Posts Tagged ‘SEGA’

Virtua Cop – It ain’t no Duck Hunt.

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

Platforms: Arcade, Sega Saturn, PC

Developer: Sega-AM2

Genre: Light Gun Shooter

Date Released: December 1994

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Virtua Cop, One of Sega’s greatest first 3D Games, Along with Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, and Virtua Strike. You play as a cop, and you’re trying to stop a mob leader killing all of his goons in the way. That’s the entire story. No nutshell intended. And yet, the boring story (or lack thereof,) doesn’t even remotely ruin the already awesome game.

 

The Saturn’s light gun feels like they put someone’s hand in a moudler for the grip, then added the innards and Gun looking parts on top of the mould, to create the most comfortable light gun in history (Super Scope as nothing on this). Somehow Sega made it so it can be used both left and right handed, and they are symmectrical. It can be used 1 or two handed, with light enough weight for one hand, or a grip for two hands.  The Start button goes right where your second hand’s thumb goes, so, it makes the most perfectly placed button in light gun history.  Back to the game, It has decent graphics for the system even though it’s a direct Arcade port. The physics look realistic, the gun is comfortable, it’s fun and the bosses are challenging. What more could you want?

Onward to the ratings:

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Sorry, No story Rating, it would take the overall down too far.

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Sound- Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆

Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

See it in a store, buy it. See it in an Arcade, you better spend some of them quarters you brought. ($20 in quarters will suffice.)

-Travis M

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Posted in SEGA, Saturn, Video Games | No Comments »

Silp Heed, Sil Pheed or Silpheed? The world will never know.

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Platforms: PC-8801, FM-7, MS-DOS, TRS-80 CoCo, Apple IIGS, Mega-CD (Mega-CD version being reviewed)

Genre: Space Shooter

Developer: Game Arts

Date Released: 1986, 1993

VRC Rating: GA (ESRB Rating: E)

Silpheed, a space shoot-em-up, almost like Galaga, but in Full 3D, with a Storyline, and you can move forward and backward. This game is amazing. The game is based in the year 3076, the Earth is under attack. The space craft SA-77 Silpheed is the Earths last hope against the strike from “Zakalite”. Yeah, it sounds corny, but the game is addicting. You get 4 HP from shield, then a Weapon Malfunction, taking your attack down to 1 shot instead of 2, then an Engine Malfunction where you can’t move, then explode if you get hit again. The game is challenging, yet addictive. There are 11 Stages, with a boss at the end of each round, and then you battle “Zakalite”, for earth. The game is amazing, graphics good for the time, and sound is kind of lacking. The ratings:

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Story- Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Music- Rating: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

Overall- Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Verdict: The game is a definite keeper

-Travis M

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Posted in Genesis/32X/CD, SEGA, Uncategorized, Video Games | No Comments »

A game that has Unlimited lives, Without Cheat Codes! The Lost Vikings.

Monday, July 28th, 2008

Platforms: Amiga, Amiga CD32, Game Boy Advance, MS-DOS, Sega Mega Drive, SNES

Genre: Puzzle Platformer

Developer: Silicon & Synapse Inc. (Now Blizzard Entertainment, which is now Activision-Blizzard)

Date Released: 1992

VRC Rating: GA (ESRB Rating: E)

The Lost Vikings is about three Vikings, Erik the Swift, Baleog the Fierce, and Olaf the Stout, who live in the viking ages, who get kidnapped by Tomator and are sent into the future. and have to make your way out of his ship, and on your way home. But there is a twist. If any one of the three characters die during a level, you most likely won’t be able to finish the level. If Olaf dies, Baleog and Erik might be shot by a turret, killed by some monster of some sort, dying, and not being able to finish the level properly, and ultimately, restarting the level. But you get unlimited lives, and each character has 3 hitpoints. But if you hit a laser, you die instantly. There are certain levels (Every single level) where if one dies, the other ones cannot continue. I will not delve deeper, as spoilers would appear everywhere. Anyway, the Characters. Erik, is the only character who can jump or run. Baleog has a sword and a bow with unlimited arrows. Olaf has a shield, than can be used to block any attack, as a hang glider, or a platform for Erik. This game is rated by G4 as the Fifth best Blizzard Game ever created. The Lost Vikings is in a few of Blizzard’s other games, Such as the MMORPG World of Warcraft.

I'm not kidding.

The Ratings:

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Story- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Music- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Overall- Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

-Travis M

PS. Buy this game or download the demo. It is amazing. I would recommend it to anyone.

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Posted in Genesis/32X/CD, Nintendo, Other or Multiplatform, SEGA, SNES, Video Games | No Comments »

Sonic Jump 1 and 2

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Platform: Most current Cell Phones

Genre: Platformer

Developer: SEGA Mobile

Released: 2006/7

Sonic Jump has the most traditional story for a Sonic game out there, Robotnik steals the emeralds and you have to get them. The story is more in-depth than that, but it is a fairly accurate summary. Unfortunately in Sonic Jump 2, the Story mode is taken out, leaving you with an ending cutscene that won’t make much sense unless you have the original. Some other features that were taken away were the very nice Menu background from the original and lack of a jumping sound that the original has.

The gameplay is pretty much defined by the game’s title, you are forced to jump to your destination from floating platform to floating platform instead of running there, now don’t let that scare you away just yet, It is a lot more fun than you’d think. The controls are extremely simplistic but If you have large fingers, you won’t like using the number pad or navigation keys to control Sonic. And just like there were features that were taken out of the sequel, there have been some additions, such as a bonus level, the ability to collect Chaos Emeralds and a truly working double-jump(which is EXTREMELY handy).

The Graphics are an extreme improvement over the original. In Sonic Jump, his shoes were grey and he had no pupils, due to pallete and scaling limitations, but the problems seem to be gone in this version. Everything was beautifully redesigned in Sonic Jump 2 and the effects were really nice for a cellphone game.

As you can see, it looks pretty good for a cell phone game.

The music is probably one of my favorite parts of this game. All of the music is as perfect as MIDI can get. Due to limitations in the phone, you have an option to use sound effects only or Music only. The sound effects aren’t that great, so I’d strongly suggest the music.

Gameplay Rating: ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Graphics Rating: ★★★★★★½☆☆☆

Sound Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Verdict: If your phone carrier has it priced less than $8 then buy it. While it is a nice game to play, it isn’t something you would play for hours on end.

-Kevin

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Posted in Video Games | No Comments »

From Peter Puppy, to Professor Monkey for a Head, this is Earthworm Jim.

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Platform: Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Genre: Platforming Shooter

Release: August 2, 1994

Developer: Shiny Entertainment (Now known as Double Helix Games)

V.R.C. Rating: GA (E Rating for ESRB)

Earthworm Jim. Just the name alone makes you want to play it. You play as Jim, an earthworm with a Super suit. The super suit was dropped by Psy-Crow, when delivering to, and yes, this is straight from the Instruction Manual, Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-Filled, Malformed, Slug for a butt. Seriously. Your mission is to tell Princess Whats-Her-Name that her Sister, The Queen Pulsating… whatever, is trying to make her evil. Now, I won’t give away the ending, but I will say it’s controversial, goofy, terrible (in a good way), hilarious and great all at once. Anyway, the Ratings:

Gameplay- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Story- Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

Graphics- Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Music- Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Overall- Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★★½☆

-Travis

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Posted in Other or Multiplatform, Video Games | No Comments »

Whatcha’ gunna get? A terrible game for the Sega CD entitled Slam City.!

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

Platform: SEGA CD-32X, 3DO, PC

Release: 1995

Developer: Digital Pictures

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

I couldn’t even play through the first level. This game is terrible. But anyway, on the the review.

Once again, this game is terrible. Not only is it the traditional Live Action Full Motion Video game we love to hate, but the theme song, (Whatcha gunna get.. Gunna Get respect!), is terrible and the concept is moronic. You play as Ace, some guy nobody knows, and play a basketball game against five people, (Including basketball star Scottie Pippin…? Who’s that?) to gain respect to take home the Girl. The gameplay is horrible as well. Your character takes up half of the screen so you can’t even see where the ball is at. I figured out a way to get it in every time, but still, think about it. Do you want to play something this broken? The controls are Unnatural too. A is shoot when you have the ball, But when the other person has the ball, its A to block and C to try and knock the ball out of his hands. Another thing is that the Sega CD doesn’t even have enough RAM to run the Main Menu. When you score a ball, you get Respect points, whatever they are used for. I haven’t ever beaten any of the levels. If you get a pre-specified ammount of respect points, you get the girl. After you have beaten the 4 players, you get to challenge Scottie Pippin (Who sung the main song), and then I don’t know much afterwards. To summarize, this game is downright terrible. I suggest if you see it, buy it but only if you are a collector of bad games as it will be very rare sooner or later.

Gameplay- Rating: ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Story- Rating: ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Graphics- Rating: ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Music- Rating: ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Overall- Overall Rating: ★½☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

-Travis M

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Posted in Cream of the Crap, Genesis/32X/CD, Other or Multiplatform, SEGA, Video Games | No Comments »

One game, 100 Yen: a Shenmue Review

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

Well, here goes the first review.

Platform: SEGA Dreamcast

Genre: F.R.E.E

Developer: SEGA

Release: Novemer 6, 2000

ESRB Rating: T

Shenmue boxart.

Shenmue is a unique form of RPG called F.R.E.E. (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment) that takes place in the Mid-80’s in Japan where Ryo Hazuki, our hero housekeeper injured, his friend knocked out cold and his father dead. His killer took a very important artifact known as the “Dragon Mirror” which, when paired with another stone mirror, the “Phoenix Mirror”, will cause an apocalyptic tragedy. It’s up to Ryo to gather information to avenge his father’s murder, and find the Dragon Mirror.

The game puts you into as much realism as can be thrown into four 1.2 gigabyte discs, You can examine nearly everything, go anywhere and interact with everyone. The game has one voice actor for every character, and that is A LOT of voice(around 200+ people). All of the places you visit are real places in Japan, and there is an option to show the real weather that occurred there in 1986. Your interactivity ranges from buying toys from gumball machines to breaking down walls with axes. You can even use Ryo’s SEGA Saturn! The game can get really tough if you don’t know what you’re doing, so Ryo’s Handy-dandy notebook is here to help. It logged everything you have done since you started.

Later on in the game, you get a job as a harbour forklift driver. Your morning warmup is to race the other forklifts.

The music in the game is absolutely beautiful and fits every area perfectly and realistically, it isn’t the kind of upbeat, slightly unfitting music you’ll hear in Sonic or Mario. When you go into a store, a radio will be playing. Go into a bar and you’ll have jazz playing. You can also buy and collect music in the form of Cassette Tapes along your journey.

The graphics are very nice, everyone has individual fingers in the hand models (as standard for all post-2000 games) and it has fairly far draw distance. The only problem I have with it is Ryo’s jacket. It looks like crumpled brown paper under dim light.

Low down:

Gameplay: Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ (near-limitless interactivity, QTE interactive cutscenes and the fight sequences make for a very fun game.)

Learning Curve- About an hour.

Story: Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ (The game totally revolves around the story, it should come to no surprise that this gets a 10.)

Graphics: Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★ (Some of the best, if not THE best graphics on the Dreamcast)

Sound/Music Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Bugs/smoothness Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ (framerate drops in large areas, not a big deal at all)

Overall Rating: ★★★★★★★★★½

If you ever see this game, buy it immediately, it’s worth every penny. Next to Sonic CD, this is one of SEGA’s best games.

-Kevin

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Posted in Dreamcast, SEGA, Video Games | No Comments »