SNES vs. Genesis: A Battle for the Ages! [Part 1 is over, platformers coming up next]

[A Black Falcon]

And I knew that too, somehow it got switched around as I was writing. Oh well.

I thought it was something like that, for Super/Mega Turrican... how did you miss Super Turrican 2's freeze ray, though? I mean, you say it doesn't have one when it does. Unless you meant Mega Turrican there and had the three of them all confused?

Well, it's the truth. Mega Turrican doesn't look as good as the other two Turrican games.

But it's Genesis game, not a SNES game. Of course it can't look that good, the Genesis can't do 256 color graphics, etc! You can't act like platform doesn't matter. For a Genesis game it looks and sounds very, very good. I mean, you're right that the SNES ones look better, but you really should take platform into account too!

http://tcforums.com/forums/showthread.ph...t=turrican
... So you bought Mega Turrican on VC several years ago, but didn't play it or something?

I also did a Turrican series overview here http://tcforums.com/forums/showthread.ph...t=turrican and posted it at GAF later too, though I'm not going to look up the link right now (stupid lack of search...).

Anyway, hopefully sometime you try Turricans 1 and 2 and NES Super Turrican, though given what you've said here and such I wouldn't expect you to love them. They definitely are a lot more dated than the Factor 5 games, and more confusing and frustrating as well. Good games when you get used to them, potentially, but they definitely seem to be a love-or-hate kind of thing.

Anyway though, it's nice to see that you do like the Super And Mega Turrican games. :)


Anyway, now to discuss the games you've reviewed. :)

Popful Mail

I've said it already, but it's such a great game... and yes, the save-anywhere system is VERY much appreciated. The only negative I can really think of is that sometimes you do need money, so occasionally you'll have to grind some cash, then backtrack to a past level, replay it, and go to a shop to buy things -- because shops are not helpfully located on the map, but instead are in the middles of stages. It gets to be something of a pain eventually. Other than that though, awesome game.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghost

Potentially amazing, but so insanely hard that I can't find it much of any fun. As I said I've never beaten level two on the SNES. It's too crazily hard to be worth the massive frustration. And of course, you need to beat it twice to actually see the ending, as with all games in the main series... yeah right, like I'll ever do that.

Alcahest

Hmm, intresting... never played this one, but it sounds potentially good. Maybe I'll check it out. :)

Demon’s Crest

I think I might actually like the first Gargoyle's Quest best... it's probably the cheapest game in the series too (Demon's Crest is a bit pricer). It's a very good game though, with RPG-style topdown town and world map exploration, random (or in set tiles perhaps?) battles on the worldmap, items, etc. Gargoyle's Quest II simplified things by removing the overworld map battles, and zooms out too so you can see a lot more of the screen but everything is much smaller. It also had a Game Boy version that was only released in Japan, but I can't even find the rom of this; it's not in any Game Boy romset I've seen. Screenshots prove its existence, but I'd be interested to play it... evidently it's harder because it is zoomed in like the first game, so you can't see some things coming at you, but still, it'd be cool to compare. Oh well.

Demon's Crest is even more different than either previous game, with even less RPG elements than the last one -- the topdown towns are entirely gone this time for instance. The graphics are amazing, and the multiple forms you get for Firebrand are pretty cool, but somehow I just think that the first game got it right and is better than the sequels. Gargoyle's Quest is just such a great game...

King of Demons

Agreed, that's a really good, and quite interesting, game. A highly recommended translated rom! The main guy is kind of weak, but the other forms you can transform into are pretty cool... somewhat small graphics if I remember, but it works and looks pretty good.

Mercs

Mercs is a pretty good game... it's actually Commandos 2, the sequel to the arcade and NES classic. The later '90s Neo-Geo Shock Troopers games play very much like Commandos as well, and those were amazing games. Mercs isn't quite up to the level of Shock Troopers, but considering the platform, it does a pretty good job of coming close.

Yes, Mercs is hard, but it's really well made... play it more and you do eventually get better at figuring out how to not get hit. This is important, because you get very limited continues in this version... you'd better get better if you want to make any progress. :) Also, while the Genesis version has no multiplayer, while the arcade game had 3 player support, it does have an entire new mode, Original mode, which is a longer, deeper game only available in the Genesis version. Here the levels are longer (and are entirely new, not just rehashes of the arcade mode levels), and you only start with one character; you get more by getting far enough to have them join your team. You get no extra lives or continues in this mode, die and it's over. You get money as you do, and can use it at shops periodically spread across the game to buy items, health, etc. Original mode is extremely difficult, but a fantastic addition that ads a lot of playtime to an otherwise short game.

Rolling Thunder 2 and 3

I'm a big fan of Rolling Thunder 1 (NES/Arcade) and 2 (Genesis/Arcade), but don't like the third one (Genesis exclusive) nearly as much. It just doesn't play like Rolling Thunder anymore, and that is very much to its detriment. Rolling Thunder was a game I played in the arcades in the late '80s or early '90s, and loved then despite always finding it incredibly hard and never getting very far. It's still every bit as great now as it was then, and every bit as hard too. It is a slow-paced and deliberate game, but that is how it's supposed to be, and that is what makes it great. It's not just another run and gun game, but one where you have to stop, think, and memorize. Going into doors and ducking to avoid fire (remember, one bullet kills you) are key gameplay mechanics. Be conservative with your ammo, it is limited and you really don't want to run out. It's hard but so, so much fun...

Rolling Thunder 2 is basically like the first game, but with much more variety of level settings and two player simultaneous play. The Genesis version maintains the 2-player mode from the arcade, impressively. That was pretty cool to have. Rolling Thunder 2 is also quite challenging, but it's a fantastic game just like the first one and has the same slow, deliberate pace as the first game.

Rolling Thunder 3, though, tries to action-ize the series, and fails as a result of it. First, the multiplayer mode is gone; this is a single player only affair. You can only play as the male agent (who has to rescue the female agent again, as in the first game but unlike the second where they worked together through the game as the two playable characters) until you beat the game, when you get a password to play as her instead if you wish. The game is much faster paced and has a lot more shooting action than the first two. You have a whole bunch of different weapons to choose from before each level, and get passwords to save your progress. They were obviously trying to make it something more like what console gamers would expect from an action game, but I think they strayed too far from what made Rolling Thunder great, and as a result it's my least favorite of the three by far.

ESWAT

Here I more agree with you, though. ESWAT is a perfectly decent game, but it's not great. Ive owned the game for quite a while but never got up the interest to get more than a few levels into it... the second level is something of a maze and thus kind of annoying, and I don't usually get much past that. It is slow paced, but it doesn't keep things always moving forward and interesting like Rolling Thunder. Instead you're doing more backtracking, killing the same respawning enemies over and over, with your very slow moving guy. That does get dull. Also the graphicsa re early Genesis stuff, reminiscent of, say, El Viento or something; they look okay, but not great. So yeah, okay game, but nothing really special, though if you play it for a while it can get a bit addictive; I can see someone liking this game, with time, if they don't mind the pace and repetition. I just don't find it interesting enough to really hold my interest.

General Chaos

Pretty popular game I think, and not one of hte cheaper US Genesis games... and it is pretty cool, with 4-player action, some strategy, and more. Fun little game. :)

On that note, EA released a lot of Genesis games. Many are ports of PC or Amiga games; very few of these games also came out on SNES, and none from EA itself. While the original PC or Amiga versions were often better than the Genesis ports, as far as console games go, this left the Genesis with a lot of exclusives from EA...

My favorite EA Genesis game is Blades of Vengeance, the fantastic fantasy action-platformer. That's a really good game, with fantastic graphics, good music for the Genesis, two player simultaneous, and more. Play it if you haven't! Oh, and it's a Genesis exclusive, not available on any other system.



... The rest of this is a probably useless list of 16-bit EA games. Feel free to ignore it. :)

Other lesser-known EA Genesis games of note include The Haunting Starring Polterguy (unique and innovative Genesis exclusive haunting game that ultimately becomes repetitive) and Galahad (Amiga port I believe, and a pretty good side-scrolling fantasy action-platform game. Not quite as good as Blades of Vengeance, but pretty good.).

Lesser would be Risky Woods (another Amiga port, and this one not as good in my opinion. You need to memorize what the many item drops do, some are bad and others good...) and Battle Squadron (Amiga port shmup. Overly difficult and frustrating; two player simultaneous doesn't save it.). Then on the "they're awful" category would go Sword of Sodan (horrible game, perhaps slightly less abysmal in its original Amiga/PC release?), Shaq-Fu for Genesis and SNES, and probably the Genesis version of Dark Castle. Dark Castle was popular on the Mac, but ... not so much... on the Genesis...

(Oh, and it's not an EA game, but Taito's Rastan Saga II (aka Nastar Warrior is a horrible game... I have it for Genesis, but it was also in the arcades and on TG16 in Japan. It's awful on all platforms, in my opinion. Slow paced, boring, dull, walking speed like you're in molasses... it's just not fun.)

Oh, they also did some others, such as some Carmen Sandiego games, the Amiga port RPG The Faery Tale Adventure which might be fun if not for the 30-40 character passwords that make me not want to even start playing, and some other RPGs as well (Buck Rogers, for instance, which I believe runs on the SSI Gold Box engine). EA also had some sims (F-22, 688i Attack Sub, etc), racing games other than Road Rash (Lotus Turbo Challenge), Power Monger (on both Genesis and Sega CD), and more; many are PC or Amiga ports as usual.

There's also a few other platformers, including Rolo to the Rescue, a Genesis exclusive, and the three James Pond games. All three are originally for the Amiga, and have Genesis ports as well. The second (called "Super James Pond" on the SNES) and third also were on teh SNES, though EA did not publish those versions and James Pond 3 for SNES was Europe only. I have James Ponds 1 and 3 for Genesis, both are pretty fun. EA also published the quite mediocre Genesis version of Shadow of the Beast (the game was on many systems). Shadow of the Beast II's port was better, though; the game was on both Genesis and Sega CD, and each version is slightly different. Shadow of the Beast III was Amiga only.

Of all of EA's Geneiss games, only the sports games, the Strike trilogy, James Pond 2/Super James Pond, B.O.B. (a decent platformer), Wing Commander (released on PC, Sega CD, and SNES. The game had two expansion on the PC. The first was released on SNES on its own cart. The second was PC only. Then they did an overhauled version called Super Wing Commander, for Mac and 3DO. Finally there was a Windows 95 redone version which included the original and both expansions, and Wing Commander 2 and perhaps 3 as well.), Shaq-Fu (though the two versions are not identical; the SNES version is generally regarded as even worse than the Genesis one, I think), and Syndicate (strategy game, simplified port of the classic PC title) also came out on SNES. All the rest were console exclusive on the Genesis. The only SNES exclusive game from EA is the platformer Michael Jordan in Chaos in the Windy City.