Final Zone for Genesis

[louisg]

Hey, I've been on a WolfTeam kick lately, and was wondering if this game is any good. I enjoy Granada a lot, but I tried this on emulator and it was a little rougher. Has anyone here invested significant time into it? Does it pay off? Any interesting strategy maybe?

[Obiwanshinobi]

I hope the Sharp X68000 versions of Final Zone and Granada alike are superior (graphics and sound certainly are).
I found Granada to be rougher (just as bad performance, but much worse input lag).
That's it, I'm learning the ropes of the X68000 emulation. How come Final Zone games (even the 8-bit one looking like a complete disaster in motion) have so much more palatable vibe than most Japanese military pop-antics? You can tell those mercs are not some Gundam twats. Was it forbidden on consoles or what? I guess not, since Mercenary Force on the GB is like that as well.

[louisg]

I hope the Sharp X68000 versions of Final Zone and Granada alike are superior (graphics and sound certainly are).
I found Granada to be rougher (just as bad performance, but much worse input lag).

Yeah, Granada has bad slowdown and is generally choppy, but I don't know if it has bad input lag unrelated to the slowdown. It does take a second for your tank to turn, which is by design. Or maybe I didn't notice the input lag because everything was so slow in general Some of the artwork could have used a little more time, too.

It was a game though where, looking past these problems, I found it to be really worthwhile. What I was wondering is if maybe I'd have a similar experience with Genesis Final Zone. The thing that was really turning me off of Final Zone is that some of the enemies skip (tile to tile?) rather than move smoothly, which is pretty irritating.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The thing that was really turning me off of Final Zone is that some of the enemies skip (tile to tile?) rather than move smoothly, which is pretty irritating.

The X68000 version appears to have more "complete" animations.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Reporting back.
Both Final Zone and Granada indeed peform better on X68k. Especially Final Zone scrolls fast and smoothly, but I'd play it with a joystick rather than d-pad as you double-tap a direction to activate the rocket dash (doing so when you want to start dashing diagonally isn't terribly ergonomic with a pad). There's still remarkable input delay in both games, but it adds to the impression of handling heavy machines. Bumping into enemies to punch them reminds me of Ys. Final Zone is more gimmicky than Granada for sure, but so is Virtual-On.
The bottomline is, unlike Chelnov, those two games on MD/Genny seem like compromised ports.
Before I forget, the music is rad on X68k and you get to hear those fabulous X68k explosion sounds.

[louisg]

Reporting back.
Both Final Zone and Granada indeed peform better on X68k. Especially Final Zone scrolls fast and smoothly, but I'd play it with a joystick rather than d-pad as you double-tap a direction to activate the rocket dash (doing so when you want to start dashing diagonally isn't terribly ergonomic with a pad). There's still remarkable input delay in both games, but it adds to the impression of handling heavy machines. Bumping into enemies to punch them reminds me of Ys. Final Zone is more gimmicky than Granada for sure, but so is Virtual-On.
The bottomline is, unlike Chelnov, those two games on MD/Genny seem like compromised ports.
Before I forget, the music is rad on X68k and you get to hear those fabulous X68k explosion sounds.

Yeah, I got MESS up and running and was trying out the WolfTeam games. They're definitely better on the original system. BUT.. I also recently got an overclocked Genesis, and Granada is kind of awesome on it No slowdown.

Hmm, I think I'll skip Final Zone.