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

[drauch]

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

[BIL]

We have to keep the Genesis thread at least 25% edgier than the Super NES one, it's the law! ;3

While looking up random old magazine scans recently, I came across Fors Yard. Soon as I saw the name I had to check it out (always loved Space Harrier II's surreal stylings and quasi-gibberish, really stuck in my head as a little kid). It's pretty much a commentated archive of North American Sega advertisements over the Genesis's lifespan. The scans aren't the highest-res, making text hard to decipher, and the commentary is (by the author's admission) just personal musings, but for a general refresher I enjoyed browsing. I'd forgotten about many of these, might look up better scans. I imagine it'd be more practical to just find scans of the relevant EGMs et al.

Generally I avoid nostalgising, but this particular spread will always have its place in my heart. Good ol' hazy CRT screenshots and text snippets giving that mythic effect. I tried to get into Super Thunder Blade recently, I really did (you're gonna want a 3DS for that one...) but seen here, suddenly it's cool again!

Spoiler

[TransatlanticFoe]

As bad as Super Thunder Blade is, at least it's not Last Battle! A school friend of mine had it, but was terrible at it and I wasn't. Wasted many hours of my life because he wanted to see the later levels but sucked too hard to do it himself.

[BrianC]

Interesting that "Super Shinobi" is listed rather than "Revenge of Shinobi". JP style cart shell for Altered Beast in picture too. As far as I know, that modem never came here either.

[FinalBaton]

Nice site. I love old gaming ads myself

[Deadliar]

As bad as Super Thunder Blade is, at least it's not Last Battle! A school friend of mine had it, but was terrible at it and I wasn't. Wasted many hours of my life because he wanted to see the later levels but sucked too hard to do it himself.

Last Battle is a very boring and monotonous game. It's fun to look at Ken exploding everything (in the uncensored version at least) but in the end it's as bland as it gets. If you want a slightly better game about punching things I'd suggest Wolfchild.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I have Wolfchild, albeit for the SMS (my pre-Mega Drive days). Pretty average fare but still infinitely more exciting than slowly wandering through a maze punching flying axes.

Love the Phantasy Star II description and how it blurs plot with functionality. Fear the battery backup-based trouble!

[drauch]

Is Altered Beast of any value? I noticed it on BIL's list there and seeing it again in that ad prompted me to ask. My experience has only been cursory, so I wasn't sure if there was more than meets the eye. Usually when I see it mentioned it's due to nostalgia, so I usually don't pay much attention beyond wising fwom gwaves.

[FinalBaton]

Is Altered Beast of any value? I noticed it on BIL's list there and seeing it again in that ad prompted me to ask. My experience has only been cursory, so I wasn't sure if there was more than meets the eye. Usually when I see it mentioned it's due to nostalgia, so I usually don't pay much attention beyond wising fwom gwaves.

people give a lot of flack to Altered Beast, but truth be told, it was a perfectly fine pack-in game.

Gameplay is quite shallow and the game is short, but it's still a fun experience. The visual style and the music do the job, and they do a fantastic job of giving the game a dreary, unsettling vibe to this fantasy setting (never mind the premise : you are an undead, nameless rando centurion brought back to life to exert a god's vengence, and are ordered to kill the one who kidnaped his daughter. Pretty cool). Truly vile and foreboding atmosfere. Which is a great stuff in my book. The game's got charm up the wazoo. It also controls well.

It's mindless fun, pick up and play, short(20 mins or so) and enjoyable ride. It's shallow, but fun to traverse.

If you find a loose cart for a couple o' bucks, it's definitely worth to pick that up.

[BryanM]

At the time it was a good advertisement for how much of a jump the Genesis was from the NES, but it's a very poor game overall. There's almost no difficulty to it so you hit the skill ceiling in about three minutes, there's almost no freedom (save from which of the three times you choose to fight a boss) so you've seen everything in one playthrough, the aesthetic appeals to ~teenage males almost exclusively (the very least of its issues, considering the demographic of the Genesis's (and its successors the PSX/XBox) player base) - Sonic was a massive upgrade on every front.

A personal memory: My parents thought I loved this game and didn't need new ones, because they kept hearing "WELCOME TO YER DOOM!" coming out of my room every five minutes. I had to explain this was because it was the only fuckin' Genesis game I had at the time, and was thoroughly sick of the damn thing by then.

It's emblematic of one of SEGA's weaknesses - they were good at creating interesting one and done games, but poor at creating and fostering lasting franchises.
___

Always liked Last Battle more than it deserves. The magical way the story was expressed through characters screaming one or two lines of nonsense at each other was the best.

No five minute long cutscenes carefully explaining how you have to collect the three golden triangles to stop ManBearPig from taking over the vespene gas trading route with his magic horse shoes here, buddy.

[FinalBaton]

At the time it was a good advertisement for how much of a jump the Genesis was from the NES

Yep. And it did this very well.

I like to think of the game as a good 1-time rental type of deal (obviously it came with the console, but I like to evaluate games on this scoring system).

[BIL]

Is Altered Beast of any value? I noticed it on BIL's list there and seeing it again in that ad prompted me to ask. My experience has only been cursory, so I wasn't sure if there was more than meets the eye. Usually when I see it mentioned it's due to nostalgia, so I usually don't pay much attention beyond wising fwom gwaves.

AB was undeniably a semi-sentimental pickup; it's certainly not a bad game by any stretch, and it still handles great today (unlike the machine's early attempts at Super Scaler games), but it doesn't really excel either - the always gratifying body ram attacks aside. Mentally I associate it with Golden Axe and The Revenge of Shinobi - not as good as GA and most definitely not ROS, but aesthetically it was just as much part of that first-generation "arcade on your (or your older cousin's, in my case) TV" vanguard. I still find the bravado admirable even today, where the second generation's more console-oriented Sonic-centric approach leaves me cold (see your current sig, which still catches me off-guard even now ).

AB and GA were also by Makoto Uchida, who later did Dynamite Deka - that's why Chicken Legs appear in both (little bastards), and you can cosplay as Beast/Axe characters in the arrange mode of M2's superlative-as-usual PS2 Deka.

I also like to think of it and fellow Badass Beastman Body-Ramming Sidescroller Alien Soldier as natural counterparts, being technical showcases from the beginning and close of the machine's era. There's something very satisfying about AS running on the same hardware as musty ol' AB!

Squint and that could almost be a Golden Werewolf eviscerating that Monster Crab!

Spoiler

TLDR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1i5AtuyhGE

At the time it was a good advertisement for how much of a jump the Genesis was from the NES, but it's a very poor game overall.

Nah. It's mediocre but certainly not poor. Critical distinction!

There's almost no difficulty to it so you hit the skill ceiling in about three minutes, there's almost no freedom (save from which of the three times you choose to fight a boss)

Yeah it's certainly not great tbh

Sonic was a massive upgrade on every front.

Honestly, I'd rather have the occasional credit of something short and violent like AB than be put to sleep by more than ten minutes of any MD Sonic. They're simple, which is fine, and long-winded and bereft of danger, which isn't. Needed actual stage design!

But without Sonic we wouldn't have dozens of better Sega games, or Chris Chan, so don't get me wrong, I don't hate the series or anything.

[Squire Grooktook]

Sonic is too long and easy for a single sitting playthrough, but too short for burst play.

Taking full advantage of Sonic's speed (the main selling point) requires complete - speedrun style - memorization of literally everything.

Sonic was never good TBH.

[Stevens]

I would welcome a remake of Eternal Champions that isn't broken as fuck. I seem to remember infinite's being rather common.

[FinalBaton]

I would welcome a remake of Eternal Champions that isn't broken as fuck. I seem to remember infinite's being rather common.

I haven't replayed that one since playing it over at my buddy who had a Genesis at the time, I have no idea how it held up. Supposedly it's unplayable in 1 player mode

Speaking of that : the creator of the game is fielding people's interest in a new Eternal Champion game.



Regarding Sonic :

I have never been able to get into it myself. There's just this dichotomy in gameplay that I can't wrap my brain around : you're supposed to explore every nook and cranny, yet you're also supposed to GOTTA GO FAST. I mean, no way can you do that on the first few playthroughs.

I have fun playing them for a bit, but I can never get fully immersed. They're just not for me.

[Sumez]

Sonic is too long and easy for a single sitting playthrough, but too short for burst play.

Taking full advantage of Sonic's speed (the main selling point) requires complete - speedrun style - memorization of literally everything.

Sonic was never good TBH.

Those aren't the only ways to enjoy a game. Sonic 3 & Knuckles is a great experience.

I would welcome a remake of Eternal Champions that isn't broken as fuck. I seem to remember infinite's being rather common.

There's a spiritual sequel in the works called Eternal Successors. I'm kinda expecting it to suck though. :3

[Squire Grooktook]

I'm a little joking! Sonic certainly has merit, just not for me Although I do think the games have generally aged very poorly in many respects. The same can't be said of say, Mario 3/World IMO which have not aged at all and are still pretty much as fun and impressive as they were on release.

I think Sonic has always been a very rickety series with moments of greatness, held back by numerous flaws and held up by some strange obsessed silent majorities commitment and nostalgia.

Sonic 3 I like the shield abilities you can get.

[FinalBaton]

And whoa, where's Monster World IV on that big list?

What did you think of this one Mike? Just how good is it?

[mikejmoffitt]

And whoa, where's Monster World IV on that big list?

What did you take of this one Mike? Just how good is it?

I think it was one of my most enjoyed games on the MD. I found it a year or so ago. It's nice to find a game with a nice consistent art style that also plays well on the MD. I enjoyed all the boss fights, and the ending was really pretty tough. I haven't played the other games in the MW series, so I can't compare to those, but a friend saw the game and thought it looked like a vastly improved Zelda II. The translation patch is out there, and recently an official US release was made (from the Virtual Console if I recall).

Some screenshots to lure people in:

[Sumez]

Monster World IV definitely looks the deal, but it's boring to play. Slow pace, easy challenges, annoying backtracking. It's like a low-tier WayForward game.
Dragon's Trap is a much better game.

[BIL]

And whoa, where's Monster World IV on that big list?

Oh, missed your edit. It's not a list per se, it's my actual MD collection. Can't list stuff I don't have. I do indeed plan to get MW4 sometime (I really dig both its handling and uncharacteristically soft palette, rivalled only by Chiki Chiki Boys and Taruto-Kun imo). But particularly with it being more adventure than action, for now I'm happy with M2's PS2 Monster World Complete Collection. Even by their towering standards, it's a behemoth collection. Covers basically everything from the AC, Mark III, MD and GG - only their Fantasy Zone Complete Collection is comparably exhaustive.

Came across a nice copy of MW3 and snapped it up on a whim, but MW4 doesn't seem quite as trivial to acquire.

[FinalBaton]

@BIL : is MW4 playable in japanese? or is the text necessary for the progression of the game?

mabes I'll just get it on Virtual Console and call it a day...

[BIL]

You can just about fumble through the earlier bits, but it won't be ideal, and some ways in there's an ice dungeon that requires reading signs. Personally it's one of those games where I just print out as vague a walkthrough as I can find and consult when stuck, but I know that won't be for everyone.

[BryanM]

Nah. It's mediocre but certainly not poor. Critical distinction!

That's even worse!

Terrible games invite memes and essays to be made about them. I'm already forgetting how cool warewolves tearing the arms off of zombies is while I'm typing this sentence.

Sonic is too long and easy for a single sitting playthrough

That's one of the genius things about SMB: those warp zones are effectively a level select option (which also doubles as a difficulty selection), so it minimizes how repetitive and dull grinding through levels linearly is. (That's what, around three problems solved with one mechanic?) It's that strange thing they call freedom.

Perhaps we're all rats running around hamster tunnels, but, Miyamoto will make sure we're able to pick which hamster tunnel we're living in, by god.

[BIL]

Nah. It's mediocre but certainly not poor. Critical distinction!

That's even worse!

Terrible games invite memes and essays to be made about them.

I don't think terrible and poor are interchangeable either really. I'd call Last Battle poor, and Dark Castle terrible. Five star ratings with bonus comedy badness basement fo life.

***** superior (Alien Soldier)
**** excellent (Castlevania Bloodlines)
*** good (Mystic Defender)
** middling (Altered Beast)
* poor (Last Battle)
(Dark Castle)

I'm already forgetting how cool warewolves tearing the arms off of zombies is while I'm typing this sentence.

That's a really specific image - are you confusing my beautiful Juuoki with Cyborg Justice? You don't tear anything's arms in AB, you incinerate them with flaming body rams or petrify them with Bad Bear Breath. Much more fun than boring old Mortal Kombat-isms!

[BrianC]

recently an official US release was made (from the Virtual Console if I recall).

VC is not the only official release of MWIV. It's also on 360 and PS3, fully translated, probably using the same one as VC. It's in the Monster World Sega Vintage Collection on 360. Not to mention that that version was also done by M2.

[BIL]

Aww sheeeit! I forgot all about Altered Beast's config menu! Why did Sega always hide them behind obscure button combos back then... even Tecno Soft did this too IIRC, hold A and press Start @ title screen in more than one of their games. Odd. Anyhow, hold B and press Start @ title screen, set difficulty at max, HP at minimum, suddenly you have to take your undead buddies a bit more seriously. It's pretty good fun imo. Jumpkick those bare-knuckle brawler dullahans, they'll punch your fuck in if approached on the ground.

Also try BEAST CONFIG (hold A+B+C+DOWN/LEFTand hit start @ title screen) - I never really bothered tbh but maybe some stage/beast combos are better than others? Maybe close your eyes and waggle the pad around for BEAST ROULETTE (I think M2's 3DS release does this? It's where I suspect I stole the idea from!)

[Squire Grooktook]

Sonic is too long and easy for a single sitting playthrough

That's one of the genius things about SMB: those warp zones are effectively a level select option (which also doubles as a difficulty selection), so it minimizes how repetitive and dull grinding through levels linearly is. (That's what, around three problems solved with one mechanic?) It's that strange thing they call freedom.

Perhaps we're all rats running around hamster tunnels, but, Miyamoto will make sure we're able to pick which hamster tunnel we're living in, by god.

Even without the warp tunnels, Mario's stages are far better paced and balanced with more shit to do (I actually had a good fucking time dashing through world 1 in the original without coming to a halt on a somewhat recent revisit). It's ironically more fun to dash through them at breakneck speed than it is in Sonic, where attempting to do so without absolute stage memorization will result in a pace breaking collision or death. And in Sonic speed is the fucking selling point, take that away and it's a clunky mediocre mascot platformer...which is exactly how I view the series these days.

[BIL]

Even without the warp tunnels, Mario's stages are far better paced and balanced with more shit to do (I actually had a good fucking time dashing through world 1 in the original without coming to a halt on a somewhat recent revisit). It's ironically more fun to dash through them at breakneck speed than it is in Sonic, where attempting to do so without absolute stage memorization will result in a pace breaking collision or death.

We noticed this back in the glory days of ten year-old buddiesville, lmao. Went back to SMB1 for old times' sake ("old times" = "last December") after being wowed by Sonic 1, and couldn't help noticing it was much, much better geared for thrilling high-speed kamikaze action than Sega's game. Even the failures felt better - if you went down a pit or took a BULLET BIRU right in you fuckin mout, it felt all on you, not the lack of viewpoint. We were all "don't believe the hype" after. :O But then Sonic 2 came out and we all bought it!

I wonder if the people who characterise the MD Sonics as riveting speed 'em ups are the same who decided Castlevania was about trudgingly slow walk speeds. No strong feelings about Sonic tbh but I want to send Ahnuld back in time to fucking assassinate the latter camp. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS YOU FUCKS, NES CV SCROLL IS BRISK (・｀W´・)

[Sumez]

It never made any sense to compare Sonic with Mario anyway.