innumerable platforms in various forms, but this version, with all of the new added modes, is not available on any other platform so get it for the Genesis for sure.


General Chaos - 1-4 player simultaneous (with multitap). General Chaos is a combat-only action-real time strategy game published by EA. This is a unique and original game for the time, and seems to have been fairly popular. The game has a definite learning curve, but once you get used to it it's pretty amusing. This is a short little game designed for replay and multiplayer more than anything, and it works as such. This game would be more fun with a mouse, but it is alright with a d-pad. The game has a handful of different maps, and in the main campaign mode you will see most of them as you try to conquer the other sides' base. This game has no explanation for its war; Generals Chaos and Havok want to wipe eachother out. This is a cartoony game filled with silly graphics and animations. The game certainly doesn't take itself seriously, which is a good thing. Each level is a single screen, which is great because you can see the whole area at once. Sprites are moderate-size, so General Chaos maps are pretty small. Still, each has a good amount of detail with various buildings, rivers, trees, and more to provide obstacles, and cover.

Most of the time this is a 5-vs-5 game. There are several different types of guys, each with different weapons. You control a cursor with which you control your team. A tells the team to start shooting at the nearest enemy, B tells the currently selected person to move to the point selected, and C switches team member. You can also call in medics to heal injured team members. If someone takes too much damage they will die, but unfortunately there are not visible damage meters displayed. You also can fist-fight enemies if you get close. The fist-fights can be difficult to win against the AI. The different weapons really are different, so you need to get used to how the machine gun, rocket launcher, grenades, and such each control. Fortunately there is a training mode in the main menu to help players learn how to play the game; make use of it, it's very helpful. I should note, there is also one mode which gives you direct control of your characters, if you play as the Commandos team, but this team has only two guys, so winning will be tough. Still, it is a nice option.

A game of General Chaos can seem, well, chaotic, as the ten guys on screen run around and shoot eachother, but there is method to the madness. Once you get the hang of it, General Chaos is a fun little strategy game. There are a lot of much better real-time strategy games out there on the PC, particularly, but for a Genesis game this simple, combat-focused design works well. This game really gets good in multiplayer, though; in single player it'll probably get old after a few games. But if you can play this game with others, it's worth taking the time for everyone to learn the controls, it'll be fun stuff. The two player mode allows for full strategy battles, or in 3 or 4 player mode (or 2 player co-op) all human players play as Commando teams. This restriction is perhaps unfortunate, but it is understandable; these maps are barely large enough for 10 players, they could not fit the 20 players 4 full teams would require. So yeah, pick up General Chaos if you see it cheap, or want to play a unique RTS-action hybrid title. You can't play it anywhere other than on the Genesis, either; EA has never ported or re-released the game.


Genesis 6-Pak - 1 player or 1-2 player depending on game. One game has saving. The Genesis 6-pak is a 6-in-1 cartridge Sega released in the US. The cart includes Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Columns, Sonic the Hedgehog, Revenge of Shinobi, and Super Hang-On. I review each of the six games separately, at their places in the alphabet; I decided to count them as separate games in my collection, even though I only have most of them in this collection; I do have a Sonic 1 cart, but not the others. This is an absolutely fantastic collection of early first-party Genesis games that all Genesis owners should definitely own! It's an easy, and cheap, way to get a whole bunch of mostly very good games. Of the six games here, only one, Super Hang-On, isn't that good; the other five are great at minimum. Definitely pick up this fantastic collection of some of the best early Genesis games. Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe are my favorites here, and both are among the better games on the Genesis, too. The first Sonic the Hedgehog is a bit of an under-rated game, today; it's still really good, I don't agree with the critics at all! This specific collection isn't available elsewhere, but all of the included games have been included in various collections and digital re-relases of Genesis games.


Ghouls 'N Ghosts - 1-2 player alternating. Ghouls n Ghosts, originally released in arcades by Capcom and ported to the Genesis by Sega, is the sequel to Ghosts n Goblins for the arcade and NES. This game is the second game in this somewhat long-running series, and it is fairly well remembered. Ghouls n Ghosts is a cartoony-horror-themed platform-action game. This was an early release for the Genesis, releasing in 1989, and it is one of the few 1989 Genesis releases that legitimately is a great game. The Genesis has a great library, but its first year had only a few hits, including this, Truxton, and Golden Axe. As always in the main series you play as Arthur, a knight in armor who must rescue his kidnapped girlfriend Princess Prinprin from the demon armies who keep taking her. As always Arthur can't control his movement while jumping, so jumps are harder here than in most platformers. You do have a double jump, but be careful because it's easy to accidentally double jump into an enemy or pit. Enemies will often rise up out of the ground in front of you, so be careful as you move around.

This series is infamous for its extreme challenge, but this Genesis version of Ghouls n Ghosts is as easy as a game in this series gets; indeed, I beat this game on the easier difficulty in a couple of days without too much trouble, even though I've never even finished level two of the third game in this series, Super Ghouls n Ghosts on the SNES, despie many attempts! It really is that much easier, and more fun, than that game. There are several reasons why. First, you have infinite continues in this game, and always continue from the last checkpoint even after getting a game over, so you will never have to replay levels from the start. This is fantastic and makes the game more fun than the first or third games, which aren't so kind. This game also has fewer levels than Super G&G, so though as with all games in the series you need to play through the game twice to win, it won't take as long. I don't mind the shorter length. The levels also aren't quite as crazy-hard as some stages in SG&G. And last, in this game you can attack up and down as well as left or right. That sure would have been nice to have in Ghosts n Goblins and SG&G! There is plenty of challenge to be wfound here though, particularly in the harder difficulty setting, but for me this game is an approachable challenge, while SG&G is just near-impossibly frustrating.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Visually, Ghouls & Ghosts looks good, but not great. This is an early release, and while the game is a reasonably good approximation of the arcade original, it is a bit downgraded visually versus the arcade. There are a nice variety of enemies, and lots of obstacles to face. The music is good as well, and fits the series well. On the whole, Ghouls & Ghosts is a pretty good game. This game surprised me, after playing its SNES sequel I was not expecting to like this game at all, but I do. Of the main-series G&G titles, the Genesis version of Ghouls n Ghosts is my favorite. The game looks okay and plays quite well, and has some design choices that make it a more approachable and fun game than the others. The difficulty is balanced perfectly, with an easier default setting and much tougher hard mode available. Ghouls & Ghosts is short but fun. I'd definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes platformers, Ghosts n Goblins-series fan or not. Arcade port. There is also a PC Engine SuperGrafx version of this game from Hudson under its Japanese title, Daimakaimura. The SuperGrafx version was only released in Japan, since that system only released there, but it has better, more detailed graphics than the Genesis game. The core game is the same, though. The arcade version is also available in some collections of Capcom arcade games.


G-LOC: Air Battle - 1 player. G-LOC is a port of the Sega arcade rail shooter game of the same name. This is a jet-fighter game and effectively is a spiritual sequel to Sega's earlier classic jet-fighter rail shooter After Burner. I remember playing the arcade game back in the early '90s. I didn't have many experiences in arcades playing After Burner, or at least I don't remember it if I did, but I definitely played G-LOC. I thought arcade G-LOC was a pretty good game, but hadn't played much of this Genesis port until not all that long ago. When I finally bought a copy of the cart earlier this year I was not expecting good things, but the game very pleasantly surprised me. G-LOC is not perfect, but it is about as good as a Sega super scaler arcade game to Genesis port could be. Yes, I think this game, on the Genesis, is pretty good! G-LOC is now easily my favorite first-party rail shooter on the Genesis, though it isn't an A-grade game, none of the Sega rail shooters that gen are because of the compromises versus the arcade originals. G-LOC is a simple game. You are a fighter pilot, and have to take down huge numbers of incoming enemy fighters. You fly along automatically, dodge a bit, and shoot at the enemy planes, but it's good, exciting fun. The software scaling here is jerky, but looks a lot better than the awful, eye-pain-inducing hideousness of Sega's early "scaler" Genesis games such as Super Thunder Blade, Space Harrier II, or Outrun. This is a midlife title for the Genesis, and it benefits from its later release. The game has some low-flying 'bombing' missions mixed in with the regular air combat. They have some choppy-looking walls on the sides, but still nothing is as bad as the framerate in those aforementioned games. The sprites and backgrounds all look pretty nice and a lot like the arcade game. The pilots and ground scenes are drawn in a realistic style, so though this is a port of a Japanese arcade game it doesn't look it. The style looks good here, though like After Burner it probably was inspired by Top Gun.

This game distinguishes itself from After Burner in its perspective. While that game is mostly behind-the-plane, G-LOC largely takes place inside the cockpit. In in-cockpit sections you cannot freely fly around the screen, but instead can only sort of dodge a bit in any direction with the d-pad, as you move the cursor. Dodging is critical, though, as you need to stay out of the way of incoming enemy missiles! Either shoot them or dodge them, one or the other. Enemies come in waves, and this game breaks things up into short timed segments. That is probably G-LOC's most distinguishing element, and I like it because it keeps the pace up. You're always facing new waves and new challenges in this game. In each wave, you need to shoot down a set number of enemy planes or ground targets, and have a very limited amount of time to do it in. You have two weapons, a machine gun with unlimited ammo, and a limited quantity of missiles. Missiles will lock on automatically to enemies in the targeting box in the center of the screen. It's best to use the gun when you can to conserve missile ammo, but hitting enemies with it can be tricky, so you'll need to use both weapons to succeed. If you succeed at hitting the required amount, time is added to the clock and it's on to the next wave. If you don't, you will have to try again, and if time runs out it's Game Over. You do get a couple of continues, but they are limited, so even though this is a short game it will take practice to beat. The game has several main missions, and between missions you go to a briefing room where you can buy missiles, ammo, and armor for your plane. It's best to take as much ammo and armor as you can, generally. You 'spend' your score as currency, here; it's a simple system that works. And then it's on to the next mission and some more high-tempo blasting. G-LOC is a good game, and I was relieved to see that the Genesis port is good. I'd been kind of afraid to try the Genesis version of this for years because of my good memories of the arcade game compared to how poor Sega's earlier scaler rail shooters are on this system, but it's a good B-grade game that looks and plays great. G-LOC absolutely is a must-play game for rail shooter fans. Arcade port. There is also a Game Gear version of G-LOC, which is far better than you might think a GG version of G-LOC possibly could be. Some people even like that version more than this one, though I do prefer the Genesis game. Both are well worth playing, though.


Golden Axe - 1-2 player simultaneous. I have this in the Genesis 6-Pak collection. Sega's Golden Axe is one of the greatest classic arcade beat 'em ups of the 1980s. This is a side-view isometric beat 'em up, and it's a very good one. I have loved this game ever since I first played it, and still think it's a great game and one of the best beat 'em ups ever. Golden Axe is a somewhat dark fantasy game set in a world of magic and monsters. The games' world is interesting and unique. You will ride small dinosaur-like creatures, travel in giant animals across the sea, and fight innumerable hordes of orc, lizardman, and skeleton enemies, among others. The game has fantastic art design, with that classic late '80s Sega look. The art design here is similar to Altered Beast, except here the game is actually good. You can play as three characters in Golden Axe: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, or Gillius Thunderhead. Despite his name, Ax Battler uses a sword, oddly enough. Ax and Tyris are barbarian-styled characters like something out of Conan, while Gillius is a fairly stereotypical dwarf. Each character plays a bit differently, and has different magic as well. Magic is collected as a pickup, and fills a meter. When you use magic, you will get the spell of the level the meter is full up to, but it will drain empty. The sequels add the ability to use only some magic, but in this first game you have to use it all. You do more damage the more magic you use. Each character plays about as expected from their character types: Gillius is slow and has weak magic, but has strong attacks, Ax is in the middle, and Tyris is fast and has stronger magic but weaker attacks. Visually Genesis Golden Axe can't match the arcade game, of course, but it does about as well as a 1989 Genesis game could have. The low game-size does show, but still, it's a great version of the game, and looks far better than the Turbo CD version of Golden Axe. The music is great as well, and is a very good recreation of the classic arcade soundtrack.

The gameplay is simple, but works well. You can attack and jump, as usual in this genre. The running charge attacks are key to survival, as enemies will often come at you from both sides. One thing that makes combat a bit more interesting in this game than some beat 'em ups are the level designs. Golden Axe isn't like one of those Capcom beat 'em ups where you just follow a straight path to the right; no, it's got interesting, twisting levels, among the better in the genre. There are many pits to avoid and jump over, multi-level areas to navigate, and more. You can often exploit the levels to lure enemies into pits and such, which is always great fun when you can manage it. The AI will usually come straight at you, so use this to your advantage. Unfortunately boss rooms never have pits... ah well. I strongly prefer the more varied, multi-level, twisting levels found in games like this series or TMNT III for the NES over those bland just-walk-to-the-right levels of too many other games in this genre. The levels tie in to the story in interesting ways, too. "Turtle Village" is more than just a name, in a pretty cool way. Everything from the arcade game is here, and a new final level has been added to the end, too, to add a bit more to the game. There is also a somewhat pointless two player versus mode added, though as usual with such things in beat 'em ups it's not very fun; these games aren't designed for that kind of fight. Golden Axe is not a long game, but it is quite difficult, and I have only ever managed to beat the shortened Easy mode; I have gotten to the real final boss on Normal, the first difficulty that allows you to play that new final level, but he's crazy-hard and always kills me. It's a fun challenge though, and I will keep trying for sure. You get a couple of continues, but not infinite.

Overall Golden Axe is a game I've loved ever since the late '80s, and it still holds up very well today. This is a simple game, as you walk around hitting baddies and trying to lure them into pits without falling in yourself, but with great art design, good gameplay, some of the better level designs in the genre, and good music, Golden Axe is still fantastic with either one or two players. I know most people don't like this game quite as much as I do, but this is absolutely an A-grade classic in my book. Absolute must-have stuff. Arcade port. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games, and it is usually the Genesis version Sega ports and not the arcade original. Golden Axe was also ported to many other platforms by various developers -- the game is on Turbo CD (done incredibly badly by Telenet, do not buy this), Sega Master System (okay for the SMS, but far worse than on Genesis, and you can only play as Ax), and a bunch of computers -- Amiga, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, PC (DOS), Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum. Some of the computer versions are Europe-only. Neither the Turbo CD nor SMS versions have multiplayer, so get this Genesis version for sure.


Golden Axe II - 1-2 player simultaneous. Note that you need to hold down the 6-button controllers' Mode on power on if you want to use 6-button controllers with this game. Golden Axe II is, basically, more Golden Axe. This game plays a lot like the first game I love, but with new levels, new enemies, some new features, and new graphics and music. Again Ax, Tyris, and Gillius are off to defeat an evil demon lord and his legion of skeleton and monster followers. Golden Axe II is a Genesis original, not an arcade port, and doesn't change much versus the arcade version, but I am okay with that; the base formula was fantastic, so why change it? The few changes that are made here are improvements, though. First, the graphics are a bit better than the Genesis version of the first game. Golden Axe II has a larger cart size, and it does show. The first game still looks great, but there is a bit more detail this time. The music is just as good as before, and I like the new tracks. In gameplay, for the most part everything is the same. The biggest change is the improved magic system. Now you can choose to use only some magic in your meter, instead of having to use it all any time you press the button; just hold the button down to select what spell power to unleash. It's a nice improvement which does make a difference sometimes. The new levels are in new settings, but the general design styles are the same as the first game, with stages full of variety, including pits, paths in various directions, and more. Enemy AI is about the same as before, so it's still not hard to lure enemies into pits. Yes, I like this even if some don't. It is a bit disappointing that no levels have stage concepts as cool as the turtle or eagle levels from the first game, but otherwise this game has great level designs, as expected from a Golden Axe game. Just as before thre are three difficulties, and the easy one doesn't let you play the final stage. I wish they let you play the whole game in any setting, but oh well, it works as it is. Overall game difficulty is very similar to the first game, so it's well balanced between fun and challenge. This game is just as much fun to play as the first game is, and I like playing it a lot. But that's pretty much it; Golden Axe II is, overall, a sequel very similar to its predecessor. If you like Golden Axe as I do, it's an absolute, definite must-own classic, but if you don't, this won't change your mind. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.


[Golden Axe III - 1-2 playetr simultaneous. I do not have this game for Genesis, but do have it in several Genesis classic collections, for Xbox 360 and PSP, so I guess I should mention it. I won't mention other games I only have in those collections, so far at least, but have to say a bit about this one. Golden Axe III is a somewhat controversial game. This game has a poor reputation, but it's a bit undeserved. This game wasn't released in the US on cartridge, sadly; it was one of Sega's Sega Channel download service-exclusive games, along with some other great games such as Pulseman, Alien Soldier, and others. The game has a new cast to play as, a new look that sets it apart from the first two game, and some gameplay changes, but it is still recognizable as a Golden Axe game. I like the level designs, which if anything are even bigger and more varied than before. The new player characters are similar to the originals, but fit in well. This is a pretty good, misunderstood beat 'em up that is a lot better than some people give it credit for. The original Golden Axe probably always will be my favorite, but both of its sequels on the Genesis are great games as well. Japan-exclusive on Genesis as a physical cart, only released in the West in the Sega Channel digital-download service for Genesis (and thus inaccessible since you could not save things there, only play them while power is on) and in digital re-release collections of Genesis games on newer platforms.]


Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude - 1 player. Greendog is a decent little platformer published by Sega and made by an American team. In this Carribean-themed game you play as Greendog, a surfer in a red knee-length bathing suit who has lost his ability to surf because he picked up a cursed talisman. Oh, and when near people, they freak out because of the talismans' powers, but he cares more about the no-surfing part. Greendog can skateboard and rollerblade just fine, though; only surfing was affected, for whatever reason. You're off on a quest through six Caribbean islands, visiting various local sites and ancient Aztec ruins, to collect the six parts needed to remove the talisman's curse. Conveniently someone (his girlfriend?) knows exactly what he needs to do to get rid of this awful curse... that sure was convenient. As a kid, I disliked this games' cover art; I thought the art style looked ugly. I didn't play too much of the game as a result. When I finally got the game several years ago, though, I found that the game is better than I gave it credit for back then. That cover art is kind of bad, and I still don't love Greendog's look, but the game itself is a fun, competent platformer. Greendog is a slow-paced game, and isn't anything great, but it is at least average, and I like seeing the various environments as you progress through the game. Each of the six islands is broken up into three parts. First is a level or two on the island. Each island has a different theme here, whether it is on the beach, in a city, underwater, or more. Second, you go through an Aztec temple stage, to find the islands' piece of the talisman. Some of the temples have boss fights against stone totem-like foes. And last, there is a silly pedal-copter flight to the next island, as Greendog flies himself from island to island by foot power. Heh. The game repeats this formula to the end, but there is enough variety between stages that the game stays fun, even if every island has some similar backgrounds. You have two continues before you have to start the game over.

The game has a cartoony art style, and I don't particuarly like the look of the characters, but the visuals are okay overall. The background graphics are somewhat realistic, in contrast to the cartoony sprites. The backgrounds are reasonably well drawn, though there is a lot of dithering. The music tries to sound like steel-drum music, and such; it's nice and fits the setting well. The game does use that unpopular GEMS music-creation system, but while the Genesis can do far more complex audio than this, I like the results here. In terms of gameplay, Greendog has okay but slow controls. Perhaps the slow pace is designed to fit the stereotype of Caribbean island life, or perhaps it's just to fit the gameplay, but either way, Greendog walks slowly and there is no run button. When jumping you can control your movement in the air, but as adjustments are slow, you need to plan falls in advance. The same goes for attacking. You attack with a frisbee, or something like that, and it tosses out at a bit of a delay. You'll get used to the timing fairly quickly. Some levels are faster-paced stages where you use a skateboard or rollerblades; these will take practice to get right and can be frustrating. Hit those jump pads perfectly! In the levels, for the most part this is a straightforward platformer where you follow an obvious route, but there are some optional side areas with items that give you points or, sometimes, powerups to find if you want. Many levels have these annoying bounce pads or other such obstacles which knock you back some in the level, but those aren't so bad compared to the instant-death pits that start appearing more often in the second half of the game. Greendog starts out easy, but the second half is much tougher, so this game will take practice to get deep into. At least when you just get knocked back, you can try again. Overall, Greendog is a fun little game. It's slow-paced and simple, and the game has no depth, but I like the somewhat realistic backgrounds, the steel-drum soundtrack, and the gameplay. Greendog isn't great, but it is a fun little above average game, and it's worth a try. There is also a Game Gear version of Greendog, though it's a somewhat different game.

Gunstar Heroes - 1-2 player simultaneous. Gunstar Heroes is a very popular run & gun game from Treasure and published by Sega. Gunstar Heroes is indeed great, though I don't love it as much as some. This is a crazy, fast-paced shooter with good graphics and art design. The game constantly is tossing new challenges at you, either in short platform/shooting segments, or mine cart rides where you jump between the top and bottom of the screen to avoid enemies, or in one level a giant board game. But always there are bosses, a lot of bosses. Treasure loved their boss fights, and you see that here. Gunstar Heroes does have stages too, and they are occasionally challenging, but it's the bosses where most of the challenge, and game, lies. You play as Red or Blue, two soldier guys, and have to save the world from an evil guy and his henchmen, all named for colors as well. The game has a light, silly tone to it as usual in Treasure's games of the time and the art design is great. The game is visually impressive as well, with some scaling and rotation effects, large amounts of sprites on screen with a minimum of slowdown or flicker, and more. With variety, technical prowess, good art design, and more, Gunstar Heroes looks great. The music is good, up-tempo work, and fits the action well.

Ingame, the game controls well and your characters are responsive. You have two firing modes, locked (you can aim any direction but can't move while shooting) or free (you can shoot while moving, but it'll be harder to shoot in a specific direction). Frustratingly, you can't switch between these during play as you should be able to; instead, you are stuck with only one or the other, chosen at the menu at the beginning of the game. This really is a mistake they should have fixed, each is useful at different times. Also, as with Dynamite Headdy, sometimes the screen is perhaps TOO busy and filled with stuff. You take damage easily, and don't have invincibility after being hit. You do have a starting 120 health per life, so it will take a while to die, but if you're not paying attention it can go quickly. It can feel unfair sometimes when you get cornered by a foe. There are health powerups, but they are few and far between. Making things worse, if you die you go back to the last checkpoint. You do have infinite continues in this game, which is nice. Despite that, I've never gotten anywhere near the end; I always give up somewhere in the middle at a tough boss. And more often than not that boss is Seven Force, a very tough seven-stage boss that takes up a large chunk of one of the levels. That board game can be a sticking point as well, in that level. The game does let you play the first four levels, against the four underlings, in any order, and that's great, but the game won't save your progress and can be difficult, so you do need to leave the system on for some time or keep trying in order to finish this. And while the game definitely is good, I haven't liked it quite enough to do that, so far at least.

The game does have a good weapon system, though. You can have two weapons at once, and can switch between them with the A button, or use both for a combined weapon. There is a different power for each combination of base weapons, giving a decent-sized arsenal. Different weapons are useful at different times, but I do like the homing weapons a lot. Overall Gunstar Heroes is a very good run & gun action game. It really showed off what Treasure can do, and helped make their name. The co-op play is great fun as well. While I like the game a lot, I'm not one of the games' diehard fans; this isn't my favorite run & gun on the system as I do like Contra Hard Corps and Adventures of Batman & Robin a bit more. Still, all three are among the best run & guns ever, and you can't go wrong with Gunstar Heroes. It's absolutely a must-play title. This game has been re-released in various collections and digital re-releases of Genesis games. The game has a Game Gear version that was, stupidly, only released in Japan. The game is based on the Genesis game, but with downgrades to fit the lesser power of the GG. For the GG it's a great, very impressive game, and I quite like it; it's one of the best action games on the system. The game also has a sequel, Gunstar Super Heroes for the Game Boy Advance. That is a very good game that I like more than this Genesis game; it's similar to the original, but is improved in enough ways that I like it more overall even though it's single player only.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Games in this update
--
HardBall!
HardBall '94
Haunting Starring Polterguy
Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones
Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings
James Pond 3: Operation Starfish
James Pond II: Codename RoboCod
James Pond: Underwater Agent
Jewel Master
Junction
Jungle Book, The
Jurassic Park
Kid Chameleon
King of the Monsters 2

HardBall! - 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Hardball! was Accolade's first attempt at a console baseball game, and their inexperience sadly shows. If you compare this game to its incredible followup Hardball III, it's kind of amazing how much they improved things from this game to that one. As great as Hardball III is, I really cannot recommend Hardball!; it's just not good. I don't think there is much of an audience for this game, really. It's a massive downgrade from the computer Hardball games of the '90s, so fans of the PC games won't love this one, but it also isn't quite RBI Baseball or something, so console fans of those games won't be happy either. So, where did this game go wrong? The PC Hardball games are amazing, after all! But first, I should say the few good things about the game. Hardball! plays okay, and looks reasonably nice. That's about it. As for the problems, though, first, the feature set is minimal. This is the only one of the four Genesis Hardball games that doesn't have battery save, but it gets worse -- the game doesn't even have a season mode! All you can do here is play single games, play a World Series between teams of your choice, or... well, that's about it. There is a password option to save a world series in progress, but that's about it for modes. The game also has only one stadium, a generic made-up arena, and doesn't have real players either. And of course, since this game doesn't have a battery, there is no way to change the players names, stats, etc. as you can do in Hardball III. All of the other Genesis Hardball games have all of the real stadiums, and the latter two have the real players as well. All have battery save, full season modes with multiple season length options, logos for the teams, and more. This game has none of that. And don't expect much vocal speech, either; there isn't much.

But it gets worse -- the gameplay itself isn't as good as it is in other Hardball games. This is still a mostly-one-button game, but it's compromised in the shift to consoles in ways that damage the game. Thankfully they undid these changes in the sequel. They made two major changes here which do not work well. First, the game has only one pitcher/batter view, a behind-the-pitcher viewpoint. The other Hardball games all have both behind-the-pitcher and behind-the-batter views. I have always thought that it's nearly impossible to bat well from the behind-the-pitcher view, so it's awful that that is the only view available here. I always play the other Hardball games only ever using the behind-the-batter view, and it's hard to get used to this games' opposite viewpoint. I know that Hardball 1 for computers is like this, but I've never played it, and this game released a year after Hardball II released for PCs, but this game has none of its improvements. Controls are also simplified. In this game, the pitcher gets a pitch-selection indicator, similar to the one in Hardball III. Pitchers all seem to have the same five pitches, massively dumbing down a major element of strategy from the other, better Hardball games where different pitchers have different pitches. If you press a direction while throwing you'll throw to that part of the plate, so the pitching is classic Hardball. The batter, however, does not get an indicator; instead you hit one button for a regular swing, or another for a bunt, and if you press the button with a direction you'll swing to that part of the strikezone. There is no Power swing option, and no indicator showing where you are swinging; you'll just have to try to guess where the ball is going from that awkward viewpoint that makes determining that overly difficult. As you might guess, batting is very hard in this game, and the AI has a huge advantage.

And once a ball goes into play, you see the other change versus other Hardball games -- you can't see a full field view at once. Instead, the game has a more zoomed-in look, and will scroll as the ball moves. It's not quite as zoomed in as some console baseball games, but it's too close for me. There is no ball indicator or fielder markers in the minimap; instead it only shows baserunner locations. So, you have to catch balls by tracking the ball and shadow, as usual in the series. This is easier to do when you can actually see the whole field, so catching balls requires running towards the location before your fielder is even on screen. It's not great. So, overall, Hardball! is a below-average baseball game, and a big disappointment for me considering how much I love the Hardball series. By changing this game to make it less Hardball they messed it up, and by cheaping out on the featureset they make the game somewhat irrelevant. There is no reason to buy this game; get Hardball III or '95 instead. This is basically a Genesis remake of the original Hardball game which was released on a lot of computer platforms.


HardBall '94 - 1-2 player simultaneous, battery save. Hardball '94 is a console-exclusive followup to the incredible Hardball III. This game has the same basic gameplay as Hardball III, so just read that summary for how this game plays because it's the same. On the positive side, Hardball '94 has slightly improved graphics with redrawn sprites, the real MLB players with full rosters from the 1993 season, and the Marlins and Rockies expansion teams and their stadiums. On the negative side, though, most of the voiced announcing is gone. This game has almost as little speech as Hardball! above, sadly. I miss Al Michaels' choppy speech bytes here. I also miss the Hardball III visuals, actually; yes, this game has better visuals, but I love the look of Hardball III, so this 'better' look isn't really a positive for me. I do like that the game has the real players, though. Hardball III on PC has an addon that I have to give you the real players, but you can't get that on Genesis. And the gameplay itself is more of the great same as Hardball III. You've still got single game, full season, and home run derby modes; the classic one-button-with-menus gameplay which works so well; those great zoomed-out field views that let you see all the way from home plate to the outfield in the direction the ball is going; pitchers each with their own specific set of pitches; you can save a game in progress at any time if you don't have the time to finish a whole game in one sitting; and everything else. It's a great game. However, is there much reason to get Hardball '94 in specific? The problem is, while I don't own it for some stupid reason, there is also a final Genesis Hardball game: Hardball '95. That game also has the real players, but it's also got graphics which have been improved yet again, and full voice announcing from Al Michaels returns! Really, just get Hardball III and Hardball '95, those are the console Hardball games to buy. On PC, Hardballs III (with the MLB Players Disk), 4, and 5 are the best ones.


Haunting Starring Polterguy - 1 player. Haunting starring Polterguy is a weird game from EA. This is a ... uh, action-adventure? game where you play as a ghost boy and have to scare a family out of a series of houses. You were a cool guy you see, but died because of this uncaring jerk, so it's time to get revenge! You don't hurt anyone, just scare them, but still, taking out your unhappiness on people who didn't directly cause anything doesn't seem right. So, you are a ghost, though you're green so you sort of look like a zombie. You move around the house, trying to scare the four family members by possessing objects in the rooms and making creepy things happen. Lots of things can be possessed, but eventually they will start to repeat, and scaring people is most all you do in this game. Once you enter something you can possess you've set your trap; this uses a bit of ghost energy. You can possess a cabinet and make the drawers move, possess vacuum cleaners and turn them on, and more. Once scared enough the victim will run to another room, and your goal is to keep scaring them until they flee the house. When they flee a room they drop some ghost energy powerups. It's not as easy as it sounds, though, because peoples' scare level will slowly decrease over time, and you never know exactly what they are going to do; you can't control the family members, after all. You never know which way people will flee so there's no guarantee of getting them to run into locations you have trapped or can get to in time, and there's that always-depleting ghost-energy meter to worry about as well. If you take too long without getting scares and it empties, you will be dropped into the underworld. Here you have to run around collecting items while avoiding or fighting off some enemies. This is the only place in the game where you actually fight. You can only lose for good if you fail to get out of the underworld, so you don't have limited chances, but it is an additional challenge and I think it gets harder if you get sent there more. On the whole, Haunting starring Polderguy has an interesting and original premise, but the gameplay gets repetitive. The game is funny, and fun, at first, and watching the familys' reactions to your scares can be pretty amusing. However, the game doesn't have much variety. There are four houses to get through, but by the time you finish the first one, you've seen most everything there is to see in this game. The core gameplay is a simple repeat of scare-scare-scare, and while the game is original and I like that this is a (mostly) non-violent game, it does get old. The game also won't be easy, as the people get harder to scare out of the house as you progress. Still, despite the repetition, Haunting is a unique game that can be fun. It's definitely worth a try.


Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones - 1 player, 6-button controller supported (and recommended). Instruments of Chaos might seem promising. This is an Indiana Jones platformer published by Sega for the Genesis, after all! It's got to be good, right? Wrong. This game is by Brian A. Rice, Inc., with art from Waterman Designs. The former studio didn't release a game after the year this game was published and shut down some time shortly afterwards, and the latter only ever worked on this one game. Yeah, that's not promising, but the game is worse. In fact, this is one of the worst games I have played for the Genesis. Everything that can go wrong with a Western platformer does, here. The game has okay graphics, but the controls and gameplay go so horribly wrong that it doesn't matter. You are Indiana Jones, so you have a whip, of course. Unfortunately, it's seriously underpowered and is hard to control. You have separate buttons for jumping and each of your three weapons. You press and hold the whip button to take it out, then use teh d-pad to wave it around. You cannot move while using the whip; the pad now swings it. You have to swing the whip back then forth to hit, so first hit left then right in order to attack with it to the right. It's a decent system which tries to simulate actually swinging around a whip, sort of like the whip controls in Super Castlevania IV for the SNES but more complex and much worse. In that game whip controls are good and accurate, but here they are frustrating, both because it takes too many hits to kill things with the whip, and because the back-and-forth motions required take quite a while; actually hitting things isn't as easy as it should be. And of course, you're standing there unmoving while doing this, while enemies surely attack you. And the game has lots of enemies swarming you constantly. Your jumping controls are not great either; Indy does not control well, movement is far too stiff and imprecise. He'll often go randomly bouncing around in directions you didn't mean.

Your other two weapons are a gun and grenades. These both have very limited ammo, and aren't always useful -- lots of enemies are small and you can't aim down to shoot them with your gun, for example. And that's all you've got. Good luck; defeating the enemies in this game won't be easy, or worth your time. Levels are large and open, and as in a lot of Western platforms you'll be wandering all over looking for stuff. The game has five huge levels to complete, and you can do the first four in any order. You have objectives in each, so you don't just go to the right. This isn't great because the levels are far too large and annoying to traverse to make that exploration any fun at all. There are some puzzles to figure out here and there, but there are a lot more unfair traps, irritating jumps, difficult whip-jumps over things which can hurt you, and more, always while being swarmed by baddies. And all that while dealing with your seriously underpowered arsenal and weak, slow-to-control whip! It's a bad combination. I like the concept of a whip in an Indy game with more realistic controls, but this game perhaps shows why that hasn't happened -- it doesn't work well. And that's only the start of the problems. The game does have decently-drawn graphics and okay music, but the awful controls and bad level designs ruin the game. Instruments of Chaos seems to have been designed to annoy. I got this game hoping it wouldn't be as bad as its reputation suggests, but sadly, it is. Skip this one! It's one of the worst games Sega published for the Genesis.


Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings - 1 player. Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings is an average, or slightly below average, licensed platformer from US Gold. Here you play as the mascot for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Izzy. He's a blue rectangle, or something like that, with eyes and feet. US Gold was, despite the name, a British company, so this is a euro-platformer. The game looks nice and makes a decent first impression, but the gameplay doesn't match up to the visuals. Your goal is to reach the end of each stage, but along the way you've got to collect lots and lots of medals, gems, torches, checkpoints, limited-use powerups, and more as you explore some good-sized, and sometimes boring, levels. As usual there are three levels in each environment followed by a boss fight. You only get two continues and there is no saving, so beating the game will be a challenge that requires a lot of repeat play and memorization; this isn't a really hard game, but it is fairly easy to die sometimes and you do have those limited continues. Izzy defeats enemies by jumping on them. You have two different jump buttons, one for a slightly shorter-range jump which will kill enemies without damaging you, and the other for a longer-range jump which will hurt you if you touch an enemy while using it. It's a bit odd, but you do get used to it. The game also has a momentum system, and those medals work sort of like Sonic rings in that if you get three you will lose them instead of dying the next time you get hit, so the game clearly took some inspiration from Sonic. At specific points in levels, you will get a variety of different powerups, each based on some real sport. Izzy can get a hang-glider, baseball bat, bow and arrows, and more. Unfortunately, you cannot use these freely, but only within a small, confined area marked out by red flags. Leave the specified area, or reach the end of the hang-glider route, and you lose the ability and are back to normal. With weapons like the bat or bow you cannot jump while using them, either; all of your jump buttons are replaced with weapon-use buttons. I like the concept of powers, and it's great how Izzy looks and animates differently for each one, but it is a bit frustrating that you can only use them in these very confined areas.

Gameplay in Izzy's Quest is simple. Just walk along, searching the level for secrets and platforms while you grab all the stuff you can. Getting three medals so that you can take a hit is essential, but many of the rest are just there for points, or to give you access to the between-levels bonus stages you can get if you get enough medals. The game has few to no bottomless pits and no blind jumps, which is great. The controls are average, with some control issues thanks to the not-great momentum system. In the levels, secret stuff is absolutely everywhere, It is a bit satisfying to find things at first, but after a while constantly getting random stuff from every corner of the stage can get repetitive. The only real variety here are in those power-up sections, and they are usually short. There is one long hang-gliding section in the second stage, but otherwise the first world is all standard platforming, and the formula continues after that. Overall, this is an okay but unexciting game. The game does have nice and nicely animated graphics, though they're not among the best on the system, but the gameplay is extremely generic exploration-focused platforming of a kind you can find in a lot of games on this system, often done better than it is here. Still, you can do worse than Izzy's Quest for the Olympic Rings; the game does look and play okay. I don't particularly like this game, and it probably is a bit below average, but it's not that bad either. Playing it for this summary I did have some fun. Perhaps try the game if you like this kind of platformer. Also on SNES.


James Pond: Underwater Agent - 1 player. James Pond: Underwater Agent is the first game in what would become a popular platformer series, at least in its home region of Europe. The game, and its sequels, was developed by Millenium and published by EA. In America James Pond never was as popular, though we did get the three Genesis games and some of the SNES ones. This first game is visually simple compared to its sequels, but might be the most fun of the three, for me; it's a bit more original than the sequels, and the core gameplay is fun. You are James Pond, comedy fish James Bond knockoff. Yes, this series is full of comic James Bond references. I haven't watched enough Bond to get most of them, but still, they can be amusing sometimes. While its two sequels are more standard platformers, this game isn't; instead, you swim around in this game. You can shoot, though, so it's not just like playing only water levels in a 3d platformer. You shoot bubbles, specifically. Shot enemies get captured in the bubbles, then if you touch them they will die and drop an item. You shoot and pick up items each with a separate button, and the game controls fine. You can swim around freely, though this doesn't have awesome swimming controls like Ecco; instead it's just average move-as-you-press stuff. If you go up out of the water you will bounce endlessly, and die ify ou stay out of the water for too long, though sometimes you have to go up there anyway, for a while. Enemies aren't too hard to deal with generally and you do have a health bar, but it's hard to avoid hits sometimes, as often was true in Western games then, so this game is harder than it may initially seem. If you die you start the level over, and you get only two continues once you run out of lives. That ensures that you'll need to replay this game a lot to get through it, and I rarely enjoy that kind of design.

The game is fun to play, though. As this is a European game, exploration and collecting stuff are your main tasks. The game is loaded with stuff to collect, that's for sure. Some is optional stuff for points, but some is required. Levels are large and fairly open, and your goal is not to reach the end but instead is to complete the stated objective. In the first level you have to pick up keys and then use them to rescue some captured ally fish. Then in level two, you have to pick up bags of stuff scattered around the level and drop them off above the waters' surface for this 'beach bum' guy to pick up. I like that there is some variety. Levels are full of not only walls but also switches and teleporters from early on. Each level is made up of several multi-screen scrolling areas, connected with passages. Level designs are not great, but they are somewhat interesting and varied, though the game could use more environments. Visually the game looks like the average-looking Amiga port that it is. Audio is also okay but not amazing. Overall James Pond 1 is a decent side-view platformer-ish action-adventure game. You swim around, shooting bubbles at baddies, while finding the items you need for the current stage, then bringing them where they need to go. It's moderately fun stuff. Amiga port, also on Atari ST and Acorn Archimedes. All of the computer versions are Europe-only releases.


James Pond II: Codename RoboCod - 1 player. James Pond II: Robocod is the most popular game in this series by far. While the other James Pond games were mostly forgotten, this one has multiple ports to newer platforms, and I think it's thought of positively in the UK, where it's from. I think that the game is good, but not great. With the second game, James Pond shifts over to being a more traditional platformer, and the graphics get a lot better. This is an average to above average platformer with some decently nice cartoony graphics, okay controls with a unique mechanic, large levels with huge amounts of stuff to collect, and a kind of long game for something without saving. You can walk and jump around, but there is also one unique mechanic here: James can do a weird upwards-stretching move which allows you to move to platforms at any height directly above you. If you attach to a ceiling you can move around on the ceiling if you want, as well, and drop down anywhere you like. Otherwise this is a standard item-collection-focused Euro-platformer. James Pond is in Antarctica now and has to stop some penguins which, for some reason, are evil. I presume it's a reference to some James Bond movie, but I don't know which. The game is set in a giant castle which serves as a hub level. Only that is in the snow, while the levels you enter from there have a variety of settings, first a candy-themed world.

 

[A Black Falcon]

In each level your goal is to find the end goalpost. So, you don't have mission objectives, unlike the first game, but instead just need to find the exit. You don't just go to the right, though; instead exits can be anywhere, and you will need to explore to find them. Levels always scroll in all four directions, and yes, there are a lot of pickups to collect, if you care about points. The infinite-upward-stretch move is interesting and allows for some different level designs, but you do need to watch out -- if enemies run into you while stretching up you will be forced back down. Fortunately you don't seem to take damage from that, at least, which is nice. Also you can drop through some platforms, but not others. Being able to stretch up and walk on ceilings allows a lot of mobility, but the game still has plenty of tricky platform jumping, and, of course, blind jumps. You don't move too fast in this game, just average speed, but still you will need to make blind jumps, unfortunately. And just like the first game, you still have a two-continue limit in this game, which is a real problem. With a save system this game definitely would be better. Still, James Pond II is a fun game, and I can see why it was popular. Yes, the near-unavoidable hits can be annoying and the continue limit isn't great, but the game is more good than bad. James Pond II has nice graphics, some interesting game mechanics, and plenty of levels to work through. Amiga port. James Pond II has been released on many platforms over the years -- Atari ST, SNES, Game Boy, Amiga CD32, Acorn Archimedes, Commodore 64, PC, Game Gear, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Playstation, Playstation 2, and Sega Master System. Most of those are Europe-only, but the US did get the SNES, GBA, and DS versions. On SNES and GB the game is called "Super James Pond", and the GBA and DS remakes are titled "James Pond: Codename Robocod". If the GBA or DS versions add save systems, they'd probably be the best ones, but I only have this version.


James Pond 3: Operation Starfish - 1 player, password save (~30 characters long). James Pond 3 takes a more sci-fi approach to the series. This is another platformer, but it's different from the previous game. This time you move MUCH faster, with Sonic-esque speed. Your infinite-upward-stretch move is gone as well. Instead you've got various items scattered around the levels to pick up and use. You can only have one item at a time, though, so experimentation and puzzle-solving will be important here, more like in the first James Pond game. That's fine, and I like the nice cartoony space-themed graphics, but the game is a barely playable mess thanks to the very high speeds you move at. I want to like this game, but just can't. But yes, our fish hero is now an astro-fish and is on a weird alien world, or something like that. This is a bigger game than its predecessors -- there are apparently over 100 levels! The graphics are better than either previous game by a good margin this time, and the game finally adds a save system as well, with passwords. It's really too bad that the game is so frustrating and unfun. You just move too fast in this game; it's impossible to know what's coming as you zoom around, and you will inevitably run into deathtraps over and over again. And you can't always move at a crawl to see what's coming, either -- there are many angled slopes that you must be running at to clear... followed by pits. Argh! Also, while the game has passwords, and long ones too, you need to beat multiple levels before you get far enough to get one, and that's kind of hard in a game this fast and full of instant-death pits. James Pond 3 has a momentum system, fast movement, slippery controls, somewhat long levels, and instant death pits; it's not a great combination.
The game initially seems fun to play, though, as you look at the nice graphics, explore the first level or two, look for stuff to collect, and figure out the challenges and puzzles. There is a lot of stuff to collect, of course, for points as well as those items you can pick up and use as weapons or to solve puzzles, and again I do like this element of the game. Levels are large and full of secrets, and when you're not dying constantly it can be fun to explore them. This is an impressively large game in scope, and even if the passwords are irritatingly long, it's great that it has them because they allow for a bigger game than you'll find in the first two. However, overall the game is just too hard. The speed and level designs in this game do not mix well. It's bad design to have so many spike-filled pits and random enemies in the way that will hurt you in a game where you're often moving at almost uncontrollable speeds! That makes this a very memorization-heavy game, and that's not very fun. And that's really the issue here. Some people don't mind this kind of design, and this is surely a great game for them, but fast-moving games full of blind jumps are not something I find fun. The Sonic games on the Genesis balance this brilliantly, with high speeds but good level designs and not very many unfair traps. This game has far, far more of them, and it's not as good because of it. With lots of content, good graphics, plenty of variety, saving, and some interesting challenges James Pond 3: Operation Starfish is a good game if you can memorize what to do, I have no doubt of that, but the barrier to entry is high. This game was only released on the Genesis in the US, but in Europe it is also on Amiga, Atari ST, and SNES.


Jewel Master - 1 player. Jewel Master is a good platform-action game by Sega. From 1991 this is an earlier release for the system, and you can tell; the graphics, while I do like some of the sprite art, aren't the best. Backgrounds are average at best, and the enemies and your character are a mixed bag. For the other negatives, the game only has one life per continue, no checkpoints in levels so die and you start the stage over, and you only get three continues per game. You do have a health bar, but you can only die a couple of times before you're starting the game over. However, this game is much more good than bad. I like the concept here quite a bit, first. You are a mage guy, and are off on a quest to save the realm, or something. You use magic rings to cast spells, and can equip up to two rings on each hand. You fight only with magic; you don't have a weapon attack. That's great. The best control option isn't the default; switch to the one where B is jump and A and C use the ring(s) on each hand. At the start you have only two rings, one fire and one water, but you will get 12 rings in total as you progress through the game. Each different combination of rings will give you a different spell, or none at all. There are a lot of spells to find and use, which is pretty cool. In addition to rings, there are also health items and healthbar-expanding items to find in the levels. These are critical, as your healthbar will not refill between levels, and you start out with only two health jewels. Make sure to look for refill and health-expanding items, you need them! They are easy to find at first, fortunately. There aren't nearly enough sidescrollers where you play as a mage, so it's cool that you do in this game.

The rings system is a good idea as well. The strategy of dealing with the rings, choosing spells, trying out each new ring you get with the others to see what they will do, and such is fun. There is a cost, though: you will constantly be pausing the game to switch rings. Two buttons use the two equipped pairs of rings, and the other jumps, so you have to pause to switch equipment. Your spells include a variety of melee and ranged attacks, a shield, high jump, faster movement, and more. The better rings you get later on allow for more powerful versions of spells. The spells here aren't amazingly original, it's mostly a fairly conventional array of fireballs, waves, and such, but still there are some nice options. Different spells will be better in different stages, so experimentation really is key. Levels are reasonable-length, and each one has a boss at the end. I like the level designs here; you don't just walk to the right all the time. While you do do some of that, other levels have some larger and more open designs. Sometimes you will need to use specific spells to proceed, which keeps things interesting. Some enemies are also more vulnerable against specific spells than others, so there experiment with your attacks instead of just always sticking with one. The game has quite a few different enemies to fight, with new enemies in each stage, and they have different attack patterns as well. Bosses are also unique and interesting, and some levels have minibosses as well. The skeleton miniboss a few levels in which flies apart as you shoot him is a fun one. Your hero isn't too mobile, so it can sometimes be hard to avoid taking hits, but you do have that health bar. Overall Jewel Master is a fun little game. It's nothing amazing and there certainly are better platform-action games on the Genesis, and the constant pausing to switch rings and limited continues can be annoying, but I like the concept, spells, and gameplay. Exploring the levels blasting baddies and looking for secrets is quite fun, as is trying out the spells and deciding which two to use at each point in your adventure. Keep an eye out for Jewel Master, and do pick it up if you find it affordably.


Junction - 1-2 player simultaneous. Junction is a puzzle game inspired by Pipe Dream. Pipe Dream is sometehing of a classic, but it's a classic I have always found maybe more frustrating than fun. As in Pipe Dream, each stage is a single-screen top-view challenge. The screen is full of blocks with various lines on them. Unlike Pipe Dream, though, here you aren't trying to connect two points with a connected pipeline; instead, here you need to make a red ball, which follows along the track-line, go around all of the curving paths which are around the edges of the rectangular main field. These curving paths around the edges of the field cannot be moved. Instead, you shift around blocks inside the field. So, you aren't placing lines here; instead, you move them around as in a block-puzzle game, trying to line them up so as to make the ball go around the stage until it has gone around each of those outside paths once. Once the ball has gone around one it will disappear, and once all are gone, you win. That will be a serious challenge, but it can be a fun one. The game has 50 puzzles, and while you can't save your progress, instead the game simply allows you to start from any level in the options menu. So yeah, you can skip straight to level 50 if you want. It's a bit odd, but I'll take it! You can also set your lives per game, but this only matters if you're writing down scores or something. Junction has decent graphics with some nice backgrounds which shift every so often as you progress, or skip through levels in the menu. The music is fine as well. This is a simple game in scope and clearly didn't have a big budget, but they did a solid job creating a very tough, and somewhat original, puzzle game. I've rarely managed to get more than a few puzzles in before I quit in frustration -- block-swapping block puzzle games have never been something I've care for -- but this is a good game for the genre, and the Pipe Dream / block puzzle cross is an interesting idea. There is also a Game Gear version I haven't played.


Jungle Book, The - 1 player. The Jungle Book is a platformer from Virgin. Released the year after Aladdin this game is very much in the Dave Perry style, but Perry himself left Virgin partway through development of this game, and honestly it shows; The Jungle Book is no Aladdin, not even close. This game is a collection-heavy platformer with very nice graphics, but average gameplay. I'm sure that fans of the movie, particularly, will like it, but I think it's only okay. For some reason I don't think I ever saw The Jungle Book though, or at least i don't remember seeing it, unlike most of Disney's other major animated films, so the theme doesn't do much for me. You play as Mowgli, a boy living in the jungles of India. As always from Virgin the game has great graphics and animation. In each level you must find gems. There are 15 hidden in each level, and the number you need varies based on the difficulty you choose -- in easy you need 5, in normal 10, and in hard all 15. I don't think I'd want to play the game in hard; finding 10 is more than enough. There are also lots of other things to collect, including a variety of items which give you points, some which refill your health, and various projectiles. Mowgli will hurt enemies by jumping on them, or at least he usually will -- bosses often require projectiles only -- so collecting projectile ammo is important. Once you have found ten of the gems, you need to go to the end of the level, generally on the right side somewhere, either high or low. Until you get enough even if you reach the end you'll have to go backtrack. Fortunately enemies you've killed do stay dead, so there is at least that. Still, the constant backtracking and collecting is a bit tedious sometimes. The controls are also only okay. You will definitely take a lot of unavoidable hits in this game. You do have health, but losing lives is inevitable, particularly in boss levels which seem to happen about at the usual place, every three stages. The game is loaded with bottomless pits as well, and with the blind-jump-encouraging level designs and camera this game has, every missed jump or leap into the unknown is a possible death. Blind-jump deaths are a huge problem in this game, and you have limited lives and continues in this game, and no saving of course. Bah. You can often see where you are going, but not always. Still, wandering around levels jumping on or shooting enemies while collecting stuff is sometimes fun. The Jungle Book is an average game on the whole, but platformer fans might want to give it a look anyway. It does look nice, and the gameplay is okay.


Jurassic Park - 1 player, password save. Jurassic Park is an average platform-action game from Blue Sky Software and published by Sega. Blue Sky would later go on to make one of the Genesis's best action games in Vectorman, but before that their games were nowhere near that level, and you see that here. This is an okay game with some nice visuals, but the gameplay has some issues. Based on the hit dinosaurs-come-to-life movie of the same name, Jurassic Park allows you to play as two characters, main character Alan Grant or a Velociraptor. Yes, you can play as a raptor, which is pretty cool. Each character has their own set of levels to play through. Each quest isn't all that long, but it'll be reasonably challenging along the way. Thankfully the game does have a password system, unlike most Genesis platformers, so you don't need to play the whole thing in one sitting. That's awesome. The game has okay but not great controls. The game feels slightly Prince of Persia-inspired, so you move somewhat stiffly and cannot control yourself in the air while jumping very much, particularly as Grant. The Raptor can jump more than a screen into the air so you can move around in the air a bit more there, but still it's largely determined by the direction you hit before you leave the ground. I don;t like the somewhat restrictive controls; freer movement controls would be great. Even though this game isn't full PoP, it's a hybrid, I've never cared for Prince of Persia's control style in general and don't love how this game controls either. Blind jumps are also a huge problem, particularly with that raptor and its multi-screens-high jumps. The game doesn't throw lots of blind pits at your right from the start, but there are some here and there from early on and it is far too easy to accidentally jump into one. At least you have those passwords to help out, so you don't need to restart the game after doing so as you would in most other Genesis platformers; that's nice.

As Grant, you have a bunch of guns to use to take down the dinosaurs with, but move at only a moderate speed. You will collect a bunch of different weapons, and finding ammo is important. You've got a stun-gun, grenades, taser, and more. It's a nice arsenal, though sometimes you can feel underpowered, and ammo is limited. Grant has one fire button and one switch-weapons button. As the Raptor you only have your fangs and claws, but you move pretty fast. The Raptor has separate buttons for claws and biting. It's probably more fun to play as the Raptor -- any regular enemy will die instantly if you jump on them, and running around tearing apart humans and dinosaurs is fun stuff. Get revenge on those humans! Heh. I like the two different routes through the game; sort of like in Desert Demolition the two really are different. Both routes go through mostly the same environments, but they aren't all in the same order and the actual levels are different. The background graphics are very good in this game. The green jungle in the first stage is particularly impressive. Sprites are very dithered, but I don't mind; I think the game looks pretty good. Still, actually playing the game isn't quite as fun as I'd like, thanks in part to the not-great controls and also the level designs. This is not a straightforward action game; instead, levels often require you to jump from specific places in order to progress, and you'll have to find those places. It can be annoying from early on. Those blind jumps don't help either. It also can be hard to avoid taking damage sometimes, and health powerups aren't as common as perhaps they should be.

Still, Jurassic Park is an okay game which can be fun. I came into the game with somewhat low expectations because it's not a game I have lots of nostalgia for or often hear is really great. The game didn't disappoint, but isn't amazing either. The graphics are probably a bit better than I was expecting and that's nice, but the gameplay is about as flawed as I expected, unfortunately. Still, this is a decent game and it is at average, anyway. It's pretty cool that you can play as a Raptor as well as a human, though it is so fast that staying out of danger is difficult. Still, it really is fun to play as the raptor. The level designs in this game can be an issue, though, thanks to the unclear paths and blind jumps. Still, the game's alright. Don't spend much for this one unless you are a big series fan, though. For the $3 I paid for a complete copy it was absolutely worth getting; there is enough of interest here that platformer fans might want to consider the game if you find it cheap. Blue Sky made a sequel to this game, Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition. That game has a much stronger focus on shooting and action and less on frustrating exploration, and is supposed to be much better as a result. I haven't played it, though.


Kid Chameleon - 1 player. Kid Chameleon is a platformer from Sega from 1992, developed by some people in Sega of America who soon would be called Sega Technical Institute. This game predates the name, but it is considered a STI game. You are Kid Chameleon, a cool '90s guy who has been sucked in to a VR arcade game gone wrong! You're '90s cool though, so the boss won't beat you, unlike those other kids... well, hopefully; that will be difficult. This game is a huge, expansive platformer. With over a hundred levels, good controls, plenty of settings to explore, various costumes to find and wear to get added powers, secret exits that lead to multiple routes through the game, and more, this game is impressive on many levels. The graphics aren't one of them, though. While STI's later games often impress visually, this game has average-at-best graphics. Backgrounds are decently drawn but not amazing, and sprites are smaller than usual for a Genesis game and are artistically average. Kid Chameleon and his enemies are kind of small in this game. This allows for larger levels and good visibility, so you won't have as many blind-jump problems in this game as in many other Genesis platformers, but it doesn't look as nice. The game also has a lot of blocks to break, Mario-style. Some are just generic blocks, others have items in them. You'll be doing a lot of jumping at blocks in this game. Between that and the smaller characters, this game is a bit more Mario-like than most of Sega's Genesis games. Kid Chameleon has different outfits too, which drop from blocks, a bit like Mario. The Samurai outfit gets you a sword, the helmet-knight a hard helmet, and many more. Each one slightly changes the way the game plays.

This is a Western platformer, though, so it's not Mario. You have a health bar in this game, levels are a bit less straightforward than they usually would be in a Mario game, and the controls, while good, aren't quite Mario or Sonic-great. Kid Chameleon feels a little loose to control, though it's fine as it is. Levels are intricately designed and always interesting. I like the levels here, though the game does get difficulty in a hurry. Thanks to the zoomed-out view you can see a good way, but there is the occasional blind jump. Thankfully the game doesn't have many death pits, but still taking damage can be bad; you only have a few hit points per costume. I like the varied level designs though, they are a strength of the game. There are always secrets to look for and lots of stuff to find as you explore. Yes, most are blocks to break with gems in them that only give you points, but sometimes they drop nice new costumes, so that's fine. One part had me stuck for a while before I figured out how to climb up vertical walls, but once I got the hang of it it added to the game. Really, in a lot of ways the game plays more like an early '90s PC shareware game than most of Sega's platformers for the Genesis do, and that's great; PC shareware games were the games I grew up on. So the game is mostly good, but it has one problem. Unfortunately, it's a big one. The main problem with the game is its length and difficulty. While most paths through Kid Chameleon go through a lot less than 100 levels, but still this is a long game, far too long for something with no saving and, as usual on the Genesis, irritatingly limited continues. Seriously, the Genesis is one of my favorite systems, but it'd be even better if more of the games had saving. Even passwords would be great in a game like this. Though Kid Chameleon is a good game for sure, I've never gotten deep in to it thanks to the save/continue system. This is a difficult game that will take quite some time to get through, if you ever do, but the quality shows through regardless. The exploration element is fun as you look for the many routes through the game, the level designs are good to great, and the core gameplay is solid. Kid Chameleon isn't one of the best Genesis platformers, but it is a good B-grade title well worth playing. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega's Genesis games.

 

[A Black Falcon]

King of the Monsters 2 - 1-2 player simultaneous, 6 button controller supported. King of the Monsters 2 is a 1-on-1 isometric fighting/wrestling game from Takara. While not one of SNK's better-known franchises, King of the Monsters is a fun Godzilla-inspired series. While this game has the same name as SNK's Neo-Geo and SNES game of the same name, this is a simpler game than those. While that game is a beat 'em up slash monster fighting/wrestling game, this one ditches the long scrolling levels and beat 'em up elements in favor of straight 1-on-1 fights only. This game has a conventional fighting game framework, so matches are best-of-three-rounds, and arenas are limited in size. This is still a good game, but I like the original game more. Takara published both this and the SNES game, so I don't know why they decided to make that one a good port of the arcade original, while this one is a scaled-back fighter only. It's unfortunate that they did. Still, the fights play just like they should, which is good. The game also does have one interesting feature, you can play as the enemy bosses! There are nine playable characters in this game, including the three protagonists from the Neo-Geo/SNES game, or six of the bosses from that game. You can only play as the three 'good' monsters in the original game, so it is kind of cool to be able to play as the bosses. It's just a 1-on-1 game so it makes sense to let you play as the whole roster, but it is fun to play as the various bosses from that game. This is a cut-rate game presentation-wise, though. There isn't a final boss, for instance; you just fight a harder version of your current character in the last stage of the game. That's disappointing. No depth was added to make up for the lost beat 'em up sections, either; this is still a very basic button-masher. And the ten arenas, while nice looking, are only a fraction of the amount of content from the original game. The graphics are good and are translated over well from the Neo-Geo, but the music's not great, unfortunately. At least the nine monsters do look good though. The game does have eight difficulty options, and you can choose how many continues you get as well, though just choosing Infinite makes the most sense; it is an option.

Even if it has no depth though, the game is fun to play. This is an isometric game, so you move around in all four directions. You are a giant monster, so while fighting your rivals, you can also destroy the scenery. Levels usually have a bunch of small buildings to destroy. Stomping the smaller buildings and crushing the larger ones is fun stuff. This game is no Rampage, it's mostly focused on the monster fighting, but the city-destroying bits are amusing. Despite the small-ish arenas there thankfully are still a good amount of things to destroy here. You have three actions, jump and two attacks. Characters do have a few special moves, but they're only very basic motions and aren't necessary. The game is, for the most part, a button masher. In addition to the normal attacks, when the two monsters get close, they grapple. This is the wrestling component, though it really is just a pure button masher. Wiggle that stick and hit the main button repeatedly and you'll probably win; that's all there is to it. Whoever wins will throw the other for a bit of damage. It gets repetitive, but it works. The game also has powerups that spawn from some destroyed buildings, and also from certain little vehicles and such that move around each stage. These can power you up, refill some health, and more, so collecting them is important. This is hardly a complex or deep fighting game, as there isn't much depth and button-mashing is central to the game, but it is fun and entertaining, On the default difficulty this game isn't very difficult, though a few monsters may give you trouble. In multiplayer or the harder settings it will last a bit longer, but still this is a short game. Overall, King of the Monsters 2 is okay. Visually the game looks good and is a solid conversion of the arcade game, and the gameplay is just like the arcade and SNES game. However, the limited design of this version really holds it back. It's an okay game, but the original arcade/SNES KotM2 game, with the beat 'em up side of the game intact, is better. This game might be worth getting if you are a series fan and want to play as the bosses from Kind of the Monsters 2, and the game is the best versus mode in the series, but otherwise just stick to regular King of the Monsters 2 for Neo-Geo or SNES. The Neo-Geo version is available in various Neo-Geo collections and digital re-releases. This one may have the same name, but it's a lower-budget, smaller affair. It's an entertaining game that is brainless fun, but the lacking depth means that you probably won't be playing this long-term. Still, this is a fun little game to play once in a while. I like SNK so I had to get this game, and I do like it enough to make it probably be worth getting, but non-fans probably should pass on this one.

 

[Phediuk]

jesus christ dude

 

[@MUWANdo]

For fuck's sake dude, just link this shit. Here's your last update condensed into a few lines as opposed to a wall of text no-one in their right mind will read:

HardBall!
HardBall &#8217;94
Haunting Starring Polterguy
Instruments of Chaos starring Young Indiana Jones
Izzy&#8217;s Quest for the Olympic Rings
James Pond: Underwater Agent
James Pond II: Codename RoboCod
James Pond 3: Operation Starfish
Jewel Master
Junction
Jungle Book, The
Jurassic Park
Kid Chameleon
King of the Monsters 2

Two minute's work. You're doing it on your site, just cut/paste it here if you really want to share, no-one's going to get mad about self-promotion or any of that crap.

Just to be clear, I'm not dumping on your review or on you for writing them, I just wish you'd take the time to format/present them in a more reader-friendly manner.

 

[rezn0r]

you should get Phantasy Star III. yes I know it's the worst one.

 

[mysteriousmage09]

All I can do is laugh.

Dude wrote a book.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Rare picture of A Black Falcon while prepping for a new GAF thread:

 

[A Black Falcon]

For fuck's sake dude, just link this shit. Here's your last update condensed into a few lines as opposed to a wall of text no-one in their right mind will read:

Why would there be any difference between reading it here versus there? I'[d think it's more likely people would read something actually in the thread, as opposed to having to go to a link.

Two minute's work. You're doing it on your site,

Well, I am now thanks to the advice I got earlier in this thread about how to set up those links, but yeah.

just cut/paste it here if you really want to share, no-one's going to get mad about self-promotion or any of that crap.

I don't know about that, don't people care about self-promotion? I don't think you often see people here make threads for their own articles and then just link to their own sites... unless I'm wrong about that?

Just to be clear, I'm not dumping on your review or on you for writing them, I just wish you'd take the time to format/present them in a more reader-friendly manner.

How is it so different on the blog versus here, though? It's all text either way. The only real difference are the links that only a few of the articles have (I haven't gone back to add them to all the old Game Opinion Summaries articles, it'd take a long time)...

Rare picture of A Black Falcon while prepping for a new GAF thread:

http://lafrusta.homestead.com/files/tolstoj2.jpg[/QUOTE]
Heh... close, but not quite. I should write this stuff in a word processor I know, I have some, but for these things I mostly just use Notepad. :p

 

[A Black Falcon]

Only eight this week, but several are among the system&#8217;s best games, so enjoy!

Games this update
&#8212;
Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole
Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters
Light Crusader
Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar
Lost Vikings, The
Lost World, The: Jurassic Park
Lotus Turbo Challenge
Lotus Turbo Challenge II: RECS


Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole &#8211; 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Landstalker, made by Climax Entertainment and published by Sega, is an amazing action-adventure game, and my favorite game like this on the Genesis. This game is one part Zelda and one part isometric platform-action game, essentially. The isometric view is divisive, but it works better here than in almost any other game I have played. I found it fairly easy to get used to the controls in Landstalker. There are times when you&#8217;ll miss jumps because judging distance in isometric 3d is difficult, but the game won&#8217;t kill you for it, you&#8217;ll just fall down to a lower area and such. This helps make the game less frustrating than some other isometric games, such as Light Crusader below. Landstalker has great graphics, a nice anime-cartoony art style with a good look to it, good music, a large world to explore, and a somewhat lengthy quest to take on. This is a big game, and it isn&#8217;t as straightforward as Beyond Oasis, either; you will often be wandering around the game world trying to figure out where you&#8217;re supposed to go next. This can be frustrating at times, but do stick with it &#8212; the game is well worth the effort! You play as Nigel, an elf adventurer off to find a great treasure with the help of a fairy who supposedly knows where it is. The story is fairly light in tone, fitting the cartoony art style, though some serious things do happen. Still, this game can be amusing at times, and shows it right from the start. Landstalker doesn&#8217;t have a great story, but it is an amusing one and helps keep you going through the game as you try to figure out what to do next, or how to beat the next challenge.

This is an isometric game, so you move at an angle. All areas of this game are broken up into areas that are a few screens large, and connect to the next area via connecting &#8216;doors&#8217; that are generally in the middle of the side. The general concept is similar to how Zelda: A Link to the Past, Beyond Oasis, and others work, except for that Landstalker uses clearly-marked connecting doors, instead of just &#8216;walk off the edge to scroll the screen&#8217;. I like this style, and it works great. The broken-up world helps keep you focused on the current area, and makes each one different. This is an action-adventure game in the Zelda vein, though, so you don&#8217;t just explore a world; there are also a lot of monsters to fight and puzzles to solve. Landstalker has a unique feel to it, though, as the Zelda/isometric platform game hybrid is interesting and makes this game feel different from any other. Landstalker&#8217;s puzzles are not like Zelda puzzles, either. While in Zelda or Crusader of Centy puzzles usually focus on using the items/helpers you have collected in the right ways, Nigel here mostly just fights with his sword. You will get inventory items, but your sword will always be your main equipment. There are some block-pushing puzzles of course, &#8216;kill the enemies&#8217; puzzles, jumping puzzles, and many switch-hitting puzzles, but the game has some logic puzzles as well, rarely for this genre! Landstalker is mostly focused on platforming and action, but the variety of challenges helps keep the game interesting. Nigel&#8217;s sword has a pretty good range and this game controls great, so combat is easy and fun. Compare this to Light Crusader below where your character David&#8217;s starting attack range is far too short for a nice comparison of good versus sort-of-bad isometric game design. Landstalker is a challenging game for sure, though. If you die and don&#8217;t have a resurrection item or something, you go back to the main menu and have to load your last save; your progress is lost. This can be pretty harsh, as save points are mostly at towns, not in dungeons. So yeah, try not to die at bosses, getting back there can be a pain, and bosses will often take some practice to beat. Some of those jumping puzzles can be tricky as well, and I wish that the game gave you better clues about what you should be doing sometimes; wandering around lost is never fun. Still, the game is mostly great and is worth the effort.

Visually, Landstalker looks quite good, though Beyond Oasis looks even better. That game did release a few years after this one, though, and Landstalker still holds up very well. Environments are static and do not animate, but that&#8217;s normal for the time, and the art design and detail is impressive. Areas are well-designed and complex. The level designs here definitely take a lot from isometric action-platformer designs, but it&#8217;s all made more accessible than those games often were &#8212; think of Solstice for the NES for example, for a particularly harsh one. And again, I really like the games&#8217; art design. Overall Landstalker is a fantastic game, and easily one of the best RPG-ish action-adventure games of the generation. It&#8217;s probably #3 on my list for the generation, after only Zelda: Link&#8217;s Awakening for the GB and Illusion of Gaia for SNES. The sometimes unclear objectives and harsh penalty for dying are minor complaints compared to the games&#8217; many strengths. Landstalker has good graphics and music, great level designs, highly polished gameplay, very good, responsive controls, a sometimes amusing story, fun if simple combat, some intresting puzzles with a fair amount of variety, and more! This is a really outstanding must-play game. The isometric perspective may take a few minutes to get used to, but don&#8217;t let you stop you from playing this classic. Climax made several more isometric games after Landstalker, including Lady Stalker for SNES, Dark Savior for Saturn, and Time Stalkers for Dreamcast, but none quite recapture the magic of the original. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega&#8217;s Genesis games. Since cart copes do have now very old batteries in them which are starting to fail, unless you can switch out those batteries yourself maybe a digital copy on a modern system might be a good idea&#8230;


Lethal Enforcers II: Gun Fighters &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, Justifier light gun supported. Lethal Enforcers II is the sequel to the then-popular light-gun shooter Lethal Enforcers. I have the first one on Sega CD, and this one on cart, so see my Sega CD list for my thoughts on that game. While the first game was something of a hit, this Genesis/Sega CD sequel didn&#8217;t do quite as well, though the gameplay is just as good. The gameplay is more of the same, but the setting has changed; while the first Lethal Enforcers was set in the present day, as the title suggests this game takes place in the Wild West. I like the new setting, it fits very well for a light gun game. As with the first one, this is a very, very simple game: You simply need to shoot all badguys as they appear on screen, without hitting the innocents who like to run right into your sights. You can play with either a Justifier light gun (if you are playing on a CRT TV) or with the gamepad. The game controls better and is more fun with lightguns, of course, but it is playable with a pad. This is a very simple game. Just shoot the baddies, shoot some more badguys, then shoot some more. Every so often you will move to a new environment chasing the badguys around, but most areas are static screens. As with the first game though sometimes you will be on a moving vehicle, here carriages instead of cars of course, as a background loop scrolls past. This game has decent graphics with the same digitized-actors look that the first game used. At the time digitized people in games was considered really awesome stuff, but it has aged since; this game looks okay, but looking back the visuals are nothing special. The gameplay has no depth either, and isn&#8217;t quite as fun or varied as, say, T2: The Arcade Game is. Still, Lethal Enforcers 2 is a fun little lightgun game, worth getting for a few bucks if you like this genre. This game has aged much worse than many of the other popular Genesis games, but there is still some fun to be had. Arcade port, also on Sega cD. The SCD versions of the Lethal Enforcers games have improved audio and maybe also graphics, but mostly seems to be the same as the cart releases.


Light Crusader &#8211; 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Light Crusader is an isometric action-adventure dungeon-crawler game from Treasure. Treasure is famous for their great games like Dynamite Headdy or Gunstar Heroes, but also has a history of making &#8230; more average &#8230; games as well, and this is one of the latter type, unfortunately. Light Crusader is not a bad game, but it&#8217;s not all that good, either. This is a simple, small-scale game. The game has a very Western art style, an interesting choice for a Japanese game. The game looks okay to good, but isn&#8217;t really impressive looking, particularly for a 1995 release; Treasure could do better. You are Sir David, and need to save the kingdom from evil by going through a six-floor dungeon. Yes, this one dungeon with town above is the whole game. It will be a challenging journey, and I lost interest somewhere around floor two of the dungeon, but the scale of the game is limited. As with most isometric games of the time &#8212; Solstice, those numerous &#8217;80s European computer games, etc.&#8211; the world is broken up into screens, each a separate challenge. You have a map on the pause menu, thankfully, to help you navigate the maze of rooms. This game really is Treasure&#8217;s attempt at a game like Solstice and such, and it shows throughout, from that Western art style, to the kinds of puzzles and challenges you will face in the rooms, to the general look and feel of the game. I don&#8217;t like Solstice all that much, though, and don&#8217;t care for this game either. Of the isometric games I have for the Genesis, Landstalker and Sonic 3D Blast are the good ones, while this is well behind in third.

Ingame, you explore around the dungeon. Levels have blocks to push, switches to hit, treasures and items to collect or buy, enemies to kill, and tricky jumping puzzles to solve. Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell the perspective in this game, so jumping puzzles are harder than they should be. I have much less trouble making jumps in Landstalker than I do here, it&#8217;s just a little easier to see where you are there. Combat is also worse than Landstalker, as your attack range is far too short. Your sword barely hits beyond your sprite, so you&#8217;re going to take hits all the time while trying to fight the enemies. It&#8217;s frustrating stuff. I do like some of the puzzles, though, and the game will make you think as you explore around and try to figure out what you can do &#8212; where can I push that block? What is that pillar emitting a beam for? Etc. Puzzles start easy, but get harder as you progress in a reasonable curve. There are also occasional bosses along the way, and these can be tough, particularly with your short attack range. I&#8217;m not sure if it&#8217;s worth the hassle; sure, with enough tries you can probably beat them and you can save your game at save rooms so you don&#8217;t have to start over from the start after dying (as long as the cart battery lasts, that is), but I just don&#8217;t find this game very fun to play. I&#8217;ve never gotten past floor two, and when trying the game again for this summary I was happy to quit after dying at the first boss; it meant I didn&#8217;t have to play the game anymore. Light Crusader is an average game for its genre, overall &#8212; it&#8217;s better than some, but worse than others. The game has okay graphics and some decent puzzles, but the frustrating jumping, unfun combat, and limited scale of the game all hold it back. Probably don&#8217;t bother with this one unless you like this kind of game, or really want to play all of Treasure&#8217;s games. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega&#8217;s Genesis games.


Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar &#8211; 1 player. Lightening Force, also known as Thunder Force IV, is Techno Soft&#8217;s last and best Genesis shmup. This game released in 1992, the year the shmup genre peaked in game releases in Japan. This is an absolutely incredible game, easily among the best shmups of the generation in both graphics and gameplay. The game begins with LIGHTENING FORCE scrolling by interspersed with scenes of your ship, as the games great opening fanfare plays, and it just gets better from there! Visually Lightening Force might be the Genesis&#8217;s best-looking shooter. The story is somewhat depressing apparently, going by the ending; there is no story before the end, just as it should be in this genre, but the end is a bit dark. There are ten levels here, average for the genre, with a boss at the end of each one. You can play the first four levels in any order, which is interesting, but after finishing them the second half of the levels are played in order. The default first level is particularly amazing looking with its numerous layers of parallax scrolling. All levels in this game are several screens tall, more than usual for the genre, and have multiple layers of parallax of both the strip-parallax and full parallax layer varieties. This game has maybe the best parallax scrolling of any game in the 4th generation. The sprite graphics and art design are also fantastic and very well drawn. This game gets about as much out of the Genesis as it can, and the results are impressive. Oh, and the music is great too! Lightening Force has a really great electronic techno/rock soundtrack that adds a lot to the intensity of this already-intense game. The soundtrack is one of the better ones on the system. This game both looks and sounds incredible. It is perhaps an issue that the first level is probably the best looking, but many later stages also look really great as well, and almost all have many layers of parallax. The only issue with this game visually is that it does have slowdown, but with this much action on screen it was probably inevitable even on the Genesis. Lightening Force pushes the Genesis hard.

And behind all of the awesome presentation is a fantastic, rock-solid game with great, extremely responsive controls, a nice variety of weapons that are both powerful and fun to use, and a huge number of enemies to shoot. Enemies come from the front, back, above, and below, and you always need to remember that there are going to be enemies above and below you. Unless you have a shield you die in one hit of course, so you need to be careful. There are five weapons to get though, and each can be upgraded to a more powerful form if you can stay alive. My favorite weapon is the Blade weapon, but all have their uses, and you will switch between them regularly, particularly for when enemies attack from behind and you switch to weapons better at dealing with that. This is easy enough, though, thankfully, if you know what to do; memorization is important here, as always in this genre. If you die you respawn where you died, until you run out of lives and continues of course, though you do lose your currently-equipped weapon, so try not to die with the better ones if you can. At the end of each level there is a boss of course, and they are varied, cool looking, and often tough. Each one has a different way of coming at you, and some have cool visual elements as well. Levels are just the right length here, and so is the game; at about 40 minutes if you don&#8217;t die this game is in the middle between the short 20-minute shmups, and the long (for this genre) hour-plus games. The length is just right; those 20-minute shmups can be great fun, but it&#8217;s nice that this game has a bit more to it.

So yes, this is a hard game, and it is constantly challenging you with new enemy types and fire patterns to deal with, but there is something which can help: a 100-lives cheat. All you need to do is go into the options menu before starting a game (it&#8217;s kind of hidden, but just hit the right button at the start screen), set lives-per-continue to zero, and presto, you now actually have 100 lives per continue, not zero! On this options menu you can also change the difficulty and such; though the game is tough on any setting it is easier on easy than hard, at least. I have finished this game with the 100-lives code, but not without it, sadly; it is very easy to die, and you do have limited continues. Losing your current weapon upon death is also a huge issue, as when you lose good weapons it can be hard to recover and not lose a lot of lives in a hurry. That is a classic, time-tested shmup design idea commonly seen in Gradius and R-Type games, for example, and I don&#8217;t mind it, but it does mean that to win without that code you will need to practice this game a LOT. With as great as this game is that is probably worth it, though, if you have the skill. Overall, Lightening Force is an absolutely exceptional masterpiece. This game has some of the best graphics, music, and gameplay of the generation! This is my favorite game by Technosoft, and my favorite shmup on the Genesis as well. Lightneing Force, or Thunder Force IV, is an absolute must-buy. It&#8217;s not cheap anymore sadly, but get it for sure. I know some people like Thunder Force III more, but I think this one is probably better. (Yes, I don&#8217;t have TFIII, though I do have II, IV, and Thunder Spirits for SNES. I have played the game, though.)

 

[A Black Falcon]

Lost Vikings, The &#8211; 1-3 players (with Sega multitap), password save, 6 button controller supported (and highly recommended). The Lost Vikings is a really great game I have a lot of nostalgia for. This side-scrolling puzzle-platformer from 1993 was developed by Blizzard under their original name &#8220;Silicon & Synapse&#8221; and published by Interplay. The original concept apparently was a more platformer-styled Lemmings-type game, and it is that and more. The game has great cartoony art in what would become that classic Blizzard style and fantastic, highly-polished gameplay that is as much about solving puzzles as it is about fighting enemies. I got the PC version for Christmas in 1993, and while I did not know the Blizzard name yet, a few years later I would, and in retrospect it was a step towards my later love for Blizzard games. This was the first Blizzard game I played, and it while it&#8217;s nothing like their most popular games such as Warcraft or Diablo, it is a very good game for its genre. I mostly know The Lost Vikings as the PC game I played in the &#8217;90s, but this Genesis version is also great. The graphics aren&#8217;t quite as good as the PC or SNES versions, unfortunately. The game looks pretty good and I like the cartoony graphics; they look like a predecessor to Warcraft&#8217;s style. Even though this version does look worse than the SNES or PC versions but it still looks pretty good and close to the original. I love the graphics and animations in this game, they&#8217;re funny stuff. The music is good as well, and certainly is better than the almost nothing I had back in 1993, since our computer only had a PC Speaker and not a sound card; with PC Speaker audio the PC version has a main-menu theme, but that&#8217;s it for music. but it makes up for it with several Genesis-exclusive levels and a Genesis-only 3-player-simultaneous mode; other versions are either one player only, as I think it is on PC, or two player max, as it is on SNES. The exclusive levels particularly make this version worth getting, as no other version has exclusive levels, so this is the only way to play every level of The Lost Vikings, and you&#8217;ll want to! With good graphics, gameplay, level designs, and writing, the game is great.

The game is funny, too. I love the writing in this game, there are frequent amusing comedy moments. The interactions between the Vikings are great, as they see things completely beyond anything they can understand, from spaceships full of laser traps to ancient Egypt, the age of the dinosaurs, and more. The Lost Vikings is the comic story of three medieval vikings, Erik, Olaf, and Baleog who get kidnapped by a time-travelling villain called Tomator. They have to escape, travel through time to find home, and defeat Tomator along the way. Each one has two abilities, and there is little overlap between the three. You will need to use all three together to proceed, and this division really is the core of what makes The Lost Vikings such a great game. Only Erik can jump and charge, only Baleog can fight with sword and bow (excepting Erik&#8217;s head-bash move which is more useful for walls than enemies), and only Olaf can guard against enemy attacks and float. In the sequel (not available for Genesis) there is a lot more overlap between the characters&#8217; abilities, and I really think it hurts the game; this first game is better because The Lost Vikings should be about having to use all three characters to solve puzzles. When they decided to put in characters that can both attack AND jump, it kind of broke the concept. The purity of the concept in this first game is far, far better &#8212; each Viking is necessary for their tasks, and useless for the others, demanding cooperation and thinking. Each Viking has a separate health bar, with 3 hits by default, and if any one of the three dies you get an immediate Game Over. Thankfully there are passwords for every level and you have infinite continues, so you aren&#8217;t set back far. There aren&#8217;t checkpoints in stages, but that&#8217;s okay; levels are reasonably sized, and are usually fun to keep trying until you get them right. If you die enough times in a stage, the Vikings will have some amusing comments&#8230; heh. You will need to carefully proceed through each level, looking for enemies, switches, and obstacles. You will often need to block enemies, lasers, of what have you with Olaf, then switch to Baleog to fight them. Baleog has separate buttons for his two weapons, which is useful. You also have an inventory; each Viking can hold four items. You can also switch which inventory item is currently selected, use an item, give the item to a different Viking, or drop (throw away) an item. You also have button(s) to switch between the three Vikings, of course; unless you are playing in multiplayer, you can only control one at a time, and the others will just stand where you last left them. All these functions are why why the 6-button controller really is essential, the 3-button pad does not have nearly enough buttons for this game. With the right controller though the game plays great.

Overall, The Lost Vikings is a great game. I&#8217;ve liked it a lot ever since I first got the game, and it still holds up very well. The game is a challenging game full of tricky puzzles, but that&#8217;s how it should be! This game is all about the puzzles so they need to be challenging for the game to stay fun, and they are. Levels are complex and multi-layered, and you&#8217;ll need to keep your eye out for items hidden everywhere. Many will be important. If you think you might be able to get somewhere, use your Vikings together to get there! Olaf&#8217;s shield can work as a platform to help Erik reach higher areas as you search around, Baleog&#8217;s bow allows him to hit distant switches, and Olaf can float slowly to the ground in areas where the other two would fall to their deaths; make use of these abilities. With great level designs, good graphics and sound, good controls if you have 6-button controllers, exclusive levels and an exclusive 3-player mode, and more, The Lost Vikings is a fantastic game I&#8217;ve liked a lot for a long time now. The game isn&#8217;t one of the all-time greats, but it is a pretty good little B-grade game and it&#8217;s absolutely worth getting. This Genesis version is a must-have for fans of the game to see those levels you won&#8217;t see anywhere else. The Lost Vikings was originally made for PC, Amiga, Atari ST, and SNES; this Genesis version came a little later. The SNES version has seen multiple ports and re-releases, including on the Game Boy Advance and for free download on Blizzard&#8217;s website, but this Genesis version is exclusive to the platform.


Lost World, The: Jurassic Park &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. The Lost World is the third and final Genesis Jurassic Park game, and it&#8217;s different from the others. By Appaloosa, this 1997 release is also the last non-sports Genesis game released by Sega in the US. While this game isn&#8217;t great, at least Sega went out with a pretty decent game. The Lost World is based on the movie of the same name, but you do not play as one of the major characters from the film. Instead, you play as a generic bounty hunter, out to do missions on this island full of dinosaurs. It&#8217;s odd you don&#8217;t play as the movie characters, but I don&#8217;t mind; this works. This is a top-down action game, so it&#8217;s a bit more like the NES and first SNES Jurassic Park game than the previous two Genesis Jurassic Park games, both of which are sidescrollers. The game has good graphics and decent gameplay. I&#8217;ve never quite found this game engaging enough to want to play deep into the game, but it is a decently fun game with some good ideas. The game definitely looks quite nice. The dinosaurs are very well drawn and look great, and have a good number of frames of animation as well. People and vehicles also look very good. This definitely looks like the late release that it is. Some are more threatening than others, and since this game is top-down you don&#8217;t have to kill them all if you don&#8217;t want; you can often avoid them, if they aren&#8217;t your objective or attacking you. That&#8217;s good. The backgrounds also look really nice, as expected from the studio which made the Ecco games and Kolibri. The audio is nice as well, decent atmospheric stuff. It&#8217;s no Ecco CD soundtrack, but it fits.

This is a mission-based game, and it has a nice amount of variety. Sort of like in the other Genesis JP games, you have quite a nice arsenal of weapons to collect, lots of dinos to fight, and plenty of territory to explore. The game world is fairly open, and you often will have several different missions to choose from, with a hub level in the middle and missions off to various sides. Levels are large, but thankfully there is a very useful map on the pause menu. You will often be pausing to go look at it. The pause menu also has a dino encyclopedia with information about the ones you can face in the area and also a mission-objective screen telling you what to do; this is also very useful. The game has okay controls, but they aren&#8217;t as tight as they are in the best games like this. Hit detection is also probably not perfect, though you do have a sizable health meter so it works. Running around shooting dinosaurs is fun, and you&#8217;ll do plenty of that in this game! There are even some vehicles to control, which is pretty cool. There is a nice variety of missions. Sometimes you&#8217;ll just have to kill things, but other times you will have to lure dinosaurs into giant traps, or other such things. I like that there is more to this game than just basic shooting. It&#8217;s also great that the game has passwords, not enough Genesis games have those. Still, after a while the game does get repetitive. All you really can do in this game is walk around, shoot, switch weapons, and activate things; that&#8217;s it. There are puzzle elements to the game, such as figuring out how to lure dinosaurs where you need them, avoiding mines, navigating the large and mazelike levels, and more but it&#8217;s mostly relatively straightforward. Some occasional areas do mix things up with things like some pretty nice software-scaler driving levels for instance, but most of the game plays in top-down jungles and the like. And this game is long for the platform, too &#8212; it will take multiple hours at the minimum, more if you get lost, which you certainly will. The game does have a nice co-op mode, but still, it&#8217;ll take a while. The shortest Youtube longplay video is 3 1/2 hours long, for instance. While this game is good, it hasn&#8217;t held my interest long enough to get anywhere near the end. Still, The Lost World is a good game and it is worth considering. Maybe pick it up. There are other games with this same name on other systems, but this game is Genesis-exclusive. Do avoid the Game Gear Lost World game, though! It&#8217;s a terrible, half-hour-long joke of a game, sadly.


Lotus Turbo Challenge &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Lotus Turbo Challenge is a simple but fun driving game from Gremlin and published by EA. Gremlin is perhaps more famous for making the three Top Gear games for the Super Nintendo (and Genesis, for Top Gear 2), but this one is a simpler game than those. And that&#8217;s where the problems lie; while Lotus Turbo Challenge is a good game, it released on Genesis at the same time or after after the first Top Gear for SNES, but full-screen support excepted isn&#8217;t as good of a game. This is a simpler game than Top Gear. Visually, this game looks like a Gremlin racing game. It&#8217;s got that distinctive look that the SNES Top Gear games also share, and the software scaling is quite good. The game plays fairly smoothly and runs fast, which is great. The art design is only average, but it looks nice enough. Aurally the game isn&#8217;t as good, though. Unfortunately, unlike their SNES games, on the Genesis Gremlin somehow managed to never figure out how to have sound and music at the same time, so while all three SNES games have both sound effects and music at once, here on the Genesis all three of their games have either one or the other but not both. It&#8217;s really disappointing, they could have done better; most Genesis racers have both sound and music, there is no excuse for this! As with the first SNES Top Gear games there are only four songs in this game, but they aren&#8217;t quite as great as the music is in that game. Forced splitscreen in Top Gear 1 aside that game looks better as well, and Top Gear 2 and 3000 look a lot better, though those did release later. It is nice that this game has full-screen support in single player, but that doesn&#8217;t make up for the lacking audio or not-quite-as-good graphical detail, compared to that game.

In gameplay, despite the issues above, Lotus IS quite fun to play, and to its credit it runs better than a lot of Genesis racing games. Gameplay matters t he most in a game, and this game plays well. This is a simpler game than Top Gear, though. Instead of being a sequence of lap-based races, this is a point-to-point game. The game is broken up into several tracks, each with a different setting. Each track has eight checkpointed sections, and you need to reach the end before time runs out. Unlike Lotus 2 or Top Gear, there is no fuel system here and no lap races, only point-to-point driving. Your only opponent is the clock, too; the other cars on the road are just obstacles you need to avoid, not real opposition. The clock is tight though, and by the third track the game gets very difficult. It is fun to challenge it though, and you get a password each time you reach the next track so you can save your progress. This is the simplest of Gremlin&#8217;s 4th-gen console racing games, but it is fun. Challenging the tracks and trying to get farther in the game is great fun here, just like it is in Top Gear, but that game is a bit more complex than this one, and does play slightly better. Still, this game is good as well. It controls well, looks okay and runs very well for the time, has one and two player play, has several cars to drive, has plenty of content considering how hard it will be to finish, and is a good fun time all around. It&#8217;s just very similar to Top Gear, but not quite as great. I really love Top Gear for SNES, though, so it&#8217;s awesome to have this game as well! This may not be an A-grade classic, but it is a good B-grade game well worth getting. This game is adapted from an Amiga series of the same name, but I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s a straight port.


Lotus Turbo Challenge II: R.E.C.S. &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, passwords (for creation mode only, you can't save circuit progress). Lotus II is a game which is both good, and also frustratingly flawed. This game has ambitious ideas, but can&#8217;t quite execute on them, sadly. Released in 1993, the same year as Top Gear 2 for SNES, Lotus II is bigger and more content-rich than the first game, but still lags behind its SNES counterpart. Sadly, the audio limitation returns &#8212; once again, sadly, you can only have music or engine sounds, and not both. Otherwise it&#8217;s better, though. Visually the game looks similar to the first Lotus, but with some minor graphical improvements and with more settings to drive through. This time you can do both circuit or point-to-point races, for example, and the game also introduces the somewhat interesting R.E.C.S. mode, where you can customize your own course. You can&#8217;t actually directly design the course, but you can adjust a lot of slider bars which determine what will be found on the track and in what quantity. Once you have generated a track to your liking you can test it, and also save it via a password you&#8217;ll have to write down. The passwords aren&#8217;t too long, thankfully, only 10-ish digits. I like that they tried something different here; I haven&#8217;t seen something like this in any other linescroll racing game. Still, while it is a cool option, the editor is limited in features; you can sort of make your own track, but doesn&#8217;t add as much to the game as it would have with a Mach Rider-style track creator.

Gameplay-wise, little has changed. This game does add a fuel system like in Top Gear, you can race against people instead of only the clock, and there are more places to race in and slightly better graphics, but otherwise it is the same as before. Gremlin&#8217;s 5th-gen racers all play great, so that&#8217;s okay, but Top Gear 2 has more added gameplay features than this one. This game runs just as well as the first one, thankfully; if only Outrun on the Genesis was as playable as these games are! The controls are good as always. This game has a major problem in its circuit design, however. The clock is still your main opponent; if you run out of time it&#8217;s an instant Game Over. And once you get Game Over, this games&#8217; biggest flaw is revealed: you get no continues in this game, and there is no saving your progress in championships, either! Unlike the first game or any Top Gear game, this game does not have progression. Instead, you can choose the length and difficulty of the circuit you wish to attempt from the main menu. Circuits are made up of multiple tracks, and tracks vary in length; some are shorter three-lap or three-segment affairs, but others can be up to eight segments. It&#8217;s not reasonable to expect people to play through ten tracks of five to eight segments each without allowing saving at any point, in a game where running out of time once at any time in the game means you have to start the entire circuit over from the beginning! There are passwords on each level-info screen, but those just let you play that layout in the RECS mode; there is no way to save your progress in a championship and you get no continues. If the time limits weren&#8217;t so easy to fail this wouldn&#8217;t be as bad, but running out of time isn&#8217;t just likely, it&#8217;s inevitable. The frustration of getting game over midway through circuits is my main impression of this otherwise-good game. With a reasonable continue system within the circuits and perhaps also a better progression system instead of just &#8216;play anything from the menu&#8217; this game could have been good, but instead it&#8217;s very frustrating and quickly stops being fun.

Overall, Lotus II is an average-at-best game with some good points and some flaws. Visually this game runs well, but doesn&#8217;t look anywhere near as good as Top Gear 2 for SNES, and the music and sounds still can&#8217;t play at the same time, unlike Gremlin&#8217;s SNES racers. In gameplay, the game plays well, but doesn&#8217;t quite have Top Gear&#8217;s balance; this game is a bit harder, and the inability to save makes it too frustrating for its own good. The lack of any progression is also a problem; there is less of a sense of accomplishment when winning just dumps you back at the menu and you can play the circuits in any order, if you can manage to win at all that is. Randomly generating courses and playing them can be amusing, but still, I&#8217;d rather play any of the SNES Top Gear games; they are better all-around. I don&#8217;t have Gremlin&#8217;s last Genesis racer, a Genesis port of Top Gear 2, but as with these two games it apparently still has no way to play music and sound at once, and has graphics significantly downgraded from the SNES. Gremlin got their Genesis games running fast, but never could manage great Genesis graphics or audio mixing, unfortunately, and it holds their games on this platform back. I&#8217;d recommend the first Genesis Lotus game over this one. This game is an altered port of Lotus III for the Amiga. This game, though, is mostly for people who like hard games or the idea or RECS editing.

 

[A Black Falcon]

List of games in this update
--
Mallet Legend's Whac-A-Critter
Magical Taruruuto-kun (J)
Mario Andretti Racing
Marsupilami
Marvel Land
Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter
Mega Turrican
MERCS
Mick & Mack: Global Gladiators
Micro Machines


Mallet Legend&#8217;s Whac-A-Critter &#8211; 1 player, supports the very rare Smash Controller made just for this game. Note that this game is NOT compatible with the 32X, so you&#8217;ll need to remove it to play the game. I recommend keeping the 32X attached and not playing this. Mallet Legend&#8217;s Whac-A-Critter, or Mallet Legend as it says on the title screen, is an unlicensed Genesis game from Realtec. This absolutely horrendously terrible game is probably the worst, least fun to play game I own for the Genesis; it&#8217;s easy to see why they didn&#8217;t bother trying to get a license, considering how bad this game is. Whac-A-Critter is a Whack-a-mole game. As usual for whackamole, you hit things coming out of holes in a nine-hole grid. Here hitting the hit button hits the center space, and hitting a d-pad direction plus the pad hits that space. Various creatures will pop out of these holes in the ground, and you hit them with a mallet. The idea is an arcade classic, but it&#8217;s not something which works well at all at home; it&#8217;s far too simple to make a good videogame. To mix things up a bit, this game has more animals than just the usual moles to whack and multiple levels, but the game really is just whac-a-mole, the videogame. You just whack creatures, and that&#8217;s about it. Unfortunately, they did a terrible job of it here. This game has a lot of problems. First the concept is really simplistic and has zero depth, but worse the difficulty is completely out of balance &#8212; this game is impossible! There is progression in this game, with multiple levels and a world map showing which stage you are on, but the game very quickly gets impossibly difficult. You&#8217;ve got to hit a target percentage of the creatures in each stage, but by level two or three, you won&#8217;t; the game doesn&#8217;t give you enough time to have a chance in a videogame where you can only hit one space at a time while half of the board is covered in enemies popping out of holes, most of which you&#8217;ll never be able to get to. There IS that super-rare special controller for this game which I do not have. It looks like a set of nine buttons, pretty much, emulating a whack-a-mole game board. It may make the game a little bit more playable, but I don&#8217;t have it so I can&#8217;t say for sure. People who have used it who do have it say that the game is still insanely difficult even with it. This game just wasn&#8217;t very well made, unfortunately. There are not many unlicensed Genesis games which got released in the US during its life from companies that never released a licensed game, so it is interesting to have this, but overall Mallet Legend&#8217;s Whac-A-Critter is utterly abysmal. The broken difficulty level is the worst problem and kept me, and most other people going by what I hear about this game online, from getting past something like the second level of the game, but even without that the overly simplistic gameplay does not hold up at all as a home console game. Whack-a-mole is okay for a minute in an arcade, but at home, on a console? It feels like a one-minigame minigame not-collection, with no other content. And that minigame is so broken it&#8217;s barely playable. Don&#8217;t buy this!


Magical Taruruuto-kun (J) &#8211; 1 player. Magical Taruruuto-kun is a platformer made by Game Freak and published by Sega. Yes, this is a platformer from the team that would go on to make Pokemon. This is a licensed platformer based on the early &#8217;90s childrens&#8217; anime series of the same name. Because of the soon-to-be-successful developer this is easily the best-known Taruruuto-kun game, but I got several others first, namely the first NES game, the SNES game, and the Game Gear game. The NES and SNES games, which were published by __ and I think were actually made by TOSE, are good but extremely difficult platformers with an interesting block-licking mechanic, battery save, a fair amount of story text between levels, and more. I like them, but they are kind of crazy-hard for something supposedly for kids. The Game Gear game, also published by Sega but not made by a team anywhere near as good as Game Freak, is a shmup. You fly to the right as Taruruuto-kun, shooting baddies as they approach. It&#8217;s a short and very easy game and isn&#8217;t worth much of your time. It is interesting how different the games based on Taruruuto-kun are. This one has a magic staff which you possess blocks with to throw them around, entirely unlike the Nintendo games. The Nintendo ones are harder than this game, too, even though they have saving while this one doesn&#8217;t. The NES game particularly is really hard. I&#8217;m not sure which one I like more; the NES, SNES, and Genesis games are all interesting and worth a try.

So how does this game compare to those others? Well, the Genesis game here is fun but simple. This is a straightforward platformer. You walk to the right at Taruruuto-kun, run and jump on platforms, and have a magic staff as a weapon. You can&#8217;t jump on enemies to hurt them; instead you have to hit them with your stick, or throw things at them. You see, if you hit various objects in the world, you will grab them and carry them around. Then you can throw those objects forward, taking out enemies in front of you. It&#8217;s fun stuff, particularly because of the cute cartoon eyes that appear on objects as you carry them around. YOu also have a somewhat Sonic-like momentum system, so you&#8217;ll run slower up hills, jump farther when you are running, and such. You can also glide after jumping, though gliding is floaty and somewhat hard to control; while this game is good, the controls could be a bit better. It controls okay, but not quite as well as a Mario or Sonic game. While there is definite challenge here thanks to the usual Genesis design of limited continues and no saving, compared to the NES and SNES games this feels much more like what you&#8217;d expect from a kids&#8217; game. This is a fun, fairly simple game and the idea is easy to understand. Level designs are simple, and the game has a nice difficulty curve which makes you want to keep coming back for more, to see the next part of the game next time. Levels do get more complex as you progress, so while the first level has no instant-death pits, they do start appearing in level two. Bosses often require skilled use of your throwing-stuff mechanic, which is nice.

This game starts out with a setting based on the school from the show. I like that this game tries to follow the series&#8217; settings better than the entirely videogame-level-themed NES and SNES games. The graphics here are pretty good. It&#8217;s interesting how much this game looks like Game Freak&#8217;s later work on the Pokemon series; you can tell that this is a game Freak game, particularly thanks to the look of the sprites and enemies. They have that distinctive Pokemon style and must have been drawn by the same artist who would later go on to design the Pokemon. I&#8217;m sure a lot of people will like that, and they do look nice. The backgrounds and main character art is mostly inspired by the series, but it&#8217;s all done with a Game Freak style. Even though I&#8217;m a Nintendo fan I&#8217;ve never cared for Pokemon at all, so this isn&#8217;t a big plus for me, but the art is pretty good; the graphics here look nice. Each level has a new setting, and all look good. This is definitely an above-average-looking game for the Genesis, visually. The music is good enough too, though the graphics are probably better.

On the whole, Magical Taruruuto-kun is a good but not great platformer. It&#8217;s fun to play, but isn&#8217;t anything special or overly original. It is a simpler and shorter game than the NES/SNES games, and I do wish it had battery save like those do, or passwords either. Still, with good graphics, good level designs, and some nice challenges as you progress. Those graphics are pretty good, and Pokemon fans particularly will like them. This is an above-average game overall, but it could be better. While this is a good game, I don&#8217;t love it; the game has little depth. It&#8217;s just a decently fun licensed game, but it is good for a licensed game. As for the other games based on this license, Bandai&#8217;s NES (Famicom) games are the most interesting; they&#8217;re hard, but fun and well made. But more important than the license is the developer. Game Freak has mostly made RPGs of course in their ultra-popular Pokemon series, but the have made a few platformers. I know of three &#8212; this, Pulseman (Genesis), and Drill Dozer (Game Boy Advance). I haven&#8217;t played much of Pulseman though it looks pretty good, but Drill Dozer is fun, though I don&#8217;t like the game nearly as much as some; the shoulder-button-based drill controls are quite annoying, and not as responsive as face buttons would be. Anyway, Taruruuto-kun for the Genesis, or Megadrive rather, is a decent, fun game well worth a look, if you can find a copy. It is import-only, but isn&#8217;t region-locked so it will play on a US system, if you have a way of plugging in the carts &#8212; Japanese carts are a different shape from Western ones. I can fit Japanese carts into my 32X, so I use that, but for a regular Genesis you may need to cut the corners off of the cart port on top of the case.


Mario Andretti Racing &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Mario Andretti Racing is a linescroll racing game from EA. You can race three different cars, and they are different. This game is far from their arcadey Road Rash games on the Genesis, though; Mario Andretti Racing tries to be slightly more simmish, though as a 4th-gen console game the actual sim elements are limited &#8212; these consoles aren&#8217;t powerful enough to do a real car sim, that wouldn&#8217;t be seen on consoles until at least the Sega CD; F1 Beyond the Limit for SCD is very impressive! Instead this game has fairly arcadey driving, except with a bit skiddier driving model than you&#8217;d see in a better Genesis racing game. Mario Andretti Racing isn&#8217;t awful, it&#8217;s just really boring. I don&#8217;t find this game at all interesting to play. I&#8217;m sure there is an audience for this game, but I am definitely not it; &#8220;boring&#8221; is the first word I think of when I think of this game. The game has some good points, though. There is decent presentation in the menus, the ingame graphics are solid for the system and I like the pseudo-3d trackside wall, you have a career mode to try to complete and can save your progress there with passwords, the three types of cars each handle differently, and the game has 15 tracks, a reasonable number. The splitscreen multiplayer is nice too; not all racing games of the era have it. However, the game has more problems than strengths. While technically the game is kind of good, artistically the game is very bland and average. The cars aren&#8217;t great looking. The game is designed for split-screen play, too.l While you can switch to a full-screen view, the top half of the screen is just empty sky so there&#8217;s no point. Instead, I&#8217;d recommend playing with the track map on the top half of the screen, in one player mode; it is useful. Fullscreen-optimized visuals would be better, though, with a small minimap added preferably. The game has absolutely no ingame music, either, just engine sound. The menu music&#8217;s nice, but you get into a race and it&#8217;s just a droning silence. This really makes teh game feel dull and uninteresting; yes, many 4th-gen F1 games are similar, but it&#8217;s bad there also.

The core racing is flawed, too. Of the three car types, only one, the open-wheel car (F1/IndyCar-style), controls well. The first, the Sprint Car, controls terribly, with horribly skiddy controls; it&#8217;s very hard to avoid constantly hitting the walls in Sprint Car races. The Stock Car is in between the other two, so it doesn&#8217;t control well, but isn&#8217;t as bad as the Sprint car. And those 15 tracks? It&#8217;s broken up into five tracks for each car, and you cannot race on the other vehicles&#8217; tracks with the wrong car type. Come on, that&#8217;s not a nice restriction! The sprint cars have five ovals, the stock car three ovals and two road courses, and the F1/Indycar car five road courses. The bad controls make the main game mode very hard to play, too. In the campaign, you start in sprint cars, and have to work your way up&#8230; but you probably won&#8217;t want to, not after seeing how annoying they are to drive! Single races in the open-wheel car are better, but I want more than just single races. The thick manual does try to help you learn how to play the game, and there is an ingame mode where Mario Andretti himself (supposedly) gives you hints for each track, but overall I&#8217;d much rather play a better game instead. Mario Andretti Racing is a boring, below-average game I can&#8217;t recommend to anyone except diehard car-racing game fans who absolutely must play a Genesis game of that kind of racing. Really though, stick with arcade racing games on 4th-gen consoles, and don&#8217;t bother with this.


Marsupilami &#8211; 1 player, password save, 6 button controller supported. Marsupilami is an okay puzzle-platformer from Sega. This 1996 game is a late release, and it does have good graphics, but the gameplay is frustrating. This game is based on a not-too-popular Disney cartoon of the same name. I do remember the character, but didn&#8217;t watch the show much, though I did read a few comics starring Marsupilami. You are the eponymous Marsupilami, a furry creature with a very long tail. That long tail is Marsupilami&#8217;s main unique feature and a lot of the comedy in the series centered around Marsupilami doing silly things with his tail, but here it&#8217;s your tool to solve the puzzles in each level, and beat the enemies as well. This game is fairly nicely animated and has good graphics, though it doesn&#8217;t look great, as the backgrounds are somewhat average and sprites aren&#8217;t up to the level of the best Genesis games. The visuals and sound are fine, though, and I like the way the tail animates, which is important when you&#8217;ve got a half-screen-long tail on screen all the time. The issues lie in the gameplay.

So, this game is as much about puzzles as it is platforming. Your goal in each level is not to reach the end yourself, but to help your elephant friend escape each stage. So yeah, the entire game is an escort mission&#8230; that&#8217;s not good. Fortunately the elephant can&#8217;t take damage, but still, the game gets frustrating fast. You&#8217;ve got a tight time limit to deal with, lots of enemies, and some obtuse puzzles to figure out &#8212; and if you die a few times it&#8217;s back to the beginning of the world. Yes, there are passwords thankfully, but only between multi-level worlds, not after each stage. With passwords after each stage this would be a much more fun game, but as it is it&#8217;s frustrating. Anyway, without your help the poor elephant will just walk back and forth, so you&#8217;ve got to use your tail to make stairs, to scare the elephant into going the direction you want, to fight off the enemies, and more. You can hold up to four different tail actions at a time, and switch between them with X and Z or on the pause screen (for 3-button controllers). Yes, the game is a lot more fun with a 6-button pad, much less pausing. A attacks, B jumps, and C uses your current tail action. The most common one is using the tail as stairs, to help the elephant get over boxes. You&#8217;ve got to stand right at the edge of the TOP of the box then hit C; you can&#8217;t make stairs from the ground, or from too far from the edge. It&#8217;s context-sensitive and there are no indicators of where you can use it, so it can be frustrating at times.

Also frustrating is the elephant itself. He walks slowly, and will just walk back and forth endlessly, so you often have to wait for him to catch up&#8230; but oops, you didn&#8217;t make those tail-stairs in time, he turned around and is going the other way! Do you want to wait for him to walk over and come back, or go over, hit him to turn him around, then hope you have the time to jump back on the box and create the stairs in time? Either way, you just lost some precious time. I like puzzle games plenty well enough, but making an entire game a long escort mission was a mistake, I think. Hit detection is a bit iffy at times too &#8212; landing on the elephant&#8217;s back requires more precision than I would like. Still, it is rewarding when you figure out what to do in a stage and go on to the next one. I only wish I wasn&#8217;t being sent back to the first one so often because of harder stages three or four levels in, before I&#8217;ve gotten to the next password. Overall, Marsupilami is an average puzzle-platform game. It might be worth a try if you like this kind of game, but isn&#8217;t something to look too hard for.


Marvel Land &#8211; 1 player, password save. Marvel Land is a platformer from Namco. The first Klonoa (PS1/Wii) aside Namco has never been known for great platformers, but this game can be good. Unfortunately, it also has its bad side as well, but overall it is above average at least. Despite its issues, the terrible framerate most importantly, this game is probably under-rated, since it&#8217;s usually totally ignored but it is interesting. The game has a very basic, cliche story &#8212; you are an part-dragon boy who has to save the kidnapped princess in this fantasy land. Original. The setting is a bit better, though, as Marvel Land has a theme-park aesthetic. The &#8220;Marvel Land&#8221; of the title is a theme park in this fantasy kingdom, and you&#8217;ve got to travel through all of it on your quest. This isn&#8217;t a fast-paced game like Sonic, it&#8217;s a more NES-like platformer. You run, jump, collect powerups for points, high jumping, an actual attack beyond &#8220;jump on heads&#8221;, and more, navigate tricky platform-jumping-heavy levels, and try to stay alive. That may be difficult, but it can be fun. The actual levels are your usual assortment of themed areas, so there&#8217;s the theme-park area, the water area, the fire area, etc., but still, I like the concept. The main character has that short-tunic-and-no-pants look that was common in &#8217;80s to early &#8217;90s male fantasy characters, but you are a guy, though it is kind of hard to tell what gender he is in the ingame sprite. This game has small sprites, you see. Marvel Land looks okay, but the graphics are all on the small size, and distinguishing details can be difficult. Environments are only okay looking at best. Sprite size here is much closer to Kid Chameleon than Sonic the Hedgehog, as a comparison, though both are better games than this. The smaller size does give you decent visibility around you, though, and the graphics are at least somewhat varied. The music is similarly okay but not great.

That&#8217;s fine, but it has some issues, game speed and controls most importantly. Yes, this game has TERRIBLE slowdown, maybe the worst I have seen in a Genesis game. This game will jump back and forth between average speed and terrible slowdown in a hurry. Namco tries to pull off some sprite-rotation effects, but they make the framerate go so low the game almost stops sometimes. Just having a couple of moving platforms and two enemies will also cause the framerate to drop through the floor. This game is on the same console as Sonic the Hedgehog, really? You can&#8217;t tell, sadly, that&#8217;s for sure! Namco seriously needed to work on the programming in this game, the awful slowdown really hurts it. Almost as bad are the controls. Most of the time, you attack by jumping on your enemies. You can get a limited-used powerup that lets you attack in a circle around you, but you&#8217;ll do a lot of jumping on heads here, and you need pixel-perfect accuracy to not die, which is difficult thanks to this games&#8217; slippery controls. This game is all about jumping puzzles over death pits while enemies you may or may not be able to kill either stand in your way or attack you, and the skiddy controls make your task more difficult. This game is fun at first, but by the later levels it&#8217;s a frustrating pain. The game has lots of secrets to find if you stick with it, though, including warps that send you either forward or backward in the game. Every level does have a password, thankfully; just get game over to see it. This really helps take the sting off of falling for a &#8220;warp back to level 1-1&#8221; trap, and some warps will send you forwards so doors are worth checking out. In conclusion, Marvel Land is an above-average game. The awful framerate dips and slippery controls are annoying, and the game gets hard later on in ways that wouldn&#8217;t be quite as bad if you had a more reliable attack and more precise jumping controls, but it&#8217;s an interesting game despite its problems. The Genesis doesn&#8217;t have too many of these more 3rd-gen styled platformers, so this one is nice to see and it does mostly play well. The bright and colorful graphics, variety, varied level designs full of enemies, traps, and obstacles to figure out how to get past, numerous secrets to look for, and the games&#8217; challenge will keep you coming back, if the flaws don&#8217;t drive you away. Overall Marvel Land isn&#8217;t perfect, but definitely is worth playing if you&#8217;re a platformer fan. Arcade port.


Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter &#8211; 1 player. Mazin Saga is a mediocre licensed beat em up with fighting game elements by Almanic, and published by Sega in Japan and Europe and Vic Tokai in the US. Yes, this is one of those games Sega outsourced to an external publisher in the US. And after playing it, it&#8217;s not too hard to see why: this game isn&#8217;t that great. Mazin Saga is an average beat &#8217;em up with terrible 1-on-1 boss fights at the end of each stage that ruin the game. The game has no multiplayer, average-at-best graphics, only five levels, and not much fun to be had thanks to those awful, and absurdly difficult, 1-on-1 fights. In the levels though, this is an okay beat &#8217;em up. You play as a Mazinger Z, popular anime franchise of the same name. This is one of Sega&#8217;s few Japanese licensed games that actually released here in the US, perhaps because they thought the robots-and-monsters theme would work well enough whether or not people knew the license. While that is true, I wish the game was better. At first the game seems decent, maybe even good. The beat &#8217;em up levels are entertaining. They have the usual isometric perspective with depth, which is good; I like this style better than side-scrolling beat &#8217;em ups. The visuals are okay, you have some moves to use, there is a moderate amount of level-design variety, and beating the baddies is decent fun. Sure, the music isn&#8217;t too good, but the visuals are better. But then you reach the first boss, and the game completely falls apart. While the idea here is sound &#8212; you fight the boss 1-on-1, just like the fights in the TV shows like this or Power Rangers &#8212; the execution is awful, with bad controls, absurdly difficult AI, and very limited movement. These fights are side-scrolling and are very zoomed in, and you awkwardly swing your guy&#8217;s weapons around as you try to do more damage than you take. It&#8217;s not good. I wish the game had just had regular beat &#8217;em up bosses, then it would probably be an average beat &#8217;em up worth a look, but that wasn&#8217;t to be. As it is, probably pass on this one unless you&#8217;re a big fan of the anime. It&#8217;s not fun to play and will only frustrate. The absence of multiplayer, a staple feature in this genre, is also disappointing. Of course you couldn&#8217;t have those 1-on-1 fights with two goodguys on screen, but that&#8217;s another reason to not have them. Ah well. Overall Mazin Saga: Mutant Fighter is a quite bad game not worth getting.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Mega Turrican – 1 player, 6 button controller supported. Mega Turrican is an amazing platform-action game from Factor 5. This is the third or fourth game in the Turrican series, depending on how you count; Super Turrican and Mega Turrican were developed at about the same time. Super Turrican released first, but I think this game started development earlier. Super and Mega Turrican are both really fantastic games, among my favorite run & gun-ish platformers ever. This series is amazing and incredibly under-rated! Yes, with great graphics, great music, fantastic action, a reasonable-length game to play through, good controls and weapons, good level designs, and more, Mega Turrican is fantastic. Turrican was originally concieved by Rainbow Arts’ Manfred Trenz as a cross between a European platformer, Contra, and Metroid. Your character, Turrican, moves around in large Euro-platformer-like levels, but you have a gun, a large arsenal, and a lot of stuff to shoot like Contra, and a Metroid-like rolling-ball form as well. All games in the series control very well. Factor 5 ported the first two Turrican games to the Amiga, but were not the original developers. Their Amiga versions are the basis for the Genesis ports of both games (to be covered below). After that, Factor 5 took on the series themselves and made three Turrican games, the aforementioned two plus Super Turrican 2 for the SNES. Factor 5’s Turrican games are different from the first two in important ways, so most people prefer one style or the other. This game and the Super Turrican games are much more linear, less open, better-looking, games with better controls and much more consistently paced action than the first two. The Fa ctor 5 games also have much better health systems with hit-flash and invincibility after being hit, instead of the very quickly-draining health meters of the first two games. The improved health systems are one of the best things about these games versus those ones. However, some people prefer the large, sprawling levels and exploration component of the first two games, and there is a lot less of that here than in either previous game, that is true. Mega Turrican has some bigger levels with larger areas to explore and lots of secrets to find, but it also has many very linear stages. Super Turrican is probably even less open, and Super Turrican 2 has almost no exploration and is mostly just a linear path through a constant assault of tough action scenes.

Personally, I like the balance Super and Mega Turrican make. They have enough exploration to be interesting, but have focused, well-designed action encounters in a way the first two games aren’t quite as good at. The level designs here are some of the best in the genre. In some levels you move along a liner path making tricky jumps while trying to stay alive. Other times you go through boss-heavy stages with frequent bossfights between short platforming segments. And other times you will explore large open levels, searching for secrets and the exit before time runs out as you face the opposition. The enemies are varied too, and are different in each area. There are small jumping foes, larger walking or running ones, and others which fly around homing in on you. You’re always seeing something new in this game, and it’s great. Some things do also appear in Super Turrican, but I don’t mind this; the games are quite different, despite their shared mechanics. Super and Mega Turrican aren’t as hard as a Contra or Metal Slug game, either; this is a very beatable game for even average players, if you stick wit hit and replay the game a few times. You do have limited continues and no saving here, but I’ve beaten it, and I think anyone can with a bit of practice. Enemies stay dead once you kill them so you don’t need to worry about respawning enemies, thankfully, unlike some games in this genre. This is no Contra: Hard Corps, difficulty-wise, and it’s better for it. The game has a good difficulty curve from the easy first few levels to the larger and tougher later ones. This game has lots of intense, well-designed action throughout. I like how the game mixes things up versus Super Turrican; while the games share some settings, they aren’t all the same, in interesting ways later on. The first time I got far into this game, I expected it to end at a certain point based on where Super Turrican ended, but this game has several more levels after that, for example. This game is a little longer than Super Turrican and probably is a little tougher than that game, but neither one is really hard. The other three Turrican games are harder, though they aren’t better.

The game mechanics are slightly different, too. All Turrican games only allow you to shoot left or right, but you have some kind of beam as well. In the first two games, you had a beam attack that would activate if you held down fire for long enough while standing still. In Super Turrican, you have a freeze ray, which is quite helpful. Here, however, you have a grappling rope. This will not damage enemies, and instead helps you move around, as you can attach it to almost any wall or ceiling, and then swing around on the rope once attached. Getting used to the rope controls take a bit of practice, but it is very useful at many points in the game. The rope will be essential for finding all of the many hidden items, powerups, and shortcuts in the game. I like it, but I do miss a beam attack. The only thing you have here that can attack up or down are your limited-use bomb attacks (hit X, Y, or Z) and weak homing missiles, if you have picked them up and then not died and lost them. Still, the mobility is interesting. Super Turrican 2 would cover both bases — it has both a grappling hook and a freeze ray. The rope here is more versatile than the very limited angles that the Super Turrican 2 grapple works at, but that’s both good and bad as it means that it will take a bit longer to get used to. Once you figure it out the rope does allow for some interesting maneuvers, though, and I like having it. The game has nice level variety, too. There are several levels in each environment in the game, but each stage is unique and feels different from the others.

So, with fantastic graphics that get a lot out of the system, a really good soundtrack, great levels with a lot of variety in visuals, enemies, and level design concepts, a fair but surmountable challenge, some cool weapons, lots of secrets to find in many stages, and more, Mega Turrican is an amazing game that well deserves its high place in my Genesis top 10! Excepting perhaps the first game, the other four Turrican games really are all definite must-have titles. Factor 5’s Turrican and Star Wars (Rogue Squadron and Battle for Naboo, N64/GC) games are among the best action games of their respective generations, and you see that here. Don’t miss out on this fantastic classic! Amazing stuff. Buy it. Also available on the Amiga as Turrican III, and the Genesis version is available on Wii Virtual Console.


MERCS – 1 player. Mercs is a top-down run & gun shooting game from Capcom, though this Genesis port is by Sega. In this ’80s action movie-style blastfest, you run around as one of several commandos who totally aren’t based on popular action movie heroes and shoot lots of baddies. This game is actually the sequel to Capcom’s mid ’80s arcade game Commando. No relation to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie that released shortly beforehand though, of course! I’m sure they came up with that name and concept all on their own… yeah. This time the graphics are better, but the gameplay is similar to before. Visually this game looks only okay, and it’sclearly an early Genesis release; Genesis graphics get much better than this. Still, everything is reasonably nicely drawn and looks fine. Gameplay-wise, the game scrolls in multiple directions instead of only upwards as it was in the first game or Ikari Warriors 1, and you have more weapons and multiple commandos to play as, but the basic gameplay is the same: shoot everything that moves. I remember Ikari Warriors well from the late ’80s but not Commando or MERCS, but this game is pretty good and one of the better top-down run & gun shooting games of the generation. It is unfortunate that it is one player only, but otherwise it’s good stuff. You do have a health bar in this game, which is a nice change versus Ikari Warriors or Commando, but it’s still quite tough. Make sure to collect the special weapons, you’ll need them! Bosses are hard too, and each one is quite different. The controls here are fine, but you can only shoot in the direction you are moving; you do not have a firing-lock button, unfortunately, unlike some games in this genre. That is missed, but the game is playable as it is.

The game has two gameplay modes. Arcade mode is a one-player-only recreation of the arcade game, though with limited continues, of course. It’s pretty good, and is short but hard as expected from an arcade game. Levels are all very well laid out, and the action is constant. The other mode is Original mode, and it’s interesting. In original mode you have one starting commando, and only one life; if you die, it’s Game Over, start again from the beginning. Harsh! Yes, this mode is quite hard. As you play, however, you will find other commandos and can switch to them during play. You will also find shops where you can buy health refills from, which is quite important considering you have no continues here. Original mode is a little slower paced than the arcade game, for a different feel. The levels here visually use the same tilesets as the arcade levels, but the actual level layouts are entirely new, so it really is a different game. This mode will take a lot of practice to get good at, but it’s fantastic to have such a deep and lengthy mode added to what otherwise would be a very short game. A lot of arcade ports add little to the arcade game, but Sega made sure that Mercs would not be one of those games. Arcade mode is a fun blast, and Original mode an interesting challenge to keep playing as you try to get better and learn how to stay alive. Overall, Mercs is a good game any action game fan should definitely get. The only real flaws are the early-gen graphics, potentially the difficulty, and the absence of a firing-lock button, but otherwise this game is quite good. With great level designs, lots of enemies to shoot, and more, it’s great fun to walk around, blow everyone away, and try to save the day! The Genesis version is also available on Wii Virtual Console. The game is partially an arcade port; the arcade version is in some collections of Capcom games, and ports of the arcade version were also released in Europe only on the Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and Atari ST, and in Europe and maybe also the US on Commodore 64 and Amiga.


Mick & Mack: Global Gladiators – 1 player. Global Gladiators is an okay platformer from Virgin. This is a McDonald’s licensed game, but doesn’t have too strong of a fast-food theme, thankfully; for that play McDonald’s Treasureland Adventure for the Genesis, though I don’t have that one. The story here is that Mick and Mack are two boys who like McDonald’s, and after saying that they want adventure Ronald McDonald sends them into a book to undertake a dangerous quest. What a jerk… but you’ve got to take it on now. Mick and Mack were also playable in at least one game before this one, so they weren’t created just for this game, but I don’t think much has been seen of them since. You can play as either one but can’t switch ingame, though the only difference is their color, they don’t play differently. Ingame, the game is a fairly conventional Virgin/Shiny-style platformer, except here your main weapon is a goo-gun instead of jumping on enemies’ heads. Your shots have a curving arc, since you’re not shooting bullets, and this can help hit enemies if you shoot from the right places. The levels are the usual very large, open levels you should expect from this kind of game. Your goal is to reach the end, but paths are not always obvious so you will need to explore around. Secrets can be anywhere. There are of course lots of things to collect in each level, with McDonald’s “M”s being the basic pickup, though there are also rarer extra lives and such as well. Different colors of Ms are worth different point values.

The game is simple but fun, and the game is mostly enjoyable to play. It’s tough, though; those lives won’t last long, and I haven’t been dedicated to the game enough to get past world two yet. The level designs are okay, but can be frustrating. Unfortunately blind jumps are a real problem in this game; you will not always know if there is a pit or not below you, so be careful and just accept that sometimes you will unfairly die. Of course, as usual on the Genesis you can’t save and have limited continues, a pretty bad combination to have in games with blind jumps. Ah well. At least usually you know where you’re going, so this isn’t as bad as Taz-Mania or something. The game looks nice, but not amazing; later Virgin and Shiny games look better than this early-ish one. It doesn’t help that the first world is set in a somewhat dreary swamp, with lots of slime monsters for enemies. The second world is a fantasy forest, and looks better than the first one, but there are at least three big levels in each setting so getting to the second one will take a while. All levels in each setting look similar, and the enemies in each area repeat constantly, so this game is lacking variety. Still, it is reasonably fun to play, and overall Global Gladiators is an average to slightly above-average game with decent graphics with some nice animation, okay controls, solid traditional shooting-and-platforming gameplay, and plenty of challenge. The game does have issues, including blind jumps, sometimes annoying level designs, and repetition, but it’s worth a try for platformer fans overall.


Micro Machines – 1-2 player simultaneous. Micro Machines is a fantastic top-down racing game from Codemasters. You play as a small car based on the toy line of the same name, driving in real-world-inspired settings but in miniature. It’s a fantastic idea, and the game executes it really well. I got the Game Boy version of this game in the ’90s and really loved it, and this Genesis version is pretty much the same thing but in color! Micro Machines is a real classic, and it’s one of the best top-down racing games ever made. Yes, the game has many sequels, both in the Micro Machines series and spiritual sequels with other names (most recently Toybox Turbos), but the original is probably my favorite. Nostalgia is surely part of this, but still, the first game is a really great game for sure, and as much as I love some of the sequels, they are more frustrating than this perfectly-balanced original. Micro Machines is a top-down racing game, but it is different from other games in this genre. Unlike, say, RC Pro-Am, Micro Machines does not take place on a walled-in course. Instead levels are more open, and your challenge is to learn each track well enough to stay on the road. The road is marked with some kind of markers along the sides of the path, and if you stay off of the road for too long, when you go back on it you will explode and respawn back where you last were on the path. There are also many, many pitfalls, such as table edges and such, which you can fall off, and there are also traps, ramps, narrow ‘bridges’ made of pencils or rulers, and more, so memorization is absolutely key! If you mess up you will suffer for it and winning will be difficult. This first game is a bit more forgiving than its sequels, though, because it’s not quite as fast-moving as the later games; in the first Micro Machines at least you can sort of see the turns coming at you. Micro Machines 2 is a faster-moving game where only memorization will see you through it, IF you can get through that game at all. I like the first games’ pace better, personally. The second game is amazing, but it’s just a bit too fast for its own good. This is a hard game and you will need to learn every track in order to beat it, but the slightly lower speeds make that task easier and more fun than in its sequel. I really love the tracks in this game, they are so inventive and well designed! I have beaten this game back in the ’90s on the GB, but never did beat Micro Machines 2 for PC or GBC, the two platforms I got it for.

This game is available on a lot of systems, but this is a very good version of the game. The graphics are good, though they don’t push the hardware, understandably for a game originally released on the NES. All versions of the game are almost the same exact game, platform differences such as resolution or colors aside. The controls are great, and each car handles differently just like they should. Versus the GB version you do have a slightly better viewing distance thanks to the higher resolution screen, though; that’s nice. On the other hand, there is one fewer multiplayer mode, though the one it has is a great one. Micro Machines’ classic multiplayer mode, pioneered by this game, is here. This is a single-screen mode where both racers try to stay on the track. Once one person touches the front end of the screen they get a point on a meter on the side. This meter will go up and down as the two players win points, until one person fills up the meter with only their color. This is a pretty great multiplayer mode, and it returns in every Micro Machines game since. The GB version also has a handheld-exclusive split-screen mode where each player plays on their own screen in normal races where the players don’t need to be on the same screen, but I can understand why that does not appear in any of the computer or TV console versions of the game. MM1 is more limited in multiplayer than its sequels, though. Only eight or nine of the dozens of tracks in this game can be played in multiplayer for some stupid reason, first. This limitation is the same in every version of the game I have seen, and I have no idea why it is but it’s a pain. And second, the game has a two player limit on the Genesis, while many other Micro Machines games support four or eight players. The GB version of this game actually has four player support, if you’ve got a GB multitap and all the systems and copies of the game you’d need, but this doesn’t on either SNES or Genesis. MM2 for Genesis does add a 4-player mode, but sadly that game only released on consoles in Europe; we only got the PC and GBC versions of MM2 here in the US.

Overall, Micro Machines is one of my favorite racing games ever. This is an awesome game on any platform, so if you see this Genesis version for cheap, absolutely get it! The game looks nice, plays really well, and is a great challenge. The game does have limited lives and continues and no saving, but with practice you’ll eventually get through if you stick with it. This is a fast game with some cars, but it’s not as over-the-top as the speeds in the sequels. I think they got the speed balance just right this first time. The tracks here are among my favorites in the whole genre, too. I only wish you could play all of them in multiplayer. Multiplayer always has been a big focus in the Micro Machines series, and that’s as true here as anywhere. The 3 or 4 player mode is missed here, but two player play is great. Definitely pick this one up. There are many more similar games to this on this and newer consoles by the developers Codemasters and Supersonic. In addition to this game, also check out Toybox Turbos for the PC, Circuit Breakers for Playstation, Micro Machines 1 and V3 for the Game Boy and GB Color, and Micro Machines 2 for the PC or European Genesis (Megadrive). Micro Machines was released on a lot of platforms; this game is also available on the NES, PC, and Game Boy, and in Europe only on the CD-i, Game Gear, and Super Nintendo. The game has three sequels on the Genesis as well, all Europe-exclusive releases — Micro Machines 2, Micro Machines ’96, and Micro Machines Military. I’d love to get them and definitely plan to have all three eventually.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, this is last weekends’ update. It’s only seven summaries, but was delayed because of the holiday; I just got it done. I’ll try to have another full update this weekend… we’ll see. I have started on it. This time, I cover the four (sort of five) games I have from the letter N, plus two games I got too recently to include in their letters but am covering now, Darwin 4081 and The Lawnmower Man.

Games summarized in this update
—
Darwin 4081
The Lawnmower Man
NBA Jam (1994)
Newman Haas’ Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell
NHL ’94
NHL ’96
NHL ’97


Darwin 4081 (J) – 1 player. Darwin 4081 is a vertical-scrolling shmup is a Sega port of a Data East arcade game. The game is an earlier release for the system, and didn’t release outside of Japan, unfortunately. Darwin 4081 is a visually average game and looks like the early release it is, but the controls and gameplay are solid fun, and there is some nice visual design here as well, particularly in the sprites. The game has a somewhat organic look, and it wouldn’t surprise me if this game helped inspire the visuals in Sega’s work soon afterwards on Sega’s only internally-developed Genesis shmup, Bio Hazard Battle. That is a better game than this, but Darwin 4081 is also good. This game feels a lot like a Toaplan game such as Kyuukyoku Tiger with a bit of Raiden in it, so the formula is good but unoriginal. You fly upwards, shooting badguys as they appear while dodging them and their fire. Much like a Toaplan game your ship’s movement is slow, so you’ll need to really pay attention to dodge the bullets. Unlike Toaplan games, though, here you actually can get speed powerups, though you never move as fast as you can in, say, a Gradius game. Dying resets your speed to default, though, so you’ll need to get used to the slow speed; only the best will be fast most of the time. Easier speed changes would be nice, but you do get used to it.

Now, Darwin 4081 is a simple game, but the game does have a somewhat unique weapon power-up system. As you kill enemies they drop powerups sometimes, as usual, and some of them will upgrade your ship’s power through various evolutions. Depending on the powerup type you get you can evolve to different forms, until you reach one of the final forms. The “Darwin” in the title refers to your ship, which will evolve between different forms as you progress. If you take damage you devolve, until when you get hit at the basic level you die and go back to the last checkpoint. I think there’s also a hidden timer that de-evolves you after staying in your current form for some amount of time, though I could be wrong about that. Regardless, you will be frequently changing weapons in this game. The numerous forms your ship can take are interesting, and progression is not always better — you will need to learn the different ship types in order to do well at this game, or you’ll get something which gives you a weaker weapon and be stuck with it at a boss. That’s not fun. Of the final forms though, the large ship that shoots a lot of bullets forward is a LOT better than the one that can place shots which stay on screen; those shots aren’t easily re-positionable, and enemies can’t be counted on to fly into them. It can be hard to control which form you get, too, because I usually want to just pick up all the powerups which drop, instead of choosing specific types. The powerups all look similar, too. Still, I like the powerup system for the most part. Your ship has more different forms and attack patterns than in most shmups of the day, and seeing the different ones is interesting, even if some are weaker than others.

As with many classic shmups, Darwin 4081 is a difficult game. If you can stay alive at max power with one of the best weapons, picking up powerups regularly to stay in one of the top ship forms while avoiding damage, the game will seem easy… until you die. And it’s easy to die even fully powered up, particularly at boss fights. Boss fights in this game can be hard, and since you get sent back to the last checkpoint when you die with only the basic, very weak weapon and no powerups and the game does have limited continues, this is one of those shooters where one death can doom your entire game no matter how many continues you have left, much like Gradius and such. I don’t mind this design, but it is frustrating when you get stuck at a boss and know you probably could beat the thing with the power you had the first time. The good controls and enemy patterns and sometimes interesting graphics will keep you coming back, though. Darwin 4081 is not one of the great Genesis shmups, since it has only average visuals and the weapon system can be confusing at times, but it is a good game that might be worth getting if you like the genre. Don’t set your expectations too high, but it’s more good than bad. This game isn’t as expensive as many import shmups, either, and the cart isn’t region-locked so it will work on a US Genesis so long as you have a way to get the cart into the system (again I use my 32X for this). Arcade port. The original arcade version is called Darwin 4078; I’m not sure why they added 3 years to the console port’s title. I’ve also heard this game called Super Real Darwin.


The Lawnmower Man – 1-2 player simultaneous. The Lawnmower Man is a surprisingly interesting game. Based on the cyberpunk movie of the same name, The Lawnmower Man is half average run & gun-style platform-action game, and half pretty cool 3d runner. The game starts with a 3d stage. Here, you have a first-person perspective, with your arms on the sides of the screen, and run forwards, dodging scaling objects which come at you. They did an impressive job with the sprite-scaling here, presuming that the game uses scaling and not differently-sized sprites instead; I don’t know which it is. The environment sprites you are dodging are admittedly EXTREMELY low-resolution and appear to be made up of only a handful of giant pixels each, with no textures of course, but still it looks really cool. In some of these stages you just run to the end dodging walls, while in others you have a gun. This isn’t a first-person or rail shooter, though. Instead, in the 3d stages with weapons you will stop periodically for shooting-gallery style gun sections. They work, but shooting galleries aren’t as impressive as real 3d movement in a Genesis game. Still, these 3d levels are cool, a nice technical achievement, and are fun to play. In between the relatively short 3d levels, though, are the majority of the game, which is just a pretty average shooting-heavy platform-action game. You walk to the right, shoot the badguys, and try to avoid incoming fire; that’s about it. It’s somewhat fun, but isn’t as cool as the 3d stages. There are various weapons to pick up along the way, and some basic puzzle elements to solve along the way, though. In these stages your sprite is very small on the screen, a bit too small really. Bigger graphics and more impressive backgrounds would have been nice here. There are two playable characters and you can play these stages in two player simultaneous, but still, compared to the cool 3d stages, these bland-looking and only okay-playing levels are kind of disappointing. They won’t be easy, though! Enemies can take a good number of shots to take down, and bosses can be tricky. I do like that the game pulls off scaling (whether real or simulated with sprites I don’t know) effects in the main game as well, though. One early boss has you facing off against several long tentacle-like plants, and they rotate around the screen nicely. In conclusion, The Lawnmower Man is a good game. I wasn’t expecting much from a licensed game, but it surprised me. Sure, a majority of the game is a decent-but-not-great sidescrolling action game, but it is at least above average, and the cool 3d stages in between platformer levels are very cool. This game is a nice technical achievement, and a reasonably fun game as well. It could have been even better, but as it is it’s an above-average game well worth a try. Also on SNES. Other games based on the license are available on other platforms, such as a Sega CD/PC game, but they aren’t the same thing as this one.


NBA Jam (1994)- 1-4 player simultaneous (with EA multitap), cartridge save (EEPROM). NBA Jam is one of the greatest classic arcade games of the 1990s, and this Genesis port from Acclaim is great! Baseball aside I prefer my sports games arcade-styled, and Midway’s NBA Jam series is the pinnacle of arcade sports gaming. This first NBA Jam game is not my favorite in the series, but still it’s a fantastic game and still one of the most fun sports games around. A lot of older sports games aren’t too much fun to play now, but NBA Jam, at least, is still fantastic fun, particularly with multiple players! NBA Jam is a great single player game, but it’s even better in multiplayer, and the game has four player support with a multitap, which is great. So what is NBA Jam, for those who don’t know? The game is a two-on-two basketball game. It’s got a side-view-isometric game, with a court a couple of screens long that scrolls horizontally. It looks good. As it was originally an arcade game, gameplay is simple and focused on fun. There are no penalties except for goaltending (so don’t try to block shots which are descending towards the hoop), the ball cannot go out of bounds, you can make shots regularly that people almost never could in real life, whacking the other guys to steal away the ball is just fine, and more! It’s great fun stuff, and has a perfect balance of simplicity versus depth; this game may be easy to learn, but there’s a fair amount to master if you want to be good at it. By default you only need to keep track of one player while playing as well, because you can’t control your AI companion’s movement, though hitting the Shoot or Pass buttons while they have the ball will make them shoot, or pass to you. I like this system, and rarely have really wanted to play as my teammate, though the option does exist in this version; turn on Tag mode in the options menu if you want control to switch each time you pass the ball. I prefer Tag mode off, myself, but it is a nice option to have for those who like it; not all later NBA Jam-series games have the feature. The game also has game-time-length and difficulty options, but that’s about it.

Gameplay here is a simplified version of the game of basketball, with all the boring stuff like penalties or confusing things like five players stripped out. Controls are simple. You have a shoot/jump button, a pass/steal button, and a turbo button; the former commands are for when your team has the ball, the latter when the other team does. Holding turbo makes your actions stronger, but drains a turbo meter on screen. You can also fake a shot and do a few more advanced moves, but it’s a simple game. Your meter refills while not holding Turbo down. The control scheme is perfect and really could not be improved on. For modes, there are only two, and for single-player play the two are identical. The two modes either have you play against or with player two, to either compete against eachother or team up against the AI. It’s a nice option to have. For single player just choose either one, then a team. Your goal is to beat all of the NBA teams once each, in order from worst to best based on how good they were in 1993. The game doesn’t save a season in progress, each game is stand-alone and you can always play as a different team each game if you want. Your goal is just to beat all of the teams using the same initials. You enter your initials before each game, and this works as both your name ingame and your save file. Initials files save your stats, including number of NBA teams defeated, win-loss record, and more. The game can hold up to 16 save files (sets of initials), and you can delete them from a sub-menu of the options screen if you want. I love that this game has a chip-only save type, instead of a battery in the cart! No worrying about replacing a battery here, this chip should last a long time. Of course as with all non-battery-based chip saves it has a write limit, but those take a very long time to reach. I wish more 4th-gen games had non-batter chip saves, it’d have been great! Those cart batteries are dying these days, while NBA Jam is still doing fine.

Visually, NBA Jam looks good, though of course it doesn’t come close to the arcade original — there is no sprite scaling here, only several different sprite sizes the game will flip between, sprites are smaller and less colorful than in the arcades, and more. For a Genesis game this looks fine, though. The SNES version looks a bit better mostly thanks to that systems’ larger color palette, but it has no music during games, while on the Genesis there is in-game music, so each has a plus and a minus presentation-wise. The sequel NBA Jam T.E. is the same way, still no music on the SNES version sadly, which I have. There’s really only one arena to play in, but you’re going to be focused on the gameplay anyway, so it doesn’t matter. There really are only two downsides to this great game. First, the AI cheats massively, and will do everything it can to keep games close. This was an arcade game after all, Midway needed to keep you pouring quarters in the machine! If the game is close and the AI team has the ball at the buzzer, they’ll hit that long-distance three for sure. Also, you can’t play as Michael Jordan, the most famous NBA player ever, because his name and likeness would have required a separate license which Midway presumably couldn’t afford, or didn’t want to pay. That really is too bad, it’d have been so awesome to see Jordan in NBA Jam! He isn’t in most of the sequels either, though he is in EA’s Wii/PS3/360 new NBA Jam game. Sure, Scottie Pippen is very good too, but he’s no Jordan. Anyway, most of the other big stars are here, including Ewing, Malone, Olajuwon, etc.

Overall, NBA Jam is a fantastic game, and owning some version of this classic is a definite must! The 32X version of NBA Jam T.E. is probably my favorite console NBA Jam game, but this Genesis version of the first one is great as well. And with how cheap it is, there’s no reason not to pick it up the next time you see it for a dollar. I love this game, it’s outstanding. T.E. is even better, and adds features such as switching players between quarters, three players per team, injury ratings, hot-spots and turbo-speed modes, a rookies team, and more, but the first NBA Jam is still fantastic. It is a very simple game, even simpler than its successor since it doesn’t have the switching or injury components, but it’s brilliant in its simplicity. You won’t find a much more fun sports game than this. It’s great. Arcade port; NBA Jam was also released on the SNES, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega CD, and more. I also have the Game Gear and Sega CD versions. The GG version isn’t as good (and has passwords for saving instead of on-cart saving), but the SCD version’s nice. It does have real sprite scaling, but otherwise is the same as the Genesis. The question is, though, are the long load times worth that slight advantage? And you lose the chip-only saving too, since it saves to the Sega CD, which uses a (rechargeable) battery.


Newman Haas’ IndyCar featuring Nigel Mansell – 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Sort of like the Mario Andretti game above but with only open-wheel cars, more 3d elements, and a music option (with no sound effects, of course), Newman-Haas Indy Car featuring Nigel Mansell is an average open-wheel racing game from Gremlin and published by Acclaim. This game has a real IndyCar license, all 15 tracks from the season it’s based on, the real drivers, okay graphics with some nice-for-the-system attempts at polygonal 3d backdrops, and okay gameplay, but I find it far too tediously dull to stick with much like most F1 or IndyCar games. These usually seem to be games made for fans of this kind of racing, which I am not, and not for the average racing-game fan, and this one is no exception. The first of two SNES and Genesis racing games featuring Nigel Mansell, this racing game has sort of a linescroll / 3d hybrid style to it. You play from an in-car view, and the track is mostly smooth, linescroll-style curves, but the trackside environment has polygonal walls, bridges, and buildings. Some linescroll racers have a bit of this stuff, but this one is full of them, particularly here on Genesis; the SNES version isn’t as impressive thanks to the slow SNES CPU. Sure, the buildings are made up of one huge polygon per side, and the framerate is slow and choppy as it is with most all polygonal Genesis games, but still, few Genesis racers attempt real 3d. The game doesn’t feel like a full 3d world like Hard Drivin’, it does have those smooth curves and some alternating bands of color to simulate motion, but it’s more convincing than your average linescroll game is. Aurally, the game has either music or sound effects. As with the Genesis Lotus games, you can’t have both at once, sadly. That’s always an annoying limitation, and there’s no good reason for it either.

Ingame, IndyCar has a fairly simple driving model, but you will need practice to do well, as learning where to brake on the turns is crucial if you want to avoid going off the road and hitting things. The game has both Arcade and Sim modes. Sim mode punishes you more for crashes as you can get injured and have the race immediately end, and has longer races where you will need to pit in to refuel during the race, but the controls are pretty much the same in both, it seems. The game controls okay, but you really will need to brake to not go off the road on many turns. As for the courses, I like that the game has all 15 real tracks, but they feel nearly the same — backgrounds are similar everywhere, trackside objects are the same, and the tracks just don’t look very different. The game does have single race or a championship mode with password saving and some car customization options, so the featureset is good for the platform, but for me at least it doesn’t hold my interest long enough to want to attempt a championship. Overall Newman-Haas IndyCar featuring Nigel Mansell is an okay, average-at-best racing game that only fans of this kind of game are likely to really like. Also on SNES, though this version has better graphics. I have the SNES version of the other Nigel Mansell-licensed racing game; see my SNES list for that one. It’s also very mediocre.


NHL ’94 – … My collection spreadsheet claims I have this game, but if I do I don’t know where it is. I’m not sure if I ever actually had NHL ’94… though I do have the case back for the Sega CD version, but Tomcat Alley was and is the disc in that case. NHL ’94 is probably considered to be the best Genesis NHL game and one of the best hockey games ever, so I should have it… ah well.


NHL ’96 – 1-4 player simultaneous (with EA multitap), battery save. NHL ’96 is a good hockey game from EA. This is the fifth of seven NHL games EA released on the Genesis, and it’s one of the better ones. ’94 is the agreed-on favorite, but this one is good too. I’ve never liked hockey as a sport, and never have played any hockey game a lot, but sure, this seems to be fun. Don’t expect an in-depth summary here, though, I haven’t played this or any hockey game enough to do that. I can say that the game looks okay, plays well, and is sometimes fun to play, though I like other things more. The game lets you play as all of the teams from the 1995 season, and has single game, tournament, and season modes, with battery save to save seasons in progress, stats, and such. All arenas are the same except for the home teams’ logo in the center, but otherwise it’s a full-featured game for the time. The game has a vertically-oriented arena, so one goal is on the top and the other is on the bottom, with a top-down view of the ice. Gameplay is simple; you have a shoot button, a pass/swipe at puck button, and that’s about it. It’s easy to learn and plays well. Gameplay is simple and straightforward, and button-mashing seems to work well when fighting over the ball. This does lead to penalties, which are annoying and too frequent, but you can turn those off if you like. Goalies are hard to score on, though, so games are often tediously low-scoring affairs; I like the arcadey fun of Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey for the N64 more than this more realistic kind of goalie. Still, it is possible to score, just not often. The game has three difficulty settings, and even someone who almost never plays this kind of game like me can regularly win games on the lowest setting, which is nice. Overall, this is a good hockey game, and can be fun particularly in multiplayer, but I don’t like hockey as a sport and always get bored with these games after a couple of games. No hockey game has ever held my interest long-term, but I do like this simple kind of game more than the overly complex ones of today. Having at least one Genesis NHL game is pretty much a must, though, for any Genesis collector; they’re super-common and worth a play, particularly with a friend. There is also a SNES game of the same name, though it’s not the same as this Genesis version. I know the Genesis EA games are mostly regarded as superior, but I don’t know if I’ve ever played the SNES ones.


NHL ’97 – 1-4 player simultaneous (with EA multitap), battery save. NHL ’97 is basically NHL ’96 but with a roster update, a new Skills Challenge mode which lets you play some kind-of-boring hockey skill tests, maybe slightly improved graphics (and I mean slightly!), and that’s about it. Sure, they were working from a good base, but this is one lazy sequel, as sports-game sequels often are. Again this is an okay game, but my dislike of hockey and sparse scoring makes me get bored after a game or two and I haven’t played it beyond a handful of matches. As with everything else, the AI seems to be about the same as the last game. There really isn’t any reason to have both NHL ’96 and this game unless you really love the series or hockey games. NHL ’98 is apparently more of the same. Again there is also a SNES version, though it’s not the same as this game.

 

[televator]

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Falcon so much right now. Normally Falcon posts something and it's a good bet I'll disagree with whatever is in it... But S3&K the best game on Genesis? You're goddamn right it is.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Sega Genesis Game Opinion Summaries, Part 9: Letters O, P, & Q

Five big simulation or RPG games this time, so this one took a while to write. Just as a warning, though, these are not exactly great reviews of P.T.O., Phantasy Star II or IV, Pier Solar, or Pirates! Gold. They are more about my thoughts on these games, which are … mixed, in all five cases. Keep that in mind.

List of Games Covered
—
Ooze, The
Out of this World
OutRun
OutRun 2019
OutRunners
P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star IV
Phelios
Pier Solar and the Great Architects
Pirates! Gold
QuackShot Starring Donald Duck
Quad Challenge


Ooze, The – 1 player. The Ooze is a somewhat odd top-down action game from Sega Technical Institute, one of Sega’s in-house American studios during the Genesis era. This is unlike any of STI’s other Genesis games, but while it has issues, I like the game quite a bit overall. The Ooze is another one of those extremely difficult but rewarding Genesis games, and it’s well worth a try! In the game, you play as a scientist guy who was turned into a puddle of green goo thanks to an evil scientist. You’re off to stop him, even though you don’t have human form anymore. You move your goo around with the pad, controlling a central head which is your avatar that the rest of the goo centers around. If your main body is hit by an attack you die instantly in one hit, so watch out! You can stretch out tendrils with the A button to attack, and touching switches or pickups with either your main body or a tendril will pick the thing up or activate the switch. Enemies usually drop a small amount of goo, and other powerups are scattered around such as larger good blobs, fast-movement powerups which turn you yellow for a short time, DNA strands, and more. You’ll want all of those DNA bits if you want the game to end well, and collecting that goo as you explore is vital if you want to survive. However, the bigger you get the bigger a target you are, and avoiding enemy fire will be hard. It things hit your main goo-body you lose some goo, but that’s survivable as long as you keep your head from getting hit, though this is tricky at times. You also will lose size if you take too long to finish a level, so keep moving.

Visually The Ooze looks good. The art design here is solid, and the game has a nice Western-cartoon look to it. I like that the game is set in the real world but zoomed in, since you’re a somewhat small puddle of goo. This isn’t Micro Machines-level ‘tiny real world’ design, it’s more abstract than that and telling scale isn’t always easy, but it is nice. Levels in this game are good-sized and are filled with obstacles, enemies, and traps. They quickly get intricate, but are fun to explore, so long as you can stay alive. Exploring levels fighting enemies and looking for powerups is quite fun, and I like the ooze character you play as. The game is quite hard, though. With a password system this would have been a pretty good game, but as it is I end up starting again from the beginning quite frequently; the game has no saving and as in Comix Zone you start with zero continues, so three deaths and it’s Game Over, try again from the start unless you managed to find an extra life or continue somewhere. As much as I like the game, I eventually get frustrated with that and have never gotten anywhere near the end of this game, though I’d like to sometime. Overall The Ooze is a unique and interesting game, and it’s a good fun game I like, but I can see why it wasn’t particularly successful. It isn’t a platformer, after all, the most popular genre then, and is weird and a bit unapproachably difficult as well. But yes, do give The Ooze a try. It’s worth the effort. The Ooze is one of the better lesser-known Genesis games. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Out of this World – 1 player. Out of this World is an interesting cinematic platformer from a French developer. The game has a very cool and impressive 3d-rendered-style intro, and the ingame graphics have a similar prerendered-3d look that still looks very nice. You play as a scientist guy who was pulled into another world from a science experiment gone wrong, and indeed Another World is the European title for this game. Right from the second you appear, things start trying to kill you! You aren’t some action hero, though, so surviving this world will be difficult. Indeed, you will die, CONSTANTLY, in this game. The game is a bit like Prince of Persia or other highly-animated platformers like that, but with a perhaps even more puzzle-focused design. There is one thing you can do at any moment to survive; anything else kills you in a variety of ways. The challenge is figuring out what that thing you must do is. There are frequent checkpoints, but you have limited lives and the game doesn’t have saving, so you’ll be starting over regularly, unfortunately. The game is short, but hard enough that only the dedicated will see the end. For moves, You can run, jump, kick, and use various things you find to try to survive in this strange world. While most things here try to kill you, you will find one friendly alien partway through the game who can help you out at times. I like Out of this World’s style, and the game definitely keeps you coming back as you try to figure out what to do at each challenge, but there is no exploration here; you are following a railed path. Also, I’ve just never really liked the PoP school of highly-animated platform game movement design. Classic Mario or Sonic-style movement is a lot freer and more fun than the restricted and precise movements required in games like this. Still, Out of this World is an interesting game, and whatever your thoughts on this kind of game, this one, at least, really is a must-try game. It’s an interesting game with a simple but compelling story and lots of tough challenges along the way. The game is short if you can stay alive, but it’ll take plenty long to get to that point. Out of this World is a good game. It’s easy to see why it was popular when it released, and the game is still worth playing now. I don’t love this game as much as some thanks to the controls and design, but it is good. The game is available on numerous platforms — SNES, PC, Amiga, Sega CD, Commodore 64, Jaguar, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Mac, 3DO, Apple II, ZX Spectrum, and maybe more. There is also a modern remake for the PC also available. The remake is on mobile phones as well. There is also a Sega CD-exclusive sequel, Heart of the Alien, though I’ve never played it. Heart of the Alien wasn’t made by the original developer of this game though, and isn’t quite as highly regarded as this title.


OutRun – 1 player. Outrun is one of Sega’s most popular arcade games. An all-time classic, Outrun released in the mid ’80s and is a linescroll-style racing game. This is a time-based point-to-point racing game with a branching tree-like structure that has one start point and five end points in your five-track run. So, your goal is to reach one of those end points without running out of time; you aren’t actually racing against other racers, the other cars on the road are just obstacles. The arcade version looks, sounds, and plays fantastically, and has branching routes too, giving the game replay value. You always start at the same place, but there are five end points depending on how you turn at the end of each route. You’ve got only one car to drive, and three songs to choose from, all very good. It’s a fantastic game in the arcades. Here on the Genesis the game is good, but it could be better. The basic concept and gameplay is here, but the Genesis doesn’t have sprite scaling, so instead they have differently-sized sprites for everything which the game flips between as you get closer to things. Unfortunately, it’s distractingly choppy. Track-side objects are large and detailed, but scale badly. The scaling here isn’t quite as terrible as it is in Super Hang-On or Space Harrier II, but it is kind of bad. If you play this and then Outrun 2019, there’s an incredible improvement in that later release. And indeed, Outrun 2019 is an important part of why I’ve found this game disappointing ever since I got it in the ’00s; as good as this is, Outrun 2019, which I got first, has much better graphics and sound, and it has more variety in the tracks as well. While this game looks alright most of the time, playing that game and then this one really shows how much the later game improves on sprite-flipping-for-scaling. Here it’s choppy and awful-looking, and gets a lot worse when a lot of stuff is on screen as in the stone gates stage; there it’s almost smooth, as smooth as such techniques get. Outrun also doesn’t have any engine noise, disappointingly, only music (with four songs available) and a few sound effects. 2019 does have engine noise.

Still, though Outrun 2019 is better, when playing Outrun again for this summary I liked it more than I thought I would. Those gates are kind of eye-hurtingly bad looking if you look at them, and the clouds flying by in one other stage might be even worse, but most of the time it’s okay, and I do like the detailed graphics and large number of sprites the game puts on screen. The car is nice and large, and the art design is great classic ’80s Sega genius. Each of the 15 tracks looks different and has its own trackside objects to drive past. Each track is fairly short, though, and you’ll be seeing the same stuff a lot in this game. Outrun has limited content; it won’t take long to see most of the routes here, and you’ll be replaying the smaller number of early tracks a lot in order to get to the different later ones. Reaching the end will be difficult though, particularly on normal difficulty or higher, as the time limit is very strict. On Easy you can finish with a crash or two, but that’s about it. The game has five difficulty settings which affect both time and number of obstacle cars, but anything above Very Easy will take quite a bit of practice. It is frustrating when I crash once late in the game and doom an entire run, and crashing is easy; because of this I haven’t finished Outrun many times. Still, whether or not you win, Outrun is a good game even in this downgraded form. Overall Outrun for the Genesis is good, but could have been a lot better. It looks nice in still shots, plays well apart from the annoying choppiness, and sounds good. But is there much reason to play this version of the game today? Really, there isn’t. Why suffer through Genesis Outrun’s choppy bouncing scaling when you could just play a better port? For 1990 this is pretty good, but it has aged. Arcade port; OutRun has been ported to many platforms over the years. This Genesis version is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games. The other 4th-gen console version is on the PC Engine (Japanese Turbografx). It has less graphical detail and fewer background-object sprites than this Genesis version, but plays more smoothly, making it perhaps a more fun version to play than this. It has engine noise, too. The best versions, though, are on the Saturn and Nintendo 3DS (eshop download only title); those two ports are better than arcade-perfect thanks to added 60fps support. The 3d on the 3DS looks quite great as well. Also see the sequels.


OutRunners – 1-2 player simultaneous. This is the third Genesis Outrun game; the second, Turbo Outrun, was only released in Japan. I’ve heard it’s not that great. As for this game it is also unpopular, but I kind of like it. OutRunners is Sega’s attempt at a multiplayer Outrun game. The game was originally a twin-cab arcade machine, but this Genesis version is significantly scaled back in order to run on the limited hardware of the Genesis. Visually this game is not too impressive, but the two player support is nice, and I like the variety of cars you can drive; there are a lot more choices than the one of the original! There are a fair number of tracks to race through, as well, set all over the world. Each race in this game is a 1-on-1 race between you and the home team for that track, as you try to defeat all of the others and win the championship. The game has a forced-splitscreen view, so it’s always split even in single player. This means that the play window is pretty small, but with the detail level here it’s probably for the best that they don’t have a full-screen option; it would not look great. Despite that, the game plays more smoothly than the first Outrun, and thankfully doesn’t have that games’ distractingly choppy look. Environments are fairly basic looking, and the draw distance isn’t as far off as would be nice, but the game is playable and looks alright. And yes, in terms of the gameplay, this game is great fun! Zooming along, making turns, and trying to stay ahead of your competition are all great fun here, and I quite enjoyed my time with the game. This game is no A-grade classic, but it is a solidly above-average game that’s fun to play. The championship is fun to play through, and you can play single races against a friend as well. This is the only Outrun game ever with single-system simultaneous multiplayer, surprisingly enough, so it’s worth having for that as well. OutRunners is a better game than most people say. I imagine the poor graphical detail is a big part of why people often dislike it, but I really do think it plays more smoothly than the first Outrun; no matter how many times I try I just can’t like that game on the Genesis thanks to the visuals, while this game was fun from the first time I played it. Give OutRunners a try, it might surprise you like it did me! It’s not great, but it is good. Arcade conversion, though this is quite different from the arcade game.


OutRun 2019 – 1 player. Outrun 2019 is an incredible futuristic racing game. As with the original Outrun, this is a point-to-point linescroll racer. This game is my favorite racing game on the Genesis, and in the 4th generation as a whole, on my list only F-Zero on the SNES is better, in this genre. Outrun 2019 is a fast and exciting game with a good number of tracks to race, great graphics, good music, and easier gameplay than the original Outrun. The really good graphics are the first thing you’ll notice about Outrun 2019. This game is fast and smooth, and does some really cool things you almost never see in linescroll-style racing games, including suspended highways you drive on, divided roads, and more. Between this and Top Gear 3000 on the SNES, Outrun 2019 is much more inventive in track designs, while Top Gear 3000 is mostly just conventional linescroll-racer roads with a light sci-fi theme. I love the suspended highways, they’re great! The see-through ones are particularly cool. Sometimes the track branches, with one one the ground and the other on a suspended road above, and you can see the other path above or below you as you drive; that’s really cool stuff for the time. The speed and smoothness are key as well. Gone is the ugly, choppy jumping sprites of Outrun and such, and in are nearly-scaler-smooth sprite transitions. If you look you can tell that the game doesn’t have actual sprite scaling, but it looks great and holds up well.

This is a fast game too, faster than its predecessors. Your car is fast, and you have an automatic turbo feature as well. Once the accelerometer is maxed out, it will start to fill with white. Once the meter is fully white, your turbo booster kicks in and you’re off! If you hit the brakes or go off the main road turbo will cancel, and it slows down turning a lot of course, but it’s a great feature I love. Futuristic racing games are my favorite kind, racing games are better with things like turbo boosters, techno music, and cool futuristic cars! And on that note, yes, the music this time is techno, and it’s very good. All of the songs are great, unlike Genesis Outrun with its mix of good and mediocre songs. There’s a good amount of content here too, though it won’t be hard to get through if you stick to Easy or Normal difficulty. Unlike the original game, which has only one five-track race, this time you have four different circuits to choose from. THey vary from three to four races long each, and you can select any from the menu, so you don’t have to race them in order. Each has branching paths along the way in that classic Outrun style, but each has only one end-point, so the game doesn’t have multiple endings like Outrun does. I’m fine with that; it’s better to have more variety along the way, instead of having to do the same early tracks over and over in order to see different late ones as you have to do in the first Outrun. There are probably twice as many tracks here than the first Outrun, and some have multiple routes within the track as well, as described earlier with those ground-and-suspended highway sections, or areas with a split road with a median in the middle. The game has tunnels as well, and they look nice. The tracks in this game are some of the best in the genre in both design and fun factor.

Several things make this game easier than past Outurn games. Most importantly, when you hit things, either cars or trackside obstacles, you are likely to just spin and slow down a bit, but not crash. I really like this change, it goes well with the turbo-booster; if you had to avoid hitting anything you’d have to use turbo a lot less, and that wouldn’t be as fun. This way is more fun, and makes keeping up with the timer a lot easier. The timer has been eased up on a bit too, and it won’t be nearly as hard to finish without running out of time in this game. Easy in Outrun might be harder than Normal in this game, actually, and this one has only three difficulty levels. I recommend Hard if you want any challenge after zipping through on Normal, though I’ve beaten it on Hard as well. If you run out of time you have to start the current race over, from the beginning of whichever of the four circuits you’re in, but they aren’t that long so that’s okay. Outrun 2019 is incredibly fun, and I don’t mind at all that it’s a bit easy. There is plenty of replay value here despite that, the game is still fantastic no matter how many times I’ve played it. Outrun 2019 isn’t perfect, though. Probably the biggest flaw is that Sega cheaped out and didn’t include a save feature in this cart. The game looks like it was designed for saving, as you can enter your name at the start and the game has a Records section which keeps track of your five best times on each track in the game… but only as long as the power is on, because the cart doesn’t have saving. With saving this already-great game would have been even better, and it’s really too bad it was cut. The game started out as a Sega CD game, where it certainly could have had saving; it’s too bad Sega was too cheap to keep it here. Actually that original version wasn’t an Outrun game, but the franchise fits well here. The gameplay is Outrun, but with a few updates, after all. Otherwise, really the only other issue is the length, but I at least don’t mind it. Everything else about this game is fantastic, including the great graphics, fast gameplay, fun track designs, good music, and more. Outrun 2019 is exceptional and is easily one of the best Genesis games ever. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games. There also was a stand-alone-system release of this game in the early ’00s.


P.T.O.: Pacific Theater of Operations – 1-2 player alternating, battery save. P.T.O. is a turn-based grand strategy game from Koei, probably the best-known Japanese strategy game developer. Koei’s best known for their Romance of the Three Kingdoms series of strategy games set in ancient China, but they used to make other strategy games as well. This one recreates the naval war in the Pacific theater of World War II, the war of America against Japan. The game is a deep game for a 4th-gen console game, but as much as I love strategy games, and they are my favorite genre, I’ve never been able to get interested in Koei games. This and the PS1 version of RotTK IV are the only Koei strategy games I’ve played, and while I can see that there is an interesting game here, my few attempts to actually play this game end fairly quickly because I’m not having much fun. There are two main problems, first that this kind of game really isn’t very good without a mouse, and second that ’80s to early ’90s strategy games are badly dated even on the PC. By the mid ’90s PC strategy game interfaces became somewhat modern, but it’s hard to go back to early ’90s design. This isn’t quite as bad as the worst of early ’90s PC strategy games, it’s all menus, setting numbers, and yes/no questions instead of the obtuse and confusing interfaces of PC games like The Patrician or Cohort, but it’s not much fun either, compared to a game like Harpoon Classic. Having a mouse and a higher-resolution screen you’re sitting closer to makes a huge difference! And the graphics in general here are not great. The graphics work, but aren’t as good as some Genesis strategy games, and audio is somewhat bad in this game; the music isn’t good, and sound effects are weak.

But anyway, for those who want to play this game despite how badly dated it now is, P.T.O. has quite a lot here. This game clearly took some inspiration from RotTK, but it’s adapted for the World War II setting and is more complex than RotTK in quite a few ways. The game plays on a large map of the region. As the game is focused on the navy, ships and fleets of ships are your main units here. You can attach armies to fleets, send troops to attack islands, and such, but your main focus is on your fleet. Scattered around the map are bases, like the cities in RotTK, and your goal is to capture the required number of enemy bases. There are a nice variety of scenarios to play, for if you want to play the whole war or just a part of it, and you can play as either the Allies or Japan. This is a complex game. You start out by setting your officers’ stats, something present in many RotTK games. Then you set your starting resources, set some initial goals, and then you’re off. In the game, a bunch of menus let you refuel fleets, create new fleets and ships, move fleets around the map, look at various stats screens, adjust your goals, look at enemy intelligence if you have any, and lots more. Finding points on the map is a bit frustrating and would be MUCH easier with a mouse. You’ll need to make sure ships are restocked and fueled up, then you can send them around. When fleets run into each other there is a battle. Battles are effectively very simple hex-based wargame fights. Each player moves their units in turn, attacking the enemy ships, planes, and troops. Different unit types have stats, and strengths and weaknesses against eachother, so planes are good against ships and such. It’s fun, but the game has little depth compared to a more serious wargame — all you can really do in battle is move around and attack. If you win you get that territory. And that’s about as far as I’ve gotten with this game. It’s okay, but it’s hard to recommend when this genre has improved so dramatically over the years. Platformers have aged better than grand strategy games over the past 25 years, I think. Also on SNES. The game has several sequels, some Japan-only, but this is the only Genesis release in the series.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Phantasy Star II – 1 player, battery save. Phantasy Star is Sega’s longest-running RPG franchise. This is the first 4th-gen PS game, after the original for the Master System, and it is one of the first RPGs on the Genesis as well. This is a big, impressive, and incredibly grindey traditional turn-based Japanese role-playing game. The game has decent graphics for a 1989 release, good music, and a detailed if overly depressing story for the time, but also boringly conventional menu-based battles, confusing navigation, and constant required grinding. The SMS and Genesis PS games are all traditional RPGs, not action-RPGs like the series has been since its Dreamcast reboot. I prefer Phantasy Star Online and its followups to these games myself, but I know the classic Phantasy Star games have many diehard fans. Both are extremely grind-heavy, but I like the gameplay in those games a lot more than this. I’ve just never quite loved classic JRPG design, though I do like some of the games, most notably the Lunar series on Sega CD. This game isn’t anywhere near Lunar’s level; I can see why genre fans think highly of this game, but don’t enjoy playing it myself. In Phantasy Star II you play as a young man who will go on to be a hero and defeat evil, though at great cost, as usual in the Phantasy Star series; this is a series heavy on tragedy in its plots, and there’s a lot of that in this game right from the beginning. One of the earlier quests in the game involves

Spoiler

you finding a girl in order to bring her to her father, a bandit, to convince him to let you through. Well, after finding her on top of some monster-infested tower or something like that and taking her to that passage the guy is blocking he kills her when she refuses to give him money, then he kills himself because he hadn’t realized who she was. Pathway clear! You can progress now. Yeah.

This is that kind of game, and I don’t like that, it’s too dark. Games don’t need to be all happiness and light, but some of the PS games go too far with the depressing tragedies, and both of the Genesis PS games I have are probably at the top of that list. It’s also too bad that all three Genesis PS games have male protagonists in the name of better sales from the mostly-male console gaming audience; PS1’s female protagonist was probably more interesting.

Gameplay-wise, this is a traditional RPG with random battles with a too-high encounter rate, large, mazelike dungeons and overworlds that are very easy to get lost in, boring combat, and mountains of mandatory running around in circles levelling up — that is, level-grinding — to do if you want to stay alive. And no, there isn’t a map unless you look one up online; you’re on your own here, against the pretty tough onslaught of monsters. It’s a tediously frustrating combination, and makes this game not very fun to play. I like turn-based games a lot, but if I’m going to spend this much time in a battle system, I’d rather it actually be one that requires some strategy beyond just ‘hit attack over and over’! But no; you’ll find no character customization and only the most basic battle options here — attack; techniques, this series’ name for magic, though you’ll have VERY few techs for a long time, sadly; change character order; use item; or run. That’s it. It gets old fast, though in this way it’s just like the first Phantasy Star. Unlike the first game, though, exploration is entirely top-down in PSII; the first one has first-person dungeons, to make navigation even harder unless you draw a map as you go, though you’ll want to do that, or look up a map, here as well. Battles do have a behind-the-character view, but this is purely visual. I like the enemy and character animations, but battles themselves are way too simplistic and boring. Win or lose, battles have little depth. For such long games, it’s too bad that usually JRPGs require so little thought in battle, that’s one of my biggest issues with the genre. Item and tech-point management are not a substitute for a strategic battle system. And when you die, you’re punished hard — you can’t save anywhere in this game, and healing in town and cloning (bringing back dead party members) are very expensive.

So, there is a lot good about Phantasy Star II, but also a lot bad. On the positive side the game has good music and animations, a well thought through sci-fi setting in a genre that’s mostly swords-and-sorcery, nicely-drawn graphics, an impressively complex story for the time, some likable characters, reasonably fast-paced gameplay, and isn’t too complex. However, the game has random battles with a high encounter rate, which I hate; a high difficulty level, so you’ll die a lot; giant, annoying mazes to wander around in both the overworld and in dungeons, with no map where one is BADLY needed; mandatory running around in circles leveling up before you move forward (grinding) if you want to stay alive, and I really can’t stand grinding one bit, it’s something that makes me stop playing games; an overly-tragic plot; and simplistic battle and character-development systems have have little strategy or depth, where those things make for more interesting games in my opinion. I stopped playing this game after a few hours when I first got it, and going back for a little bit now, I can see why. Phantasy Star II is, overall, a good game for its time. The game was a step forward for Japanese RPGs in 1989, but some of its design decisions are hard for me to love. There are a lot of good things about PS II, but for me, more bad ones. Still, RPG fans who haven’t played Phantasy Star II should play it, but I doubt I’ll be playing this one much more. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games. Probably get one of those versions unless you can swap out cart batteries. My cart still saves fine, but these batteries are getting old.


Phantasy Star IV – 1 player, battery save. Phantasy Star IV is the last of the three Genesis games in the series, and the last Phantasy Star game until PS Online on the Dreamcast five or six years later. This game is, again, a top-view RPG with similar art design and combat to its predecessors. It has much better graphics than the PSII, however, and less required grinding, along with just as complex and depressing a storyline. Originally Sega was going to make a fourth PS game for the Sega CD, but unfortunately that plan was dropped in favor of this. Sega really needed more Sega CD games from Japan, so it’s too bad the CD game was scrapped. As for this one, I’ve played it less than PSII, but it does play well from what little I’ve seen. I like the improved overworld graphics, and battles look a bit nicer as well. Combat is similar to before, but the game seems a bit easier than the tough and sometimes unforgiving PSII. I really dislike what I’ve heard about some things that happen later in the story, though, it’s way too depressing yet again! Also, this is still a JRPG, that genre I rarely stick with for long, so I didn’t get far into the game. PSIV seems like a good game story aside, though, and genre fans who haven’t played it certainly should check it out. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games. As usual that might be the better choice unless you can solder.


Phelios – 1 player. Phelios is a shmup from Namco released early in the Genesis’s life. This is a pretty good vertical-scrolling shooter where you play as an anime-styled classical Greek guy flying on a pegasus, and you have to save the woman you love from a demon who kidnapped her. So yeah, the story is bad, and the game has scantily-clad pictures of her encouraging you to save her after every level, too, with voice clips of her dialog. Lots of negative stereotypes there, unfortunately, though they sure did put effort into those scenes, using that much cart space for the voice clips. Everything else about Phelios is much better, though. I like the ancient Greek setting, and the game has good controls, lots of enemy variety, and some good boss fights as well. You have a health bar in this game, rarely for a Japanese shmup, with up to four hits per life depending on difficulty. Your main attack is a forward shot, and if you hold down the button you charge up for a more powerful shot. Charge shots are vital to the game, and you’ll probably be making more charge shots than regular button-tapping attacks. I like this design. There are powerups that drop as you progress, but most are speed-ups and options (Gradius-style helpers). The rest are time-limited weapon powerups. There is also a life-up item, though it is VERY rare — I saw only one or two through my whole most recent playthrough. As you progress through the levels, enemies will come at you from both ground and air, but unlike other Namco shmups like Xevious or Dragon Saber, you don’t need a separate bomb button, thankfully; your attacks will hit all enemies. Your shots can push ground enemies off of ledges to destroy them, and you’ll be doing a lot of this; charge up and shoot ground guys for a quick kill. Each of the seven levels has a completely different setting. Some enemies recur throughout the game, but others are exclusive to each stage. Now, though this is a vertical shooter, there are instant-death walls, so you will need to learn the stages. That speed section in level two seems hard at first for instance, until you learn the trick. At the end of each stage is a temple you enter where the level’s boss will be found, and levels have midway checkpoints as well. I like that each boss has entirely different attack patterns and styles, it makes the game more interesting than shmups where all the bosses are basically the same.

Visually, Phelios looks okay but not great. The early release date does show, though the art design and graphics are good. The music is fine, but not memorable at all. The game has very few options, as well. Oddly, the options menu has no options in it — all it lets you do is view some text story scenes explaining what happens in each level and boss-fight. These texts do not appear during the game, so you’ll need to read them here if you want to have a bit of extra story. Yeah, it’s a quite odd design decision. There are three difficulty levels. The easiest one only lets you play four levels of the game, though, so really there are only two, and the hard one only unlocks after you beat the game. As the game doesn’t save, this means you have to finish the game on normal in order to play the game on hard, which is not good design; you really should be able to play Expert without playing Advanced (Normal, really) first. Phelios is quite fun, but it is a bit easy on “Advanced”. Playing the game for this summary, I finished the game on “Advanced” on my first try! I thought that I was going to get game over when I was down to one hit point left in the middle of level 6, but I managed to finally get to the end of that tough stage on my last hit, beat the boss without taking a hit, and then it was smooth sailing from there because the final level gives you lots of extra lives. I haven’t beaten Expert, but with more practice I probably could. Not having to play the whole game once first would make me more likely to try. Overall, though, Phelios is a good game. The graphics and sound are good but not the best, you have only one main weapon apart from some time-limited powerups, and on the medium, default difficulty the game is surprisingly easy for a Genesis shmup. Still, definitely play this game if you have any interest in shmups! The moderate difficulty makes this game a good entrypoint for people interested in classic-style shmups, and there is a little more challenge if you play Expert mode, though the unlock requirement is a pain. With a nice setting, good level designs, and great fun gameplay, Phelios is a quite good shmup that I certainly recommend. Arcade port.


Pier Solar and the Great Architects – 1 player, battery save, Sega CD supported (with optional music disc), 6 button controller supported. Pier Solar is a homebrew Genesis RPG, a Western game done in the style of JRPG. This is the only homebrew cartridge game that I own. I got it when the second printing started because it seemed interesting and I wanted to see if the game could live up to what I’d heard about it before release. I started the game, liked it initially, and then stopped playing a few hours in, frustrated and kind of bored, and never have gone back. Yeah, that is kind of silly when I paid full price for this game… but at least I got the nice plastic clamshell case, and the game has a great full-color paper manual as well. The cart, box, manual, and stickers all look great. The in-game graphics are really nice as well, the backgrounds particularly. Characters aren’t quite as great and have a definite mediocre-Western-anime look to them, but otherwise the game looks very good, and uses the Genesis’s color palette well. There is even a burnable CD you can use in your Sega CD, if you want CD audio instead of chiptunes! That’s awesome. So yeah, Pier Solar has great presentation. You can save anywhere as well, though it actually only saves from the last area you entered, not from the moment you hit save. Sadly, most of the gameplay isn’t anywhere near as good as the presentation is. Now, I’m only maybe 2 1/2 hours into the game, but Pier Solar has random battles (WHY???); annoyingly mazelike dungeons with, of course, no map; required items hidden behind secret passages, so have fun randomly walking into walls and such unless you use a guide, something you probably will want to do; a high difficulty level, much like the ‘you WILL die all the time’ challenge of Phantasy Star II; almost no enemy variety, so you’ll be fighting the same three monsters over and over and over in each dungeon, something which gets boring fast; slow-paced, simplistic, and boring combat, too much like the console RPGs of the early ’90s but less fun than some; and a cliche, bland plot that really could have used some more originality. You are Hoston, the usual RPG boy hero who will go on to, I presume, eventually save the world. The setup so far is generic.

Ingame, you’ll spend most of your time exploring around, and that means you’ll be fighting a lot of battles. Any battle can kill you, as enemies do a lot of damage per hit. And naturally, you have very few spells early on and they each take an inordinate amount of magic to cast, so three or four heals and your healer is out of magic. So yes, this game uses the usual traditional JRPG ‘mana and item conservation as the main strategy in the game’ system that I have never liked. As such, battles are simple. You can attack, run, use a spell if you actually still have magic left, use an item, and Gather. Gather is an ability-boosting move which uses up a turn, but boosts your attacks and such for the rest of the battle. Each character can Gather independently, and you can also send Gather from one character to another, as you can have up to 5 points of it per character. Sadly, it all vanishes after each battle, so you’ll have to Gather every time if you want boosted attacks. And considering that every Gather or send-gather-points move burns a turn, it may or may not be worth it, in each battle; do you want to gather, considering that the enemies will attack and probably hit hard? Often just using regular attacks seems better, though Gather does have its uses I guess. I wish that they had used a better system for this though, such as the great one in Skies of Arcadia, with its commonly-shared meter and special abilities that use it. Having the Gather system is better than nothing, but it slows down the game, adds lots of unskippable animations, and gives the enemies lots of free hits on you in a game where each one hurts, bad. But if you don’t use it, tougher enemies will take quite a few hits to take down, so there’s a lose/lose situation here. Overall, Pier Solar is an average game. I was hoping this game would be great, but they stuck far too close to the source material here. With visible enemies, a map, better level designs that aren’t quite as frustrating to navigate, and a better, faster-paced battle system, at minimum one like Lunar’s, this game could have been good, but that isn’t what this game is. This is a very oldschool early-’90s-style console RPG, and it really is only for fans of that kind of game. The game probably is not worth full price unless you’re a collector or a big 3rd/4th-gen JRPGs fan. There is also an HD remake of this game available on the PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Ouya, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U. PS Vita, Dreamcast, and Android versions are supposedly also still coming. The remake has optional HD-upscaled graphics and adds an ingame map, which would have been great to have in this version for sure, and might rebalance the difficulty a bit, but apparently doesn’t fix any of the games’ other issues.


Pirates! Gold – 1 player, battery save. Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a Caribbean pirate simulator from Microprose, or perhaps minigame collection you could say, from Sid Meier, the famous designer of the great classic strategy game Civilization. This game is no Civilization in scope or gameplay, but it is a pretty interesting game for sure. Pirates! was originally made for computers, then enhanced in Pirate! Gold, which is the version Microprose ported to the Genesis. though the 2004 remake did have console ports as well, on Xbox and PSP. I got the 2004 game back when it came out, and liked it for a while, but this original game isn’t one I have ever put the amount of time into I should. I didn’t have Pirates! as a kid, but the PC version of this game did come with the remake, and I didn’t play much of it. I’d heard how good Pirates! was, but the new one seemed better, then. And now, I’d still probably rather play that game than this one. It’s a similar game, but adds enough that it’s well worth a look, though it does get repetitive after a while thanks to the minigame-esque nature of the game. And that is a problem this game shares. You are a young man who is, or can be, a pirate or privateer, and want to be one of the greats. Pirates! Gold is a somewhat open-ended game, and deciding what to do can be overwhelming. At the beginning of the game you can set several options, including the starting year, with various options between 1560 and 1680 available; difficulty; your name; and choose a best trait. Then you’re off. The remake has more direction, though you can ignore it if you wish, but this one really just tosses you into the Caribbean. There is a main quest here, to rescue kidnapped family members and find a great treasure, but it’ll take time to talk to enough people to figure out anything about where they are or where to go. I like more directed experiences over open-ended games like this, so the games’ open-endedness is a definite negative for me, though the huge popularity of open-world games today suggests that I’m in a minority here. Still, I really would prefer a more focused game; for a pirate game I like Monkey Island more than Pirates!, for example. There are a couple of scenarios to play if you want a somewhat more directed experience, and it’s good they are here, but the main game has little direction.

The game looks and sounds good. The main screen is the map screen where you sail your ship around. It’s very nicely drawn, and details are everywhere. You’ve got several different things you can do ingame, though this is where the ‘minigame’ element comes into play — each one feels a bit like a minigame. There are two main kinds of combat here, ship-to-ship combat and 1-on-1 swordfighting. When you decide to fight another ship, the game zoomes from the large map into a close-up of the sea you are fighting in. Left and right turn your ship, and you can fire broadsides in either direction. It’s simple, but fun. On land, or when you duel a ship captain, swordfights play from a side-scrolling view. Your goal is to press the opposing captain to their edge of the screen, at which point you win. You can attack up, middle, or down, and also block. This combat is also simple but enjoyable, though it lacks depth. Both this and the remake might be better if they had a bit more depth to the combat. In addition, you can buy and sell goods in towns if you need to restock or wish to become a merchant, talk to governors to woo their daughters or to get letters of marque if you wish to be a legitimate privateer instead of a rogue pirate, hire crew members, and use the banks. You can also attack towns if you want, though this usually just results in a swordfight for potential plunder. Romancing governors’ daughters is simpler than in the remake. While that game has an amusing rhythm-style dancing minigame, here it’s just a matter of conversations and your stats, pretty much. The women you can marry all have different ranks, based on the success of their towns, and you’ll get more points at the end for marrying better. They do have other suitors who you probably will have to duel if you propose to one, though. Once you’ve married someone that’s it for the rest of that game, the romance option is gone from that point on.

So, overall Pirates! Gold has a lot to it, but broader than it is deep. You can sail around, defeat ships for plunder or to add to your fleet, buy and sell merchandise, attack towns, romance governors’ daughters, and search for the great lost treasure and your family as well, but none of these things are done with the depth of games focused on those fields. This isn’t a great fighting game, or a great economic-trading simulator, or a great ship combat or romance game; it’s some of all of those things, made to be approachable to a larger audience. For me the ship combat is probably the highlight, but that alone doesn’t hold my interest long enough to finish a whole game here. The game is just too open-ended for me, also. I do like the concept, 16th-17th century Caribbean pirates have an appeal for sure and I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series and the Monkey Island game series for example, but with both this game and the 2004 remake, eventually I lose interest and want to play something a bit more focused and complex. I really need to play more of this game someday, though, it’s pretty good. If you find it for a good price, absolutely pick up Pirates! Gold. The game looks nice, is quite unique on the system, and can be fun to play. It’s an interesting game, and it’s great that it works as well as it does on a console. Some PC-to-console ports are real downgrades, but this one holds up very well. PC port; Pirates! Gold is also available on Mac and Amiga CD32. The original Pirates! and the 2004 Sid Meier’s Pirates! remake are on a lot more platforms.

 

[A Black Falcon]

QuackShot Starring Donald Duck &#8211; 1 player. QuackShot is a Disney-licensed platformer from Sega starring Donald Duck. Donald is on an adventure here, so you&#8217;ve got to find some treasure before the bad guys do! Donald is armed with a plunger gun, which is your main weapon here. You will find a variety of different kinds of plungers to shoot in the game. The game is a platformer, but it&#8217;s a platformer with some adventure elements. For the most part you just walk to the right and avoid or attack enemies, but you will have to figure out the correct order to play the levels in, as you have several levels to choose from as you progress. At first you will go into levels, only to reach the end of the area and find that you run into something you need an item or plunger-ability to get past that you don&#8217;t have yet, or a door you can&#8217;t get into, you are in the wrong stage. This can be annoying, but thankfully, these end points have checkpoints in them that you can fly to, so your time was not a complete waste. Still, the game will take longer if you don&#8217;t know the correct level order, or which item to use where. Donald controls well, and the graphics are good as well. Donald looks just like he should, and enemies are just as good looking and have nice variety. All characters are large and detailed. Level designs are solid, but lack challenge. The game has few instant-death pits through much of the game and enemies don&#8217;t kill you easily either, so you won&#8217;t die that often. There is also only one route to the end on each stage so there is little replay value compared to, say, Sonic. QuackShot is an easy game that I finished very quickly. And that&#8217;s my main issue with this game: QuackShot is fun to play, but feels insubstantial. The game doesn&#8217;t have many levels, and you get more than enough lives and continues to finish the game with even though you can&#8217;t save, but it is fun along the way. Still, the game is probably too short and easy, those are its main flaws. I do like that you get more abilities as you progress, though. At first you can just shoot plungers as a weapon, but eventually you&#8217;ll get ones that stick to walls so you can jump on them to reach inaccessible areas, and also more powerful ones as well. Some other items are just keys to let you into areas, though. Still, as this game is about Donald going on a treasure-hunting adventure, it is nice that they made this game something of an adventure. QuackShot is, overall, a pretty good, fun game that is well worth playing. I do like Disney, and loved the DuckTales series as a kid and also Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics, so that helps, but still, this game is pretty good. The game has some variety, looks good and plays well, and is fun while it lasts. I just wish there was more to it; the game is too easy. There is also a Japan-only Saturn port of the game, but otherwise this game is Genesis-only.


Quad Challenge &#8211; 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Quad Challenge is a terrible racing game from Namco. This game is maybe the worst Namco racing game I have ever played, actually! This game is a 4-wheeler linescroll racing game. The game has few modes, bad graphics, a horrid framerate, poor audio, and really nothing good aside from maybe the art design. The game plays in a forced-splitscreen window, with player one on the top left, player two below, and the right quarter of the screen reserved for a huge map and speedometer interface. I don&#8217;t mind the forced-splitscreen view, but the status area is far too large! But despite the small windows, the framerate is horrible. Quad Challenge runs unacceptably slowly, with choppy visuals that make actually playing the game difficult. It&#8217;s hard to understand why it runs so badly, because the game isn&#8217;t putting much on screen &#8212; races are 1-on-1 only, so there is never more than two vehicles on screen at once including your own, and there are never more than one or two track-side objects on screen at any one time either. Backgrounds are bland as well &#8212; the first track is brown, with a boring brown-hills background and brown ground in front. It does not look good. The game does have a lot of bumps which send you flying into the air, so maybe that is part of why the framerate is so bad, but that doesn&#8217;t help it much, it&#8217;s still bad, and way too hard as well &#8212; even beating the first track is a real trial here! I do like the sprite art, though. It reminds me of other Namco games of the time, but there isn&#8217;t much of it to look at here, unfortunately. Ingame, the game has very Outrun-like controls, with a High and Low gear system. If you go off the track you&#8217;ll need to switch to Low gear to keep moving. Naturally the AI will never go off course, so you&#8217;ll need to be near-perfect to get past even the first race. Thanks to the bad framerate, your 4-wheelers&#8217; propensity for spinning out on turns all the time unless you slow down, that it&#8217;s pretty much You Lose if you go off track at all or get slowed down much, that when the AI car bumps into you YOU seem to lose speed even if they hit you from behind (it&#8217;s not 1983 anymore, Namco! This should not play like Pole Position!), and more, the game is too hard to be fun, or worth playing. After four or five tries I gave up at beating the first track and turned the game off, so I&#8217;ve never seen the second track. And since the only modes here are the circuit campaign or 2-player-only versus mode, there&#8217;s no way to see more of the game in single player, either. Yes, there isn&#8217;t even a single race mode, sadly enough. I could beat track one with some more tries, but it just isn&#8217;t worth the time, I&#8217;d much rather play a better game instead. This game has awful graphics with a terrible framerate despite almost nothing going on on screen and bottom-of the-barrel gameplay. Pass on this boring waste of time; it&#8217;s one of the worst games I have played for the Genesis and is right down there with Combat Cars for the worst Genesis racing game I own. This game is based on the arcade game Four Trax, but I imagine that version has to be better? Never played it though.

 

[jetsetnickradio]

OP, you're freaking crazy but you have my respect.

No way I'm reading all of those summaries, though (I did read a few of them.)

 

[Galdelico]

Woah, amazing.
I'm gonna dig in, looking for suggestions and clues. As someone who loves the MD/Genesis, but doesn't have such an extensive collection like yours, this is definitely going to help. Thanks OP.

 

[A Black Falcon]

OP, you're freaking crazy but you have my respect.

No way I'm reading all of those summaries, though (I did read a few of them.)

Posting 8-14 every week or so isn't too much to read, though, for anyone following them as I post them instead of reading it all at once. I like this system a lot more than what I did in the past, writing it all and then posting it all at once...

If you do want direct links to summaries though, instead of just a long block of text, my site at http://www.blackfalcongames.net has that, so you should check it out. The Genesis Game Opinion Summary articles all have tables of contents with links to the summaries in that article.

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Falcon so much right now. Normally Falcon posts something and it's a good bet I'll disagree with whatever is in it... But S3&K the best game on Genesis? You're goddamn right it is.

If you like RPGs I imagine there's some things in this latest update you'd disagree with... but yeah, I do love the Sonic games. Really fantastic games, all three of them. The first one is a bit under-rated today, actually...

Woah, amazing.
I'm gonna dig in, looking for suggestions and clues. As someone who loves the MD/Genesis, but doesn't have such an extensive collection like yours, this is definitely going to help. Thanks OP.

That's part of why I do this, so I hope you get some ideas.

 

[mr jones]

Wanted to mention something about Pier Solar, because I have it as well.

TL;DR - Unless you're buying it for collecting purposes, DO NOT BUY THE GENESIS VERSION.

It's a frustrating game, and the developers made decisions that make me scratch my head. The way you level up is wacked, where you seem to only gain stats every other level? Dumb. The enemies can get quite difficult early on, which can be very frustrating. I really don't like random battles, and they have those turned up to eleven. WHY??? Dumb.

Finally, the towns. OH GOD, the towns...

Look, I understand you want to make your towns unique and different, and want to encourage exploring. Great. Don't make me have to go all throughout your maze-like city to find the shops and the inn. Those should be right near the border of town. I'm tired, I got my ass kicked by some flying... thing, and I need to save. Seriously, this turned me off after the second damn town.

The digital versions of this game are in higher resolution, have a lower encounter rate, have a choice of music arrangements, and have the difficulty adjustable. The Genesis version is like a very expensive beta, that was cleaned up for the newer generation systems.

I'll have my copy on eBay sooner or later.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, this update was delayed. I took a bit of time off after the last update, and this was a tough one, 15 games to cover and most needed a fair amount of detail, and some playtime as well. The next few updates will also probably take a while, I have more games for this system that start with S than any letter. S will be multi-part, but still... haven't started it yet. Anyway, here is R.

Games covered in this update
--
Rambo III
Ranger-X (Ranger X)
Rastan Saga II
Red Zone
Revenge of Shinobi (I have this on the Sega 6-Pak)
Risk
Ristar
Road Rash
Road Rash II
Road Rash 3: Tour de Force
RoadBlasters
Robocop vs. the Terminator
Rocket Knight Adventures
Rolling Thunder 2
Rolling Thunder 3


Rambo III - 1 player. Rambo III is a fairly average top-down run & gun action game from Sega. This game is Sega's second Rambo game with this playstyle, following the pretty good good Rambo: First Blood Part II for the Master System. That game is good, but it's actually an unrelated game that the Rambo name was tacked on to in order to sell a few more copies. This time the game is actually based on the movie, I presume; though I've never seen a Rambo movie, this game does have a basic story that I imagine loosely follows the movie's plot. I do think that this game is a bit disappointing compared to its SMS 'predecessor', as the graphics are unimpressive and gameplay only okay, but this is an alright game once you get into it. Rambo III for the Genesis has unimpressive graphics, levels which are often large and mazelike, infinitely-respawning enemies, no weapons to find beyond the ones you start with, and minimal enemy variety. The game does have some variety, interesting bosses, and some fun action, but it's probably more bad than good. The game starts out easy, but does eventually get challenging, and you do have limited continues, though the game doesn't tell you this, annoyingly. You get a lot of continues, but I did eventually run out. You are Rambo, the action movie hero, and you're on a mission to save some guy who was captured, or something like that. The story isn't told in detail, but there is a bit of text before each mission telling you what to do next. Each level consists of a stage and then usually some kind of boss. You can take three hits per continue.

In stages, your main weapon is a machine gun, on C. It has unlimited ammo and you can fire as you move, so just holding down the fire button most of the time is a good strategy. You can only shoot in the direction you are moving in unfortunately, but the game was designed around this so it's not too bad. You also have three special weapons on B, which you switch between with A: a knife, a bow with explosive arrows, and bombs. The arrows and bombs are limited, and you get ammo for them by blowing towers up with bombs or by killing foes with the knife. Knifing guys will also give you a point bonus for your score, if you care about that, but it's tough to do without getting hit. Arrows take a while to charge up, and once fired will kill regular enemies in the direction you fire, or kill some vehicles such as jeeps. Bombs must be placed, and will blow up a 5-count later. They are mostly used to destroy walls, targets such as ammo dumps, and towers. Levels consist of wandering around, walking past or maybe shooting the enemies while looking for your objective. Yes, levels have objectives beyond just reaching the end, though tye are simple -- either reach a point, reach several points in a stage, or destroy certain targets. There is no map, so you'll just have to wander around and get lost until you learn the layout while the enemies annoyingly keep spawning on top of you. Often just ignoring them is the best strategy, the game doesn't force you to stop and fight very often. Just walking past them is boring but effective. Bosses mostly are played from a close-up third-person view, as you move Rambo left and right, trying to shoot arrows at things such as helicopters or tanks. If you die at a boss you restart the whole level, naturally. They're interesting, but not great. And that's really the game overall. The enemies are nearly all identical soldiers, the levels are annoying to navigate, and you get no new weapons, so there is little gameplay variety beyond the different stages, and the core gameplay is bland and average. Rambo III is okay, but it's not all that fun; Sega could have done a lot better than this, I'm sure. If you want to play a great top-down run & gun shooter on the Genesis, stick to MERCS. [There is also a Master System "Rambo III" game, but it is entirely different -- that one is an Operation Wolf-knockoff light-gun shooter. It is also mediocre.]


Ranger-X (Ranger X) - 1 player, 6 button controller supported (and highly recommended). Ranger-X is a beautiful-looking and great-playing sidescrolling giant robot action-platform game from an obscure and short-lived team, Gau Entertainment, and published by Sega. You pilot the Ranger-X, a transforming robot suit. In addition to the main robot with its multiple weapons and hover-jets, you also control a smaller hovercar-skateboard base unit which follows you around. You can independently control it during play with the 6-button controller, so don't play this game without one! You can also combine the two vehicles into a 'car' form for a lower profile, fast movement, and a different weapon, a very nice aimable gun. Ranger-X is an impressive game in a lot of ways. Visually it gets a lot out of the Genesis. This game puts more colors on screen than most Genesis games, and the art design is fantastic as well. The game is loaded with detail, and has little slowdown despite the often intense action. The art design and sprites all look fantastic. There are even these really cool wireframe-3d cinematics before each stage, showing the route through the level! There are also some nice visual effects in the stages such as some cool scaling effects. The game makes nice use of that rarely-seen hardware shadow capability the Genesis has. The color use in this game is stunning and really shows how much more this system can do than you usually see! Ranger-X is one of the best-looking Genesis games for sure. The soundtrack is pretty good as well. It's an epic cinematic score, Genesis-style.

And fortunately, the substance here is just as great as the style is. The game controls very well, first. The game uses all face buttons and d-pad directions except for the Mode button, so it will take a while to get used to, but with some practice it feels great to play. You move your robot with the pad, and fly around with up. Yes, up 'jumps', though it's hovering, not jumping, so it does feel natural after a while. There's a meter which limits how long you can stay in the air at a time. You shoot left or right with A and C, allowing you to move in one direction and fire in the other. It's handy! Pressing Down enters the sidecar thing to make the combined form. Your regular and combined forms have separate health bars. Up will then exit it, so you can't jump or fly while combined. The sidecar also can't fly, it stays on the ground. It also can't turn around, so when outside it it can only fire to the left. When combined you have a homing shot though, so then it can hit any enemy. When combined, B or Y switch special weapons, while when separated those buttons use that special weapon; these have a meter to limit use. X or Z move the sidecar left or right while not combined. The controls work great once you get used to them.

You have a health bar in this game, which is necessary because avoiding damage is often impossible. I don't mind this, as I think that the health bar makes up for that issue. It is easy to die if you're not paying attention, though, and you only get three continues in the game, so this is a hard game and I haven't finished it yet. It is the kind of game that keeps you coming back to try again, though, so I don't mind this as much as with some games. Levels vary between simple corridors and large areas to explore around in, and you have a mission objective in each stage; you aren't just walking to the end. Fortunately, a radar on screen shows where the targets you need to destroy are. It is very useful, I love that they include this. There are also a few light puzzle elements, particularly in the open second stage. In this level you'll need to destroy some laser controllers, and also lure some enemies into light beams that can destroy them. Making good use of both your main robot and follower is very helpful, you'll struggle if you don't use it. I love how varied this game is. While most mecha action games just involve walking to the right and shooting, here you will need to consider which special weapon and ship form to use, move around your helper robot and maybe hide in it for healing and that altherate weapon, keep your mission objective in mind, and take your time as you explore so as to deal with the many different kinds of enemies.

So, Ranger-X looks amazing, sounds good, has a lot of variety, plays very well, has some great level designs, is a reasonable-length game for its time and presents a solid challenge along the way, and is just generally outstanding in almost every way. What's the downside here? Well, the game does have limited continues and no saving. This means that you won't beat the game without lots of replaying the earlier levels, which gets tedious even in a game this good. Ranger-X is great fun, but it'd be nice to be able to play the later levels more without having to replay early levels again and again. Also, some will dislike the health-bar system and unavoidable hits, though I'm fine with it. Yes, you will take unavoidable hits, but with some strategy and forethoguht most fire can be avoided, or survived. Sometimes switching between the combined and regular forms, to take advantage of the separate health bars, is a good strategy. I like how this game makes you think more than the average platform-shooter, it's great! Really, the continues issue is the only bad thing about this game, and it's relatively minor. Ranger-X is one of the best-looking, and best, action games of the generation. The game didn't quite make my Genesis top 10, but it's very close, and I could see it being a top 10 game on the system for sure. Get this game, you won't regret it. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Rastan Saga II - 1 player. Taito's Rastan Saga II is a side-scrolling platform action game, and sadly, it's one of the worst, most disappointing sequels ever made. The original Rastan, for arcades, Sega Master System, and some Taito collections on newer platforms, is a really good fantasy platform-action game. You play as Rastan, a Conan-like barbarian, trying to face off against a formidable lineup of foes. It's very hard but really well-designed and rewarding. For the sequel Taito changed a lot, all for the worse. This time the camera is zoomed in close, to show off the larger sprites possible on newer hardware. The problem is, it's way too close! The large sprites do look nice sometimes, but that's one of the few good things about this game. The backgrounds are kind of ugly too, so the graphics are not that great anyway. Rastan moves at a snails' pace here; this makes up for the very short viewing distance, but makes for a boring game. Level designs are incredibly dull as well. While the first Rastan had good levels full of things to find and fun challenges to overcome, this game is just a straight path left-to-right, that's it. Levels are far less interesting to navigate than in the first one, or than they are in any good game. There are obstacles to jump over and enemies to fight, but it's all very bland and boring. The one thing this game does is that you do have multiple different weapon types to get, but they aren't different enough to matter much.

This game is short, too -- longplays are 16-20 minutes long, versus a half hour for the first game, and it'll take a lot less time to finish since it's a much easier game as well. That isn't all bad, as Rastan is a bit excessively difficult sometimes, but I'd rather play a way-too-hard game that's actually really fun than a moderately challenging one that will bore you almost to sleep with its tedium and mediocrity. Oh, and the music is kind of bad and lacks variety, too. Overall, Rastan Saga II is a bad platform-action game which is not worth your time. The levels are generic and boring and are not that well designed, you move far too slowly, and there is no variety to be found either, just repetion until either you die or beat it. Fortunately it won't take long either way. Even without comparing it to its great predecessor this game is bad; I got this one well before Rastan 1, and thought it waqs awful and not worth my money. And now that I have played the first one, it seems even worse. Arcade port; there is also a Japan-only PC Engine (TurboGrafx) version. Both are accurate ports of the arcade game, though the Genesis one is better since it has parallax scrolling. The problem is the original design, not the port.


Red Zone - 1 player, password save. Red Zone is a technically impressive topdown helicopter combat and run & gun game developed by Zyrinx and published by Sega. The game looks great, but the gameplay is overly difficult and frustrating. This game is Zyrinx's second Genesis game, after Sub-Terannia. That is a better game, but this game does have some things going for it beyond just the extremely impressive graphics, even if ultimately it gets way too hard way too fast. The developers were so proud of what they accomplished here that the first thing you see when you turn on the game is a screen listing a lot of the effects they do in the game, including sprite scaling and rotation, FMV video, polygon rendering for the ground, and some more. The game has a great, pounding techno soundtrack as well from one of the best composers for the system. Well, that's what you get from a developer who originated in the European demoscene. The amazing (for the Genesis) graphics of the copter missions are the most noteworthy thing about this game, though the gameplay is decent as well. Still, this probably is a tech-first game.

The game has two modes, helicopter and on-foot. Controls in both are solid, though slow; dodging can be tricky. Each mission consists of both helicopter and on-foot segments, as you land the copter at certain points to take on some on-foot missions in enemy bases. The helicopter side of the game clearly was inspired by Desert Strike, but missions aren't as long as they are in that game. You have a main machine gun and several sub-weapons you switch with C. All have limited ammo, and you have limited fuel as well. The copter side of the game all takes place on one only moderate-sized map, but has amazing-looking-for-the-system full sprite scaling and rotation of the objects below as you fly around. There are also buildings which have some 3d depth, and pillars made up of stacks of scaling sprites, super-scaler-game style. It looks incredible, there's nothing else quite like it on the system! It is disappointing that there's only one environment in the game and there is no graphical variety, but perhaps with everything they did visually there wasn't room on the cart for more. At least the enemy layout is different in each mission, so it's not always the same. You also will focus on different parts of the map each time. Missions have some optional objectives as well, as you often can take on a side area if you want to make your progress towards the main objective easier. You can land at certain circular landing pads to pick up fuel, ammo, or health refills, though each one can only be gotten once. Make sure not to accidentally blow up the pickups, you easily can! There is a helpful map on the pause screen menu showing all landing pads, enemies, and enemy bases on a nice zoomable map. You can re-read your mission objectives here as well. It's great, but even with the help these missions are very hard, as your health goes down fast and you get only one life. If you blow up, you have to watch the 'you lose' cutscene, then you're dumped back at the main menu and will have to re-enter the password to continue. It's a bit annoying, the game badly needed a quick-continue option with how often you will die.


Once you land at an enemy base you go in on foot. Here the game changes to a topdown run & gun, sort of like an Ikari Warriors or MERCS game. As in the air, it's action-packed and challenging. You've got a nice variety of weapons to use, and three characters to choose from who act like three lives. Yes, you get multiple chances here, unlike in the copter. Killed enemies stay dead for the other characters. Each base has a mission to accomplish, and you've got strict time limits sometimes with little margin for error. It'll take a while in each mission to figure out what to do. Unfortunately you can only shoot in the direction you are moving; a strafe-lock button would have been great. You do get several weapons, though, and you will need to use some thought in these missions, just running and gunning can get you killed. Visually, these levels look nice and do have some 3d depth, with a 'looking down into a 3d room' effect on the walls, and many scaling objects, but it's not as impressive looking as the helicopter side of the game. And just like in the copter, enemies will drain your health fast and it's easy to die, and if all three characters die, you'll go back to the start of the copter part since you only get passwords between whole missions, not in the middle of them. I really like that you get passwords at all though, many games on this system aren't as generous.

Even so, while Red Zone looks great and is somewhat fun to play, by mission three the frustration really set in, and I haven't gotten past that level yet. I think there are only eight missions, so it's not too long a game if you can manage it. Also, the game is a bit repetitive, with no graphical variety, only one map for the helicopter and VERY similar-looking bases on foot, and the same gameplay in each stage. That is unfortunate, but sometimes you have to make tradeoffs, and the game certainly does push the hardware more than probably any other Genesis game. Overall, Red Zone is an impressive tech demo with some decent to good gameplay. However, the gameplay is not well balanced and only all but the best players will probably get frustrated. Still, it's worth trying, at least.


Revenge of Shinobi (I have this on the Sega 6-Pak) - 1 player. Revenge of Shinobi is an early Genesis game, and the second console Shinobi game. This is a popular game which many consider a classic, but I've never liked it very much, and playing it again now did not ingratiate it to me any more than before. Revenge of Shinobi, just like its predecessor, a second-rate Rolling Thunder knockoff without some of the things that made Rolling Thunder so great, such as the highly controlled and predictable movement and doors and such to hide behind. And yes, Rolling Thunder released a year before Shinobi, so it came first. I know that Rolling Thunder was inspired by Elevator Action, so it wasn't an entirely original idea, but it's a big improvement over that game, while Shinobi goes the other way, and I like the first Shinobi more than this one. I know this is an early release, but it has not-great graphics, controls, and level designs. The visuals are bland. Nothing special there. Sprites look okay, but don't really stand out. The gameplay is average at best as well. Maybe if I had the nostalgia for this game some do it'd help, but I don't; this isn't one I played much of back in the early '90s. Once I finally did play it I was not impressed.

The game itself is a side-scrolling platform-action game, sort of like the first one but with a bigger focus on projectiles, double jumps in a game with awful double-jumping controls, and slightly less straightforward level designs. Unfortunately, you can't switch between your throwing weapon and a melee weapon, only use melee attacks sometimes when enemies are close enough, and your ranged ammo is very limited. If you run out, you're probably doomed. Enemies can block your attacks, and often will, so you need to be strategic with your attacks. In this way the game is a bit like Rolling Thunder, but more frustratring because of how easy it is for them to just block your attacks with their weapons. Rolling Thunder enemies can't block, so managing ammo there works better. The double jump is a big problem as well because you have a very tight timing window for it. You've got to hit jump again at exactly the peak of your jump or it doesn't register, and it doesn't always seem to respond as well as it should. Levels over bottomless pits, such as the waterfall stage in level two, are very annoying as a result of this. I never know if I'm going to make a jump or not as much because of the very slow and sometimes unresponsive controls as much as anything else. And as for the levels, they are okay, but unimaginative and sometimes random. Why do some of those blocks in the first level open doors, while others do nothing? Be more consistent. Each level has a boss, and they do require skill and pattern memorization to beat, but beyond that are average. And when you do die, as with most Genesis games you have only a couple of continues so you'll be starting the game over often. Yes, this game is hard. I've never gotten anywhere near the end, and doubt that I'll seriously try anytime soon; Revenge of Shinobi is not very fun to play. Overall, Revenge of Shinobi is average, and at best is maybe slightly above average. I can't really recommend this to anyone who doesn't have nostalgia for the game. Play the far better Shadow Dancer instead, that game is great! This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Risk - 1-6 player alternating, password save. This is a decent console adaptation of the classic strategy board game of the same name. I do like Risk, though Axis & Allies is better, and this is a fine version of the game. The game has fairly simple graphics, but they're good enough to do. Music is similarly okay, but forgettable. This game has two modes, classic Risk and a mode with arcade-style battles where you fight by shooting a cannon at troops that represent the enemy army. The classic mode is the main game; the new mode is amusing, but not great. Your goal in Risk is to conquer the world. There is only one map, based on the real world circa the age of imperialism. Some later Risk computer and video games have more maps, but not this one. At least there is AI to play against, you can't do that with the board game. There are three AI difficulties, but only the Hard one is challenging to beat. I played a game for this summary and fairly easily beat a bunch of Beginner and Average opponents. You can play with up to six players as usual, with any mix of humans and AIs. The map is broken up into a bunch of territories connected at certain points, and the players start out by claiming territories one at a time. Then you can place armies on your territories, then start the first real turn, though every turn starts with each player placing their new armies first.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Now, Risk is a fairly simple game, in that there's really only one type of troop, the army. You can stack as many armies on a space as you want, so building up a big stack and then going rampaging around the board is a common strategy. You will also get cards as you take spaces, and can use sthese cards for a big infusion of troops at some critical time. When you move troops onto an enemy space a battle st arts. These are essentially luck, and in the board game are based on die rolls. Here, instead of watching digital dice, you watch cannons representing each players' force shoot at eachother. There can be up to three cannons per side that shoot, so each side can take out up to three enemies per round of battle. battle continues until the defender loses, the attacker is down to only 1 soldier which then retreats to the place they came from because all spaces must always have an army on it, or the attacker retreats. The random-number generator can be frustrating at times, of course, and you can lose lots of troops to some smaller force if you're unlucky, but that's the way of Risk. At least with real dice you know it's fair though, while here you never know if the AI cheats. Also, you'll spend a LOT of time in this game watching the AI take its turns, and all battles are unskippable, even between AIs. This makes the game take longer than it should, though it is still a whole lot shorter than the board game. Overall Risk for the Genesis, like Risk the board game, is a good game. However, there are better, more feature-rich versions of Risk available for newer platforms, so there isn't too much reason to play this one unless you want to see how it plays on the Genesis or if you want to play the cannon-shooting mode, but that's not much of a draw; I'd rather play with the luck of the draw than that probably also-rigged mode. It's just a target-shooting game, nothing more, and the AI is good at it. Still, classic mode is just as it should be. If you like strategy game and see this cheap, maybe pick it up. Board game conversion. There are lots of versions of Risk, but this specific version isn't available elsewhere.


Ristar - 1 player. There are passwords, but for cheatcodes only, not progress. Ristar is a good but not great platformer from Sega released in early 1995. You are Ristar, an anthropomorphic star-man with stretchable arms, sort of like a space version of the anthropomorphic animal characters popularized by Sonic. You've got to save your galaxy from evil by grabbing things, as your hands and arms are the central mechanic. The game runs in the Sonic engine, but plays differently. First though, the visuals are outstanding. This game has fantastic, top-tier graphics with great Sonic-style artwork. The game has great art design, use of color and shadows, and visual variety. However, while it is good, the slow-paced puzzle and gimmick-heavy gameplay just isn't as fun, for me, as Sonic (or Mario) are. I know some people really love this game, but when playing it, I can't help but think 'this is good but Sonic is better'. It's great that Ristar is a different kind of game from Sonic, but it doesn't quite match up in fun factor. Ristar is a slow-paced game with a lot of puzzles, not a fast-paced action game. It's not quite as immediately engaging. You can get stuck at puzzles sometimes, as well. I also really dislike the lacking continue system and absence of saving, these are inexcusable mistakes. Saving Ristar's galaxy will be a long and challenging quest, as Ristar is a longer game than any Genesis Sonic game other than Sonic 3 & Knuckles and is as hard or harder than any of the Genesis Sonic games, and you need to do it in one sitting, and with only five continues besides! No game this long should have limited continues and no saving, and yet Ristar does! Sega's early to mid '90s failure to understand that saving was necessary in games like this is very frustrating. If you want to have fun with the game I recommend using the stage-select password. Yes, the game has a Password option in the Options menu, but it's not for actual passwords you get as you progress. Instead it's only for cheat-codes you will have to look up online. Fortunately finding a complete list is easy, and one is a level select. The game should have had saving like Sonic 3 does, but it doesn't, so just use the code. That's preferable to replaying the game over and over, really. The later Game Gear Ristar game adds a full password save system, which was a great move. It doesn't look or play quite as well as this game, though, of course.

This is a good game, though. Ristar has seven planets, or game-worlds, each made up of three stages: two levels and then a boss fight. Levels are good-length, with maybe fewer screens than your average Sonic level but a longer playtime because of the slow pace and frequent stops for fights or puzzles. To encourage thought, there isn't an on-screen timer, just your score and a health bar. Ristar attacks, and interacts with the world, with his hands. His arms can stretch out fairly far, so you can grab things from a decent distance away. You do have limited health in this game, unlike Sonic's rings. Chests can have points or health powerups, but they are finite. This adds to the challenge, versus Sonic. To attack you'll need to first grab, then hit the button again to whack into the enemy and hit or defeat it. Grabbing poles and ladders will let you climb or bounce off of them, as the case may be. I like bouncing off of horizontal walls to slowly get up them, but you can only climb up if there's a grab-bar, you can't bounce up to the top. This feels limiting compared to the game Ristar is often compared to, Bionic Commando; Bionic Commando is a better game than this, though I like this a lot too. It's fun to walk across rows of grab-bars on ceilings and floors, grab walls to climb them and find secrets, and grab poles in sequence in order to reach higher areas of the level. There are spinners to grab on to as well all over the levels, and as you hold down the button while grabbing one you will spin faster and faster. Let go at just the right moment and you'll go flying in the direction you were headed when you let go. Mastering the art of going the way you want on spinners is key, and is a nice challenge. In combat though, grabbing is somewhat frustratingly slow, and slows the game down a lot when combined with Ristar's already-slow walk speed. You can only damage enemies by grabbing and bonking into them, after all, you can't plow through them like in a Sonic game. Also, grabbing can be fun, but it gives the game a somewhat Treasure-esque "gimmicky" feel that you don't see in other Genesis platformers from Sega. Still, it was a good idea to try and is mostly interesting and well-executed.

But yes, the puzzle element is uncommon for a Genesis platformer from Sega. Sonic games do have secrets to find, but are mostly focused on speed and platforming. This game, instead, is about grabbing, both to navigate the level and for puzzles. Each world in the game has a different theme, with puzzles centered around that theme. The first world is simple, you just have to get to the end of the stage, but the game changes as you progress. In one later world you need to get an object from a start point to a guy who blocks your way, for instance, throwing it over pits, keeping it away from enemies, and such. It's a solid concept, though it can be frustrating sometimes when you get hit seemingly unfairly or lose the item, and this can happen.Other stages have similar issues; I particularly dislike the Simon-style miniboss, I'm terrible at that game. The variety is nice, though, and as is common in such games ideas are rarely repeated after their world, so if you dislike one world's playstyle it'll only be there for a few stages. This, along with the great graphics and grabbing-based gameplay, are what makes me think of Treasure games, for good and ill. Boss fights are pretty good. They are tricky and require thought and practice, as bosses are only vulnerable to grabbing at certain moments. Boss fights often have multiple phases and will take a while at first. Overall, though, while Ristar is a good game, it's often over-rated. The game has great graphics, a somewhat original concept built in a familiar engine, variety, and some levels with pretty good puzzles and ideas, but the game is perhaps too slow-paced and grabbing enemies is slow and not nearly as fun as just jumping on them as you do in Sonic, it's too long for a game without regular passwords, and the puzzles and level 'gimmicks' are not all good. Overall Ristar is a good but flawed game; despite my complaints, it is solid B-grade work for sure. It's too bad they never made a sequel. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Road Rash - 1-2 player alternating, password save (20 characters long). Road Rash is a motorcycle racing game from EA released in 1992. You're a tough biker, and are out to show you're the best by winning races and beating up the competition along the way. Road Rash was a hit, one of EA's more successful Genesis games along with Madden, NHL, and Desert Strike. This is a behind-the-bike-view game, though it's not a linescroll game -- it uses software scaling instead. That may sound impressive, but it comes at a very serious framerate cost. And that's one of the big problems here, and one of several reasons that I have never liked the Genesis Road Rash games very much: it runs far too slowly. If this game even hits 15 frames per second I'd be surprised! I don't mind 20-something framerates, but the 10-15 or so frames per second you get here are not enough. You WILL sometimes hit things just because you couldn't see them coming thanks to the awful framerate. Of course, pulling off so many scaling objects on the Genesis has to have been difficult, but this series is a good example of why most Genesis racing games didn't try -- as cool an effort as it is, the results are painful to play. Beyond the framerate, Road Rash has okay graphics with decently-drawn sprites, and terrain that rolls up and down nicely. There is a large interface on the bottom of the screen with your speed, milage, health, closest enemys' health, and some rear-view mirrors. It looks okay, but it'd be better with more 'normal' graphics for the time and a decent framerate, I think. The music is a lot better than the visuals. Road Rash has Genesis-synth rock music for a soundtrack, and as much as I dislike rock music, this stuff sounds great. There are five songs, one for each of the five tracks in the game, and they're all pretty good.

Framerate aside, Road Rash's gameplay is also flawed, in my opinion. Races in this game are long point-to-point affairs. You race against 15-odd competitors, trying to reach the end first. Races are measured in miles, and the game says how long the race will be before it starts. Once in the race, though, there is no indicator of how much distance is left, only a milage indicator showing how far you've driven in the race, so you'll just have to remember how long the race is. This is annoying, and bizarrely isn't fixed in either sequel. This game doesn't tell you what place you are in most of the time either; it only flashes your position on screen for a moment when you pass or are passed by someone. This the sequels do fix, and add a position indicator. As you drive, try your best to stay on your bike! If you hit anything you're sent FLYING, and will then have to slowly walk all the way back to your bike, wherever it is. Try to remember that as you fly, so you minimize the amount of time lost. Really though, even one crash often means the end of your chances of victory, as your opponents won't mess up often. Combine this with the overly-long races and bad framerate and you've got a recipe for frustration. These three factors combined are the core of why I do not like the Road Rash games much. If you do keep playing things get even worse, as you win money based on your finishing position and can spend this money on better bikes. If you finish in the top few in each of the five tracks you'll unlock the next set, which are the same tracks but with longer races this time, and more obstacles such as cars you can run into. The faster bikes make the game even harder, as seeing what's in front of you gets even more difficult. I gave up early in the second round of this game, and haven't gotten any farther in the sequels. For some more issues, those 20-character passwords are a bit long, and it's too bad that the multiplayer is alternating and not splitscreen. Road Rash does have some interesting tech behind it, good music, and it can be fun to play for a little while, but it's not a particularly good game and I can't recommend it. The game was interesting back in the early '90s, but has aged a lot since, particularly thanks to the framerate. Road Rash was ported on the PSP in the EA Replay collection. There's also an Amiga version, but I don't know how faithful it is to the original here. Other versions of Road Rash are available for the Game Gear and Master System, but those are significantly downgraded and really aren't the same thing as this game.


Road Rash II - 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Road Rash II, from 1993, is Road Rash, but with thankfully much shorter 8 character passwords instead of 20 and a split-screen mode added. Otherwise, it's the same exact thing as before. Sure, the tracks are new, the onscreen interface has been redrawn, and perhaps the graphics are minutely better than in the first one, but really it's the same exact thing. Once again you've got five environments to race in, some nice electronic rock music, a terrible framerate, and all the rest. Gameplay is exactly the same as before, with no changes, and the bikes look the same but maybe a tiny bit more detailed. This is one of those we-changed-almost-nothing sequels, made because the first game was successful. It's an okay game if you like Road Rash, but unless you're a big series fan I don't know if it's actually worth having both this and the first one. It's not better, and as with the first game it's a slightly-below-average game, playable but not all that fun. Also available in EA Replay on the PSP.


Road Rash 3: Tour de Force - 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Road Rash 3 relased a few years after the second game, but isn't much different. In between the second and third Genesis games EA released Road Rash for the 3DO. This popular classic is widely regarded as the best Road Rash game, and while I don't love that game, it is a whole lot better than any of the Genesis ones. This third Genesis game, though, goes right back to the Genesis formula. The engine is the same as ever, with the usual terrible framerate and everything. In this game, though, fitting with the times, the sprites are now digitized actors, instead of drawings. The graphics are overall a bit better than before, but the framerate is the same and the game isn't any more fun to play. The music is good as usual, though the first game might be my favorite aurally. In gameplay, well, see the first games' review, they changed almost nothing. There may be some minor gameplay and control changes, but I didn't notice them. The two player splitscreen mode and 8-character passwords from the second game return, but otherwise, it's Road Rash again. Also available in EA Replay on the PSP.


RoadBlasters - 1 player. RoadBlasters is a great arcade racing game from classic arcade powerhouse Atari Games, also known as Tengen on home consoles. This is a fast and action-packed linescroll futuristic combat racing game. You have guns on your car in this game, and while your goal is to reach the finish line on each long and entirely linear track, along the way you will have a lot of enemies to shoot at, and they'll be shooting back at you as well. RoadBlasters is a scaler arcade game, but the game runs extremely well on the Genesis despite its early release date. This is a much better-playing game than the original Genesis Outrun release, and it's too bad that Tengen did not continue to release software-scaler games on the Genesis considering how great a job they did with this one. When I got RoadBlasters I did not have high expectations despite really liking the arcade game because of the usual problems of scaler games on consoles which do not have hardware scaling support, but it played a lot better than I thought. The graphics are downgraded versus the arcade, and you can tell that there isn't any real software scaling here but instead the usual different-sized-sprites, but it looks like an Atari Games arcade game in style, and plays really well as well. Audio is close to the arcade original as well. RoadBlasters on Genesis is fast, fun, and challenging. It's awesome stuff.

Getting to the end of each race will be difficult because you aren't only facing waves of enemy gun turrets and cars, you also have to deal with a fuel meter. Fuel is effectively your health in this game. It drains as you drive, of course, and also each time you get blown up you lose some fuel. If the fuel meter runs out, you lose. First though, there is a reserve tank, which will drain once the main fuel meter runs out. This meter is a one-time thing, and while after a race your main tank will be refilled back to the level it was at at the start of the race, the reserve fuel is gone once used, it never recovers. So, if you do badly and barely make it through, you will suffer for it later when you needed that fuel. It's a tough system that was probably designed to eat your quarters, but it does work here, you just need to put in some time with the game to learn the tracks and how to play better. You get a couple of continues but not many, and there are several dozen races in the game, so it's a quite difficult game. There are some fuel pickups on the tracks which give you different amounts of fuel, and sometimes you will need to memorize where they are to get through a track.

The weapon system is interesting as well. When you hit an enemy you get points, and as you keep hitting without missing any shots, you will build up a bonus multiplier. If you miss, though, your score multiplier resets, and this is bad because you want as many points as possible in order to get more fuel recovery between races. This really encourages thoughtful shooting, and not just driving down the road holding down fire; that is not a good strategy, you need to try to not miss. There are also weapon powerups that drop from helicopters. These can give you a strong gun and more, but the gun is maybe the best because missing with it won't affect your multiplier! It's fun to sometimes be able to shoot without needing to carefully consider if you'll hit, not an easy challenge when you're moving as fast as you do in this game. So yeah, try to remember where the copters are and get those powerups, you'll need them. And that's RoadBlasters. Drive, shoot, build your multiplier, and learn the tracks through repeat play, trying to do better each time. It's a very good arcade game, and it's just as good here. RoadBlasters is an impressive port of a good game, and I highly recommend it. Pick it up! It shouldn't cost too much. Arcade port. Also available on the NES, Atari Lynx, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, and Atari ST (some of those computer ports are available only in Europe). The arcade version is in some emulation collections as well, including Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 2 for PC and PS1 and Midway Arcade Treasures 1 for the PC, PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, because Midway bought Atari Games in 1996.


Robocop vs. the Terminator - 1 player. Robocop vs. the Terminator is a good sidescrolling platform-shooting game from Virgin Interactive. I've never cared much about Robocop and remember almost nothing about the movie if I have even seen it, but I do like the Terminator movies I have seen, 2, 3, and Salvation. T2 is one of the all-time great action movies. In this game, though, you play as Robocop and have to stop Terminators who are trying to take over the world as usual. So yes, it's a crossover. The game has good graphics and music, decent level designs, quality gameplay, and a high difficulty level with limited continues. This game has good graphics and sound, a lot of impressively clear-sounding voice samples, various different weapons to collect, and large levels to explore. The game is very bloody for the time as well, something which really got the game noticed back when it first released. Not many 4th-gen games have enemies that explode bloodily when killed, but this game does. Of course it's just a death animation, not persistent. The game is also well-drawn, with large, high-quality sprites and nice-looking backgrounds. This isn't one of the best-looking Genesis games, but it does look good. Each level has a new setting as well, with some new enemies and obstacles to face. This is a hard game, though. While you do have a health bar, you have no hitflash and your health bar drains fast, so you can and will die in an instant if touched by a boss, for example. And when you die, you lose your current weapon and it reverts back to the seriously underpowered default pistol. You can carry two weapons at once, and only the equipped one is lost when you die as in Thunder Force, but still, this is harsh. Bosses take forever to kill as well, you will have to shoot them seemingly a million times before they go down, while you lose lives every time they touch you. And sometimes one death is pretty much game over, for that continue at least, if you lose a key weapon during a boss fight where the default gun is near-useless. You do respawn where you died so long as you have lives left in the current continue, but continues send you back to the beginning of the stage, and you only get a few before you have to start the game over. There are difficulty options, but this is a very tough game on any setting.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Bosses aside I like the levels in this game, but they could be tighter and more focused. Levels are sprawling and often have side paths with powerups in them, and that's good, but the graphics and enemies in each stage repeat a lot so they can get repetitive before they end. Enemy bullets can be tricky to avoid as well, as Robocop is not incredibly mobile; you just have to try to duck or jump to try to get through the patterns. Holding up+jump will jump slightly higher, but the normal jump isn't too high. You'll need to hold diagonal up+jump to get over some instant-kill obstacles, that can be tricky. Robocop vs. The Terminator is a lot of fun at first, but a couple of levels in the frustration starts to take hold. This game will take a lot of replay, memorization, and probably also luck to get deep in, and I got this game fairly recently so I haven't spent that time yet. Still, despite its issues this is a good game. The graphics are detailed and look good, the music is above-average for the system and those voice samples sound great, the levels can be fun to explore and figure the secrets in, and I like the different weapons, such as the unique gun which shoots out bullets you can then move around the screen while you walk. You don't have a firing-lock button, so you can only shoot in the direction you're moving, but you can shoot while holding onto a ladder or pole, which is great. Overall Robocop vs. The Terminator is a fast-action game full of blood, shooting, and frustration. It is a good game despite some flaws, and is worth playing overall. There is also a SNES game of the same name, but while both are platform-action games, the two are entirely different games from different teams. I haven't played that one. I know it has passwords to save your progress, but other design flaws that make it maybe even more frustrating than this one.


Rocket Knight Adventures - 1 player. Rocket Knight Adventures is a great platformer from Konami. This game is a popular classic, and is one of Konami's best platformers of the generation, right up there with Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and Goemons 2 and 4. This is a cartoony platformer, inspired by Sonic but quite different. This game has a weird cartoon-fantasy-medieval-steampunk aesthetic which looks pretty cool. You play as a humanoid animal in the Sonic vein, a possum-knight in this case, but the gameplay is different: in addition to jumping and a ranged projectile your sword shoots out, you also have a jetpack. You do have a health bar in this game as well, thankfully. You charge the jetpack by holding down the attack button, then letting it go while tapping a direction on the pad will send you flying in the direction you press. Jumping and shooting at enemies are important, but the jetpack is key to the game. The game controls are very responsive and precise, importantly. Learning the jetpack will take a little while, but where you go is predictable and not random once you learn the system. You'll bounce off of walls and fly over obstacles to get through stages, and also damage enemies when you run into them while jetting around. The game has a lot of enemies to fight, of course, in the evil army of cartoon pigs.

The level designs in this game are very good and have a lot of variety, and there are many, often long, bossfights. During stages, levels have many bars and poles to hang from, but otherwise the game is extremely varied and interesting. From early in the game bosses have multiple forms, and levels all have multiple bosses. The game does have a moderate number of long levels, a design shared with most Konami Genesis games (Contra and Tiny Toons aside), but each stage has a lot of variety, so it doesn't feel like a game like TMNT: Hyperstone Heist or Sunset Riders, where the small number of levels is probably there to save money on graphics. Here it just feels like the best design. The constant scene changes and bossfights help keep the variety up, and levels feel just the right length. You will need to use the jetpack regularly, and levels feel designed around it in a good way. This game doesn't feel gimmicky at all, unlike some games with a unique mechanic, just extremely fun, challenging, and well-designed. Those boss fights may be long and difficult, but it is very rewarding when you finally get past one and move on to the next section. While I wish the game had saving and infinite continues, it is nice that when you die you start from the last checkpoint, not the beginning of the level, and this applies to using continues as well as regular deaths, so you won't be sent back. On that note, there are four difficulty levels here, and they really affect the game. In the easier settings not only is the game easier, but you get a lot more lives and continues than you do on the hard ones. Play the game on easy at first, I think. It's a tough game on any setting.

The game looks and sounds great, too. The game has good music with a nice, peppy main theme that fits the game great and very good music in the levels as well. Konami were one of the top masters of game audio back in the 3rd and 4th generations, and this game is a good example of that. And visually, Rocket Knight Adventures is a bright, colorful game, and the art design is very good. It's mostly a straightforward platformer, but there are some parts with nice graphical effects such as a section with a reflective water surface that moves up and down beneath you. Castlevania Bloodlines does something similar, but it looks great here. Your little possum knight is a cute looking little guy, too. Since you are an opossum, you grab on with your tail instead of your arms; it's just a graphical thing, but it is a nice touch. The enemies are similarly silly-looking, and aren't especially threatening despite the games' substantial difficulty. As with many Genesis games, this game has limited continues and no saving, and unlike Contra Hard Corps and Castlevania Bloodlines, as far as I know this game wasn't made harder for the West; it just always was difficult. I really like the art design here, there's always something new to see, new situations to work your way through, and new enemies and enemy contraptions to fight against. The multi-phase giant steam-robot boss in the mine-cart stage is particularly cool, for example. I would say more about the stages and encounters here, but it'd be best to play the game for yourself and be surprised! It's worth the effort. There are also some short shmup segments a few times during the game. They're quite fun, but make me wish that Konami had made some shmups for the Genesis. Konami's 4th-gen shmups are my favorites ever, and it's too bad the Genesis didn't get any of them. Ah well. At least they did make some good Genesis games such as this one.

There is only one other downside to this game maybe worth mentioning, that Rocket Knight is a linear game with no collection elements beyond finding life-ups and extra lives, so the game may not have the replay value of some platformers if you do manage to beat it. However, between the new ideas in both the jetpack and in level designs, very well-designed stages full of variety and challenge, good controls, great graphics, good music as usual from Konami, and more, Rocket Knight Adventures is a great game. Really the only negatives are that it does have limited continues with no saving in a game that is not short, and the straightforward design may hurt replay value for some, but overall Rocket Knight Adventures is a great classic platformer that well deserves all the popularity it has received and more. This is Konami's second-best Genesis game after only Contra: Hard Corps. This game was successful and has three sequels, one on SNES, a second on Genesis (and yes, these two are entirely different despite both being titled "Sparkster"), and a modern one, Rocket Knight, on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. They are all fun games, but none quite match up to this games' level. The SNES game plays like this one but not quite as good, while the second Genesis game changes things up. I don't actually own either one unfortunately, and they are getting up there in price now. The modern game got something of a mixed reception, but I do like it. It's worth a look.


Rolling Thunder 2 - 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Rolling Thunder 2 is a really great side-scrolling action game from Namco. This is an enhanced arcade port. The sequel to my favorite Namco game ever, Rolling Thunder, this game is also fantastic even if I do like the first one a little bit more. You play as agents Albatross and Leila, though I'm not sure if this is the same Albatross from the first game, since that game has a 1960s aesthetic while this one looks 1990s. Regardless though, you are a pair of James Bond-style secret agents, and have to stop another evil organization from taking over the world. This time you can play as the female character too, instead of her just being someone to rescue; that's great. The two player co-op support is also really nice, that's something you won't find in either of the other Rolling Thunder games. With two players the game is definitely easier, if both players know what they're doing at least. This game has good but not great graphics and sound. It's a bit downgraded from the arcade game, but it's close; the game just isn't trying to push this hardware. The art design is solid, and I like the variety of settings from Miami to some new evil-organization bases, but the original games' stylish 1960s look is probably better. Still, the game looks nice enough and is definitely recognizable as a Rolling Thunder game visually, and there is a decent variety of enemies to fight. Again a lot of them are hooded evil thugs, though there is some more variety this time than before. There are many more bosses than the first game, as well, some Genesis-original as the arcade version had few bossfights again, like the first game. I like the added boss fights and levels this home version has, it makes it the definitive version of the game -- the graphics are good enough, and the content is expanded. The password system returns from the NES version of the first game, as well, which is fantastic. And this time you get a password for every level throughout, thankfully.

As before, Rolling Thunder 2 is a slow-paced shooter with many doors to go in along the way. You and your enmeies both move in predictable ways. This game is similar, but it is a little easier and fairer this time, as Rolling Thunder 2 eases up on some of Rolling Thunder's most frustrating design decisions. You have three hit points, one more than the previous game, and simply touching enemies doesn't hurt you anymore, unlike in the first game. Howver, you still die in one hit if shot, so though it is easier than before you you need to be careful. Ducking, jumping, and hiding behind doors to avoid bullets is the name of the game here, and it's great once you get into it. You have limited ammo as well. Some people dislike the pacing, but I think it's perfect; fast-paced, more Contra-esque Rolling Thunder just wouldn't be the same, as Rolling Thunder 3 shows. Each Rolling Thunder game is a little easier than the one before it. Now, Rolling Thunder doesn't let you control your jump in the air. So, where you land depends on where you jumped from. This means that pixel-perfect positioning is sometimes required, if you want to end up in the right place. On top of this, the first game has some segments with difficult jumps over bottomless pits. This game does have a level with pits, but the jumps are MUCH easier to make this time. Similarly, the first game had many points where random luck was a major factor. You'll often have to drop down, but if you drop too close to enemies they will shoot you dead before you can react. So, you'd have to wait, or move back and forth to hope that you can get them in a position you can actually get by. I like that challenge, but it can be annoying. This time, that element of the game is gone. You will often have to deal with enemies above or below you, and will have to go up or down a level, but the parts so reliant on luck as well as skill have been removed in favor of situations you can get through with skill alone. As with the first game you do go back to the last checkpoint if you die. This makes the game easier, and somehow I miss the original games' cruelness even if this probably is the better design. Either way on that, the game has many great encounters along the way. There may be fewer times where you go up or down a screen than in the first game, but many areas still have two levels of platforms, allowing for good strategy, and there are elevator sections, a level with moving platforms over pits, and more. It's really great work, in a lot of ways this is the peak of the series as far as level designs go.

For weapons, again your main gun is a pistol with limited ammo. You can find ammo for it behind some of the doors. Other doors have a machine gun, some other special weapons, or rare health-ups. In the first game, if you ran out of ammo that's it, you could not attack. This time, though, you do have a knife you can use at zero ammo. It's handy, but again eases up on the difficulty slightly. Still, in all Rolling Thunder games, if you're playing the game well you should never run out of ammo, so this is minor. I do like the new special weapons, they add variety and are good for some bossfights. They aren't as common as in the third game, thankfully. There is also a Hard mode you unlock after beating the game on Normal. Nice. Unlike the first game it has no new content, so it's just an optional difficulty and not another part of the main game, but it's great to have, once you've beaten the game on Normal. It does have a a slightly different ending, at least, even if the game is the same thing but tougher. Progressing through the game, hiding behind doors, slowly figuring out how to get past each enemy pattern or boss, and then overcoming them is extremely rewarding. Rolling Thunder 2 is a fantastically fun game, I love it! This is probably a love-or-hate series, but I really love this series' style of methodical, strategic shooting. Rolling Thunder 2 is one of the best sidescrolling action games of the generation, hands-down, and this is the best version of the game. Yes, I probably do like Contra: Hard Corps and The Adventures of Batman & Robin even more, but on the other hand, I've beaten this game but not those, so in some ways I like it more. Save systems are great! This is a really awesome game and I certainly recommend giving it a serious try. Arcade port. This Genesis version of the game is available on the Wii Virtual Console.


Rolling Thunder 3 - 1 player, password save. The final game in the Rolling Thunder series, Rolling Thunder 3 is a Genesis-exclusive, and US-exclusive, sidescrolling action game from Namco. I did a full review of this game several years ago, so go look that up. This is a pretty good game, but it changes some things from the first two games in an attempt to make a faster-paced, more action-packed game. They did that, but it lost some of what makes Rolling Thunder so great in the process, unfortunately. Rolling Thunder 3 has fewer areas with multiple levels of platforms, more powerful special weapons for your character available at all times, no two player co-op, story cutscenes between levels, no playable female character by default (though there is a password to play as one, she has no cutscenes of her own, it just plays the guys' as usual), many fewer doors, a faster pace, an added diagonal shot to allow you to hit enemies above you at an angle, three hit points and getting shot only takes away two so this time you can actually take a bullet and not die, unlike the previous games, lets you continue from where you died instead of sending you back to the last checkpoint, and has a very slow-firing bullet as your weapon if you run out of ammo, so you'll never truly be without bullets. All of these changes either are downgrades, or serve to make the game easier. People who dislike how hard and slow-paced the previous games are probably love most of the changes, the removal of two player co-op aside, but as a fan of the first two games this one disappoints me. There is still enough of Rolling Thunder here to make this a good game, make no mistake. Rolling Thunder 3 IS a good game. It has decent level designs, some pretty cool encounters, much better graphics than either previous console Rolling Thunder game, a better story with actual cutscenes even if it is once again a James Bond knockoff, good controls as always, and you do still need to think about what you're doing and move somewhat slowly; this isn't a fast-paced run & gun like Contra, despite all the changes. And that's possibly one of the issues here -- this game isn't deliberate enough for a classic Rolling Thunder fan like me, but isn't going to satisfy Contra fans either. It's in the middle ground between them, and suffers for it. As for me, I wish that more levels were like the last one, that's the best level in the game and the one most like classic Rolling Thunder, and it's not as good as the final levels in either previous game. At least there is, again, a Hard mode to unlock after you beat the game, but that doesn't fix all of the games' problems. Overall though, even this B-grade Rolling Thunder game is still pretty good, and I definitely like Rolling Thunder 3. Get it if you find a reasonably-priced copy. While the game has issues, it's still quite fun to play. It's too bad that this game never released in Europe, Japan, or any Namco collection or Virtual Console service, and tha the series died with this game, it'd have been great to see more Rolling Thunder games. It'd be a perfect franchise for a modern 2d re-imagining, too!

 

[djtiesto]

Shame you weren't fond of the Phantasy Star series, 2 and 4 rank in my top games of all time list. Extremely ahead of their times... though I definitely prefer RPGs where resource allocation plays a prominent role in their design, while you said you're not into it. (Likewise, we definitely disagree on the N64!). I do reckon you continue onwards with Phantasy Star 4, it's a shorter and much less punishing game than 2, and a visual tour-de-force for the console. PS2 did get a port and a remake on the PS2 (heh) that improves things like offering EXP bonuses and walking speed.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Shame you weren't fond of the Phantasy Star series, 2 and 4 rank in my top games of all time list. Extremely ahead of their times... though I definitely prefer RPGs where resource allocation plays a prominent role in their design, while you said you're not into it.

Limited resources during battles in an RPG is just fine, that's how most games in the genre go. But limited resources game-wide, or dungeon-wide, is awful design! It punishes less good players while rewarding better ones, which is the opposite of what you should be doing. The game-wide limited healing items (with absolutely no full health refills ever) is one of the biggest reasons I dislike Yggdra Union for the GBA for example, it's inexcusable particularly in a game with so many unavoidable hits!

But even in an RPG where you can go back to town and buy healing items, it's annoying, artificial difficulty. The challenge should be the actual gameplay, not some stupid healing-items restriction. While Diablo 2 is a better game than Diablo 3 for instance, I like how 3 removes mana and town-portal potions, greatly reducing limited-item issues (though that stupid timer on healing potions can be cruel!). And I really love Guild Wars, for example; fully refilling your health and mana between battles, and having no consumables you need, were fantastic design decisions! It means every fight can be designed around the assumption that the player is at full power, which makes things more interesting. The challenge and strategy in a game should be the actual fights, which in a lot of traditional RPGs are boring and lacking, not in "do I have enough potions".

Now, the tenseness of 'will I make it before my options run out' IS a thing, and I like the Etrian Odyssey games enough to admit that occasionally it might have a place, but still, better design is to not have that kind of thing. And even there, I'd have liked, like, a D&D-style rest system to let you heal up while in dungeons... D&D really is the best RPG system for sure.

(Likewise, we definitely disagree on the N64!). I do reckon you continue onwards with Phantasy Star 4, it's a shorter and much less punishing game than 2, and a visual tour-de-force for the console.

If not for the story, I might well have stuck with PS4. It does seem much more playable than 2.

PS2 did get a port and a remake on the PS2 (heh) that improves things like offering EXP bonuses and walking speed

In Japanese only I presume?

 

[A Black Falcon]

Finally, got another one done. Don't expect much from the Shadowrun summary, though; I didn't get far into it. The other 12 summaries here should be better.

Games covered in this summary
--
Samurai Shodown
Shadow Blasters
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi
Shadowrun (1993)
Shining Force
Shining Force II
Shining in the Darkness
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Socket
Soldiers of Fortune
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic 2 & Knuckles
Sonic Spinball


Samurai Shodown - 1-2 player simultaneous, 6 button controller supported. Samurai Shodown is a fighting game from Takara, a port of SNK&#8217;s great arcade classic of the same name. The arcade original was one of the first weapon-based fighters, and is a pretty great game with great graphics, design, and gameplay. I like SNK a lot, and this game started one of their best series. The game is set in an anime-styled version of 18th century Japan, and there are 12 characters to play as. The cast is interesting and varied, and is a strength of the game. The game is slower-paced than Street Fighter II, but still moves at a good clip in the arcades. Characters have three punch/kick and three weapon-swing attacks, and each character has several special moves. It&#8217;s a fantastic classic! This Genesis version is similar, but is downgraded all around. First, one character has been cut, Earthquake. His sprite is just too big to manage to fit on the Genesis. That&#8217;s too bad, and it&#8217;s unfortunate that nothing replaces him. Also the sprite scaling is removed, as in the arcades the game will zoom in or out depending on how far the characters are from eachother while here there is just one zoom level, but that is to be expected on a system without hardware scaling. This Genesis version looks a bit zoomed-out compared to the arcade version and sprites look smaller, but you do get used to it. They are at least larger than the sprites in the SNES version.

Those changes are understandable, though the missing character is in the SNES version, but there is more. The graphics lose a lot of animation, sound isn&#8217;t as good and the music often just stops resulting in matches fought mostly in silence, the controls and move activations are okay but Neo-Geo caliber, and the game has slowdown. This all results in a good game, but one that&#8217;s a huge step down from the awesome arcade title. Sure, none of the other 4th-gen home consoles could get close to the Neo-Geo in most of those respects, but still, Takara wasn&#8217;t SNK, and their ports never were as good as they could have been. This is no exception. The Genesis version of Samurai Shodown is still a good game, but first, that slowdown really hurts. And it&#8217;s not only slowdown, the whole game plays a lot slower than the Neo-Geo version does. Play one and then the other and the difference is obvious. This makes this version less fun than the original. The slowdown also makes it harder to pull off your moves right, and some moves seem harder to activate here than in the Neo-Geo while others are fine. I&#8217;m not sure about the hit detection all of the time, either, it may have someissues. And that long stretches with no music is bad, but worse not all of the speech samples for special moves are here, only some of them.

The result of all those changes is that while this game may be slightly easier than the Neo-Geo game, it&#8217;s still very hard, and feels slow and not as fair, more than negating any possible easing of the intense challenge. Overall, I wish that SNK had made their own home ports, I&#8217;m sure they would be much better and more accurate than Takara&#8217;s always-flawed work. But as they are, the early-&#8217;90s home ports of Neo-Geo games are never quite the same as the real thing, and now you can play arcade-perfect versions of Samurai Shodown on newer platforms. The best ports of Neo-Geo games to the other 4th-gen consoles are probably Hudson&#8217;s four TurboGrafx (PC Engine) Arcade CD titles, though even they don&#8217;t match the Neo-Geo for sure, but sadly Samurai Shodown didn&#8217;t get a release there. I wish it had, that&#8217;d have been great. So, as good a game as this is, this Genesis version might not really be worth getting. I like Samurai Shodown a lot, it&#8217;s kind of amazing on the Neo-Geo&#8230; but why play this specific version, and not a better one? There isn&#8217;t really a reason. Play this for the Neo-Geo or a near-perfect port of that version. Arcade port. The arcade game was ported to many platforms &#8212; the Game Boy, Game Gear, 3DO, SNES, and Sega CD all have versions, as do many newer systems in compilations (PS1, PS2, Wii, etc.). This version is better than the GB or GG versions, but not as good as the PS1 or 3DO. The Sega CD version may be slightly better, but I haven&#8217;t played it myself.


Shadow Blasters - 1-2 player simultaneous. Shadow Blasters is a decent but unspectacular sidescrolling action game. You play as a team of four warriors on a short and easy quest to save the world from evil forces. The game is kind of fun while it lasts, but is a below-average title which is over far too soon. At the start you can play the first six levels in any order, then the last two stages are played sequentially after you beat the initial six. There are two difficulty settings, but both are easy. On the harder one you will die and get some game overs, but you have infinite continues and levels are short, so even on "hard" the game is easy. Ingame, you can walk slowly, jump a bit, attack with a ranged shot, and use a superbomb. Holding fire will charge up your shot, and the many powerups will boost your health, weapon power so you start with higher levels of the shot without having to hold down the button, and character speed and jumping, though these two are barely noticeable. All are character-specific, and you can swap characters at any time by pausing. Characters are slow and not maneuverable. A run or slide move would have helped a lot, here; some bosses can be hard to avoid because they move faster than you do. What you need to do is get to the boss with a lot of health in all four characters, and then switch during battle to keep people alive. This will work well.

However, the blandly-designed stages and generic bosses make it hard to get too engaged with this game. Stages are brief and a few screens high, and enemies run out at you constantly as you move, which can be annoying. They die quickly, but exploring isn't all that fun. The graphics are pretty bad, too; this is one of the worse-looking Genesis games I have. Sprites are amateurish, backgrounds basic, and there is almost no parallax scrolling to be found; almost all backgrounds are static. The music is a bit better, but it's average overall. The game does keep up a decent pace, as the short-ish stage lengths and varied environments and bosses keep things moving, but this game is not great. I do like the two two player co-op support, though, that's a great feature to have. I also like the four different characters each with their own unique attacks. Still, overall, Shadow Blasters isn't that good. The subpar visuals won't hold your interest for long, and the game is way too short and easy for its own good. Most anyone should be able to beat this game in their first sitting if they don't turn it off. It is fun enough to stick with to the end, though, so there is that. It just won't take long to finish, and "hard" is not much harder. Overall, though, Shadow Blasters is an okay but below-average game. If you like this kind of game maybe consider it if you find it cheap. Or skip it, that'd be fine too.


Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi - 1 player. The second of the three Shinobi games on the Genesis, this 1990 Sega release is one of my favorite Sega action-platformers ever and the only Shinobi game I unreservedly love. Shadow Dancer is a fantastic sidescrolling action game. Unlike the other Genesis Shinobi games you die in one hit in this one, so you'll need to be careful and take your time in each stage until you learn what to do. Unlike Shinobi III you aren't very mobile in this game; all you can do is walk left or right, jump, and attack. Up or Down plus jump move you to the next level of platforms above or below you, as in Rolling Thunder. Interestingly, touching enemies is not instant death unless they are brandishing a weapon. So, touching enemies is often non-fatal, but you do get knocked back a bit, and in the few levels with death pits this can mean being knocked into a pit. The game has very good, responsive controls though, and pits are easily avoided once you learn the levels. Again you have a sword and shurikens, both on the same button depending on the distance enemies are from you, but in this game you have infinite shurikens, thankfully. It's a great design decision that I wish the other two Genesis Shinobi games shared, it'd make them better games as with infinite shurikens you can't get stuck in no-win situations as you can in those games; your sword is not always a viable option. In the options menu you can turn on limited shurikens, but I never will. There are also some difficulty levels, but the game is challenging on any setting. This is not a really hard game, but it isn't easy either; I'd call it well-balanced, difficulty wise. You do get only two continues, so you'll be starting the game over often; this can be annoying, but this game is short enough to be fun to replay. In each level, you need to rescue some prisoners and then find your way to the exit. Many prisoners are guarded by special enemies with these green shield things they will throw. Interestingly, the game will remmeber which prisoners you have rescued between lives if you die in a level so long as it wasn't a Game Over, and the green-shield guard guys will not appear so long as their prisoners don't either. All other enemies will still be there, but still, this makes stages slightly easier the next time. All levels are straightorward, so you'll never be wandering around lost; the enemies are the challenge, not mazelike levels. The game is balanced very well in that regard. The graphics are only okay, but I like the art design. Similarly the music is good, but not too memorable.

Still, Shadow Dancer is a short game. There are only 5 levels, each made up of several stages and then a boss. The first four levels have two not-too-long platforming levels and then a bossfight in a third stage, while the last level has four shorter platforming challenges and then the quite hard final boss. The first four bosses are surprisingly easy, and actually the first boss is harder than the second through fourth ones because the rocks he drops from the ceiling can be tough to dodge. Through the first four levels, the first boss and some of the stages, particularly in level 4, are harder than most of the bossfights. Because you die in one hit and are sent back to the start of the stage if you die, though, those stages can be tricky even with the help of those special baddies that don't appear again if you die in the level so long as you've rescued the prisoner they were guarding. Each enemy type in this game has specific patterns it follows, and you'll need to learn them and learn how to exploit them to succeed. The jumping ninja enemies are particularly difficult to avoid sometimes, particularly in the mostly-dark level where you can only see in certain spotlit areas and not the rest of the screen. That is a pretty cool stage though, I like the different approach that the dark screen requires. The levels here have a great degree of variety, more so than many games in this genre; every level is different in design as well as in environment. The stages are not flat, but there aren't many instant-death pits either until the later stages. It's all very well thought through, Shadow Dancer has fantastic level designs among the best in the genre. The first stage is a great introduction to how to play the game, and each level afterwards adds some new things. The levels here are great from the city to the warehouse to that dark cave and beyond. It's a lot of fun to slowly explore each level, learning where the enemies will appear from so that you can start to learn what to do in the stage. Sort of like in Rolling Thunder, memorization and deliberate, controlled actions are the order of the day here, and I love it this way; the other two Genesis Shinobi games don't play like this, to their detriment in my opinion.

In between levels, you play a bonus game where you fall from a tall building, trying to hit as many of the 50 ninjas that you pass along the way as you can. If you get 48 or more you get extra live(s), so try to get them all! It's difficult, but can be done with practice, as the enemy patterns are the same each time. That's it for extras here, though. This is mostly a great game, but there are a few downsides, first that the game has no secrets to find beyond a few hidden 1-ups. Some also will dislike how predictable the game is since enemies always appear in the same places every time. The graphics are also clearly early-gen; as much as I like the variety of settings, the actual graphics are nothing special, and the game doesn't do anything to push the hardware. It's short, too, with only those 5 stages. Also, the final boss is frustratingly hard. I keep getting to the last boss with plenty of lives left, only to die over and over there. Ah well, at least something in this game is hard! That's probably better than it all being easy. Overall, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi is a fantastic game. Shadow Dancer looks good enough, and plays better than most games. With good controls, variety, fun and varied bosses, a great difficulty curve, unlimited shurikens, and enemies that it's great fun to fight against, Shadow Dancer is one of the best on this system. This is a must-have. There are also arcade and Sega Master System (Europe only) Shadow Dancer games, but they are apparently different from this Genesis game. I've never played either one, so I don't know if they are good. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega&#8217;s Genesis games.


Shadowrun (1993) - 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Shadowrun is a cyberpunk series, designed back in the '80s when the Japanese economy seemed unstoppable, so while set in Seattle, the money here is the New Yen and such. It was originally a pen and paper RPG, but I've never really played or read anything Shadowrun. This is a top-down RPG that I never have put much of any time into since buying. I have both the SNES and Genesis Shadowrun games, which are entirely different, but haven't really played either one much; both seem a bit intimidating at the start, and I haven't gotten past the initial learning curve. I did try to play the game again for this, but after dying again and again against the first enemy I could fight, I gave up. There must be some trick to this game I'm missing. Shadowrun does have nice graphics, okay music, and a somewhat ambitious design. The game is well-drawn and has some background animation, which is cool. The isometric SNES game might look better, but this has pretty good art design too, so really it's close between the two. The music is conventional Western Genesis stuff, but it's good enough. For gameplay, you walk around, talking to people, getting quests, and fighting things with your guns. With the buttons you can change who you are targeting, change weapons, and shoot. Enemies take about as many hits to kill as I have health though, come in numbers, and you move somewhat slowly, so surviving seems difficult. You have stats, and can choose three classes at the beginning, for a more combat or magic focus. The pause menu has your inventory, skills, stats, and a (text-only) questlog, though there is no map for some stupid reason. Sure, the first area isn't TOO hard to get used to, though learning what is where does require some tedious trial and error, but this is a big game, and badly needs an ingame map system. 16-bit RPGs often don't have one, but that's one thing I dislike about them. Better RPGs have maps. And when you're told "go to [placename X] and then go to [placename Y]" as a quest but aren't given any clues about where either place is and just have to wander around until you memorize the maps, that's annoying. Worse is that I keep dying against the first or second enemy, though, and it doesn't seem close. I'll try to revisit this one again. There are other Shadowrun games, but this game is Genesis-exclusive.


Shining in the Darkness - 1 player, battery save to cartridge. The first game in what would become one of Sega's longest-running series, Shining in the Darkness is a first-person dungeon-crawler RPG made by Camelot. This is a very traditional game, and that means grinding. Basically the gameplay here consists entirely of grinding. You can see maybe two spaces forward in the dungeon and that's it, also. There isn't an ingame map, of course, so draw your own or download one from the internet. Don't play the game without some kind of map, it is absolutely essential; everything looks the same as there are only a handful of different backgrounds to be seen and the dungeon is a big maze. In the dungeon there are some simple puzzles to solve, but it's mostly about grinding levels against the monsters. The encounter rate is very high, and monsters get harder the deeper you go into the dungeon. There is only one dungeon in the game and it isn't as big as some in this genre, but there are multiple floors to explore. That will take a while, though. At the start of the game, you need to grind several levels right at the front entrance of the dungeon, regularly returning to town when you need to heal. You start the game with only one character in your party, your generic hero guy who's off to save the country from evil. If you get far enough you will eventually get some party members, first a female elf mage, but that's some hours into the game. Gameplay is simple and extremely repetitive, and the battle system has little depth: as usual in JRPGs, you just attack, use magic, or use items, and item and magic management are the only real strategies here beyond 'try to not get lost'. Western first-person dungeon crawlers of the day are also often overly hard grindfests, but at least they have more puzzles in the dungeons than you will find here. This game does have some, but not many.

The game does have decent sprite art for your characters and the enemies, though. This game is by Camelot, and it has what would become their signature art style and menu and font designs. This isn't a great-looking game, but for the genre it's solid. The music is good as well, and can be catchy. In between trips to the dungeon you can buy stuff in town and save your game, but this is just a menu; there isn't an actual town or overworld to explore, unlike more in-depth first person RPGs. I wish you could save anywhere, but that is sadly rare on console RPGs. This game is simple and focused only on dungeon exploration. I'm okay with that, I like a more focused experience over an open-world game myself. But that really is about all there is to see here. After getting this game a few years ago I played more of it than I thought, and did get to the end of the first floor of the dungeon, but I haven't gone back since. I don't like grinding; skill-free grinding is not something I consider good gameplay. On top of that, the 'item and mana management as strategy' school of RPG design very much most of the time. This game is a pretty bad offender on both scores. Still, Shining in the Darkness is okay, and its simplicity makes it approachable. It can be fun to get deeper into the dungeon and see new enemies as you progress. There are better dungeon crawlers out there than this average effort. I didn't really start to actually like dungeon crawlers until they had in-game map systems, myself, so I'd say just stick to the Etrian Odyssey and Class of Heroes serieses on the DS and PSP, for some pretty good Japanese first-person dungeon crawlers. But if you see this cheap and like the genre, maybe give it a try. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega&#8217;s Genesis games. As this is a battery save game modern compilations might be a good way to play it, if your carts' battery is dead (mine still works).


Shining Force - 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Shining Force is the second Shining game, and with this game the series shifted genres. Again made by Camelot, this game is a strategy game with RPG elements, not a first-person dungeon crawler. Whether you call the game an RPG, strategy game, Strategy-RPG, or what have you -- and all are defensible -- what Shining FOrce is is a great game. Released in 1993, Shining Force was surely at least somewhat influenced by Nintendo's classic Fire Emblem for the NES, but this game is a bit simpler and easier to play than Fire Emblem. There is also an RPG world to run around in, instead of only tactical battles. That's why the game is sort of hard to classify, the battle system is a tactical strategy game, but there is also that overworld to explore, JRPG-style, just without the random battles; instead the strategy-style battles only occur at set points. That's great. I also like that you do fight on the same map you explore on, so battles don't happen on some alternate plane as you see in many games, RPGs especially. The cartoony graphics look great, and the music is even better. This game has a really good soundtrack! But anyway, Shining Force looks good, sounds great, and is a lot of fun to play. The story and interface are really the only significant flaws in the game.

That story isn't great, though. The story is predictable JRPG stuff, as you are a boy knight who will go on to be a hero and save the world from the forces of evil, and the characters are all cliches, but that doesn't matter much. There are some non-human characters, which is interesting. Knights are centaurs instead of humans on horseback, for instance; that's kind of neat. The story and characters are decent enough to serve, and the great strategic gameplay is still really fun. The game is streamlined in several ways versus other games in this genre. First, unlike Fire Emblem, dead characters do come back. You'll need to get to a church to resurrect them to get them back, and sometimes if someone dies you will need to be without them for several battles until you get to one, but you can bring them back. Churches are also where you save, which means yes, you often need to do multiple battles without saving. This isn't good, in a strategy game you should at minimum be able to save after each battle. And in this game you get an immediate game over, go back to the last time you saved, if the main hero ever dies in battle, so be careful with him! This is one of the few issues with this game apart from the story, though. A second way the game is simplified is that each character can only hold four items, and there is only one kind of equipment in the game: weapons. Your weapon will take up one slot, and the other three are for that characters' healing items and the like. Each character has their own inventory and there is no combined storage, so sometimes you will need to consider what you need, but really it's just for healing items, so it isn't anything difficult. It is kind of annoying that you need to use separate menu commands for getting items and talking to people, though, and that there isn't a character list with health and such in the menu. The sequel fixes those two issues.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Combat is also simple. The game takes place on a square grid, and each character moves in turn. You can't move anyone you want; instead there is a turn order in each battle based on their speed I believe, and you can only move that character during their turn. Player and enemy units all mix together, so there aren't separate player and enemy turns. The system works, though sometimes when a character is blocked by another one you'll wish you could move that other one first. Characters each have their own separate stats and experience, and will gain experience points from each action they take during battle. RPG-style levelling is important there, though you can't grind -- the game follows a set path and thre aren't random battles to go back and fight, you'll just need to use better strategy if you get stuck. For attacks, weapon attacks have a one or two space (in any direction) attack range, depending on type, so swords only have melee-range attacks, while bows can shoot two. Spells generally can be used up to two spaces away as well. You start out with a combat mage and also a healer, and both are very useful. Health and magic are refilled between battles automatically, so you don't need to go rest to heal them. You do get money, but it's only for buying weapons or healing items in the shops. You also want to be on the lookout for potential party members, as as you progress your team will get larger and larger. The Shining Force has a base to fill up, and it is fun to see more group members there even if they don't do much other than just stand there and repeat the same one line. Later on, just like in Fire Emblem, you do make choices about who to bring along, and with the RPG levelling system, ones left behind will quickly fall behind so your choices do matter.

Overall, Shining Force is a great game. The game has good, well-drawn graphics, fun gameplay, a good-length quest to play, a reasonable though not Fire Emblem-level challenge along the way, and lots of fun to be had. The main negatives are the cliche story and characters and irritating limitations on where you can save, but for the most part this is a very good classic, and it's easy to see why it was so successful. I love strategy games, but mostly play them on PC and handhelds; the only TV-console strategy game that I've ever really put a lot of time into and finished is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Gamecube. I've had this one for some time now, but never did pla yit. Well, after starting it for this summary, I want to play a lot more of this, soon. However... the sequel is even better in most respects. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games. As usual check those batteries, if you have the cart! I'm sure lots are dead.


Shining Force II - 1 player, battery save to cartridge. Shining Force II is a lot like the first game, but with even better graphics, an improved interface, some gameplay improvements, and a new, though still cliche, story. Get this, you are a warrior hero guy and need to rescue the princess and defeat the forces of evil! That plot's never been done before. So yeah, the story is once again a series of cliches. The characters seem a bit better-written than the the first games' cast, though, and I like the occasional bits of comedy; the first one is a pretty serious game, cartoony art style aside. Some of the plot points along the way are somewhat interesting as well, as far as I've gotten. For the most part though, this game is more of the same. The first game had a great formula, though, so that's just fine. Shining Force II is basically the first game, but better. First, the interface is similar, but now you don't need separate menu commands for Get Ieem and Talk; the game has context-sensitive controls instead, which is appreciated. Also you now can easily see charcter health and a list of your characters in the menu, which you couldn't do in the first one. In most other ways, the game is more like the original. Again the soundtrack is really good, and the graphics are more varied and detailed than in the first game. Gameplay is similar to before, but there is maybe a little more variety. For instance, where in the first game at the beginning mages and healers are near-useless in combat and do only 1 damage, here they can do 3-4 damage in regular combat, which makes them more useful fighters. Several hours into the game actually my healer has the most kills, oddly enough. Gameplay is the same as before, with RPG-style world exploration interspersed with strategic battles at set points. Again you have a Shining Force to build, and choices to make about which characters to take with you in battle. And yes, the interface still has that iconic Camelot style. Unfortunately, you still can only save at those too-far-apart churches, annoyingly enough. This time sometimes you have to heal characters at the church if they run out of health in a battle, but other times they just come back after the battle. I have no idea why it's sometimes one and sometimes the other, it doesn't make much sense. And there is one battle early on with a surprise can't-win scenario, which was interesting, I wasn't expecting that.

For the most part, though, you know what you're getting with Shining Force II: a very good strategy game with RPG levelling, sort of like Fire Emblem but not as brutally difficult. The quest may be generic, but the gameplay along the way is really great. Strategy games are my favorite genre, and these games are the kind of strategy game that works great on a console. The game is simple enough to be very playable with a gamepad, but has enough strategy in character placements and actions that battles are lots of fun. The basics here are standard JRPG stuff, with only Attack, Magic, and Item for actions, and you still can hold only a few items and have only weapons for equipment, but this all works just fine in a strategy game. You have a full party to move around the map, after all, and strategy will definitely be required if you want to keep them alive and win. Again if the main character dies you lose the battle, but instead of being sent back to your last save, now you seem to just have to restart the fight, usually. That's good. Overall, Shining Force II is a fantastic game. In graphics, music, and gameplay, this is top-tier stuff and I like it a lot. Definitely play at least one of the two Genesis Shining Force games, they are classics for a reason! This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master - 1 player. Shinobi III is a popular platform-action game Sega released in 1993. The last of the three Shinobi games on the Genesis, this game has moves and faster action than any Shinobi game before. However, at its core it is a followup to Revenge of Shinobi, and that, along with control issues, are my main problems with the game. It's too bad that the only-okay Revenge of Shinobi got a sequel, instead of the much better Shadow Dancer. Just like Revenge of Shinobi, this game isn't a precise and deliberate game like Shadow Dancer, but is a bit faster-paced and less controlled, and less fun. Still, even if I like this less than most Genesis fans seem to, the game does have some strong good points for sure. First, the game looks great. Shinobi III has very good graphics with great backgrounds that use a lot of parallax, top-quality sprite work for the system, lots of variety in both graphics and stage designs, and some nice effects too. The graphics can be pretty cool, from standard platforming to an early section on horseback to some tricky vertical areas and a confusing but interesting ninja fortress late in the game. Levels are a lot longer than the short Shadow Dancer stages, and you will need to figure out where to go sometimes in this game and solve some basic puzzles. Sometimes that's good, other times bad. I do like the factory level, but not the rock-shaft or last stage, for instance. You often have to use ninja moves to get through, and conceptually that's great. The stage variety in this game is a definite strength. The music is also good. This is also a bit longer than its predecessors, and will put up a good challenge too. You do have difficulty level options, but it just seems to set how many lives you get per continue.

I have a lot of problems with this game, though, and don't enjoy it much overall. As in Revenge of Shinobi, you have a health bar and two weapons, a melee sword and a limited number of ranged throwing daggers. They REALLY should have had the unlimited daggers from Shadow Dancer here, it's not hard to get stuck in a near-unwinnable situation if you run out of daggers and you have limited lives and continues in this game, and no saving. The controls have some major problems, too. Now, you have a bunch of ninja moves in this game -- you can hang from ceilings and pipes (hold Up while jumping), wall-jump off of any wall (hit jump when you touch a wall, with near-perfect timing), slide (down+jump), and double jump (hit jump again at the peak of your jump, again very tight timing is required). Most of the moves work with practice, though having to hold up to hang on things really gets old fast and helps make the last level a lot harder than it should be, but the double jumping is pretty much broken. It's incredibly difficult to pull off double jumps consistently, even after playing the game several times recently I still fail a majority of the time. That is just unacceptable; well-designed games are not this frustrating, and double jumps are not usually this hard to do. And the last two levels absolutely require extremely good double-jumping skills. In the time I got the farthest, playing on Easy, it's a miracle that I beat level six, and the first section of the last level,. 7, is just hopeless with controls this problematic. I lost all remaining lives there. With good controls that section would be pretty cool, but as it is it's frustrating and not any fun. Double jumps in games are usually so simple, why is it so hardhere? An the wall-run, ceiling-grab, etc. can be tricky to use when needed, too; it's not only one move that is a problem. That you move forward a set distance each time you hit forward while hanging from something can get you killed, for instance.

Overall Shinobi III is an okay game. It looks great, each level is pretty different, and has a more agile ninja than most any other Genesis game, but it doesn't control well, and I prefer the more tightly designed, precise challenge of Shadow Dancer of this games' looser, more open style. I just don't have enough fun playing it to make it worth the frustratingly high difficulty. This is a very good game in many ways, I jdon't like the controls and while playing the game, the fun moments are fleeting compared to the frustration. It's no Shadow Dancer, either. Still, probably try Shinobi III; a lot of people like this game much more than I do. This game is available in collections and digital re-releases of Sega’s Genesis games.


Socket - 1 player. Socket is a platformer from Vic Tokai. An incredibly unoriginal platformer, to be specific. This game is one of the most blatant Sonic clones ever! From the graphics to the gameplay, this game is Sonic, just easier and just okay, not amazing. You are Socket aka Time Dominator in Japan, an anthropomorphic, time-travelling time-police duck robot, and need to save time from an evil badguy travelling through time and messing everything up. This is a nice-looking game with bright, often pastel, sprites. The Sonic influence is everywhere, but it does look nice. The music is pretty good as well. Music tracks are short, but catchy and fun. You run and jump, and jumping is a little slippery unfortunately, but unlike Sonic, in this game you attack with a ranged attack on the B button. It stays in the air for a while though, so it's easy to hit enemies with. Importantly, Up plus attack does a vertical attack into the air. This is rarely actually needed, but is absolutely vital on the final boss; it made that otherwise-tough boss a lot easier once I finally figured this move out! You also have a health bar and can take many hits. It does slowly drain over tme, so it is a timer as well as a life meter, but the levels are filled with lightning-bolt powerups, this games' version of Sonic rings, which refill some health when you touch them, so running out of time is rare. The game does have limited continues and no saving, but I've never actually run out of continues; both times I've played the game since buying it, I finished it. You get more continues as you go too, presumably from pickups. Yes, it's easy. The first three worlds out of seven are entirely challenge-free, and the last four are only moderate, not hard. It's good that it does get a bit harder later on, though.

Levels are large, just like Sonic, and the game tries to have a Sonic-like physics system, though it isn't quite as good. I do like that many stages have multiple routes though, it adds something to the game. Running around the levels, exploring and looking for extra lives, continues, challenge doors, and more is often fun even if the game is mostly easy. Levels go all over and are not just straight paths to the right, which is good.exploration to complete; they aren't just straight paths to the right. That's good. There are no bottomless pits in the main levels either, only spikes that just take off a bit of health. In a game this fast-moving, that's nice, though spikes should be more of a threat. Each game world first has a 'speed' stage, then one or more 'labyrinth' stages. The last labyrinth area will have a door to the world's boss. Speed stages are all about fast movement, and require almost no thought or strategy; just run, occasionally attack, and try the various paths, and you'll finish them. They are fun but insubstantial levels, and look too smiliar as all are set in Socket's future as you travel to the next time period. Only the labyrinth stages are actually set in different time periods, and even there the difference is subtle. Enemies are the same robots throughout and the whole game has a consistent look, so the whole time-travel element isn't emphasized nearly as much as it could have been.

Labyrinth stages are the meat of the game, and are fun to explore. Some have dead ends, so you will need to backtrack and check all of the routes sometimes in order to find your way forward. Doors before the last area of a world are sometimes-optional challenge areas on otherwise dead-end paths. These are the only place in the game you will find instant-death bottomless pits, and can be tough. If you die in one you do lose a life and go all the way back to the last checkpoint in the main level, which can be annoying at times. Dying in Sonic special stages doesn't take away a life! It's nice to have something kind of challenging here, and I like that they made them mostly optional so less good players can avoid them. Boss doors look the same as challenge-room doors, oddly, it would be nice if they were different. Bosses are mostly extremely easy, and just hitting attack over and over usually results in a win. The final boss is the only tougher one, and there really all you need is to remember that Up+Attack move for the second form and you should be good. Overall, Socket is an okay, slightly above average platformer. It looks and sounds good, but is extremely derivitive and has no original ideas of its own, it just copies Sonic except with a different attack system and less great quality all around. Still, it's a decent, fun little game worth a try if you like platformers and don't mind it when they are short and easy.


Soldiers of Fortune - 1-2 player simultaneous, password save. Soldiers of Fortune, or The Chaos Engine in Europe, is a European top-down action game released on several systems. This game was inspired by classics like Commando or Ikari Warriors, but is a slower-paced game with larger levels to explore. While it seems to be quite popular with classic-gaming fans in Europe, honestly I don't see why. The game does have nice graphics, with good sprite art in a cartoony steampunk-ish setting, and the music is decent up-tempu stuff as well, but the gameplay isn't nearly as good as the graphics and sound. This is a below-average game and doesn't even match up to Rambo III, much less MERCS. It does have two player co-op, which is nice, but the game is overly difficult, sometimes confusing, and doesn't control that well. It stops being fun too soon as a result. The game isn't all bad, but compared to my expectations, or other games in the genre, it's pretty disappointing. In this game you play as a team of six mercenaries, off on a series of dangerous missions. You can play as any of the six guys, and you always have an AI companion controlling a second character if you aren't playing with another human, so the game is always co-op. Each character is different and has different weapons and stats. Occasionally you will be able to buy stats and such in a shop between some levels. There are also passwords between each of the four worlds, but you need to beat an entire four-level world to get one, and I've never managed that despite more than a few tries, so I haven't gotten one myself.

The first issue here are the controls. All you can do is walk and fire in the direction you are facing; no direction-lock, no twinstick control, and in a game which needs them. Bullets are uninspiring-looking little circles, too, and shooting lacks intensity. Enemies spawn all over as you move, so you really need to either have memorized everything or be paying close attention to not take hits. Not being able to shoot while you move out of the way to dodge bullets is awful, and you will take hits... and you have vERY few hit points per life, and only three lives before it' Game Over. And no, there are no continues at all, beyond that password you may never reach. That's too harsh. The levels themselves can be interesting, but it's way too easy to get hit and the game punishes you too much for it. Level pacing is also mixed; the early levels are fun, but quickly get tedious or frusterating once stages get larger and more confusing a few levels in. As you go you collect keys, which unlock paths, and money for that shop. Some keys open one of several branching options, so there are alternate paths to add a little replay value, though most of each stage is one path. There is the core of a decent game here, but the controls and difficulty ruin it. And worse, once I got stuck in what I'm pretty sure was an impossible-to-progress-past situation, so the game has glitches as well. Since there is no timer in the game, I had to turn it off and start over. Ugh! I still haven't beaten the whole first world in this game, but playing it makes me want to not do so again anytime soon. Overall Soldiers of Fortune is a disappointing, below-average to bad game that I kind of regret buying. The nice graphics and two player co-op are the main positives here, but the gameplay isn't much fun, levels can be long and enemy spawn locations are hard to avoid, the game has glitches, and really this game is just too hard for its own good. Skip this one unless you have nostalgic feelings for it. Also available on Amiga (in Europe only) and SNES, but I only have played this version. Apparently the SNES version has lots of slowdown, so skip it.


Sonic the Hedgehog - 1 player, supports lock-on with Sonic & Knuckles (for a full Sonic 3 & Knuckles bonus-games mode called Blue Spheres, with passwords to access any possible level). Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog released in 1991, and is one of the great, industry-changing titles, the kind of game that only comes along a couple of times a generation at most, and even most of those don't turn into franchises as popular as Sonic's has been. Sega made an incredible game, and then marketed it exceptionally well. The result was a phenomenon that continues to this day, as Sonic is still Sega's mascot. Sonic created the humanoid-animal-mascot trend in character design, changed platformers with its focus on speed and attitude, and is one of the best-selling game of the 4th generation, too. And yes, I at least think that the game is still fantastic today! This game has some critics, but I love Sonic the Hedgehog. It isn't the best platformer of the generation, and I do think that its nemesis Super Mario World is the better game and the best 2d platformer ever, but Sonic 1 is outstanding, and one of the next best 2d platformers, along with its sequels, the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, and a couple of Game Boy games (wario Land 1, Kirby 2). Sonic is just exceptional in almost every way. The graphics are great, the music is iconic, the levels are fantastic beginning to end, the physics engine behind it all was unlike anything seen before in a platformer, and the large levels are a lot of fun to explore, too! The difficulty level is challenging, but it's a fun challenge, not the crushing difficulty of some other Genesis games. This is a hard game and I only beat it for the first time last month, but it's extremely fun whether or not you complete it. It's hard to think of much bad to say about this game, really.