Sega Super Scaler Games #7

Super Hang-On (1987)
By: Sega AM2 Genre: Racing Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 9,950,140
Also Available For: Mega Drive, X68000, Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy Advance, Amiga, Atari ST, PC, Apple Mac, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

Just thinking of the great names of the other 'Super Scaler' games automatically reminds me of giant hydraulic machines with excited crowds around them in bustling amusement arcades, but that's not the case with Super Hang-On. I had it on my Speccy and later I also had it on my mighty Mega Drive, but I was never fortunate enough to encounter the original in any arcades I visited, so I guess I've always associated it with those two systems. I suppose the Speccy more than the MD, though the version for Sega's own console was obviously far more accurate. The Speccy version was good too, though. As far as I recall, anyway, though I haven't played it for many moons. It may even be among the best racing games on the little home micro. Not that that's saying much, I know. But regardless of all this, I'm way overdue in checking out the super-scaling original, so let's go!

Better Late Than Never #1

Shinobi by Sega (1987) - Master System

Oh hey, what's going down? Welcome to another new (kind of) feature here at Red Parsley! As I've no doubt mentioned before, despite my enthusiasm for and love of video games, especially ones of the 80s and 90s, I've never been particularly good at them. Some I could complete, but there were many I could not. There were some games that have stuck in mind all these years as being ones I played a lot and got quite a long way into a lot, but never managed to finish. This feature, whilst otherwise very similar to my existing Game Gallery posts, will showcase my (probably save state-assisted) journey to finally completing some of the offending games. First up is one of my very favourite games for one of my very favourite consoles:

Click here for the full review of this fine game.

Top Five Master System Budget Games

I've done a lot of Top Fives here over the years. Most are nonsense, of course, some even embarrass me now, but some I was and remain quite pleased with. Examples of the latter were often the most difficult to compile too, insofar as it being difficult to narrow it down to five and/or determine the order, but I'm not sure I had as much trouble with any of them as I have this one.

For those not in the know, if you were lucky enough to own Sega's wonderful Master System, here in the UK at least (but probably elsewhere too), Sega were apparently well aware that mere school kids couldn't often afford £24.99 for new games, so they had a range of cheaper games that cost, as I recall, from £9.99 to £14.99.

Some of these stank of rhino manure but some were great, and were a valuable lifeline for cash-strapped MS owners such as myself. I had several at the time and have acquired others in the intervening years, but when the idea for this Top Five entered my brain, I immediately thought of 8 or 9 candidates and just couldn't decide which ones to leave out.

I've been back and forth on several of my choices already, and will probably do so again after I click 'publish', but it will be too late then. Behold, then, the current version of this list showcasing the best of Sega's helpful budget range:

Cover Art Face-Off #2

Oh hey, what's going down? If you've visited this ridiculous page recently you might recall a post I made featuring the various famous Sega IPs that, for one odd reason or another, appeared on their own console's rival, the NES. They were mostly of reasonable quality, though of course inferior to the versions found on the mighty Master System, but it was interesting to take a look at them. While on the subject, however, I also looked into the cover artwork for the NES releases since they were unlikely to be using the MS's white grid covers, and indeed they were not. So I figured I might as well make a follow-up post about those too! Therefore, behold:

After Burner (1987/89)

This was one of the first ever games I had in my possession and therefore one of the first game covers to dwell on my shelf so it holds some nostalgic value for me, but let's face it - it looks like something a low-level factory worker doodled in his/her lunch break! The NES offering was for the US market and features a much more impressive-looking F-14 fighter front and centre. I'm not sufficiently knowledgeable about US military hardware to know how accurate it is, but it sure looks cool here, especially surrounded by tracer fire and explosions. It even has the title in its correct font! Though it pains me slightly to say it, there can only be one winner here...

Top Five Sega NES Games

Back in the 8-bit days I think most would agree that Sega suffered a little when it came to challenging Nintendo's dominance in the console world. Sure, the Master System was popular here in the UK, in Brazil and a few other places, but in most places, including the two most important, the NES/Famicom was king.

Part of the reason for this was the sheer number of titles available for Nintendo's machine owing to extremely strong third-party support. This was an area the Master System greatly lacked in. In fact, I often remember thinking back then that Sega were lucky they had their own arcade games to port over as well as numerous other IPs and in-house games or the MS might not even have any games for it!

It therefore came as something of a surprise when I found out that some of Sega's games did appear on the NES/Famicom. That didn't make much sense to me but I guess Sega must have had their reasons. I've never played any of them though, and upon recently realising this, I was ultra-intrigued as to what they were like. How did they compare to the Master System versions? Let's find out, shall we?

5. Space Harrier by Takara (1988) - Japan Only

I've always enjoyed this landmark title in the arcades whenever I've been lucky enough to find it but I've never really spent too much time with it at home. I have played the MS version though, and know that it's pretty good. In fact, I think the only thing I don't really like about it is that it uses background tiles for the sprites which makes the graphics look a bit whiffy now and then. As would turn out to be the case with most games in this feature, this NES port has smaller sprites and slightly washed out colours, and slightly worse (though certainly recognisable) audio, but is for the most part pretty similar. It's not an easy one to call actually. Neither version is particularly fast and both are about as smooth as you could hope for, all things considered, so I suppose it's more about which visual style you prefer - big sprites and bright colours but that distracting tiling effect, or... well, as I said, smaller sprites, duller colours, etc. To be honest, I've enjoyed both versions so if I had to choose, I would say the MS, but that's only out of loyalty. And the fact that the NES apparently can't do the "Aaaahh!! Get ready!"

Sega Super Scaler Games #6

Thunder Blade (1987)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 958,160
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Master System, PC Engine, X68000, Nintendo 3DS, Amiga, Atari ST, PC, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

When you think about Super Scaler games, I'd wager most thoughts are immediately of Space Harrier, Out Run, or After Burner. There are many others of course, all of which should be featured here eventually, but of the major earlier releases, Thunder Blade seems to be one that has been rather forgotten in more modern times. Why could that be? It was well-received in its day after all, so why the lack of love these days? A Nintendo 3DS release aside, even Sega seem to have abandoned it to a degree. Has its choppery-shooting action aged worse than its brethren? Is it now as unpleasant as a gravel-filled burrito? This is a question your possibly-favourite herb-related blog was made to answer! Much of my time with the game was spent on my Speccy for which I had the magical +3 disk version but this review will, as always, focus on the original arcade version.

Master System Round-Up #5

They're probably looked back on now as a bit of a gimmick; a silly novelty gadget of limited use, but the Master System's 3D Glasses were actually quite an innovative peripheral for their time. Unlike Nintendo's pointless R.O.B. (Robotic Operated Buddy) for their Famicom/NES, or ridiculous third-party nonsense like Mattel's Power Glove, Sega's glasses actually did something for one thing.

Indeed, by using some manner of spooky wizardry involving shutters in the glasses and flickering images on the screen, they were able to give the impression of actual 3D graphics in games that were made to take advantage of them. You might think that a dazzling, cutting edge technology like this would cost a bomb but, as I recall, they cost a little more than a standard game at the time. When my ultra-splendid parents agreed to help in my acquisition of my soon-to-be-treasured Master System back in 1987/8 (I forget exactly when now), I was lucky enough that they separately added a pair of 3D Glasses to my bundle - a result, I suspect, of my OutRun infatuation - but some lucky MS owners such as my good friend Luke received them with the console itself in the form of the might Super System set! I can't remember if he ever got around to getting any games that actually used them though, besides Missile Defence 3D which was built into his console (I'll have to ask him), but I certainly did.

Arcade Shmups #26

Scramble Spirits (1988)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 310,120 (one credit)
Also Available For: Master System, Amiga, Atari ST, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

There weren't a massive number of shmups on the Master System - it didn't have a huge number of games of any genre I guess - but of the ones that did find their way to Sega's wonderful console, about the only one I never played was Scramble Spirits. This may have been down to the lacklustre reception it received in magazines of the day, or the fact that it has been pretty much ignored ever since. Perhaps not, but either way, I recently reminded myself that the poor neglected game exists and immediately made a mental note to investigate it forthwith. If I'm going to do that, I then reasoned, I might as well first try the original version of it, so behold: after some problems getting it running, here is the arcade version of Sega's lost shooter. Does is deserve our continued apathy?

Sega Super Scaler Games #5 - Part 2

After Burner II (1987)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 1,343,580
Also Available For: PlayStation 2, Nintendo 3DS, MegaDrive, PC Engine

When I was younger there were a good many things that confused me. Many of these are unsuitable for discussion here but some that are included: Why do frogs throats bulge so much? Why did some cars make that whistling sound as they drive along? Why do electricity pylons crackle when it rains? What would happen if you drilled all the way through the earth's crust into the mantle? All these things and many more questions of varying importance pootled around in the perpetually-distracted mind of my youth, but one thing that puzzled me like no other was this: What the frickin' frack was After Burner 2 all about? Game sequels, and indeed sequels generally, didn't often deviate from the originals that much but you could usually tell them apart, especially if you were actually trying to, but what was the difference between After Burner and After Burner 2? Only the Lord on high knew this hallowed secret, surely?

Top Five Streets of Rage Characters

For many, the Streets of Rage name is synonymous with the very finest of scrolling fighting games, even eclipsing Final Fight, the game it was originally created to rival. One of the many great things about the series is its playable characters of whom there are six across the three official games in the series. That admittedly makes this Top Five somewhat pointless as only one of the characters will miss out, but as always it's just a bit of fun. The big question is, who's the loser?

5. Skate - Appeared in SOR2 & SOR3

This little pipsqueak debuted in the second game and is apparently kid brother to Adam from the original. Given his size and age, he would've been fast anyway, but he also has a pair of roller-blades so he is, by some margin, the fastest character in the game. The trade-off is power of course, but despite his speed making him effective nonetheless, he is still slightly unsatisfying to use. He has a nice breakdance-inspired special move though.

Indie Games News/Previews #12

Streets of Rage 4 by Liazrdcube / DotEmu (2018/19?) - PC

Blaze vs three enemies, all instantly recognisable...

So there I was, jetting off on my latest holiday (and the first one for a while), enduring hours of road travel, an uncomfortable long-haul flight, etc, before finally arriving in my hotel room, and upon logging onto the wifi here, what was the very first thing I saw? Yes that's right, it was an announcement for Streets of Rage 4! It's almost as if the Good Lord Almighty had taken pity on me for enduring the rigours of intercontinental travel by rewarding me with this super-skillish, though totally unexpected news! Unless of course it was all a cruel ruse, perhaps orchestrated by his opposite number, but that seemed unlikely given the screenshots and reveal trailer released by the splendid Lizardcube/DotEmu.

Currently Playing...

Ninja Princess by Sega (1985) - Arcade

As anyone who owned or even just played on Sega's mighty Master System in its day will probably know, one of it's too-infrequently-celebrated gems is The Ninja. Many believe it to be a Master System original but it's actually a mostly-accurate conversion of an arcade game released the previous year under two names - Ninja Princess in Japan and Sega Ninja over here in the West. I've long been a fan of The Ninja so I've been intending to give the original a try for some time now and have, as you may have guessed, finally gotten around to it!

For those not familiar with the MS version, the game places you in control of the mysterious assassin of the title some time during Japan's Edo period (17th century-ish) with the aim of taking down an evil warlord and restoring peace to the land. With fire in your heart and nerves of steel (hopefully), it's your job to guide this heroic saviour through a number of unforgiving vertically-scrolling areas on foot, dispatching all the immediately-hostile enemy combatants (mostly other ninjas, as well as a few horses, naturally) who rush onto the screen at the appropriate moment or pop up out of their hiding places. Defeat the boss at the end (or 'top') of each stage and it's on to the next area, each of which poses its own unique challenge to test your mettle.

PS4 Purchase #1

Sonic Mania by PagodaWest Games / Headcannon / Sega (2018)

I don't usually warble on about new games I've bought here, partly because most of them are just retro-flavoured indie download titles from Steam or Good Old Games these days, but I've decided I will do with my PS4 purchases. This is mainly because I like the PS4 and the support it is receiving from many indie developers, and having physical copies of the games in question makes me feel warm and fuzzy too.

In typical Red Parsley fashion, I've got a bit of catching up to do as I already have 12 or 13 games, but I thought I'd start with this one which arrived from Amazon today. I think I'm right in saying it's the first game I've ever pre-ordered in my life too. I've bought loads of titles on the days of their launch over the years but I never really felt compelled to actually pre-order any. I have been very keen to play Sonic Mania though, and resisted the temptation of buying it on Steam in the hopes that a physical copy might be released for... well, something I own. And since I accidentally ended up with a PS4, it seemed like the best candidate. Much to my delight, shortly afterward I found out that this was indeed destined to happen. Not only that but it was to be a special version called Sonic Mania Plus too!

Sonic the Hedgehog Series - Part 1

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
By: Sonic Team / Sega Genre: Platform Players: 1 Difficulty: Easy
Featured Version: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis First Day Score: 194,390
Also Available For: Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy Advance (ports)
PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC (on compilations)
Download For: Android, iOS, Wii Virtual Console

There have been a lot of 'landmark' games over the years. I remember the release of many of them - the excitement as their release neared as well as the furore that usually followed - but as a console gamer of the mid-to-late 80's and early 90's (predominantly), one of the examples I remember the best was the original Sonic game. Most who played it agreed it was a fantastic release - groundbreaking from a technical point of view and great fun to play. Some even claimed it saved Sega from certain defeat by Nintendo. How close that is to being true I'm not certain but one thing is for sure: it helped shift a crapload of Mega Drives (and Master Systems) and firmly cemented its turbo-charged star in videogaming folklore. From the opening 'SAY-GAA!' to the iconic title screen with its punchy theme tune, it was an instant hit with players before they'd even... well, played it.

Splendid Arcade Music #2

Space Harrier (1985)

So there I was, sitting at my desk at work, back aching as I tipped and tapped away on my keyboard doing my largely inconsequential work while also thinking about all the blog stuff I want to do but don't have time for, when I realised something. I was listening to a variety of music as I worked and when I got to Space Harrier it made me think: it's a pretty old game now, from an innovative era where tech and ideas evolved quickly; could it be the earliest game to actually have great music?

Now, before you all start reeling off lists of examples, I'm very well aware of lots of earlier games that featured appealing, catchy tunes and jingles, but while I was listening to the awesomeness that is Space Harrier's main theme, I was struggling to think of any games that featured what you might actually call a high quality musical composition that predate the 1985 release of Yu Suzuki's classic shooter. You know, the kind of music that's so good you might play the game just to hear it...

I'm probably wrong of course, as is frequently the case, but it certainly doesn't hurt to shine the retro spotlight on this stonking game once again, and particularly its (underappreciated?) music which, like the more celebrated Out Run and After Burner, is the work of the supremely talented Hiroshi Kawaguchi who is now one of the few staffers of that era still at Sega. It might not have a fancy name like Magical Sound Shower but this must surely be one of first truly great pieces of game music?

(full Space Harrier review here)



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit to, firstly the original composer, and secondly the YouTube user who uploaded it!
 

Streets of Rage: The Movie!

As we all know very well by now, the Streets of Rage games are unquestionably the finest such examples of their genre as can be found in the splendid world of retro. The first game blew the socks off us MegaDrive owners when it arrived in a flurry of punches and kicks back in 1991 and the sequel which arrived only a little over a year later was, quite frankly, astonishing. Not only had Sega managed to better their already-superb original but in so doing had pretty much perfected the genre in what is still regarded as one of the greatest games ever made.

The third game, perhaps inevitably, couldn't quite live up to these lofty standards but it was still a corking brawler. Sadly, it would also prove to be the final entry in the short-lived series which has gone on to become one of the most revered and best-loved game trilogies of all time. Pretty much any gamers around during the time of their releases will speak excitedly about them but some fans have taken their passion for the games to new heights by creating their own live-action tributes!

I could scarcely believe my eyes when I first stumbled upon one of them, probably while looking for a SOR soundtrack to listen to at work. Instead I found the video below which is, for all intents and purposes, Streets of Rage: The Movie! It features just Axel at first but he is soon joined by Adam then Blaze as they run around various locations in what is presumably their home city duffing in various friends posing as hoodlums and bosses from the SOR games, and the results are truly wonderful for any fans of the games. These aren't just a bunch of idiots trying to become the next internet sensation; they are clearly huge fans of the games themselves and it shows.

Non-Retro News - New Racing Game From Sega!

To be honest, I don't often pay all that much attention to Sega these days. It's a pretty sad thing to admit but they've been slowly declining for some time which is a sad thing to see too. Every now and then, however, some news from them reaches my ears and breaches the security measures meant to filter out the mundane. One thing that's likely to do that is news of a new Sega arcade game.

We've already had a similar announcement from them last year regarding Daytona 3 Championship USA which was mighty welcome - not sure what happened to that actually, the only news since then that I've heard is that they've now dropped the '3' from the title - but anyway, the latest news coming from Sega's arcade division over in Japan is also about a racing game, but this time we're getting a brand spanking new one!

As far as I'm aware, Sega haven't even revealed any screenshots yet nevermind in-game footage, but they have released a few details. It will be called Sega World Drivers Championship and is based on what is apparently the most popular form of motor racing in Japan - the Super GT touring car series. They have already visited this series before with the appropriately-named Sega Super GT (a.k.a. Scud Race), so I guess you could consider SWDC a 'spiritual' sequel to their famously-unconverted mid-90's racer, and like that game it carries an official license which means it will feature all the teams and cars from the real Super GT series including the mental Toyotas, Hondas, Lexuses, Subarus, and Nissans you may (but probably have not) seen on TV hacking around various circuits.

Splendid Arcade Music #1

After Burner / After Burner II (1987)

Considering a great many retro games originated in the arcades, I have perhaps been a bit neglectful of the motherland with these Game Music posts. Spurred on by my recent review of the stonking After Burner, however, here is the very first such post.

As mentioned in the full review, my favourite of Hiroshi Miyauchi's compositions is Red Out and I was going to feature that ace choon here, but while listening to it on YouTube at work, that stupid autoplay feature played more After Burner tracks, and after a couple of these it came to a rather cool fan rendition of the intro theme.

I'm not sure who the performer is beyond his YT username of 'haibanhunterk' but he's clearly a very talented guitarist - his channel features a number of other guitar-based renditions of popular game music - but I can't see any of the others being more awesome than this one. Check it out along with the original:

Sega Super Scaler Games #5 - Part 1

After Burner (1987)
By: Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 24,000
Also Available For: PlayStation 2, 32X, X68000, FM Towns, Master System, Game Boy Advance, NES, Amiga, Atari ST, PC, MSX, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

Games such as Hang On and Space Harrier were big hits for Sega and helped cement their reputation as purveyors of technically impressive arcade games that were also great fun to play, but few games would ever equal the impact that OutRun had. It is still fondly remembered today as one of the true greats but in the mid-80's it was simply jaw-dropping, so the game Sega followed it up with would have to be truly spectacular. It came just over a year later and saw players leave the tarmac behind and return to the skies. This time, however, they weren't colourful skies filled with peculiar alien creatures but were our own skies here on earth. That game was of course After Burner and it would go on to huge success itself. Some players, perhaps improbably, even preferred it to its predecessor.

Retro News - Daytona Returns to Arcades!

Well, there have been whispers for a little while and now it's been confirmed by Sega themselves - the mighty Daytona is coming back to our arcades! Whether you love or hate the original Daytona USA it's impossible to deny how much of an impact it had back in 1993/94 and the years immediately following its release. It was the first title to use Sega's awesome Model 2 board and it was a smash hit, soon ranking among the the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.

In fact, it was so successful that it's surprising it took Sega so long to return to the franchise, with Daytona USA 2 arriving in the arcades in 1998 and then Daytona USA 2001 for the Dreamcast in... well, 2001 I guess! Both were pretty much just more of the same but with new licks of paint so they weren't quite so successful, but the Daytona name is one that has continued to shine brightly, for Sega fans in particular, right up to the present day. It's been a long time since then though.