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By Christopher Coleman |
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Since I've been distracted by lots of shiny things this month, I've dredged the archives of previous writination I have done, and here's some highlights from a project I did last year called "31 Days Of MegaDrive". Every day for a month, I reviewed a Sega MegaDrive game from my collection. Alien Storm
"The excitement is red-hot in this arcade classic." Bollocks, more like. Alien Storm is an incredibly monotonous arcade conversion, and pretty far from 'classic' in anyone's language. It's essentially a dumbed down Golden Axe clone with a bit of sub-Operation Wolf blasting added as a sort of reward at the end of each level. I say dumbed down, as the landscape is even more boring than Golden Axe was, only spanning the height of one screen at all times - perhaps I'll allow as some of the backgrounds are all right, but certainly nothing jaw dropping. The alien designs are nice enough, but the "Shape-changing alien scum" are rather underwhelming, since 9 out of 10 people or objects will change to "alien scum" anyway, thus spoiling any real tension or surprise. The end of level destruction-fests are fun enough, at least initially, but seen-one-seen-them-all, really. Scroll backwards and forwards across a pseudo-3D environment, moving your crosshair around and blasting the environment and the aliens in it.. yawn. If you're a fan of the arcade game, well, two things: It's really close to the arcade original with the exception of speech missing, and you should stop having sex with your sister. The cover art is amusing, did I mention that? Always end on a high. Arrow Flash Arrow Flash c'est un 'shooty-shooty' by Renovation, although the Megadrive release seems to have been released directly by Sega - no mention of Renovation anywhere in the packaging or on the title screen. It's a left-to-righter, with relatively simple backgrounds - they change once each level about halfway through, at just about the point where you think to yourself "Christ, this is getting boring", which is probably for the best. You'll need aspirins for the first half of stage 3, trust me on this. Powerups are pretty straightforward: missiles (yay, the pickup is cumulative), three different types of laser fire, speed, sideguns (like Option in Gradius, a clone that follows you around and fires when you do) and an energy shield. You also have the "Arrow Flash" weapon, which is either chargeable (by holding down the AF button) or a stock item (which then means you have a set amount, but get opportunities to collect more during the game). The unique feature of this game is the trance button - you can use this to alternate between a spacesuit form and a "sleek, maneuverable space combat craft". This is more useful than it sounds, in that it has an effect on the size of your ship (important for dodging asteroids, navigating tight areas, etc), the pattern of your shots (when you have any of the laser pickups) and the way your Arrow Flash weapon works. In "space combat craft" mode, the AF button "lets loose a wide-angle laser blast that wipes out everything in the area!", whereas the spacesuit dude becomes a flaming invulnerable blob you can navigate into the various enemies for kill frenzy fun. The music isn't bad, some stages are better than others, the animations and enemy designs are certainly up to par, the difficulty level is just right (and adjustable if it isn't). Any flaws? Well, continue starts you from the beginning of each stage, but even this could be considered an advantage, as with only five initial stages before you "penetrate the complex" (I don't know if that's a metaphor or not, I only got to the end of stage five before giving up to write this), it gives the game greater longevity. Here's a hot tip for you, stolen from "The Official Sega Mega Drive Power Tips Book": On the options screen at the start of the game, set the Arrow Flash to charge. o to the original game screen and wait for the demo to finish. Once you're back on the title screen, start the game. When you want to use the Arrow Flash, hold down button C for a few secondsand then release - your Arrow Flash will last three or four times longer than it should. Bio Hazard Battle Brilliant side scrolling shooter. I realize the genre is overrepresented on MegaDrive, but suck it up, it's a great genre. Bio Hazard Battle is definitely an underrated example - terrific graphics, inspired creature designs and a punishing but not unfair difficulty level will all add up to keeping you involved and interested. The plot is something to do with a biowar, and, well, who cares. Stage one is entering the atmosphere, and from there on, you're planetside. The background designs are very impressive, detailed and interesting, but not so much that you get distracted from what's going on in front of you. As you can imagine from the title, all the bad guys (and even your choice of four ships to fight with) are all biologically inspired, with giant worms, caterpillars, spinning seeds and even things like giant stomping crabs (stage 3, you'll love it). The powerup system is pretty sweet - you start with an option device that takes one of four forms, depending on what ship you select and what powerups you pick up - four different colour energy pods provide four different kinds of powerup - and picking up (up to three) pods of the same colour gives you greater power. The A button is automatically an autofire, but holding down B or C charges up an R-Type-esque mega shot that will destroy a lot of things, and do damage to bosses. I know it's sounding more or less the same as every other shooter going, but if you like shooters, you're really missing out in not playing this game - trust your old pal Uncle Christopher. Chase HQ 2 Chase HQ is one of my favorite arcade games, and I've always had time for its various incarnations, even the crappy C64 conversion (which appeared to be a direct port of the Spectrum version, not a good thing if you know the relative merits of the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum) held my interest, at least until I had access to a better version. What is it? For the three of you that don't know, it's a racer with a difference - you play a cop, and you and your partner are given assignments from Nancy at Chase Headquarters - each stage is two parts, catching up to the bad guy within the time limit, and then ramming the bad guy off the road within the time limit. You have three turbos to help your chances, and the more cars you pass without crashing into them, the more points you get. It's all very straightforward, and it's all really, really fun. Perhaps the handling of the car doesn't compare to Forza, but what do you expect? Chase HQ 2 on Genesis (yes, I'm cheating again, it's the Genesis version, but there's no lockout on the cart, so it'll work fine in a MegaDrive unaided) is an advancement on the theme which adds a little variety, but not as much as you'd hope. (Like, say, Special Criminal Investigation where you can shoot at the bad guys, or Ray Tracers on PlayStation with sexed up graphics and far more interesting bosses). What you get for your buck is the ability to choose from three different vehicle types - a sports car (high speed, low damage), a SUV (medium speed and damage) and an eighteen wheeler rig (slow speed, high damage). The trick is to pick the right car for the right mission. Since there's only five missions anyway, this isn't really rocket science - still and all, a nice addition to the franchise. Since this is the only Chase HQ game you're going to get on MegaDrive, embrace it with both hands. I know I have. Also? It's definitely better than SNES Super Chase HQ, or whatever those Nintendo fruits called it. Midnight Resistance One man against the odds, out to kill everything and everyone between him and the goal. Sound familiar? That's probably because it's the basic plot of about half a billion console and arcade shooters. The important question, though: 'Is Midnight Resistance worth my time?'. The answer: yes. Midnight Resistance is a conversion of a Data East arcade game which bears more than a little resemblance to the Konami classic Contra (or Gryzor outside the US and Japan). Your main character runs from left to right, right to left, and sometimes climbs up or down through each level, shooting whatever pops up and fighting bosses at the end. What makes the game stand out from the crowd are two of its more significant features - the control system and the power up methodology. The control system in the arcade made use of a rotatable joystick - you could use the joystick to direct the character, and rotate it to aim the gun. Unfortunately, MegaDrive controllers can't really replicate this, but there are a number of variations on the control method you can use which are selectable from the options screen. The method I have the most success with is holding a button to freeze the firing direction, which enables you to run in a different direction to where you're firing, otherwise defaulting to firing in the direction you're moving. Experimenting with the available options will no doubt find a control method functional for you. Use of special weapons is still difficult, however, as pressing up acts as both jumping, and (with the firing button held) launching the currently held special weapon - you can imagine the problem yourself. During the course of each stage, red shirted bad guys will run at you and, when killed, will drop a key. You can collect up to 6 keys at a time, and upon the successful completion of the stage, these keys can be used to unlock powerups. The cost of each powerup varies both from item to item and level to level. For example, you may get the opportunity to buy an extra life, but it will cost you all 6 keys. It is possible to buy different weapons, extra ammunition for them, a barrier (a little blob which rotates around your man, killing all it touches), a supercharge (enhancing the power of your weapon for the current life) and special weapons (including homing missiles, shower and more). Midnight Resistance was another one of my favorite arcade games, and I probably attribute this to the rotatable joystick - it was the first game I ever saw that used one, and between that and the key collecting idea, it was pretty cool as far as I was concerned. Also, back in the day? I sucked at Contra.. but don't tell anyone that. Out Run It's another golden great, is Outrun. A large contingent of game fans would think of it as one of the best arcade games ever created, and many would have stories of good times had in an arcade cabinet or in front of their home computer playing an approximation of it. Unfortunately, most of those home computer stories would be of intense disappointment once the game finally loaded, but that's another story. Outrun is a racing game, pure and simple. Take your Ferrari from stage to stage, choose one of two directions in the middle of each stage (affecting the difficulty level) and try not to run out of time before making the finish line. Try not to annoy your girlfriend in the passenger seat too much by crashing, too. Going back and playing it today, in the days of Gran Turismo and Forza and Midnight Club 3 and even Sega's own Out Run 2, there's not much remaining to recommend Out Run. The tunes are still great, although obviously not quite as good as the arcade originals, or the updated versions on Out Run 2. To be brutally honest, the only way you'd enjoy playing the original Out Run game is as a conduit to nostalgia. I put in the cartridge, and remember playing it in the arcade.. amazement at the graphics, how cool the music was, wishing I could afford to get better at it. I'm also reminded of playing the Commodore 64 conversion back in the day and contrasting its inferiority to the MD conversion. After those thoughts pass, reality sets in and I realize that I have MAME at my command to play the original arcade game. Further realization of my choice of any number of latest generation racers, all of which far surpass the original game in terms of graphics, sound, handling, the works makes me take the cartridge right the hell back out again. Crack Down Crack Down is another arcade conversion, and one I like, yet aren't entirely sure why. The first time I saw the arcade game, it was in the gymnasium at my former university. Crackdown, Trog and Blockout kept me going for quite a while back in the day . . . that, beer and Magic the Gathering. Oh, and occasionally some studying. Crackdown's a Gauntlet-esque maze game, but with a difference - on each stage, there are certain locations where you need to place bombs, and once you've placed the bombs, a timer starts. If you don't get to the exit before the timer hits zero, you're caught in the blast, baby. Each level has a different layout and different adversaries to shoot. It's nothing fancy, really, they shoot at you, you shoot back, occasionally you can pick up a more powerful gun, and you're also able to lean up against walls to dodge incoming shots. The MegaDrive conversion is pretty close to the original, and it's a short bit of fun, especially if you like a taste of maze japery.
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