SEGA/M2 3D Series for 3DS

[Ganelon]

Considering the effort necessary to make these games 3D, I wish Sega were releasing remakes rather than ports. I don't think I'd ever buy these because I don't value the 3D enough but I'd definitely get another remake with 3D. Plus, isn't it a bit odd that none of the original Sonic games have been remade?

[BrianC]

Considering the effort necessary to make these games 3D, I wish Sega were releasing remakes rather than ports. I don't think I'd ever buy these because I don't value the 3D enough but I'd definitely get another remake with 3D. Plus, isn't it a bit odd that none of the original Sonic games have been remade?

I hope they do eventually do remakes since M2 seems to excel at ports, emulation, and remakes. I really want to see the System 16 Fantasy Zone II on another platform. At least the some of the ports have extras like Haya-oh in Space Harrier, the spin dash in Sonic, and time attack modes (if I remember correctly) in Super Hang On. The closest I can think of to a full blown remake of a Sonic game is that odd NGPC game that has similar levels to Sonic 2 with music from Sonic 3.

I also would like remakes of Space Harrier 3D SMS and Space Harrier II MD. Both are good games in their own right, but would be even better with scaling and an improved frame rate. Space Harrier II has some of the coolest bosses of any Space Harrier game, especially the Flatwoods Monster. Both games have nice music, though Space Harrier 3D's FM music is much better than the PSG.

Altered Beast Interview is up. It looks like the reasons it was picked over the arcade are the parallax scrolling in the Genesis version (the arcade one lacks parallax scrolling, but the Genesis version doesn't) and the ability to choose which monster to become for each level.

[ZellSF]

After Burner II confirmed (Japan only, for now).

[GSK]

Ecco / Galaxy Force II are out now, here are the interviews:

http://blogs.sega.com/2013/12/10/sega-3 ... eloper-m2/

http://blogs.sega.com/2013/12/12/sega-3 ... eloper-m2/

[null1024]

Man, I don't know if I should pick up GFII -- it's a super-amazing visual experience [it never fails to wow people when I show them about the game and tell them it's from '88], and getting that in stereo 3D is almost worth the price of admission, but as a game, it just isn't that good.

Although, I bought Sonic 1, so I guess I'll get it.

And if Sega loved us, there'd be OutRun. If they really loved us, there'd be OutRunners [and that sure as hell won't happen], but you'd need to actually port the game instead of doing various levels of emulation, since the 3DS sure as hell isn't fast enough to emulate the Sega System 32.

[M.Knight]

I never played Galaxy Force II before so it is a new game for me, and it is very fun!
That said, with the default settings, I can't clear two consecuive stages without running out of energy first. Bonus energy never seems to make up for the losses in the stage. Was it as hard in the previous versions?
I may need to lock more ennemies with the missiles and get a lot less hit, though.

[Phellan Wolf]

So how is Altered Beast port on the 3DS?? I love the fucking game even if for a lot of people find it a turd.
Anyway I hope that Sega in the near future will launch a physical compilation.

[BrianC]

So how is Altered Beast port on the 3DS?? I love the fucking game even if for a lot of people find it a turd.
Anyway I hope that Sega in the near future will launch a physical compilation.

I haven't played it, but it's based on the Genesis port, so it should be at least as good as that. I like the Genesis one quite a bit myself, though it lacks the scaling enemy deaths of the arcade. I think the hit detection may actually be better than the arcade. I heard the 3DS version has the option to choose which beast for the levels available from the start and even has a random option.

[GSK]

Here's the Shinobi interview:

http://blogs.sega.com/2013/12/17/sega-3 ... eloper-m2/

[antares]

Those interviews are really great.
If I ever get a 3DS I'll surely buy all games of this series. Half of them because I really want them and the other half because the interviews are so enthusiastic!

[Skykid]

Eurogamer considers these possibly the best ports ever - and that includes Sonic!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... -right-way

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I recall when Disneyland's Starcade (found in Tomorrowland) had a rare Super DX cab (the all black colored motion inducing UFO stylized cab) of Galaxy Force II up & running back in May of 1990 -- inserted four quarters and it was good to go. It was quite an interactive arcade gaming experience not to be missed back in the day -- it was like riding an amusement ride/arcade gaming experience all rolled into a tidy and slick packaged deal. Then one day, another Super DX GFII cab arrived at the local Regency Game Place arcade hangout in Modesto, CA, of all places in early 1994. It was priced at four tokens per spin -- quite a bargain in those days to be able play it properly as it was meant to be played. This was before the heyday of Sega's R-360 cab variant made it's grand debut in the USA years later.

Fast forward to the post 2000 years of the California Extreme shows, a white colored spaceship DX cab variant of GFII appeared out of the blue for both days one year...and get this, it was set on free play! So yes, I've seen/played both variants of GFII cabs for posterity over the years.

It's remarkable that M2 was able to achieve the motion induced simulation experience complete with some cool retro Sega themed cabs in the background on the 3DS/3DS-XL/3DS-LL handhelds...priceless! The 3D EFX with GFII on a 3DS is just "extra frosting on a slice of cake"...really shows off the power of the Super Scaler engine indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Leandro]

Great interviews. Loved to read that back in the early nineties japanese graphical artists from SEGA were stopping by at the localizer department to see how gorgeous "that dolphin game" looked. I love those stories from the past. I'm really happy Ecco was chosen to be in the M2 3D lineup, it's one of my favorite games.

[CMoon]

I DL'd Galaxy Force II on the 3DS last night. Never played it in the arcade, but I remember being overwhelmed by After Burner (II?) at the time along with a bunch of other 'special cabinet' games that never translated to console. GF2 not only feels ahead of its time but...well, there's just something strange about having a game like this play so well on a handheld. Totally a personal experience not all of you may relate to...maybe like when movies first came to VHS and you could watch them whenever you wanted? Some of these games (as pointed out in the eurogamer article) never really made sense outside of the arcade experience, but here at least it seems some of them have come to life again for the first time since I was a kid. And yes, they're damn good too!

Yeah, that's the fuckin' stupid nostalgia most of you here would understand.

[Skykid]

Lol, so according to the interview, they basically had to redesign Ecco to make it playable so people would be bothered to play through it.

Sorry Leandro, that game was always weak.

I didn't know they did Shinobi III as well. Tempting, even though I just played through it recently. I might be up for honing my ninja skills a little. They missed a trick if they didn't make the game much harder on default though.

[null1024]

Man, I'm not entirely digging the GFII port. Space Harrier looks and feels almost perfect -- a few things seemed misaligned in 3D, but that's okay.

Galaxy Force II seems... off. You can't turn off the filtering [or use the original '88 graphics, but I guess that's okay] and the 3D looks strange. It's the deepest 3D I've seen on the system [good!], but the background moves oddly [it seems like it lags behind the playfield and judders a lot] and a hell of a lot more things have visually wrong depth [most noticeably on the stage select, bleh, but more optically annoying are how targeting cursors are occasionally way in front of the object they're tracking]. Really offputting. I think it's the only 3D I've seen on the system that hurts my eyes a bit. I kind of got used to it [so I played four levels in and died], but then I stopped and went back and my eyes hurt a bit again.

Also, it's Galaxy Force II. Damn pretty game, but the first thing I did was make the timer run slower and bump initial energy to 2500. To do a 1CC on defaults is maddeningly difficult -- don't hit fucking anything ever and shoot everything so you get as much bonus time as possible. Mess up against a wall, miss more than a handful of things, and you will probably run out of time moments before you destroy the core of a stage.

I want to get Shinobi III pretty badly, I'll buy that next week. I adore that game, it's easily my favorite Shinobi. Sure, it's not that hard, but it's delightfully smooth. Lots of fun.

[BrianC]

You can't turn off the filtering [or use the original '88 graphics, but I guess that's okay] and the 3D looks strange.

As mentioned in the interview, the original graphics are unlocked after beating the game.

[null1024]

You can't turn off the filtering [or use the original '88 graphics, but I guess that's okay] and the 3D looks strange.

As mentioned in the interview, the original graphics are unlocked after beating the game.

Ah, that's nice to hear [and it wasn't that much of a big deal, since the PS2 graphics are nice]. My other complaints still stand.

[herp derp, it's even on the first page of the thread, haha -- I'm a fucking idiot ]

My eyes are warming up to the game [just set everything to minimum possible difficulty to unlock the original graphics, you must witness the last stage's glorious psychedelic in 3D, it is magical beyond belief]. Still hurts a bit, even with the slider at mid -- lower than that, I almost might as well not even turn the 3D on.


[edit]
Played more of it today. My eyes haven't hurt from it very much [although, I'm playing with the '88 graphics], and I was able to enjoy myself quite a bit. I really wish I could find a way to keep the game challenging without the timer feeling unreasonable though, was fiddling with the difficulty a lot.

[gs68]

I tried 3D SH for about three minutes and my eyes fucking hurt, so I just leave the 3D off most of the time on my 3DS.

Also wish SH didn't constantly fire while using the touchscreen to move, but that's no big loss.

[null1024]

I tried 3D SH for about three minutes and my eyes fucking hurt, so I just leave the 3D off most of the time on my 3DS.

Also wish SH didn't constantly fire while using the touchscreen to move, but that's no big loss.

If you're not used to 3D and want to experience it, keep the slider on really low while playing, and slowly move it up over time. Especially since the Sega 3D collection has really deep 3D, so it's a hell of a lot more likely to make your eyes hurt.

It's kind of the reason why people developing 3D games are the worst people to judge whether something hurts or not -- after enough time with it, you won't feel anything, but someone who just sees it for the first time will notice all sort of things.

I want to like touch screen control on SH, but after playing the 32X version so much, I'm really used to d-pad control. All I wish is that the 3DS d-pad was in a better spot... ;-;


Oh, and I got Shinobi III and Super Hang-On. Fucking great. Probably the best $12 I've spent in a while, haha.

[GSK]

http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/in ... 28104.html

Japanese interview with Okunari/Horii (and Manabu Namiki!) concerning 3D Afterburner II. It's a great read, as always, but there's some extra-interesting news in there for STG fans... they revealed that Hiroshi Iuchi is now an M2 employee, and was the designer for the new "Climax Mode". Neat.

(oh, and here's the 3D SOR interview, forgot to post it earlier - http://blogs.sega.com/2013/12/23/sega-3 ... eloper-m2/ )

[Leader Bee]

Lol, so according to the interview, they basically had to redesign Ecco to make it playable so people would be bothered to play through it.

Sorry Leandro, that game was always weak.

Sorry but could you explain why you consider the game weak? It has one of the most uniqe stories on the MD if not in all of gaming, it looks beautiful and had a difficulty level that was just high enough to be frustrating but also rewarding when you finally overcame it. A bit like how people consider demon souls to be. It also wasn't a short game and had many different environments which made me feel i'd gotten my moneys worth.

The only problem I would say it has are the sometimes finicky controls which make some of the puzzles, especially block moving ones more difficult than necessary and perhaps when fine movement is required.

Stellar game otherwise and one of my favourites on any system.

[Leandro]

Lol, so according to the interview, they basically had to redesign Ecco to make it playable so people would be bothered to play through it.

Sorry Leandro, that game was always weak.

Sorry but could you explain why you consider the game weak? It has one of the most uniqe stories on the MD if not in all of gaming, it looks beautiful and had a difficulty level that was just high enough to be frustrating but also rewarding when you finally overcame it. A bit like how people consider demon souls to be. It also wasn't a short game and had many different environments which made me feel i'd gotten my moneys worth.

The only problem I would say it has are the sometimes finicky controls which make some of the puzzles, especially block moving ones more difficult than necessary and perhaps when fine movement is required.

Stellar game otherwise and one of my favourites on any system.

Thank you!

[Skykid]

Lol, so according to the interview, they basically had to redesign Ecco to make it playable so people would be bothered to play through it.

Sorry Leandro, that game was always weak.

Sorry but could you explain why you consider the game weak? It has one of the most uniqe stories on the MD if not in all of gaming, it looks beautiful and had a difficulty level that was just high enough to be frustrating but also rewarding when you finally overcame it. A bit like how people consider demon souls to be. It also wasn't a short game and had many different environments which made me feel i'd gotten my moneys worth.

The only problem I would say it has are the sometimes finicky controls which make some of the puzzles, especially block moving ones more difficult than necessary and perhaps when fine movement is required.

Stellar game otherwise and one of my favourites on any system.

Ecco was never a stellar game. It fucking blew as a kid. It's got Novotel/Appaloosa's Euro stamp all over it.

Boring confusing layouts with a sore lack of visual indicators, irritating controls and combat (if you can call it combat) and a painful repetitive nature. I remember some halfway interesting boss fights, but I also clearly remember boredom and frustration - two reminders of why after it went off, it never went back on.

[BIL]

Those interviews make for great reading... huge respect to M2.

[ryu]

Boring confusing layouts with a sore lack of visual indicators, irritating controls and combat (if you can call it combat) and a painful repetitive nature.

that's the impression i got from the 3ds port. the game might be good in an aesthetic sense (nice graphics, music and atmosphere), but the gameplay and level design is a joke. I was surprised by how many people were mentioned in the credits as i was honestly thinking the game must have had been made by a team of no more than 4 persons.

[Skykid]

Boring confusing layouts with a sore lack of visual indicators, irritating controls and combat (if you can call it combat) and a painful repetitive nature.

that's the impression i got from the 3ds port. the game might be good in an aesthetic sense (nice graphics, music and atmosphere), but the gameplay and level design is a joke. I was surprised by how many people were mentioned in the credits as i was honestly thinking the game must have had been made by a team of no more than 4 persons.

I'm sure M2 have improved it - it wouldn't be a difficult feat. But Ecco's never been a 'good' game objectively speaking, it was sold on ambient atmosphere.

[ryu]

Boring confusing layouts with a sore lack of visual indicators, irritating controls and combat (if you can call it combat) and a painful repetitive nature.

that's the impression i got from the 3ds port. the game might be good in an aesthetic sense (nice graphics, music and atmosphere), but the gameplay and level design is a joke. I was surprised by how many people were mentioned in the credits as i was honestly thinking the game must have had been made by a team of no more than 4 persons.

I'm sure M2 have improved it - it wouldn't be a difficult feat. But Ecco's never been a 'good' game objectively speaking, it was sold on ambient atmosphere.

i haven't read the whole interview, but i'm sure all they did to improve it is the incinvibility mode... which doesn't help that much since ecco can still be crushed. the credits i referred to were the original staff credits, not the m2 staff credits.

[MX7]

Never played Ecco 1, but Ecco 2 was awesome. Sort of like Watership Down in the sea/space. Controls were weird at first but it eased you in to it, and when you got the hang of it you felt like a boss. Of course I would put my controller through the screen should I play it today.

[Marc]

Man, I don't know if I should pick up GFII -- it's a super-amazing visual experience [it never fails to wow people when I show them about the game and tell them it's from '88], and getting that in stereo 3D is almost worth the price of admission, but as a game, it just isn't that good.

Although, I bought Sonic 1, so I guess I'll get it.

And if Sega loved us, there'd be OutRun. If they really loved us, there'd be OutRunners [and that sure as hell won't happen], but you'd need to actually port the game instead of doing various levels of emulation, since the 3DS sure as hell isn't fast enough to emulate the Sega System 32.

A million times this. Don't think Runners will ever happen (what is it with Sega and neglecting some of their best titles ever?), but surely OutRun has to be a candidate. It would look fucking glorious, these are by far the closest, most warmly realised ports I've ever played.