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

[BIL]

Got the first clear on Shadow Dancer tier III. Last boss was a lot less hellish than I'd recalled, but that's the perspective of a kid vs an adult for you. I was surprised when I noticed you can hide from his flames under the pedestals. I also for some reason remembered his head swooping about the room, must be thinking of something else.

Excellent final boss though, very tense with the emphasis on clearing out those black katanas before they can either overwhelm you or the fire rain hits and you get trapped. I like how magic gets shut down after doing 1HP damage unlike the previous four, as well. Didn't like how the final stage is a box factory but the level design is top-notch and I suppose Hayate sneaking in via big baddie castle's service entrance is authentic ninja protocol.

Nice to see the AC Shinobi and Shadow Dancer teams credited in the staff roll. Really glad I picked up this cart, it's an excellent consolised arcade game. I do wish you could just fail out of the bonus rounds like the first two games, though.

[Ruldra]

I do wish you could just fail out of the bonus rounds like the first two games, though.

Well, one way of making the bonus stage more interesting is to not hug the wall for the easy perfect. Trying to shoot all enemies the normal way is much more difficult. If you get the 3UP this way, then you definitely earned it.

[BIL]

True.

[Captain]

I do wish you could just fail out of the bonus rounds like the first two games, though.

Well, one way of making the bonus stage more interesting is to not hug the wall for the easy perfect. Trying to shoot all enemies the normal way is much more difficult. If you get the 3UP this way, then you definitely earned it.

I always did this. Using safespots of any kind outside of Gradius or R-type is sinning.

[BIL]

Scrub talk, mon Capitan! (・｀W´・) Anything goes on the merciless field of battle.











It's ultimately not the presence or lack of challenge in the BRs that bothers me. Inverse Galaga just gets in the way of my technical ninja sidescrolling and the theoretical perfect run of no miss + no bomb + no shuriken. FN sweet choon though

edit: oh, cool. As I'd hoped, you can throw shuriken without losing the Shinobi bonus. You just can't hit enemies with them. Otherwise, charging Yamato during a no-shuriken attempt would be a real PITA. I was wondering if you'd be limited to hitting B while plane-switching or during melee attack animations.

[trap15]

So, while I was away, I cleared Midnight Resistance on Very Hard Really fun game, but I think V.Hard has some serious issues with stupid design. The Super Charger doubles (if not more) the damage of the Flamethrower, and you lose it on death and can't get it again until the end of stage. So if you lose the Super Charger in a bad spot, you're basically screwed and have no chance to actually beat the stage.

Fun game though. I'm working on a Crude Buster clear now, I think I'm pretty close actually. Just one or two bosses I have trouble with.

I also got Saint Sword and Shiten Myouou, which both have... uhh... serious issues. Not sure which I dislike more

[Captain]

Are you a cool enough dude to play Crude Buster?

Are you a crude enough buster to play..oh whatever

[trap15]

Aha, of course I actually get the clear the day I say that

Amazing game, I do recommend it. Definitely think it's the better game between it and Midnight Resistance, at least balance-wise. I think Midnight Resistance might have better music and style though.


RIGHT ON!

[BIL]

I really need to put more time on Midnight Resistance and Crude Buster, and Chelnov as well - I consider them an unofficial DECO on MD trilogy, some of my favourite arcade gaming on the system.

MR is the least polished of the three but that immense Sakimoto-arranged BGM really electrifies the whole production. I always play until at least the fighter squadron boss, the burning sunset and that pounding soundtrack (and the whole "lone wolf hero shooting down fighter planes") is pure weapons-grade 80s macho. I dunno what to call CB's dog-bodyslamming, telephone-pole uprooting lunacy but it's pretty much the same deal. Good ol' DECO times.



;-;7

[trap15]

Glad I'm not the only person to appreciate DECO! I do heartily recommend playing through Crude Buster, it's a pretty fun romp and the boss designs are batshit crazy awesome. Midnight Resistance isn't all that worth it for the game itself, I think it's more about the experience and all the set-pieces and stuff like that. More a work of art than a game, if you will.

I really need to put more time on Midnight Resistance and Crude Buster, and Chelnov as well - I consider them an unofficial DECO on MD trilogy, some of my favourite arcade gaming on the system.

I was actually considering picking up Chelnov next time I go to the game store Good to hear it's worth playing.

I always play until at least the fighter squadron boss, the burning sunset and that pounding soundtrack (and the whole "lone wolf hero shooting down fighter planes") is pure weapons-grade 80s macho.

When I got to the top of that ladder for the first time... Oh man. Such a great scene. It's still fucking awesome every time I get there, but I won't forget how mind-blowing that was the first time I saw it -- in 2014! A true classic

[Captain]

I always play until at least the fighter squadron boss, the burning sunset and that pounding soundtrack (and the whole "lone wolf hero shooting down fighter planes") is pure weapons-grade 80s macho.

If i remember correctly it has the 2nd best music in the game, I would always just savestate before the plane fight and do it TWICE because its that awesome.

EDIT:

Wazdat?

[Ed Oscuro]

I really need to put more time on Midnight Resistance and Crude Buster, and Chelnov as well - I consider them an unofficial DECO on MD trilogy, some of my favourite arcade gaming on the system.

I was actually considering picking up Chelnov next time I go to the game store Good to hear it's worth playing.

I'd save some money and just go with the US version. It's not exactly a classic cover, but it's no worse than the minimalistic Japanese one (which has kind of attempted a "golden age comics" look but doesn't really pull it off due to mostly being a blank blue cover).

The game itself, of course, is a must-have IMO.

[BIL]

Wazdat?

How 2 Safespot Holy Diver's second boss, the deceptively dangerous WAR-CORE.

[Captain]

Thanks for the game name!

[trap15]

I went and did it.


↓

[BIL]

WELCOME TO THE BIG LEAGUES SON

(it's just not the same game without that eyebrow-raisingly DECOriffic title! Now that Ronnie is safe and sound, nuclear disasterman awayyy!)

[Obiwanshinobi]

Chelnov's worth playing with the arcade-style controls (one button for fire, one for jump and one for switching directions) AND auto-fire. Saturn port (leaked) not having the latest made me sad (little reason to play it on Saturn, other than proper 240p if you're into that, but still a shame). Last but not least, even if you consider it a better game on MD, the arcade soundtrack prevails all the same.

[Strider77]

For the record I love this thread. I love my mega drive and this is actually one of the more enthusiastic and positive threads. No real page long bitching and actually offers cool unknown info on games and bringing some games to my attention.

[BrianC]

I need to pick up Data East games on Genesis. Minnesota Fats and Atomic Runner are the only ones I have.

[Ed Oscuro]

Chelnov's worth playing with the arcade-style controls (one button for fire, one for jump and one for switching directions) AND auto-fire.

I recall having a discussion (or argument) about this one before, but the mode which turns and fires in a direction is best, really, since there's no need to look at Chelnov to see where you're going to fire. The modes that require pressing a button to turn (or, worse, pressing a button and then a direction) mean you have to know where he's facing - a minor distraction, but still a distraction.

I guess I can take back what I said about the Japanese MD cover's art...that actually doesn't look so bad. Mimimalistic, but not bad. Of course it's just a colored version of the Japanese arcade operator's manual (maybe the flyer art, not sure). The X68000 cover is much the same (though with more text around the edges).

[trap15]

The MD cover is just the arcade flyer without the glorious レッツ ランニング bit, I think. I really like it, personally.

And I agree with Ed on the controls... I really can't deal with the "swap direction" button, having separate left/right shoot just flows a lot better. Of course A=Left,B=Jump,C=Right. Works pretty good.

I can consistently get to stage 4 now, sometimes making it to stage 5. Stage 5 is brutal though! I guess that's where the real game begins

[Phellan Wolf]

I wanted to know if there are any differences between Alien Soldier Pal and Japanese version apart the logo 68000 to the limit. just like there were in Dynamite Headdy and a lot more Treasure games

[BrianC]

I wanted to know if there are any differences between Alien Soldier Pal and Japanese version apart the logo 68000 to the limit. just like there were in Dynamite Headdy and a lot more Treasure games

PAL version seems to be optimized for EU (not 100% sure on this), but I think it's pretty much the same otherwise.

[Xyga]

I wanted to know if there are any differences between Alien Soldier Pal and Japanese version apart the logo 68000 to the limit. just like there were in Dynamite Headdy and a lot more Treasure games

PAL version seems to be optimized for EU (not 100% sure on this), but I think it's pretty much the same otherwise.

Yeah optimized for PAL 50Hz, meaning (iirc) the game will run faster than the intended speed if you play it on a 60Hz system (e.g modded PAL console).

[BrianC]

I was watching a video of Midnight Resistance and it looks almost like a side scrolling Heavy Barrel.

[stryc9]

I never saw Heavy Barrel BITD, but playing Midnight Resistance with the dial in the arcade was awesome, and two players simultaneous to boot. I remember being very impressed by the circular saws that attack you in the treetops on stage 2, and the showdown with the jet fighters against that awesome sunset, the weapons and sampled speech.

Being a moderately regular player of the arcade for a while there I was a bit disappointed in the MD version when I got it, the character running animation seemed weaker, the graphics smaller and that speech from the weapon rooms was gone. It's no perfect port as previous posters have pointed out, but in the end it's a good approximation which is of course elevated somewhat by a classic soundtrack that destroys the arcade version.

On that subject, I'm surprised at exactly how many MD ports have music that eclipse their arcade source material. Just off the top of my head - Darwin 4081, Dangerous Seed, Chelnov, Zero Wing and Snow Bros - To me all sound vastly superior.

And yet the machine gets a bad rap for having 'poor' sound. Go figure.

[BIL]

Gawd, Midnight Resistance's MD soundtrack with AC speech would be amazing.

PICK A WEAPON

Booming, cheesy speech was a huge part of DECO arcade games' charm. Crude Buster MD is unfortunately missing lots of quips too. It's a shame there weren't more ports in the PS/SS days besides Wolf Fang/Rohga ("AWWRIGHT!"). Thunder Zone has some of the best action game taunts and one-liners ever. "SAYANORA, PAL."

[trap15]

Crude Buster MD is unfortunately missing lots of quips too.

~WHAT A DAY~

Thunder Zone has some of the best action game taunts and one-liners ever. "SAYANORA, PAL."

Absolutely. I'm burning!

[stryc9]

Crude Buster's got sick music too, I crank that shit through the stereo loud. That hasn't helped me clear it yet, though

[Phellan Wolf]

Anyone would recommend sunsetriders ?? I know it is missing a lot of levels and only 2 characters can be selected but dunno I lo e the arcade game and if it retains the feelling of the original.