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!"

Scrolling Fighting Games #17

Dragon Ninja a.k.a. Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja (1988)
By: Date East Genre: Fighting Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium-Hard
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 52,900
Also Available For: NES, Amiga, Atari ST, PC, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Apple II
Download For: Nintendo Switch

I've never been particularly skilled at videogames. As if to illustrate this, most of the times I've actually managed to complete one without cheating are lodged firmly in my memory. One of them pertains to a certain fighting game with a very cool name, here in the UK at least. Yes, that's right, it's Dragon Ninja! American gamers knew it as Bad Dudes vs Dragon Ninja of course, and it's actually almost acceptable as US name-changes go since, to the eternal disappointment of both younger and current me, you don't play as ninjas but fight them. Many of them. I first discovered this on my trusty Speccy, for which I had the game (on +3 disk as I recall), and I enjoyed it a lot, black and white graphics and all. So much so, in fact, that I actually kicked every arse in the game and finished it! I'm extremely confident I couldn't repeat that nowadays but I did recently find myself reminiscing about the occasion and the game generally, and was then wondering if the arcade version is much harder, as is usually the case.

TV Shows #28

Goliath (2016-21)
Developed By: David E. Kelley & Jonathan Shapiro
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Nina Arianda, Tania Raymonde, Diana Hopper, William Hurt, Maria Bello, Ana de la Reguera, Dennis Quaid, Julie Brister, Olivia Thirlby, Molly Parker, Sarah Wynter, Mark Duplass, Matthew Del Negro, Amy Brenneman, Beau Bridges, Julia Jones, J. K. Simmons, Jena Malone, Lenora Crichlow, Bruce Dern

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 38-65 Minutes per Episode (approx)

I'm not quite sure when or how it happened but it seems that Billy Bob Thornton has become one of those actors whose mere presence in a film is enough to provoke my interest in it. When I saw Prime Video spamming his face in close proximity to the word 'Goliath' then, I duly investigated and found that it's not a film at all but a show. Not only that but it's a legal drama too - those can often be great, right? It sounded like the perfect role for Thornton too, and not just because the character shares his given name. The synopsis for Goliath, you see, invites you to join Billy McBride, "a down-and-out lawyer as he seeks redemption. His one shot depends on getting justice in a legal system where truth has become a commodity, and the scales of justice have never been more heavily weighted toward the rich and powerful."

PS4 Purchases #13

Children of Morta by 11 Bit Studios / Dead Mage (2019)

Many of my PS4 games - about half I reckon - were kindly given to me as Christmas or birthday gifts by my wife or family but I haven't received any for a good while now. In fact, I believe Children of Morta was the last one and I received it at least two years ago. Yes, that's long it takes me to get around to posting about stuff! I have finally been playing it a bit lately though. Unlike some other games in my collection, it's a no-frills package - just game and disc - but the game itself seems to be pretty good. It's an isometric action RPG, and a pretty simple one too, by genre standards. This is good for me since I'm hardly a veteran and find some RPGs more than a little daunting. Here, you get a little of the story (something about clearing the land of an evil called the Corruption), then you're off to to explore the area and chat with locals. There are several playable characters, all members of the same family, and procedurally generated dungeons full of monsters to vanquish. There's a bit more to it than that, of course, but it's looking great so far. Literally, in fact, thanks to its lovely pixelly graphics as well as moody music and excellent voice acting. I'll need to spend a lot more time with this one. Look out for the review... one day.

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!

Film Round-Up #40

It has somewhat startlingly been well over two years since I last posted a selection of Tom Hanks films. The challenge then was to find one that wasn't all that great since up to that point, all his films that I had seen had been good. That previous selection did yield one example that I wasn't too enamoured by, but it's still usually a safe bet to watch his films, so why not watch some more? None of the films chosen here were previously unseen by my eyes on this occasion (unless you count parts of the first one) but I hadn't seen some of them for many long years. Had I managed to find another non-great one in his filmography?

Big (Extended Edition) (1988)

Yes, I've already looked at Big in a previous Hanks round-up, but that was before I discovered there was an Extended Edition which I didn't know until very recently! I wouldn't normally bother with such releases except with my ultra-fave films, but an excuse to spend more time in prime 80s movie-land was one I couldn't pass up. I was somewhat concerned I might not even notice at least some of the new stuff - it's not like I've watched the normal version of the film dozens of times - and indeed, I hadn't noticed much for the first hour or so, but from the point when Josh and Susan have their trampoline session there are lots of extra scenes, most of which feature the two of them having dates and working together. They appear to be having a full-on relationship here, most of which was apparently cut from the theatrical release. I guess I can understand why too, but it's not just them - there's some 26 minutes of new stuff in total including lots of other extra bits and pieces, and for most the end product is probably even more enjoyable overall than the wonderful original... 9/10

PC Round-Up #1 - Part 2

After perhaps world record levels of procrastination (I started this post two years ago, which was itself some five years since my first 'Catacomb' post!), I've finally gotten around to resuming my coverage of first-person shooters... which never even started to begin with. This is due to my mild-yet-prevalent OCD which dictated I review the first FPS before looking at the later, more well-known ones. This led to a problem: what was the first FPS? My initial research into this subject has yielded several answers. Many might say Doom; oldies like me will remember Wolfenstein 3D; but the answer lies even further back than that - Catacomb 3D and its sequels.

Catacomb 3D: The Descent (1991)

Also known as Catacomb 3 to tie in to the 2D games and also known as Catacomb 3D: A New Dimension to emphasise the added dimension, this possibly first ever first-person shooter by the now-legendary id Software casts you in the same role as before - that of wizard Petton Everhail who must save his friend from the evil lich Grelminar. This seems to involve wandering around various mazey stages shooting lots of monsters with fireballs from your hand as you try to find the portal that takes you to the next such example. I was expecting an ugly, clunky, unplayable mess to be honest but I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, the stages are all flat and there's not much variety but movement is smoother than I thought it would be which includes a helpful strafe button, and there are plenty of scary monsters and stuff to collect, and even some secret areas! Frankly, I was just going to play it for long enough to grab a screenshot and get a reasonable impression of it but I kept playing simply because I was enjoying it. Okay, it's very basic and repetitive (especially the music) compared to later examples, but it's not at all bad, all things considered... 6/10

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.

Atari 5200 A-Z

Atari's VCS has gone down in legend now, but it was starting to look a bit old next to the ColecoVision and Intellivision. The 5200 was Atari's answer. Did it succeed? No, but that's more likely down to the 'great videogame crash'. It therefore didn't receive too many releases, so here I will be able to take a look at all of them. This is one of four posts to that end and features all games beginning with letters A through G:

Activision Decathlon, The (1983)

A bit of a Hyper Olympic rip-off in the eyes of some, this one, but it's not a bad effort, mainly due to how many events it has - an impressive ten. Some are similar, admittedly (100m and 400m), and it might wreck your joystick (waggle left and right to do stuff), but this is a decent multi-eventer for its time.

TV Shows #27

Night Sky (2022)
Developed By: Holden Miller & Daniel C. Connolly
Starring: Sissy Spacek, J. K. Simmons, Chai Hansen, Adam Bartley, Julieta Zylberberg, Sonya Walger, Rocío Hernández, Kiah McKirnan, Angus O'Brien

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 55 Minutes per Episode (approx), 8 Episodes

New sci-fi shows always get my attention, but one starring J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek? Yes please! The former is always great, or in every role I've seen him in at least, and the latter has recently impressed me greatly in Castle Rock, so the prospect of the two of them leading the cast of a mysterious new sci-fi show was a splendid one. They are Franklin and Irene, an old married couple still masking grief over the sudden death of their son some years before, but who also share an amazing secret known, as far as they know, not to another soul. Namely, that lying hidden beneath their shed is a spooky device that allows them to visit... an alien planet - crikey! The planet in question is just a barren, rocky world with no discernable settlements and the atmosphere is assumed to be unbreathable for humans, but there is a nice viewing chamber that allows them to sit, relax and marvel at the sights beyond, including a spectacular spacey sky.

MSX Games #2

Mr. Ghost a.k.a. Yuurei-kun (1989)
By: System Sacom Genre: Action/Shooting (kind of) Players: 1 Difficulty: Hard
Featured Version: MSX2 First Day Score: 21,250
Also Available For: Nothing

Ever since starting this blog, I have kept a list of games I want to play and review at some point. Many, I will probably never get around to, but some I'm happy to say I will. Mr. Ghost is unsurprisingly such a game; one that has lain dormant on my list for around 8 years, I estimate - jeepers! My interest in the MSX systems was recently reinvigorated though, and this was the first title I thought of. It looked quite simple from what I recalled of it, so I actually thought it was an MSX game, but it's a later release for the MSX2. It stars a floaty white fellow who probably has a proper name, but as far as I can tell from the story (which is told via various static cut-scenes, in Japanese of course), he woke up one day as a ghost and can't remember anything from before that. So for now at least, he is known as Mr. Ghost, and it's your job to help him venture forth to discover who and what he is. Or was, as the case may be.

First Look PC #7

TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge by KT Racing / Nacon (2018) - PC

As much as I enjoy driving/racing games, there are two types I seldom seem to encounter - really fast examples, and motorcycle-based ones. A good while back on YouTube I happened upon a video of a racing game which was very evidently motorcycle-based and also one that looked very fast. This was enough for me to add it to my Steam wishlist and lo, before much longer I found it on sale (does anyone buy Steam games at full price?). Unusually for me (and probably most people), I immediately installed it and gave it a go. What I found was a game that looked just like the one in the video I had seen, but what that failed to portray, and what I forgot to consider, was the implications of a really fast motorcycle game, particularly one based around the Isle of Man TT course.

Film Review #122

Bruised (2020)
Director: Halle Berry Starring: Halle Berry, Shamier Anderson, Adan Canto, Sheila Atim, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Valentina Shevchenko, Adriane Lenox

Certificate: 15 Running Time: 138 Minutes

Tagline: "From hero to zero and back to reality."

I've never really been a big social media user, and the more time that passes, the less appeal I find in it, but there was a brief period a few years back when I even joined Instagram. My main reason for doing this was to follow various celebrities that I like and marvel at the delightful imagery they oft choose to share with us. One such celeb I followed was Halle Berry because... well, she's really hot and she went through a phase of posting some rather saucy pics such as this one (snigger!), but for much of the time I followed her, she was mainly posting pics and vids of her doing hardcore workouts and sparring sessions in MMA-type gear. I was slightly startled by this until I realised it might be for a film. A short period of research later and I found that it was indeed for a film, her directorial debut, no less, and in it she would be playing... an MMA fighter - gadzooks! Suffice to say, being something of a fan of both Halle Berry and fighty films, I was rather looking forward to it.

Arcade Platform Games #6

Karnov (1987)
By: Data East Genre: Platform/Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Arcade First Day Score: 84,590 (one credit)
Also Available For: NES, PC, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum

The gaming world has seen a lot of unusual characters over the years and this is one that stands out, to me at least, as being an overlooked example. I mean, he's a human which certainly isn't unusual, but he has very specifically been made as hailing from one of the Soviet Union's Central Asian republics. Not only that but he's a fire-breathing, ex-circus strongman. He has even been given a full name - Jinborov Karnovski, or Karnov for short. I wonder what prompted Data East to conjure this fellow up. I'm not even totally sure he's a good guy either. He appears in several later Data East games as a villainous character, and your objective with him here is find pieces of a lost treasure map so he can plunder the resultant booty. Perhaps he's stealing the ancient heirlooms of a long proud and honourable civilisation? Oh well, whatever possibly-nefarious motivation the muscle-bound brute has, it's your job to guide him through nine side-scrolling stages, each brimming with innocent locals trying to resist the interloper.

Top Five Systems I'd Love To Collect For... But Won't

Whether you're someone who just has a casual interest in the games of yesteryear or you're a hardcore 'full set' collector, one thing has been increasingly clear for years now - it's an expensive hobby! I sold much of my collection around 12-14 years ago and, like so many that have done the same, now regret it. At least part of the reason for this is that pretty much everything I sold is now worth about four times as much! Accordingly, for anyone who doesn't A), earn a lot, and B), have an understanding partner, collecting retro stuff is not particularly realistic these days.

Sadly, I do not earn a lot and nor do I have an understanding partner, so collecting old games is not something I have really pursued for many years now, aside from the ultra-cheap Xbox games I bought a few years back. I do still have some parts of my old collection, and I do still get the odd Master System game, but that's about it for me. I have often thought about collecting for a specific system though, and was recently thinking about which I would most like to collect for if money and partners were no object. More or less in order, here's what I came up with: