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Outrun (Sega Mega Drive)
by SWSt Although I like a wide range of computer games, it has to be said that racing games have always been my favourite. Whatever computer or console I've owned racing games have always made up a large part of my collection. The thrilling speed and sheer fun of blasting past an opponent (particularly in two player mode) just can't be ... beaten. Outrun is one of the games that started my obsession. Whilst there were some great earlier examples (most notably Pitstop 2 from Epyx), it was Outrun - with its brilliant sense of speed and fun gameplay - that really raised the bar for the genre. I can remember eagerly awaiting the Commodore 64 conversion of the game... and the crushing sense of disappointment when I loaded it up on Christmas Day morning. It looked horrible, played horrible and was about as fast as a centipede that had lost all its legs in a freak boating accident. Thankfully, not all conversions were this poor and the MegaDrive version was a massive improvement the C64 effort, although sadly, it still suffered from a number of problems in crucial areas. The idea behind Outrun was very simple. Set on the open road (rather than a track) you must race along in your famous red Ferrari, avoiding other vehicles and getting to the next checkpoint before the time runs out. Graphically, Outrun is pretty impressive, doing a good job (on the limited hardware of the day) of trying to replicate the look and feel of the arcade machine. The game perspective is taken from just behind and above your Ferrari (which gives a good view of the road ahead) and your car is well detailed and looks good. There's a real sense of speed (particularly when compared to the sluggish C64 version) and some reasonable graphics scaling on the oncoming traffic and other obstacles, so that they gradually grow larger as you get closer to them. Sound, too, is very good. Music was a key feature of the arcade machine, with the ability to choose your own in-game music via your car's "radio" (Magical Sound Shower for me, every time!). Music in this conversion has been well-replicated and I defy anyone to play without at some point whistling or singing along to the tune! Sound effects are obviously not as beefy as their arcade counterpart, but they are effective enough. In particular, there's a nice throaty roar from the engine of your Ferrari and whilst other effects might be quite limited, they do their job. Controls are reasonably well implemented. Whilst they obviously can't replace one of the big attractions of the arcade original (the sit down cockpit with steering wheel and pedals), they are at least well implemented and nice and responsive. Your car can sometimes feel just a little bit twitchy and you will spend a few games getting used to how long you need to keep buttons pressed, but once you've mastered it everything feels pretty natural. The lack of a steering wheel is a big miss, but consoles just weren't equipped with that sort of peripheral (at least not in most homes) back in the 80s. It's when we come to other aspects of the game that things start to unravel a little. Ripping around the roads of America is still a huge amount of fun and roaring past other cars gives you a rather smug feeling. Unfortunately the difficulty level has been toned down massively from its arcade counterpart. The wide roads, generous curves and relative paucity of traffic mean that the game has suddenly become much simpler to complete. The original game was frustratingly tough at times (it was, after all, designed to encourage you to keep feeding coins into it) and you really had to practice to get good at it. The MegaDrive conversion goes too far the other way. Although I'm a veteran gamer, in terms of skill level I'd only class myself as a competent at best. Despite this I can complete the game in Easy Mode without breaking a sweat; even Hard Mode doesn't challenge me much more. I'd like to pretend this is because I'm brilliant, but the reality is that whilst it's fun to be able to finish a game for once, it doesn't offer much long term challenge. MegaDrive Outrun does at least contain the feature that was so revolutionary at the time: a limited ability to choose your route. Every so often, you come across a fork in the road and have to decide whether to go left (easier) or right (harder). This adds some degree of replayability, since you can go back and replay it using different routes. Even then, though, it's not going to add much to the longevity of the game nor does it add anything new to the gameplay. Outrun MegaDrive will set you back less than £10, so it's not going to break the bank and at that price it's worth considering. It's the sort of game that's fun to fire up every so often and even though it's a bit easy it provides a welcome blast of simple nostalgia as an antidote to some of today's overblown titles. Outrun MegaDrive might not be completely faithful to its arcade big brother, but on the limited hardware available it's a good effort. (c) Copyright SWSt 2012 Read the complete review |
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Roadblasters (Sega Megadrive / Genesis)
by SWSt Back in the 80s/90s, there were three arcade games I hunted down and played whenever I could: Star Wars, Outrun and Road Blasters. All three received conversions of varying quality for the home computers and consoles of the time, but the Sega Mega Drive conversion of Road Blasters has to rank as one of the best. The concept ... behind Road Blasters is not exactly challenging. It was designed as an arcade game, meaning it had to be instantly accessible for newcomers, but challenging enough to hold the attention of experienced gamers. Set in a futuristic world, you have to take part in a series of races, where the object is not to finish first, but just to finish. Battling against a limited fuel supply, you must get to the finish line before your fuel tank runs dry. Of course, other drivers will look to impede your progress and crashing into them will see your car explode in a ball of fire. Thankfully, they can be blasted out of the way using your car's on-board guns. It's a simple equation Cars + Guns = Great Game. There's no doubt that one of the reasons why this conversion works so well is because the gameplay mechanics are so perfectly balanced. The game might not feature any particularly revolutionary ideas, but they are implemented to create a game that balances that fine line between risk and reward. Accurate shooting, for example, is rewarded by increasing your score multiplier by one (essential to get those really high scores). However, the flip side of that is that if you fire and miss, you score multiplier is decreased by one. So you can't just take a gung-ho approach and keep your finger permanently on the fire button, but have to try and shoot as accurately as possible. The same is true of the additional weaponry that can be collected: you have to earn it; it's not simply given to you automatically. Every so often, a jet will fly overhead carrying a new weapon. After a few seconds, it will release this and you need to position your car underneath it to catch it - fail to do so and there's no weapons upgrade for you. Once again, this adds an extra element as you have to balance your desire to upgrade your weapon against the need not to crash into something. As if you didn't have enough to worry about, fuel management is also a concern. Running out of fuel causes your car to stop and you lose a life (you start with 5). Fuel can be topped up along the way by driving over the green fuel pods (avoid the red ones; these deplete your supplies still further). On early levels, you seem to have plenty of fuel, but it's not long before fuel collection becomes an essential part of the game if you're to stand a chance of finishing. Again, this adds a strong element of risk and reward. Do you make an extra effort to collect that pod, but understand that you might crash or do you drive more conservatively but risk running out of time? All these elements come together perfectly to produce a game which is far deeper and more strategic than at first appears. This is far from being a simple driving/shooting game and you need to balance so many different elements that it becomes a real challenge. Sure, there's not much variety and it can become repetitive after a while, but it's still a lot of fun. Make no mistake about it; Road Blasters is one seriously tough game. It was essentially designed to hoover up 50 pence pieces in the arcade and as such was designed for short, intense games. This Mega Drive version is not quite as difficult as its arcade counterpart, but the difficulty level is still high and if you want to see the later levels, you are going to have to put in some serious practice. Not that you'll mind because the game is so well structured that Road Blasters is tremendous fun. Yes, it's very tricky (many is the time I have lost all my lives on a single level due to poor fuel management), but at least you feel like you've earned every scrap of progress. This is not a game that rewards you with an "Achievement" just because you've managed to turn your console on. Complementing the superbly balanced gameplay are the excellent graphics. Sure, they might look a little dated and dull now, but in the context of the late 80s, they were pretty impressive. Your car is large and well animated and there's some nice scaling on opposition cars (so that they get bigger as you drive towards them). The various hazards (mines, roadside gun emplacements) are pretty simple, but look effective and add to the sense of danger. What really impresses, though, is the sheer speed. Too many conversions of arcade racers were horribly slow (the Commodore 64 conversion of Outrun was particularly dire) which destroyed any element of fun. This Megadrive version really has an impressive turn of speed which seriously adds to the excitement. The level of detail (particularly on the scenery) might have been scaled down from its arcade counterpart, but this is a trade-off to ensure the game can run at a decent speed; and it's a worthwhile sacrifice. Scenery whizzes past and there is a blistering sense of speed (probably the most impressive I have seen on an 8 bit computer outside the C64 conversion of Turbo Outrun). It really is an exhilarating and exciting game to play. Sound effects are slightly less impressive. There's a cracking in-game tune that really gets the adrenalin pumping. Again, it's probably one of the best of its kind and really captures the spirit of the game perfectly. Sound effects are not quite so good. The roar of your car engine is pretty good, but the missiles and explosions all sound a little weedy. Sound is probably the major area that lets this conversion down. The arcade version of Road Blasters was a noisy affair and the limited hardware of the day just couldn't replicate this. Controls are also pretty straightforward. The usual directional buttons are used to control steering, with acceleration handled automatically. The only other thing you need to worry about is using the fire button to shoot. As befits its arcade origins, Road Blasters is deliberately kept simple so that anyone can just sit down and play instantly, without needing to work out and remember a series of complex controls. Controls do initially feel a little bit twitchy and you'll find yourself slaloming all over the road (and off it!) Within a short space of time, though, you'll have mastered them and know exactly how long to hold a button down in order to safely negotiate a corner or weave your way between a couple of enemy cars. Road Blasters is the perfect example of taking a number of different ideas and blending them together in a single game. Everything is perfectly balanced to create a title which is instantly fun, highly addictive and has tons of long term challenge. This was one of my favourite arcade games of the 1980s and the Mega Drive received one of the best conversions. It's credit to the quality of both the game and this conversion that I'm still playing it over 20 years later. (c) Copyright SWSt 2012 Read the complete review |
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Streets of Rage 2 (Sega Megadrive)
by Graham1984 Early inthe 90's the streets of rage trilogy kicked off with streets of rage then followed that up swiftly with streets of rage 2 (known as bare knuckle 2 in japan) The game consists of four availible players two of which were new from the first game Max thunder a wrestler and Eddie "skate" hunter (sammy in japan) which is the ... brother of adam a cop from the first game. These two newbies team up with the two other originals Axel and Blaze. The games itself is your typical left to right sega game that pits you agains loads of street thugs fat baseball players the odd flying maniac and a few kung fu experts and the odd annoying women with an electric whip and filling them in sums up the basics of the game. Its amusing that many of the people you fight have the same name as each other they look the same and dress the same and there is roughly only 15 opponants (if that) that vary. The people you fight have a health bar in this game unlike the first where that was reserved just for the first and its weapons have changed slightly such as no more baseball bat and now each character has its own "sepcial" move as opposed to the police car from the first. The typical funky soundtrack is there while you walk about breaking heads and its nice to see women get equal rights to a arse kicking too as they are some of the more annoying opponents with their hig heel jumping kicks. Round 1: Downtown Round 2: Bridge Under Construction Round 3: Amusement Park Round 4: Baseball Stadium Round 5: The Ship Round 6: Mr. X's Private Island Round 7: Munitions Plant Round 8: Syndicate Stronghold These are the eight rounds you work your way through to get to fight Mr x at the end where the only ending is the good one where you save adam and escape the island you are on. I find it amusing how now every game is scrutinised for age restrictions but here we have a prime example of a game that was sold to young kids where the object is to beat up everyone even women with knifes and poles and no one cared. Overall i think this was a good upgrade from the first and in some respect better than the 3rd in the trilogy. I even remember that there is a extra life in the bottom left corner of the first level and same again when you exit the truck later on.............. I played this game nearly 20yrs ago.... how sad is that. I have used this review in the xbox section as I have the game currently on the megadrive collection although it is still exactly the same as when I owned this on the megadrive in the early 90's Read the complete review |
Sega Classic Games |
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1 review Manufacturer: Sega / Type: Classic Games |
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1 review Manufacturer: Sega / Type: Classic Games |
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3 reviews Manufacturer: Sega / Classic Games / Genre: Beat-em-up |
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1 review Genre: Adventures & Role-Playing / Classic Games / Manufacturer: Sega |
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1 review Publisher: Sega / Classic Games / Type: Driving |
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Sega / Classic Games / 2D shapeshifting sega platformer. |
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2 reviews Manufacturer: Sega / Classic Games / Genre: Arcade |
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2 reviews Manufacturer: Sega / Classic Games / Genre: Childrens / Release Date: 1991 |
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2 reviews Amiga Games / Classic Games / Manufacturer: Sega / Genre: Children |
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5 reviews Altered Beast is a platform / Classic Games /fighting game that puts the player in control of a centurion who had died in battle. The centurion has been raised from the dead to rescue Zeus' daughter, Athena. The player battles undead and demonic hordes, controlling the shapeshifting hero. He must defeat se... |
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