The New "Games I Bought" Thread -- Copied For Your Enjoyment

[A Black Falcon]

Pinball Quest -- Yeah, I have that game too, got it some point within the last year. I'd heard of it before and wanted to play it on the NES too, but the game's ridiculously frustrating. I mean, it's hard. Way too hard. That ball seems to aim straight for the drains every time, particularly in the Quest mode... it's so frustrating. And as you say, the game's design pushes you back as you fail, until I inevitably end up back on the first screen again. Bah. So yeah, I wanted to like it, but wasn't having much fun thanks to the difficulty level and haven't played it in a while...


EWJ CD - I don't have the Sega CD version, or any of the console versions of EWJ for that matter (though I have played some of the Genesis version before), but I do have both PC versions, the EWJ 1&2 collection they sell on GOG (Interplay's DOS version, originally sold in a box with both games together), and Earthworm Jim for Windows 95, Activision's Win95 version that is an enhanced port of the Sega CD version. The two are actually different -- the DOS version has some cut animation versus the Win95 version, password save, and I forget if it has the full CD audio too (though it was originally on CD). It doesn't have the new level from the Sega CD version. At least it adds the passwords, versus the original SNES/Genesis releases... and also, it's the only PC version of the second game (the best version of EWJ2, on that note, is quite possibly the Saturn version, but I haven't played anything other than this PC version myself; maybe the PC version's about as good as that? I forget the differences, and don't want to go look them up right now.).

So, the Win95 version is better, right? Well, yes, but as is common for early Win9x games, it's got big problems running on a modern computer, and indeed I can't get it to work at all on my Vista machine. The game is a quite good port though, with all the content from EWJ for Sega CD (CD audio, the additional level), plus 256 color graphics and, instead of passwords, a level-select system where you can start from any level via one of the menus, as long as you've unlocked it by reaching that level before. Nice. This was the first version of EWJ I played, which I got when it came with a computer we got in mid '97, along with a few more games, namely MechWarrior 2 for Win95, Pod (my favorite of the batch, a futuristic racing game), and Eraser, an awful (from what little I remember, it won't run on Vista and didn't even work on my old computer, I think, last time I tried) FMV/gun-style game based on the movie of the same name (on two CDs!).

However, one problem -- I never loved EWJ. I mean, yeah, the animation's nice, but as far as gameplay goes I've just never loved the thing. I never finished EWJ for the PC, I gave up somewhere in the middle because the difficulty level was annoying and I wasn't liking the game as much as the hype suggested... and trying both games again after getting them on GOG, really my opinion hasn't changed much. I don't know, in some ways they're pretty good games, but... somehow I just don't quite like it or something. The controls can be frustrating and loose or something, it's easy to take unfair hits, you do need to make 'leaps of faith' sometimes, etc...

I also picked up Sylpheed for $4, and that's one impressive little top down shooter for Sega CD. I wasn't aware the Sega CD added Super FX level 3D capabilities to the Genesis (or maybe that was done with creative programming), but it looks nice. The opening is incredible looking, using some clever positioning to make the ships look really nice even though they're at Star Fox level graphics, and it's so much smoother. However, that opening MAY be a misleading FMV for all I know, since the gameplay itself is entirely overhead, unlike Star Fox.

Now Silpheed, THAT game I love. I'm sure I've talked about it before -- it's been one of my two or three favorite Sega CD games for years -- but yeah, it's outstanding, and one of the Sega CD's top visual accomplishments in some ways. The backgrounds are just outstanding looking. Of course, as you suspect, those backgrounds are entirely FMV -- it's not rendering those polygons, that's just a video (only the ships are actually being drawn by the system) -- but still, it looks great, and plays really well too. The game's not easy either, with twelve challenging levels to get through... took me quite a while to beat. I love the little details too, like how after your shield is gone the next two hits take out one of your weapon systems and some of your engine power (speed), before finally you die; they removed this system from the quite disappointing PS2 sequel to this game, which was one of many problems with that game.

But as for the graphics, I mean, there's no way in the world the Sega CD could render all those polygons. Get to level 4 or 5, the fast stage through hexagonal canyons... yeah, as if the poor little Sega CD processors could do that. No. :) But it looks impressive, and they do a better job than most games of making the video look like it's live and not video... it is impressive work. And the gameplay and level design are about as good.

Another example of a game with prerendered polygonal backgrounds is Starblade. It's a lightgun-style shooter, except without gun support. That one looks pretty nice too, except instead of sprite-based or polygonal ships on top of the prerendered CG backdrops, it uses wireframe 3d models. It actually works decently well. Now that two or three credit limit... that's a problem, makes it way too hard. Oh well. :)