Article: Baring My Knuckles

In my younger days I was a massive fan of arcade beat ‘em ups; Golden Axe, Final Fight, Double Dragon, TMNT, the list of great quality titles was endless. I never managed to find one on a home console that could re-capture that arcade feeling and I didn’t think I ever would. A lot of the home ports just simply weren’t up to scratch in comparison with the originals. Then one day I came across Streets of Rage on one of Sega’s cabinets. This didn’t suffer the porting issues of the games I mentioned before, as it was developed for the Mega Drive first and foremost. I instantly fell in love with the series at this point, but where SOR was a good game, SOR2 upped the ante significantly!

Let's not beat around the bush, Streets of Rage 2 is a phenomenal game! It screams quality from the moment you boot it up, and the lavish care and attention put into it shines through in all aspects of the game. It was clearly a labour of love and it's testament to the skill and devotion of the development team that the game remains so playable and entertaining today.

The series was first seen in 1991 when we were introduced to Axel, Adam and Blaze, and their nemesis the notorious Mr. X! Streets of Rage 2 was released in the UK in 1992 and far exceeds the first game in every single department. It’s the pinnacle of the series and a beat ‘em up that was, in my opinion, never bettered in the 16-bit era on any console.

SOR2 borrows ideas heavily from some very well known and well-respected fighting games of the time, namely Street Fighter 2 and Final Fight.  A lot of the special moves are blatantly ripped straight from Street Fighter 2, such as Blaze’s fireball and Axel’s “hundred hand slap”. There’s even an enemy boss character with a frightening resemblance to Blanka! This is no bad thing as the game is all the better for it, and the moves are animated fantastically and are great fun to perform. The move set was extremely extensive for the time and all characters had their own range of specials, some of which sapped your strength when used. This added an element of strategy to the game and prevented you from using your special moves too often.

Without doubt this game is one of the most fun games you will ever play. A big statement backed up by a big game (a 16 Meg beast of a cartridge at the time to be precise!).  The basic mechanics are standard side-scrolling beat ‘em up fare, but that really doesn’t do justice to how well those mechanics are implemented. This is a beat ‘em up bursting with bells and whistles, as well as a few more dubious instruments such as knives, drainpipes and swords!  The game takes place over 8 rounds, each culminating in a boss battle. Players take to the streets on their own or with a partner and battle through hordes of Mr. X’s henchmen before the final showdown. There are 4 playable characters each with differing abilities, the usual trade-off being speed for strength and vice-versa.

The graphics in this game really are spot on. Nice big sprites, detailed backdrops and some great animation. Forget any notions of grand sweeping vistas here, you’ll be too busy battling through punk-infested city streets, construction sites and manufacturing plants to take in the scenery! Also the collision detection, which can be the bane of so many fighting games, is absolutely pixel perfect here. There are a nice range of enemies to encounter along the way as well, including some very memorable bosses!

In all great games the music should integrate seamlessly with the action, and here it is certainly no exception. A music score from acclaimed composer Yuzo Koshiro has you smashing up punks accompanied by some awesome tunes that were amongst the best of the era! The anticipation when the boss music kicks in really gets the blood pumping! In SOR2 the music really adds to the atmosphere, as do the sound effects, which are some of the best the Megadrive was capable of producing. Blows land with satisfying crunches, bodies hit the ground with jarring slams and phone boxes shatter with the expectant cacophony of breaking glass. There are also a couple of decent voice samples in there, with Axel’s “Grand Upper” being the pick of the bunch that everyone remembers (as well as being by far the best move in the game!)

As well as cramming in one of the finest beat ‘em ups ever, the content in the cartridge is still bursting at the seams with other extras. Not content with providing a tremendous 2-player co-op experience, Sega saw fit to throw in a decent one on one versus mode as well! Unlike other games of the time, these fights weren’t played out on a 2D plane but in fixed arenas taken from the game itself. Complete with weapons littered around it was perfect for settling those arguments about who was the best character (for the record it was Axel by a considerable margin; if anyone tells you different then they clearly haven’t played the game on Mania difficulty!) The obligatory 16-bit menu system is in place here, with sound tests and lives, difficulty etc. but there was also a cheat to unlock the aforementioned Mania difficulty setting as well as more lives and same character co-op. Other in-game extras included extra lives hidden behind scenery throughout the stages, and the ability to land on your feet after being tossed unceremoniously through the air by one of the Signal clan punks! (Hold Up + C before you hit the ground since you’re asking!). It’s even possible to perform some special moves backwards, which is great to see in action as you manage to take someone out whist also putting some distance between yourself and the oncoming horde to plan your next move.

I hope it’s abundantly clear from this article just how much I love this game. I played it to death for most of the 90s and I still play it regularly today; it’s never ever far from my Mega Drive cartridge slot! There are so many features packed into this game that I really could write about it for days. Indeed this very article has been through more revisions than any other I have ever written. The need to accurately convey the brilliance of this game, and my desire to do it justice has haunted my dreams for a while! There are so many touches of genius and the attention to detail is staggering for a game of this era. Skate struggles to swing the heavy drainpipe, whilst Max is so strong he can take people out in front and behind him. Blaze is a knife expert and has her own unique move set when equipped with one. All the enemy groups have related or themed names. The backgrounds wobble when enemies are slammed to the floor. These are but a few of the nice touches and flourishes evident throughout the game.

If anyone reading this has genuinely never played Rage 2 then I implore you to look for a copy and you certainly won’t be disappointed. If you do own it but haven’t played it in years then I hope I’ve ignited a desire deep within you to dust down the cartridge and boot it up. Picking a game that has had a profound impact on your gaming life is a near impossible task. So many great games have come and gone and I love all categories from RPGs through to platformers. I think most importantly for me, I wanted to convey the fact that although this game might not have a grand sweeping story, touch you deeply on any kind of emotional level or be remembered as a true gaming classic, it is simply ridiculous amounts of fun! When you think about that, remember back to your childhood and recall that sense of fun that accompanied so many other great titles. It’s one of the main reasons so many of us began this gaming journey together in the first place!

Tag Team Review: Castle of Illusion

It’s no secret amongst retro enthusiasts that the Castle of Illusion games on Mega Drive and Master System are both great games in their own right, and that they represent the high quality it was possible to achieve on both systems. The amount of love, respect and attention to detail shown by the developers make the games really stand out as great titles. I’m of the opinion that any self-respecting collector should really own a copy of both of these games because although the premise in each is the same, the implementation varies considerably.

I’ll start by quickly setting out my stall. Of course we all know that the sound, graphics etc. are far superior on the MD version so instead I’m going to focus on the differences between the two versions, and how these differences make for two very different, and engrossing experiences.

The main premise of the game is the same across both versions: Minnie has been kidnapped by the wicked witch Mizrabel and it’s up to our plucky hero Mickey to rescue her from the witch’s rather imposing castle. The levels are based in a series of rooms within the castle, and each magical room leads to a different environment. The challenges include an unpleasant stroll though the forest, fighting wind-up soldiers in toy land and an all you can eat buffet in the cake world. Oddly at no point in the game does Mizrabel challenge Mickey with a tempting plate full of English cheddar laced with warfarin! At the end of each level there is a guardian of course, protecting gems that must be collected in order for Mickey to progress to the final showdown with Mizrabel herself.

The first obvious difference between the two games is the control system. Normally you would expect this to be born out of necessity because the MS has one less button available, but the MD version of the game actually only uses two buttons anyway. The difference is actually driven by the games’ core play mechanics; MD Mickey can collect items such as apples and marbles and throw them at enemies, whereas MS Mickey can pick up items such as keys and carry them around to open doorways. There is more of a puzzle element to the MS version in this respect, although don’t expect a congratulatory call from Mensa anytime soon after you complete the game!

No self-respecting platform game would be seen dead without a few hidden extras dotted around, and both versions are choc full of secrets for the more dedicated gamer to discover. MD secrets come in the form of hidden passages where you can either walk behind scenery to new areas, or destroy parts of it by throwing projectiles. The MS version has hidden items that can be found by bounce attacking thin air, at which point said items materialise before your very eyes!

It’s also worth pointing out that the MS version represents the bigger challenge of the two games. I think this is partly due to the controls being a bit less responsive, but also because the boss battles are more difficult. The MS version also compartmentalises the levels into sub-sections, meaning the occasional leap into the unknown to either continue the level or fall to your doom; a most heinous crime implemented by many a game from that era! Needless to say the MD version doesn’t ask you to make these infuriating decisions in order to progress.

I’m not going to sign off before telling you what you want to know if you’ve read this far; which game do I think is better? Taking the games into consideration on the consoles they were designed for, and comparing them within the boundaries of each is a very difficult challenge. For me the MD version edges it because of all the excellent constituent parts it brings together as one completely brilliant package. Both games are great, but it’s the MD version that keeps me coming back more often for some rodent related tomfoolery; I’m under no illusion of that!

Article: Mastering the System

A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to add a Sega Master System II to my console collection. It wasn’t a console I was particularly looking to buy but it just happened to be too good a price to turn it down. As soon as I bought it I set about the standard eBay hunt of looking for all the great games I remember from my childhood. The next few minutes saw Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Asterix, Castle of Illusion and a couple of Sonic games all bought to kick-start my collection.

Whilst my initial euphoria was still alive and kicking I took to Twitter to tweet to all and sundry about my new purchases and how much I couldn’t way to play them! I wasn’t really quite sure why I was so excited. I’ve bought games and consoles before and been pretty pleased with myself but this time I was on the verge of becoming giddy with 8-bit power. Eventually it struck me though; I’d never actually owned a Master System before!

Delving into the deepest recesses of my memories and dusting them off made me realise that I’d only ever owned a Master System converter for the Mega Drive. I’d never had that joy of booting up Alex Kidd and indulging in the title music. I’d never felt the need to defend the aesthetics of the original Master System versus the mark II model. I’d never had to fight my corner for Sonic vs. Mario when NES owners came a knocking. Basically I was an 8-bit fraud!

It was a strange twist of fate that saw the Master System converter play a role in my childhood gaming experience. A family friend mistakenly bought Transbot for us as a gift, and my parents in their wisdom deciding that forking out for a converter was much preferable to coming clean with their friends and admitting that they had advised them to buy the wrong game! What an experience Transbot would turn out to be. As a child reared on 16-bit graphics and stereo sound, playing Transbot was like being poked in the eye with a rusty fork and then forced to listen to electronica underwater. I threw my controller down in disgust and vowed I wouldn’t touch it again. But I did. Again and again and again if I’m honest. It’s not even a particularly good game, but it has a certain innocence and charm that just kept me coming back for one last go.

This experience opened my eyes somewhat, and I started to acquire more games, borrowing from friends where I could and picking up some of the “shovel-ware” that the Master System had in abundance (to think some people thought this was a new term fashioned for the huge levels of dross churned out on the Wii!). Great games like Lucky Dime Caper and Psycho Fox spent many happy hours being “converted” through my 16-bit beast into the quirky, happy-go-lucky stylings of an 8-bit adventure. The converter remained a mystery to me; at the time I couldn’t comprehend what kind of voodoo magic allowed a game from one system to be played on another! The mystique surrounding the converter was certainly one of the factors that convinced me to give the Master System a shot.

So here I am over 20 years later, still booting up Alex Kidd and losing myself in its fun simple graphics and cheeky upbeat music. And after all this time I feel like I’ve come full circle and really learnt one of the most valuable lessons of all; I still really suck at rock paper scissors!

Review: Hellfire on Sega Mega Drive

Picture the scene if you will: a group of developers are sat around a table dissecting their latest masterpiece.  They’ve developed a horizontal shooter that has all the key ingredients: ace graphics, check; storming soundtrack, check; rock hard difficulty, check; novel weapon system, check; great array of enemies, check; compulsory Egyptian themed level, check!

That’s a lot of boxes ticked but they’re still not happy:

“We need something else to really grab peoples’ attention” says one.

“We could add some burst processing?” ventures another.

“Nah, Sonic’s already got that covered”

“Maybe split-screen two player?”

“Wouldn’t work with the horizontal scrolling”

“How about some digitised speech?”

“Dude, did you even play Street Fighter 2?”

“How about we just stick a sodding great gun on the front of the ship!?”

“Love it!  Gentleman, Hellfire is born!”

OK so I may have employed a little artistic license with that conversation but I’d love to think that’s how these kind of decisions went down back in the 90s.  Hellfire is a game I have a lot of time for, and it’s another Mega Drive classic that never was.  I’ve recommended it a lot on Twitter and I’m staggered by the sheer number of people who have never even heard of it!

Hellfire is a standard horizontal scrolling shoot ‘em up so nothing untoward there then, but at the core of the game lies an unusual weapon configuration that made this title really stand out for me.  The standard forward fire is actually just one of four available options, with the other three comprising backwards, vertical and diagonal.  The direction of fire can be cycled through at will, and of course the game throws waves of enemies at you in such a way that you’re always frantically cycling through your options to find the most effective form of attack.

As well as the firing system, the game also incudes a fairly hefty power up stack.  Each life sees you start with what can only really be described as a Robin Reliant floating around in space with the handbrake off.  You have to kill enemies and blow up scenery in order to unlock power ups that include speed, upgraded fire power, a shield and also a little helper robot that attacks enemies and even soaks up the occasional bullet for you – cheers bud!

Now we come on to the piece de resistance of your weapon arsenal, the title of the game is also your ships main weapon: the Hellfire!  A quick tap of the C button and you unleash a behemoth of an attack.  A super powered laser-flamey thing (that’s the technical description I believe) gushes forth and tears into any standard enemies and makes short work of bosses.  Handily it also clears the screen of any standard enemy bullets, which means it’s equally effective as a defensive tool.

The graphics in this game are good, with suitably themed levels and enemies and some nice explosions and effects.  The soundtrack however is something else entirely.  It’s not a stretch to say that the music in this game is some of the best produced on the Mega Drive.  Each level thumps along to a kicking beat and the tunes stick in your head long after you thrown your Mega Drive out of the window because the game is so stupidly hard!

That brings me to my only criticism of the game: it’s simply too hard.  I’ve been playing it for over 15 years and I’ve never completed it – I don’t think I’ve even got to the last level!  It’s such a shame because it really mars what is otherwise a great package.  If you’re a glutton for punishment then I really recommend seeking this out – it’ll chew you up and spit you out over and over again.  If however you have the gaming dexterity of a space amoeba then this probably isn’t a title for your collection!