The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Thread (NEW)!!!

[stryc9]

If it's a design decision then I've never seen it before. Seems silly to me, but anyway.

I mean what is the point?

[BIL]

Been playing the hell out of six button Super Shinobi II all week. Shame this mode was buried, but what a great thing it was left intact - it's effectively a Black Label. The melee attacks have some really interesting properties that can't be properly exploited by default, like the crouching sword's huge horizontal reach, the standing sword's overhead-striking arc, and all melee attacks' ability to aggressively nullify projectiles (often while killing their senders). And with the finer point of this game being exhibition, manual melee/shuriken and instant guarding make an already super-stylish ninja sidescroller downright expressive. Favourite thing at the moment is tearing through the round 4 boss's weapons and armour with the katana, shredding all incoming missiles and grenades, making the spectacular end of level art finally reflect the in-game performance.

(forgot how I love the end of stage art for round 6. Grudge match! Shoooryuken!)

I did find a glitch in emulation - attempting to use magic during boss intros or transition phases (like round 6 or 7's "serious mode" powerups) will crash the game. Didn't have a chance to try it on hardware, but in any case, it's easy to avoid and more importantly magic is for wieners. ;3 STAB AND STOMP

Found a neat momentum cancel too, might be common knowledge but I'd not seen it in the speedruns I watch. Most probably know you can walljump straight up any sheer face, by doublejumping back on and repeating the maneuver. Noticed tonight that if you attack (melee or shuriken) after Musashi has sprung off the wall, it'll cancel all momentum and let you instantly nip back on. Much faster than waiting for the doublejump and gains way more height, you can reach the top of 6-2's vertical box climb in seconds this way.

[Captain]

watch out we've got a ninja here.

[BIL]

No not quite, I still need the Ninja Gaiden III and Ninja Spirit no-misses.

[Captain]

.












The ninjas, they're watching you.

[BIL]

I'll tell you a couple things that annoy the hell out of me™ though.

1) round 2-2 autoscroller. Every other AS (horsey, surfy, avalanche and ordnance elevatory) is brief and/or interesting enough, but the only thing keeping me sane during repeat runs of 2-2 is the fucking slamming BGM "NINJA SOUL" Shame as the opening and boss both rock.

2) Shin Shinobi Den (SS) makes lots of great additions to SSII's system, coming tantalisingly close to being The Super Shinobi III. It also introduces new problems and is goofy - not necessarily a bad thing, but the MD games' cyber/feudal cool massacre it. Ultimately settles at "pretty good, but where the fuck is my Super Shinobi III*." Taromaru is the closest thing to a Super Shinobi-calibre ninja sidescroller on STV, but that game is about killing stuff without touching it and is thus the total opposite of slashing, stabbing and stomping armies of bad stuff Joe Musashi-style.

*copy/paste in "Bare Knuckle" or "Golden Axe" above if desired, but wait, BK and GA really got screwed! I love the STV and hate it at the same time. :[ Have you seen what that P.O.S. FINAL FIGHT REVENGE (SS) goes for these days? >_< I'd almost get a copy just to cover it with a folding chair and hit it with a flying elbow off my roof!

[Pretas]

Final Fight Revenge was the last Saturn game ever released, so it was bound to command significant collectible value no matter what it was.

[BIL]

I know bro but it fucking blows that FF got an arcade sequel and it was that thing. They could've just ported over FF Tough: Not Stuck On SFC Edition. :[

[GSK]

Not a MD game, but, have you played Shinobi 3DS? It has a lot of problems, mostly as a consequence of being a launch-window game, but its best moments are as good as anything from the other Shinobi games.

The designers on that game later went indie and made Volgarr, incidentally. Play Volgarr.

RE: FF Revenge, I know Streetwise turned out the way it did thanks to corporate meddling and JP/US disconnect, but I have no idea how to explain Revenge.

[BIL]

Interesting, I didn't know the 3DS Shinobi and Volgarr were related. Definitely a bit more interested in the former now, I liked what I played of Volgarr.

Pretty sure FFR is just some kind of cosmic joke on the JP gaming hardcore, haha. What a sendoff for FF.

[BrianC]

From what I have played of Shinobi 3DS, I like it for the same reasons I like Volgarr so far. It plays homage to earlier games while still feeling like its own game and delivering a challenge that keeps you coming back.

FFR really puzzles me. Made in the US, but showed up mostly in Japan (never seen the arcade game in any of the arcades I went to). Speaking of Final Fight, I heard Final Fight CD has a sprite priority issue that supposedly effects gameplay?

[Captain]

stuff

LoL the only thing thats keeping me through stage 5 is this.

[BIL]

Stage 5 is awesome though. Once you know the layout and can tear through the factory in no time flat like a real MFN ninja, at least! SWEET PROTIP: divekick a bomb to blow it up instantly and safely, no more waiting!

I really like how the bigger stages like 4-2 and 5-2 are usually designed with lots of nooks and crannies off the main path that can be completely ignored if you're going for speed (and don't need the goodies therein). Goddamn autoscrollers, without so many of them this would be one of the fastest-paced sidescrolling action games ever.

[Captain]

I honestly hated stage 5 the most because it gets boring after a short time, but the music makes it so much better.

[Skykid]

Pretty sure FFR is just some kind of cosmic joke on the JP gaming hardcore, haha. What a sendoff for FF.

Well it was western developed but only released in Japan, so possibly.

Our very own Dragon 1952 had a hand in its direction (Mr David Siller), so perhaps we should ask him WTF he and Capcom USA were thinking.

[BIL]

Oh, I meant the collective worldwide fanbase of quality Japanese gaming. Atrocities like FFR and Legacy of War cross all boundaries!

I've an acquaintance who owns a nice copy of FFR plus RAM pack, incidentally. Looks absolutely hideous on a shelf next to Cyberbots and SFZ3.

[BrianC]

If you want a good Capcom RAM fighter, the Vampire will save you. Anyway, I'm really curious about the sprite priority thing in Final Fight CD I read about on the sega 16 forums.

[null1024]

I'll tell you a couple things that annoy the hell out of me™ though.

1) round 2-2 autoscroller. Every other AS (horsey, surfy, avalanche and ordnance elevatory) is brief and/or interesting enough, but the only thing keeping me sane during repeat runs of 2-2 is the fucking slamming BGM "NINJA SOUL" Shame as the opening and boss both rock.

Man, I kind of like the 2-2 autoscroller. Killing everything as it scrolls into range perfectly just feels so badass. I don't like the horse one (bores me to tears), the surfing one is cool.

[BIL]

I just wish the base had better security. The appeal of the game is Musashi's deluxe attack+movement suite and he feels so underutilised picking off a guard at a time. Could've gone for some electric fences/other hazards to work around, sort of a foreshadowing for the magnificent 7-2.

Horsey is boring for sure, though brief and aesthetically lovely (rice fields + stormy skies parallax mania! ninjas on kites! instant boss kill!). I have to fight the impulse to do something dumb like get four ninjas onscreen and risk losing my POW (contant risk of powerdown + insatiable urge to move and kill at maximum RPM = good pressure even here). Surfey I actually find pretty tense with the penultimate longjump spawning a minelayer at its apex, it's easy enough to whack him but there isn't much time between that and a mine to the grill.

[BrianC]

What is the genie from Aladdin doing in Final Fight Revenge?

[Ed Oscuro]

The Shinobi II water stage is awesome - but I enjoy it even more having played through the early version (not an official release, either a alpha or beta, probably some review copy) floating around out there with Revenge of the Jedi Scout Speeders cruising about. Looks pretty cool actually. Gotta love early Sega's fearlessness in the face of intellectual property suits, especially from companies they'd already done games for (kind of like Konami and the Aliens license). With most companies (even Konami, to some degree) it seems like sheer laziness, but with Sega it's obviously homage.

[null1024]

I just wish the base had better security. The appeal of the game is Musashi's deluxe attack+movement suite and he feels so underutilised picking off a guard at a time. Could've gone for some electric fences/other hazards to work around, sort of a foreshadowing for the magnificent 7-2.

Horsey is boring for sure, though brief and aesthetically lovely (rice fields + stormy skies parallax mania! ninjas on kites! instant boss kill!). I have to fight the impulse to do something dumb like get four ninjas onscreen and risk losing my POW (contant risk of powerdown + insatiable urge to move and kill at maximum RPM = good pressure even here). Surfey I actually find pretty tense with the penultimate longjump spawning a minelayer at its apex, it's easy enough to whack him but there isn't much time between that and a mine to the grill.

Yeah. If the elevator was later in the game, it could have been really really cool with loads of baddies coming in and shit to avoid. At stage 2, I wouldn't expect any of that yet.

The horse sequence is super-pretty, yeah. That mega deep parallax. I adore when Genesis games do cool shit like that.
Surfing part is fun because you have to pay more attention, being later in the game.

[BIL]

Yeah. If the elevator was later in the game, it could have been really really cool with loads of baddies coming in and shit to avoid.

Incidentally, Shin Shinobi Den's fifth stage has an autoscrolling cargo elevator melee - it's really fun even with its less viscerally satisfying collision and trading of superhuman hand-drawn Joe for goofy-ass tokusatsu Sho. Why deliver a spine-shattering divekick when you can bounce around on your katana like Scrooge McDuck in his FC prime? Especially with fearsome opposition like this and this! OTOH, Sho sho do nail the classic "pause -> agonising bisected collapse" katana kills.

Would've been goddamn Nirvana with SSII's engine and style. Actually, this statement applies to the majority of SSD.

[IrishNinja]

The Shinobi II water stage is awesome - but I enjoy it even more having played through the early version (not an official release, either a alpha or beta, probably some review copy) floating around out there with Revenge of the Jedi Scout Speeders cruising about. Looks pretty cool actually. Gotta love early Sega's fearlessness in the face of intellectual property suits, especially from companies they'd already done games for (kind of like Konami and the Aliens license). With most companies (even Konami, to some degree) it seems like sheer laziness, but with Sega it's obviously homage.

whoah, is there any pics/video of this?

[Phellan Wolf]

Is it any good Raiden Trad??? Haven't tried and since I friend of mine got it recently I just wanna play it.
By the way, he got FFR too, dude what a waste of money

[BPzeBanshee]

It's not too bad actually. My favourite ported version of Raiden short of emulating it (or the FMTowns version with the awesome redbook music). 1P only though IIRC.

Titan Overdrive got a 1.1 update btw. Cube render part works better, epileptic moment added and runs in all regions 50/60hz.

[greg]

Has anyone played Psi-O-Blade for the Japanese Megadrive? I've seen it at stores and looked at some videos. It looks interesting.

[Limbrooke]

The Shinobi II water stage is awesome - but I enjoy it even more having played through the early version (not an official release, either a alpha or beta, probably some review copy) floating around out there with Revenge of the Jedi Scout Speeders cruising about. Looks pretty cool actually. Gotta love early Sega's fearlessness in the face of intellectual property suits, especially from companies they'd already done games for (kind of like Konami and the Aliens license). With most companies (even Konami, to some degree) it seems like sheer laziness, but with Sega it's obviously homage.

whoah, is there any pics/video of this?

Plenty of information about it is compiled here: http://rq87.flyingomelette.com/RQ/SS/S3/F/P/4.html
Main page: http://rq87.flyingomelette.com/RQ/SS/S3/F/main.html

[BPzeBanshee]

I get so confused about the Shinobi games. Which one is the first? I thought Revenge of Shinobi was first, Shinobi III is the third and I'm missing one somewhere but the prototype there suggests otherwise.

[BrianC]

I get so confused about the Shinobi games. Which one is the first? I thought Revenge of Shinobi was first, Shinobi III is the third and I'm missing one somewhere but the prototype there suggests otherwise.

You mean just for the Genesis? Revenge of Shinobi/Super Shinobi was the first, Shadow Dancer was the second, and Shinobi III/Super Shinobi II was the third. Shadow Dancer plays more like the original arcade Shinobi, so that's probably why it wasn't a Super Shinobi in Japan.