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

[null1024]

Yeah, I'd play SH2 a lot more if it moved as smoothly as Burning Force.
Burning Force's air control always seemed fine to me, because I think of movement differently while playing it, it's not like flying a plane. I can't play After Burner II without inverted control, but I sure as hell couldn't play Burning Force or Space Harrier with it.

and the ground effect in BF is still really impressive, I haven't seen anything as cool on the MD, except maybe in Panorama Cotton

[greg]

Yeah, I'd play SH2 a lot more if it moved as smoothly as Burning Force.
Burning Force's air control always seemed fine to me, because I think of movement differently while playing it, it's not like flying a plane. I can't play After Burner II without inverted control, but I sure as hell couldn't play Burning Force or Space Harrier with it.

Actually, I played it a bit more last night before dinner. I got the hang of it now. Playing Space Harrier II non-inverted is easy for me, and it's the default. Maybe just because it's a ship, it made it different for me. I recently played the first Space Harrier in the arcade (Mikado in Takadanobaba, FTW!), and the arcade control was inverted.

[stryc9]

Burning Force would seem to have the smoothest scaling ground scaling on the MD, that and Street Racer IMO. Panarama Cotton has some great scaling effects as well but overstretches itself with more enemies than the engine can seemingly handle at a smooth frame rate.

Since I'm on a bit of a Taito kick at the moment I imported the Genesis Cadash, the only region version of the game to exist, to play on my NTSCJ console. It's a tough game, and despite dropping two of the characters from the arcade, retains the two player mode - which looks like it would be really fun and useful in terms of actually beating it. I love these sort of games with heavy enemy respawning. Rastan has it, Saint Sword has it and Cadash definitely has it. Graphics are pleasant, if unremarkable through RGB and the soundtrack is pretty atmospheric too. I like the track that plays in the tree stage.

Quite underrated game. No idea why Taito didn't publish this one in Japan, you'd think it would have gone down quite well in that region given the premise. We missed all of the Taito games in PAL region for some reason.

[BIL]

God I love Snow Bros.



So addictive and cute, and diabolically tricky. Model pick up and play arcade game. Tengen's latter-day MD publishing was amazing.

[stryc9]

^ Snow bros is good, and gets tricky later on with the enemies that can suddenly shoot their fireballs downwards, and the game doesn't give you a huge amount of time before Death comes out. I think it shines brighter in 2p mode personally. It's no Bubble Bobble though

Of all those cutesy arcade type games I think Rainbow Islands is still the best, easily. Despite the flicker, which is far from run-destroying. As far as Tengens late offerings go, they were fantastic, only let down by VV which was disappointing to see in terms of graphics and sound.

[BIL]

2P is amazing - actually got a few friends who normally only want to co-op stuff like Contra into it (I should break out Saturn Bubble Symphony sometime...). The rolling mechanic really lends itself to having a player covering either side of the screen.

What I most like about SB compared to the Taito masterpieces it's modeled on is the way you can exploit the balls (bahaha!) to both zip around the screen far quicker than on foot, as well as gain a burst of invincibility by jumping out before you hit a wall. I love it when strict games allow you to play with fire this way, similar to Slap Fight's invincibility flash after bolting on a new part. You can exploit it to get right up in monsters' faces for super aggressive combos - inevitably I end up pushing my luck and getting killed. The combo mechanic itself is hugely gratifying, I love seeing those goofy critters flying all over the place after a good one. We were cracking up at that game over screen with the ones on the left making the international wanker sign and those on the right maniacally humping air... it's cute for sure but where BB, RI and Parasol Stars are warm and fuzzy SB is kinda bent. "SUSHI" (speaking of, game also makes me hungry as fuck)

The other new MD game I put some time on this weekend was Dahna: Megami Tanjou. Posted about it here - suffice to say, it's only a middling action game at best, but still quite a charming experience. I was seriously considering selling it on after finishing it, but it's such an original production I think I'll keep it around. Feels like a playable Harryhausen mini-movie every time.

[stryc9]

I hope these are real. They look legit at any rate.

[railslave]

Of all those cutesy arcade type games I think Rainbow Islands is still the best, easily. Despite the flicker, which is far from run-destroying.

I never got what all the fuss was with that game, tried over the years to go back to it, but i just dont see all that rainbow "pasteing" action as fun or solid as the bubbles in the prequel.

[railslave]

I hope these are real. They look legit at any rate.

Id say that with enemies called C.Bike

[Skykid]

I hope these are real. They look legit at any rate.

Id say that with enemies called C.Bike

What is this?

[stryc9]

The new beat 'em up by Watermelon, Project Y. I posted these from their website Magical Game Factory.

[railslave]

The new beat 'em up by Watermelon, Project Y. I posted these from their website Magical Game Factory.

I suspected that , although i thought Project Y was going to be some overgrown nuclear wasteland sort of affair ?

[Ed Oscuro]

http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/fa ... oject-y_2/
"Their first poll result was to make a game for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Then came the decision to make the game a RPB (Beat 'em all, with elements of an RPG). The final big turn for the project was the setting, which the investors decided should be cyberpunk."

[railslave]

http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/fa ... oject-y_2/
"Their first poll result was to make a game for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Then came the decision to make the game a RPB (Beat 'em all, with elements of an RPG). The final big turn for the project was the setting, which the investors decided should be cyberpunk."

Exciting considering the size of the carts as well.. + the mode 7 stuff they were able to pull of with Pier solar.

It certainly looks up to SOR2 quality

You have to wonder when the Snes fans will start fighting back.

[stryc9]

If that's the actual in-game art, then the delays allegedly caused by the lack of suitable pixel-artists might have been worth it.

I'm hoping the sound side of things gets a similar treatment Looking forward to some moving video.

[BIL]

Is the MD version of Rainbow Islands Extra worth getting if you have access to the arcade version, a la New Zealand Story MD (has entirely new stages)? I was thinking of picking it up, but I notice the AC version is on one of my Japanese Taito Memories PS2 discs.

[BrianC]

Rainbow Islands Extra doesn't change the layouts like New Zealand Story, so it's probably not worth playing over the arcade. However, it's a pretty good port and has the original music intact (which may not be the case with Taito Memories).

I watched a video of the Genesis Double Dragon and it looks a bit disappointing. All of the enemies seem to have simple AI where they mindlessly follow you around, even up ladders. The music seems to have been done with the GENS engine and sounds pretty bad, as well.

[BIL]

Oh yeah, I did hear about the PS2 version having some music deleted. Bloodreign has a video about it on Youtube, iirc. I really like some of Taito's MD ports - Darius II, Space Invaders 90 and TNZS are all first-rate. Sharply responsive and uncompromisingly arcadey. OTOH Thunder Fox's MD port really sucks, losing the AC's fluidity and speed to become a generic walk and stab. I've been meaning to check out the rest of their MD library to see how it fared.

Both DD1 and DD2 are pretty bad on Genesis, yeah. Different developers, but both feel shoddy as hell and nowhere near what they might've been. Shame M2 didn't get to do one of those. I've been playing their Gauntlet all week and it's incredible how much care and effort they put into it, both as an arcade port of an older game, and an original console project. It even has selectable full English language. A deluxe package right down to the manual, as usual with them.

[BrianC]

Cool. I need to pick those up. I noticed, like the NES and SMS versions, the MD port of Rainbow Islands lacks the hovering stars (though you can still find hidden ones). Doesn't seem to have a negative effect, but it's just something odd about the port.

[railslave]

Cool. I need to pick those up. I noticed, like the NES and SMS versions, the MD port of Rainbow Islands lacks the hovering stars (though you can still find hidden ones). Doesn't seem to have a negative effect, but it's just something odd about the port.

Thats a point , get a power base converter. Underrated system, the SMS.

[stryc9]

Rainbow Islands Extra: Great game for having included both versions on cart (and has the original music). My guess is the Taito Memories version would be affected as well in terms of the main tune being tampered with, like Taito Legends was, so it may be worth picking up on account of that alone (and the phat manual and box of course).

[Wyrmnus]

I immediately think of my all time favorite Sega Genesis game; RISTAR!

[BrianC]

Thats a point , get a power base converter. Underrated system, the SMS.

I definitely agree the PBC is worth getting, but not for Rainbow Islands. The SMS version of Rainbow Islands seems to be a direct port of the US NES/FC version (complete with altered music) and doesn't seem to offer any advantages over the Genesis or FC version. SMS does have a sweet version of Bubble Bobble, though (EU, but plays fine on US systems).

[evil_ash_xero]

I immediately think of my all time favorite Sega Genesis game; RISTAR!

He's very angry in the U.S. version. Perhaps because he didn't get much promotion.

But yeah, it's an awesome game. I hate that one part where you have to remember where these little guys stick their heads out of pipes/holes, and you have hit them in the order they appeared. HATE IT. I always have to pause, and mark it down in a note pad. Really interrupts the flow of the game for me.

[BrianC]

I immediately think of my all time favorite Sega Genesis game; RISTAR!

He's very angry in the U.S. version. Perhaps because he didn't get much promotion.

Or maybe he has been hanging around Kirby too long. I still need to pick up Ristar too. I like what I have played of it in the Sonic Mega Collection.

[Wyrmnus]

Dynamite Headdy and the Sparkster games are other great games too!

[BIL]

Coincidentally, Headdy and Sparkster also went from chill_bros to angreh_badasses for their US boxarts. ^_~

[Bloodreign]

Rainbow Islands Extra on Megadrive is nice and all (I own it due to my love for the Bubble Bobble series), but it does not carry over how mind twisting Extra in arcades was over the original Rainbow Islands. in Extra arcade you could actually alter which special item you wanted in the secret rooms if you got the diamonds on an island in exact order. In RI itself the items in the secret room never change from game to game, the MD version of Extra seems to retain these features. The codes for Extra arcade are also different from the original, and the MD version doesn't use these codes, but I have only ever found 3 working codes for that port, speed shoes and a couple other minor powers.

About RI and RIE's music and how it got altered for all modern RI/RIE releases (except the PC port of Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands which didn't get anything altered, here's how it sounds on Taito Memories:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCK-wAumY-U

Now how complicated Extra is, well the whole item altering in secret rooms thing is explained in detail here, lines 60-158, quite complicated as hell if you ask me:
http://tech.quarterarcade.com/tech/MAME ... spx?g=1386

Edit: The MD port of Rainbow Islands Extra sadly has some music missing, one I can remember off the top of my head is the unique music for the boss Electric Fan of Darius fame.

Edit part deux: I second BryanC's recommendation of SMS Bubble Bobble, you will never look at the NES version the same ever again after playing it. I love the NES version and all as I played it many a years ago and now own it and the second NES title (and the GBA one, and the 2 GB ones, and RIE MD, and Taito Legends and Memories, and the Saturn Bubble Symphony, and the PCE CD Rainbow Islands, and the SMS Bubble Bobble complete....yup I love Bubble Bobble and it's Puzzle Bobble spinoffs up to PB 4 and the arcade Super Puzzle Bobble), but the SMS Bubble Bobble is closer to the arcade version, and has 200 levels compared to the NES's 120 something. Yes levels 101-200 are exact replicas of levels 1-100, but they are all in the dark unless you found the games hidden candle in a bonus room. Love love love love this series to absolute death, just missing Parasol Stars to finish the series, thankfully Taito put Symphony and Bubble Memories on the last 2 Taito Memories compilations, as well as Bubble Bobble and both revisions of Rainbow Islands.

Looks like I went on a tangent for this series, not often do you find people talking about it.

[BIL]

Good post.

[Trevor spencer]

I really like Eswat on MD