Game companies may have decided that Americans were no longer interested in 2D games in the 32 bit era, but in Japan 2D was still alive and well. Elevator Action Returns is an excellent example of the kind of games that we missed out on due to the 3D craze. The game distills the best … Read more
by Anthony Norcia By now, the history of John Madden Football is well known. One can search Google and stumble upon dozens of articles about the genesis of the Madden franchise, but what these articles fail to give you however is a glimpse at how huge the birth of John Madden Football really was for … Read more
by Anthony Norcia Mention of the name “Kid Chameleon” to most classic gamers will typically be met with a shrug of casual indifference. The game has been included on a number of Sega Genesis compilations over the years, so most gamers have been exposed to it at some point but haven’t played it enough to … Read more
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday is a science fiction-themed turn-based role-playing game developed by Strategic Simulations, a company known primarily for it’s “Gold Box” series of computer games based on the world of Dungeons & Dragons. You begin the game by creating a party of 6 characters, choosing their race and class and rolling their … Read more
Virtua fighter shares many traits with another Saturn game, Daytona USA, as both a Saturn launch title and a home conversion of a 1993 hit arcade game. The game is noteworthy in the annals of video game history for being the first fully 3D arcade fighting game, which in the early 90’s made it stand … Read more
Often times, ports of classic arcade titles either include nothing that updates the game or change the game so much that the fun of the original is lost. Ms. Pac-Man for the Genesis does an excellent job of recreating the arcade experience at home while adding several new options that make the game an upgrade … Read more
Altered Beast is a side-scrolling action game in which the hero, a shape-shifting resurrected Roman centurion, must rescue Zeus’ daughter from an evil demon god. Through the collection of power-ups the protagonist grows incrementally stronger before finally turning into a non-human creature with special powers. Once the final shape shift has taken place, a boss … Read more
Joe Montana Football was intended to be the first football game available on the Genesis, but due to various development problems the game was released one month after John Madden Football. Developed by Electronic Arts, the game was not meant to be a direct competitor to their own Madden franchise. Rather, Joe Montana Football provides … Read more
Although Welltris was the official sequel to Tetris, Blockout seems like more of a logical extension of the classic puzzle game. Blockout features a top-down view of a 3D well. As with Tetris, Blockout pieces are made up of smaller cubes, and the object of the game is to clear completed levels made up of … Read more
Tetris Plus was the only Tetris game released for the Sega Saturn in the United States, and is a port of the 1990 Japanese-only arcade game of the same name. Along with the requisite “Classic” and “Vs.” modes, Tetris Plus features a “puzzle” mode (isn’t the whole game a puzzle?) that is really the meat … Read more
I grew up playing Tetris. I got a Game Boy the Christmas after it was launched and played Tetris more than any other game on that system. The Tengen version of Tetris is one of my favorite NES games, and it is a crime against humanity that Nintendo forced it off of the market. Because … Read more
Sega Ages is an arcade compilation disc from Sega featuring 3 classic arcade titles; OutRun, Afterburner II, and Space Harrier. All three games are arcade-perfect translations and include options menus which allow you to alter the control scheme, adjust the difficulty level, and listen to music and sound effects, plus a few options specific to … Read more
When Sonic The Hedgehog was released in 1991, it almost immediately replaced Altered Beast as the pack-in game for the Genesis. The game was developed to take the Super Mario Bros. series head-on and shares a number of similarities with that franchise. Both are platform games that involve the player collecting items, receiving power-ups, and … Read more
Polygames and EA stepped it up even further for the next release of PGA Tour Golf on the Genesis. The graphics have been further refined, and the player animations are now digitized video of the players’ actual golf swings! This gives the game a new look that really sets it apart from the previous titles. … Read more
This game starts off well enough, by which I mean that it has a nice looking menu system, but once you get past that and into the game itself, PGA Tour 96 falls apart fast. The developer was obviously a bit overzealous in trying to push the PGA Tour series into the future. The environments … Read more
Anyone who has played the original PGA Tour Golf on the Genesis will instantly feel at home with the sequel. This game still uses the same drop-down menu system and the exact same gameplay interface, and all of the options and game modes available in the original release have carried over. The graphics however have … Read more
This game could have been called “PGA Tour Golf II: European Edition.” Created using the PGA Tour Golf II engine, PGA European Tour is not so much a sequel but rather a modification of the previous installment. The interface and control are indistinguishable from PGA II; it’s only the content that differs. Instead of PGA … Read more
Released in 1987, Great Golf was the only golf title released on the Master System here in the United States. While the game is far from terrible, it does little to live up to its name. It supports match and stroke play and allows up to four players, which is generous compared to most NES … Read more
I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that PGA Tour Golf has a depth that rivals even today’s modern golf games. It was not only the first real golf sim on the Genesis, but the first in a long line of PGA titles from EA Sports. The game features 4 courses; TPC at … Read more
World Grand Prix is a first-party Sega title specifically developed for the Master System, and was part of the console’s North American launch lineup. Although not an official sequel, it is effectively a follow-up to Sega’s 1985 SG-1000 game “GP World”. At first, World Grand Prix seems like nothing more than a Pole Position clone, … Read more
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