Cover Art: Mega Drive - Part 2

For many of us oldies, the world of Japanese gaming first became apparent as a Mega Drive owner. Virtually all the games we had available were released there as well (usually first) and they generally had different (better?) cover artwork too. It might have taken me a good while (three years!) to get around to comparing some more fine examples accordingly, but feast your eyes on this selection!

Arrow Flash (1990)

This is not one of the MD's more fondly-remembered shooters these days and it's not one of my favourites either, if I'm honest. But it does have some pretty interesting cover artwork. Both actually have similar designs depicting a brave female mecha pilot apparently floating, one in orbit, the other over a cityscape, but both in front of their big mecha ship thing, though the Japanese one seems to be partly faded out. Both use the same logo/font too, but the art styles are very different as you might imagine, with the European cover using a Western comicbook style while the Japanese example unsurprisingly uses an anime style. Which is best? I suppose that depends on which style you prefer. I think I like the European one more, mainly because it shows the mecha properly, and the planet with presumably-hostile aliens in the distance is cool/foreboding, but both are pretty good. There is actually a third cover for the US version which is decent too. (full review here)

First Look Mega Drive #1

Mega R-Type by TheRoboZ (2024?) - MegaDrive

As regular visitors here might have noticed, there has once again been a period of neglect here at this blog. There are reasons for this, of course, but recently my good friend Luke texted me regarding a game I had long imagined: R-Type on the Mega Drive! If that's not something to get me burbling away here like I used to, what is?! Indeed, for I often spend time wondering what non-existent arcade ports might've been like, and one that has always mystified me is R-Type on the MD. Or lack thereof, obviously. I know it had already been wowwing shooter fans for a while by the time the MD launched but it still would've made for a top-tier release for Sega's 16-bit powerhouse, surely? Oh well, it never happened for one reason or another, but it seems I'm not the only one who wished it had.

Top Five MegaDrive Overhead Racers

As mighty as the MegaDrive is, it's not a system I would associate with overhead (or 'top down' if you prefer) racing games - I suppose there aren't any systems that one might specifically associate with them now that I think about it - but Sega's legendary machine does play host to a surprising number of them. I actually had the idea for this post a good few years ago and did some preliminary 'research' accordingly, only to find my enthusiasm dampened by the general quality of the titles available. I recall not really finding one that I really liked, never mind five! That opinion was mostly confirmed when I returned to this post recently - most examples are interesting and have good points, but also some apect that ruined my enjoyment somewhat too. Since I haven't been too prolific with the Top Fives lately, however, I figured I'd go ahead with the post anyway. So, feast your eyes on what could be more accurately described as the Five Least Annoying MegaDrive Overhead Racers...

5. Combat Cars

I don't remember seeing anything about this one in its day but it got a European release as well as a US one. Oh well, wherever it was back then, I 've spent a fair bit of time playing it for this post and... well, it's a good example of what I was talking about above. I kind of get the impression it's set in a post-apocalyptic world but it's hard to be sure since there doesn't seem to be a backstory. Nonetheless, you can choose from eight characters, each of whom has their own car with it's own special ability (speed boost, weapon, smoke, etc), and it initially looked as though it could be a contender for the top spot here. The slidy-but-grippy car handling is superb and there are a decent number of courses (24) over which to race against the other characters, and there are of course multi-player modes too (just two players but better than nothing), with team or head-to-head options on offer. The graphics aren't bad either and the music is great. The thing that ruins it a bit for me is that it just gets too hard too quickly - you basically have to race nearly perfectly within two or three races or you won't have a chance. I was getting lapped! It's a good game for skilled and/or dedicated players but I'm not sure I'd ever get through it.

Run 'n' Gun Games #9

Assault Suits Leynos a.k.a. Target Earth (1990)
By: Masaya / NCS Corp Genre: Run 'n' Gun Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: ???,???
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: Wii Virtual Console, PS4, PC

I played rather a lot of games on my Mega Drive over the first half of the 90s and even knew all about the ones I didn't play too, thanks to the magazines of the day, but there was of course the odd one or two that slipped through the net. One of these, if you hadn't already guessed, is Assault Suits Leynos. It was released in Japan, and also in the US under a different name - Target Earth (actually not a bad alternative name for American standards) - but for some peculiar reason our humble territory here in Europe was apparently bypassed. Nonetheless, I still often knew about other import-only games and owned a decent number as well, since some of our magazines covered them, so why did they ignore this one? I don't remember seeing a single mention of it except in the listings of mail order companies. Oh well, time to once again educate myself I guess!

MegaDrive Shmups #11

Super Fantasy Zone (1992)
By: Sunsoft / Sega Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 73,200
Also Available For: Nothing Download For: Wii Virtual Console

The dazzling Fantasy Zone series is awesome, everyone knows that, even the people that don't know that, but for some reason its name immediately makes me think of the Master System despite this, the last proper game in the series, only appearing on the MegaDrive. That should, potentially at least, make it the best, surely? I guess we'll find out but it certainly has by far the best presentation which includes an opening sequence depicting the fate of Opa-Opa's father, amusingly named O-Papa. The action is set in 'the space year 623X' when a 'gravitating phenomenon' is discovered near the planet Menon, home of the evil creatures that caused havoc in the previous games. When a space patrol is sent to investigate, it is attacked by a 'Dark Menon Force' who repel all attempts to stop them, including a counterattack led by O-Papa. Startlingly, this means you must help Opa-Opa seek revenge and cleanse the Dark Menon filth.

Cover Art: Mega Drive - Part 1

For me, and I think I can safely say a large percentage of other Western retro game enthusiasts, even the existence of Japanese versions of our favourite console games only became apparent in the early days of the Mega Drive. The main reason for this was that most games for Sega's mighty console originated in Japan, and most were also released there considerably earlier than we got them in the West.

This meant we often ended up buying 'grey import' versions of games rather than the official versions, and one thing many of us noticed was that they often had better box artwork. Not always, mind you, but often. This obviously made them an appealing prospect for these comparison posts that I haven't done for many moons, so here is the first of what will undoubtedly end up being several posts on the subject. If you have any suggestions or requests for titles, let me know in the comments :)

Thunder Force II (1989)

I still maintain that this is an ultra-underrated game, but that might just be nostalgia talking since it was one of my first MD games. Both covers share the weird font that I always thought looked more like 'Thunder Farce II' but it's actually the UK one that's better, and that's not nostalgia talking (I don't think). It has an action-packed cover showing what I assume it a depiction of one of the overhead-viewed stages, and it looks great. The Japanese cover, featuring the extra 'MD' in the title since TFII was originally an X68000 game, has a bit of a whiffy-looking ship. It is flying over what I assume is the fifth stage but you would have no idea what it was if you hadn't already played the game. I'll stick with my UK copy of this one thanks! (full review here)

Memorable Bosses #3

The Freaky Flower
Game: Wiz 'n' Liz

The first two bosses I chose for this feature are legendary in the world of games but this example is memorable to much fewer gamers, perhaps only me. It is, as its name suggests, a freaky flower, perhaps a mutant sunflower or something, and is the first boss you encounter when playing the excellent Wiz 'n' Liz, assuming the options were left as default. It doesn't really do much if I'm honest - there are no explosive seeds or scything leaves or anything like that; It doesn't actually fire anything at you. All it does do really is swing its head back and forth and occasionally run across the screen using its uprooted... umm, roots I guess. Oh, and it also looks grumpy, possibly due to how easy it is to defeat (which is very). I'm not really sure why I remember it so well if I'm honest. Maybe it's simply because I played the game a lot and therefore 'fought' the orange menace, wiping his filth from the land many times. Maybe it's just because it's a giant sunflower. All I know is, for whatever reason, this cursed creature was one of the first to pop into my head when conceiving this series of posts.

Click here for a full review of Wiz 'n' Liz, Mega Drive version.

Crap Games #13

Sword of Sodan (1990)
By: Innerprise / Electronic Arts Genre: Fighting Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 108,900 (including three pit deaths)
Also Available For: Amiga, Apple IIGS, Apple Mac

Is it me or does she look like Rebecca Romijn?

Back in the glorious days of Sega's mighty Mega Drive, EA weren't the soul-sucking, studio-destroying corporate leviathan that they are nowadays and they weren't yet flooding the shelves of used-game and charity shops with thousands of copies of their nearly-identical sports games. Much of what they released was pretty good, excellent even, and a forthcoming MD game of theirs was something to look forward to. Until Sword of Sodan came along. It was a conversion of an Amiga game from the year before which was well-received by magazines, so surely a version for the slightly-more-powerful Mega Drive would be more awesome than a unicycling panda? It was, however, slaughtered in reviews as though falling victim to the very weapon of its title, and it damaged EA's decent rep among MD owners as a result. Consequently, I never bothered with it. Was I wise?

MegaDrive Shmups #10

Gley Lancer (1992)
By: NCS Corp / Masaya Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 310,500
Also Available For: Nothing Download For: Wii Virtual Console

The mighty Mega Drive was a very stonking console for shooter fans as we all know, and happily most of them found a way to Western shores too, but there were a few allegedly decent ones that didn't. The one that always intrigued me the most is probably Gley Lancer. Being the victim of an incorrectly-translated name isn't the most notable thing about it nowadays though. Like many MD games, and indeed like many games generally from the days of retro-ness, it unfortunately now commands such a high price that it's not enormously realistic for normal people to buy it. Of course, no game that changes hands for triple or even quadruple figures among collectors is worth such a sum to a humble gamer. All we want to do is play games, not ogle their sealed cases. Luckily, there a few other avenues available for retroheads and shooter fans, and it is via one of these that I have recently been playing the game for the first time in many moons.

Mega Drive A-Z

It has gone down as Sega's most successful console, proving ultra-popular in all the major territories, and is still held in high esteem today - that's right, it's the one and only, the legendary... Mega Drive! Almost 1,000 games eventually found homes on its rippling innards and I will least try to feature all of them in these listings, although I'm bound to miss the odd one or two here and there. Next up is:

L is for...

Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs by Electronic Arts (1990)

This was the game that revealed to most of us outside the US that the Lakers and Celtics were apparently basketball teams. There aren't a huge number of options here for a sports game but the fast-paced action is pretty enjoyable, even if you don't give two pieces of monkey crap about the sport.

Game Gallery #7

Thunder Force 3 by Techno Soft (1990) - MegaDrive

It has been a looong time since I did one of these, which is a bit strange considering how many screenshots I usually grab when playing games for reviews. I might as well put some of them to use, surely? Yes I should, and so it shall be once more. To that end, bewildering absence notwithstanding, the Game Gallery is now back! Since the last one was for Thunder Force 2, for this return I thought it's immediate sequel and 'Finest MD Shmup' title-holder, Thunder Force III was a logical choice.

Click here for the full review of this fine game.

Special Note: As many of you will know, players can choose between the game's first five stages from the start. This gallery, however, will feature them in the 'correct' order, thus:

Title and 'Secret' Config Screens:

Retro Gaming Zoo #3

Humans are stupid. Animals are always better than stupid humans, everyone knows that, and it's something that's also true in the world of video games. A tremendous variety of weird and wonderful animals have starred in games over the years and here I'll be taking a closer look at some of them. Next up is:

Creature #3 - Rolo of Rolo to the Rescue
Type of Creature? Elephant  Realistic Portrayal? Yes

Most of my MegaDrive years were taken up by platformers and most of my favourites featured animals of some sort. This one was a challenge, not least because of its size and lack of save or password facility, but it was enormous fun anyway. One of the many reasons for this was the amusing animals contained therein, several of which you could control. Chief among them was Rolo, a brave trumpeter seeking to escape the oppression of circus life. He faced many dangers across the many, many stages that make up the game, but he mostly approached them as only an elephant could. He's not particularly athletic but he can use his trunk to suck stuff up or squirt it out, he can squash enemies beneath his substantial grey mass, and he is highly adaptable to a variety of potentially hostile surroundings. I'm not sure his perpetually-cheerful demeanour (or fondness for hats) is especially elephant-like but I think we can overlook that since he's such a kind-hearted tramper. It's just a shame this was the only time we saw him. Time for a Steam-based reboot?

Is His Game Any Good? Yes, it's spiffing! It was exclusive to the MegaDrive so those idiotic Nintendo and Amiga owners never got to sample its delights, despite the fact it was by the guys behind the James Pond series which appeared on many formats. It made owning an MD that bit sweeter though. You might even call it a hidden gem! Impressive considering how many rivals it had. Check the full review here.

 

Crap Games #11

Bimini Run (1990)
By: Microsmiths / Nuvision Entertainment Genre: Racing / Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 23,660
Also Available For: Nothing

Not very bright but quite a nice title screen...

There aren't too many speedboat-based games around so a good few MegaDrive owners took an interest in this one leading up to its early-90's release. Sadly, however, it didn't fare too well with reviewers of the time and has barely been mentioned by anyone since. It popped back in my head recently while watching Dexter though (he takes his boat to Bimini at one point which is apparently a district of the Bahamas), so I thought it would be an opportune time to feature it here. But did it deserve such... apathy? Well, I had a quick go a couple of years ago and I thought it was dreadful, but playing it again now, in more detail this time, it's actually not that bad. The backstory certainly makes it seem promising - we're in real Miami Vice territory here. I'm not sure if the Hawaiian shirt-clad protagonist is a cop actually, but there's plenty of chasing bad guys and secret hideaways and all that.

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.

Retro News - New MegaDrive Brawler!

Paprium by Watermelon Games (2017) - MegaDrive

Everyone knows Streets of Rage 2 is the greatest scrolling fighting game of all time so it's somewhat surprising that there have been so few clones, tributes, or sequels to Sega's undisputed masterpiece over the intervening years, official or otherwise. Yes, there was a direct MegaDrive sequel, generally considered to be a step back, and there have obviously been many further examples of the genre, but none that attempted to duplicate SOR2's distinctive style (or if they did it wasn't particularly successful!). We did get the crazy Beats of Rage but not much else has emerged from the retro scene that I'm aware of. Now, however, that has changed and then some, for arriving very soon is this oddly-named example from Watermelon Games, the same team responsible for Pier Solar, surely one of the most best known of all homebrew releases.

Game Music #3

The time of the 16-bit console wars was a glorious time to be a gamer. The die-hard Sega and Nintendo fans spent more time arguing the virtues of their chosen system with their each other than they did actually using their chosen system, or so it often seemed, and the subject of these arguments included just about every single aspect of ownership. Everything from tech specs and graphical prowess to individual games were discussed, but one subject I often found myself focusing on was the respective audio abilities of each company's powerhouse.

It was a topic worthy of discussion too, in my opinion - both systems had distinctive yet quite different sounds. Sega's MegaDrive made use of the Yamaha YM2612, an FM sound synthesiser chip which could produce some cracking synth choons, while the Super Famicom was armed with Nintendo's S-SMP, a sampler that could pump out some impressive orchestrations with a highly recognisable style. One of the most common arguments I heard from Ninty fan-boys, in fact, was regarding the supposed superiority of the SFC's and how the mere MegaDrive would be hopelessly lost trying to replicate them, and I often felt compelled to concede this particular point.

Splendid MegaDrive Music #5

Thunder Force 2 (1989)

My new job sadly doesn't leave me as much spare time as my last one did, and that in turn means I have less time to do blog stuff, but one of the perks is that I can listen to music all day. Naturally I've therefore spent much of this time listening to stonking game soundtracks, and one that I find myself returning to often is Thunder Force 2, probably the most neglected installment of the celebrated Thunder Force series. Tomomi Ohtani's synth-rock soundtrack contains lots of great choons but I think my favourite is the one that accompanies the first side-scrolling stage. It's called 'A Ray of Hope' (in the X68000 version at least - the MD's tracks don't have names) and is quite awesome. Check it check it! :)

(full Thunder Force 2 review here)



Special Note: I didn't record this great tune myself, I'm just an admirer, so all credit goes to the original composer

MegaDrive Shmups #9

Granada (1991)
By: Wolf Team / Telenet Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega MegaDrive / Genesis First Day Score: 496,784
Also Available For: X68000

The MegaDrive is justifiably famed the world over for its ultra-splendid selection of shooters but most of these are of the usual horizontal and vertical scrolling varieties. One game that bucked that trend by offering more ground-based, free-roaming action was Granada (not 'XGranadaX' as it's often called, understandably). It wasn't a well known game over here in the UK, largely on account of the fact that it wasn't released here, but it was a game that intrigued me enough to seek it out at my friendly local import emporium, and I had a lot of fun with it. And how could I not? After all, we're not just in control of a mere tank here but a 'Hyper Cannon Tank' brimming with advanced weaponry which you must guide through some sort of unspecified battle being waged on 'the peaceful streets of Tobora' (though maybe not right now) where you'll face 'the giant flying battleship Astarsha' as well as Valsic, another HCT.

Splendid MegaDrive Music #4

James Pond: Underwater Agent (1990)

I've long felt alone in having a soft-spot for the first James Pond game. Many love its sequel, Robocod, and justifiably so, but the original? There are many things I like about it - the jolly graphics, the environmental theme, the fact that it takes place underwater (well, James is a fish and all) - but one of its less appreciated features as far as I can tell is its music, composed by Richard Joseph. Much of it is somewhat more befitting the character's secret agent status but my favourite is this, one of two level themes that get alternated. It's might be a little strange but it suits the game well and also makes me smile every time I hear it. What more can you ask for?

(full James Pond review here)

Retro Gaming Zoo #2

Humans are stupid. Animals are always better than stupid humans, everyone knows that, and it's something that's also true in the world of video games. A tremendous variety of weird and wonderful animals have starred in games over the years and here I'll be taking a closer look at some of them. Next up is:

Creature #2 - Flicky of Flicky
Type of Creature? Bird  Realistic Portrayal? Yes

After the recent tomfoolery with a certain chat/film group to which he lends his name, I figured it was a good time to take a closer look at Flicky, the plucky blue avian star of Sega's 1984 arcade game and subsequent conversions. He is very bird-like too, which is surprising for the day. He can run around and has a decent flappy-assisted jump, both are which are invaluable for collecting the helpless little 'Chirps' around the short looping stages and avoiding the hungry cats that also scamper about the place, and that is about the extent of his ambitions too. He's just doing what any responsible squawker would do. I'm not sure how realistic the actual stages are since later ones seem to take place in space, and I'm not sure how adept any bird would be at holding a net to catch catapulted Chirps either, but as a character Flicky is definitely very realistic for video game standards. Happily we got to see his likeness again along with many of his colourful brethren, and on their apparent home turf too, in Sonic 3D: Flickies Island, but nothing since then. Come back Flicky/Flickies! :)

Is His Game Any Good? Yes, it's mighty good! The most celebrated version is that found on Sega's own MegaDrive which was actually slightly superior to the arcade original (although in fairness, it was released some seven years later!) but I have yet to play a version of Flicky that isn't tremendous fun. Check the full review here.