Ok, I am old enough that I played the Atari 2600 and though I had a great deal of love for it the systems that followed were quick to blow it out of the water. As a result my Atari got lost over the years but I still have my Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega… well the list goes on. The folks at Sega and OnLive understand the love for old school gaming and so they have teamed up to bring over 40 Sega games to our new tech world over the next month. Best of all they are all part of their $9.99 a month PlayPack! So besides getting over 150 great recent big and indie titles for the low subscription, you get all these Sega titles too.
Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle: Alex speeds to Paperock to investigate, but the creatures of Paperock decide to hinder his efforts and try to keep him away from Sky Castle, Ashra’s hideaway. Luckily Alex knows how to jump, punch and kick his way through the most stubborn of enemies. Memories: I actually didn’t play this at the time it came out, I caught it later when it got ported to a later system and at first I thought I might have missed it because it’s uniquely Japanese game feel but apparently it was released in the North America. You punch, jump and kick, but then you also play Rock, Paper, Scissors as part of your battling. It is a must play so that you can tell your friends about this uniquely strange game.
Altered Beast: Athena, the daughter of Zeus, has been captured by the wicked Neff, God of the Underworld, and is being held captive. Summoned from the dead by Zeus himself, it is up to you now to clear five rounds of underlings before taking on Neff, in what promises to be the most grueling of challenges. Memories: One of the coolest things about this game is that you get to be a werewolf basically and be the good guy! How often does that happen?
Comix Zone: Sketch Turner is in it up to his inkwell. Mortus is drawing horrendous creatures to battle Sketch in every panel of the strip. If Mortus destroys Sketch, that megalomaniac mutant will become real and Earth will be doomed to his rule! But there is hope. Now that he’s a comic book superhero, Sketch can kick some serious butt. Instantly, Sketch can fight like a one-man mercenary platoon! Memories: This was a strange side scrolling game with nice graphics for it’s time. You hop from comic book cell to comic book cell to fight the enemies so it is a lot like an interactive comic. Being a bit of a comic geek too I look forward to fighting from page to page again.
Crack Down: Ben and Andy, the two top Special Service agents have accepted a very dangerous assignment – the elimination of Mr.K and his Artificial Life System. Mr. K plans to rid the earth of human life forms using the killer robots he’s created, and no one but Ben and Andy can stop him! Help them to infiltrate the chilling futuristic city, place Clystron bombs and get out before they blow. Memories: None! This game got ported to Genesis but apparently not in the North American market where it has been brought to life in some computer ports and was rumored to maybe hit a console. But for most of us this will be a chance to taste this 16 bit baby for the first time!
Ecco The Dolphin: Life was an adventure for Ecco, the young dolphin. Until one day, all of that changed when a freak whirlpool of air and water tore the life from Ecco’s home leaving Ecco all alone. Now he must fight to stay alive, while traversing the vast ocean in search of clues that will help him save his family and return them to the bay. Memories: Ok who doesn’t remember Ecco? If you lived through that time and had anything to do with video games you heard about this Sega blockbuster. I just remember my girlfriend (now wife) hogging the game. Trivia: They made an Ecco the Dolphin labeled can of tuna as a promotion for one of the games.
Eternal Champions: Unjust deaths were dealt upon nine of history’s greatest and most influential warriors, and the future now stands at the brink of chaos. The Eternal Champion has summoned the souls of the nine and placed them in competition. The winner will be rewarded a second chance to prevent their own death, and in doing so restore balance to a desperate world. Memories: Another huge success for Sega this game was a lot like Mortal Kombat with more emphasis on the story and what I remember most about this game was knocking your enemy off of bridge levels and watching them plummet to a gruesome death.
Gain Ground: The battle-simulation game has gone haywire! All contestants inside the system are trapped and frozen on the battlefields, and the androids are reprogrammed to become hi-tech killing machines! It’s up to three brave fighters to rescue hostages, and to destroy the central computer of the system, the Brain. Memories: This was kinda an arcade strategy game, strange combo for the time but worked and had addictive game play. Sometimes entering a level and seeing how many enemies there were between you and the exit seemed like overkill but if you played it right you somehow made it through.
Galaxy Force II: Halcyon, ruler of the Fourth Empire, has the peaceful and prosperous solar system Junos marked as its final target in the galactic massacre, and has sent the bulk of his attacking force in for the elimination of all life forms in the system, and the construction of a gigantic fortress on each of the five planets from which to rule the galaxy. The galaxy’s recognized governing body, the Space Federation, begins recruiting attack pilots in an effort to reclaim Junos. Strap yourself into your TRX-5 Quasar and turn the tables on Halcyon. Memories: None, I didn’t get to play every game! Hear it was like Star Fox though which was sweet…
Golden Axe: The land of Yuria has been invaded and is now ruled by the iron fist of Death Adder, who secured his throne by seizing the Golden Axe. Three brave warriors now rise to the challenge of defeating Death Adder and his soldiers and returning peace to the Kingdom. Memories: One of those games I blew a ton of money on in the arcade I was so excited to get it on the Genesis and pay one low cost. All three playable character were fun though personally I was always fond of playing the dwarf with his axe.
Kid Chameleon: Heady Metal, the boss of the arcade game Wild Side, has escaped! He’s capturing kids by defeating them at their own game. Take Kid Chameleon into Wild Side and give Heady Metal and his gruesome underlings a taste of their own aspirin. Because Kid Chameleon is about to cause a few headaches of his own! Memories: Another game that slipped by me so I am excited to give it a play!
Ristar: The evil tyrant Greedy holds the galaxy of Valdi under a reign of terror, spreading misery and darkness. But from the depths of space comes Ristar, a shining shooting star who is destined for greatness. Only his special powers can restore happiness to the solar system once again. Memories: A lot of folks missed the release of Ristar because of the next gen systems releasing around the same time and people putting their Genesis aside or selling it. Luckily (?) we didn’t have the money to pick those up yet so Ristar got some playtime in our house. It felt kinda like Sonic but instead of rolling around for attacks you reach out with stretchy arms and pull things to you which get scorched into black lumps. It gave you a feeling of power to cook your enemies to cinders.
Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi: New York City has fallen into the hands of a group of ninja warriors called Union Lizard, and they have taken people hostage. Joe Musashi’s former martial arts student Kato has been mortally wounded while investigating Union Lizard, leaving his faithful dog Yamato. Joe Musashi swears to avenge Kato’s death, and heads for New York. Can you guide Joe Musashi and Yamato through the ring of fire and triumph over this evil force? Memories: I was a Shinobi junkie so all you had to do was throw the name on the game and I gave it a run. I vaguely remember the dog as my backup but it was all about using Shinobi attacks for me!
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master: Joe Musashi’s sworn enemy the Neo Zeed are secretly rebuilding an organization in Japan after the battle in Neo City. Joe (code name Shinobi) senses the evil power growing and starts to make his way back to fight the Neo Zeed once again. Memories: Sometimes a little short on plot these games were always long on action and one of the nice things about Shinobi III were it’s excellent graphics for the system and it’s use of background and foreground images which gave it an almost 3D depth.
Sonic 3D Blast: Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) discovers unusual birds known as Flickies that can transport to anywhere using Dimension Rings. Successfully capturing the Flickies, Robotnik turns them all into robots to help him find the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic must save the Flickies by freeing them from their robotic prison and prevent Robotnik from finding the Chaos Emeralds. Memories: Memories for the Sonic games can kind of bleed together because there were just so many with very different takes on them. It didn’t take long to remember this one though because it wasn’t a side scroller so it took a little getting used to and had an original fun feel. Friends who came over were quick to sit down and watch.
Sonic Adventures DX: Director’s Cut: An ancient evil lurking within the Master Emerald has been unleashed from its slumber by the devious Dr. Eggman and is on the verge of becoming the ultimate monster using the 7 Chaos Emeralds. Only Sonic and his friends are heroic enough to put a stop to Dr. Eggman and his evil minions. Hit the ground running in this classic epic adventure in a race against time to save the world! Memories: Another Sonic 3D game but this was from more of a behind him rather on top of him view and had some terrifically wacky characters which is what I remember most. Not sure I played the Director’s Cut, that was a while ago.
Sonic Spinball: Dr. Eggman (AKA Dr. Robotnik) is once again turning the animals of Mobius into robots using his monstrous contraption, the Veg-O-Fortress. Only Sonic can penetrate the Pinball Defense System to free the animals, retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, and put a stop to Dr. Eggman’s fiendish plans! Memories: Sonic Spinball has gone through many incarnations including a real life roller coaster! It also set the more cartoon style that he is most known for now. It gave him more personality I think which has made a household name even more so.
Harrier II: A call for help comes from deep in the universe. Fantasyland has been taken over by destructive forces. Quick on the scene is Space Harrier equipped with his laser, who must attempt to outwit and out maneuver the hoards and prevent Fantasyland from being blown into oblivion! Memories: No offense to the developers but I really have no memory of the Harrier games’ plots what I remember is the vanishing point on the horizon style of game play where an enemy started off tiny in the distance and grew into a huge monstrous thing up close while your distance behind the Harrier remained the same. It is kinda hard to describe and very hard to forget.
Vectorman: By the year 2049, Earth has been turned into a toxic waste dump. Humankind has fled into space leaving behind an army of mechanized “Orbots” to clean up the mess. But when the Orbot leader “WarHead” goes haywire and starts a global revolt against the humans, it falls on the shoulders of the last Orbot loyal to its human masters to save the planet. Memories: Vectorman is a run and gun that is probably most remembered for it’s exceptional graphics which used a few pre-rendering tricks to make them seem next gen. Because of all this the game was a huge success with players and critics alike and definitely won some awards. This one will be fun to play again to remember what “next gen” was considered back then.
Ok those of you who counted might have noticed that I did not list near 40 games. That is because OnLive is releasing new games every weekday for another two and a half weeks! You can got to their Facebook website and vote on the order of release for the week and this week they put up a challenge to get a certain number of votes so that they release them all the first night… maybe they will do that again?
Thursday 3/29/12 Releases: Columns, Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
Friday 3/30/12 Releases: Ecco Jr., Super Thunder Blade, Fatal Labyrinth, Bonanza Bros.
Next week: ??
Last Call: This really kind of feels like an obvious choice but I’ll go over it so it sinks in. 40 Sega Games as part of a $9.99 monthly subscription deal that includes over 150 other games such as indie hits like World of Goo, big hits like Homefront and selections from hit series like Bioshock, Fallout, F.E.A.R. and Deus Ex. When this promotion is done they will have around 2oo games for $9.99 a month. If you round up a penny that is pretty easy math.
