Marvel Super Heroes

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

Platform: Sega Saturn

Released: 1997

If there's one advantage the Sega Saturn had over the Sony PlayStation back in the mid- to late '90s, it's the fact it could do 2D action games really well. This advantage was exploited in Japan -- a market which saw many such games released, often to critical acclaim, and helped the Saturn stay competitive with its upstart rival for a short time. Unfortunately, Sega of America unwisely -- some might say stupidly -- chose to not to release such gems as Radiant Silvergun, Metal Slug and Dungeons & Dragons Collection for their North American audience. Japanese gamers could even buy special cartridges that boosted the Saturn's RAM capacity by up to four megabytes, which allowed games like Capcom's X-Men Vs. Street Fighter to run at a blistering speed with all of the arcade version's spectacular animation intact. Savy Saturn owners like myself were forced to import these games -- often at a considerable expense we could only justify by knowing we were playing the coolest console action games around.

Capcom was among the few developers that not only took full advantage of the Saturn's 2D capabilities but also released many of them in North America. It made sense. Capcom's considerable library of excellent 2D fighting games were a perfect fit on the Saturn -- not only was the hardware well-suited for them, but the Saturn controller was laid out in a similar configuration to Capcom's arcade control setup as opposed to the less-than-ideal button layout on the PlayStation controller. As a result, games like Street Fighter Alpha 2, X-Men: Children Of The Atom and the Darkstalkers sequel Night Warriors shined on the Sega Saturn.

The Marvel Comics-licensed title Marvel Super Heroes is unique among Capcom's North American releases in that is supports the Japanese 1MB RAM expansion cartridge despite the fact the accessory was never officially released here. Thankfully, I was smart enough to buy the something called the ST-Key back in the day -- a third-party accessory (not approved by Sega) which not only allows a North American Saturn to play Japanese Saturn games but also includes four megs of additional RAM for the select games that use it. Marvel Super Heroes would be practically unplayable without this device, but because Capcom wisely choose to sneak in support for it, the game is a contender for at least the best-looking fighting game on the system (aside from X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, which was only released in Japan).

Truth be told, the visuals alone remain the most compelling reason to play this game, but then again, I'm an animator who works in video games. I always appreciate games that make animation a priority while also keeping the gameplay fun and exciting. The typical fighting-game fanboy might take more notice at the appallingly low number of selectable characters for a Capcom fighting game. Two slots are absolutely wasted on the little-known characters Blackheart and Shuma-Gorath -- especially considering how Marvel mainstays like Thor, Dr. Strange, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, The Punisher, Ghost Rider and anyone from The Fantastic Four are nowhere to be seen. I was huge into Marvel as a kid and collected comic books for a long time, and I had never even heard of Shuma-Gorath until this game. Who's the genius at Capcom who thought it would be more fun to play as a pink, one-eyed octopus rather than The Mighty Thor?

There are a couple extra characters who become playable upon entering secret codes at the character-select screen -- the boss characters Dr. Doom and Thanos --  but it really gives me a pain in the ass when a game requires me to enter a code for a feature that should be there by default. But let's say I give the game a pass there: That's only 12 playable characters that don't quite represent the diverse and unusual Marvel universe we all know and love. The Silver Surfer in particular would have been a perfect fit for this game considering it's set in The Infinity Gauntlet storyline (strange coincidence that it was during The Infinity Gauntlet run in 1991 when I stopped buying comic books for good).

It must be stated, however, that the Marvel characters included in Marvel Super Heroes look pretty amazing and are a lot of fun to play. Spider-Man and Iron Man in particular bust out all kinds of cool moves and are a great showcase for the hyper-stylized animation for which Capcom has become famous. Much care was taken to keep all of the heroes and villains true to their counterparts on the paneled page. It's great fun to hear Spider-Man say, "My Spider Sense is tingling!" or "This one's for JJ!" as he takes his own picture after winning a match. Comic book fans should appreciate that much attention to detail.

Marvel Super Heroes is so true to the original arcade version of the same name that it's easy to forget you're playing it on a Saturn, with one important exception: The ridiculously long load times. As fast as the action is during a fight, it's equally slow while the game loads in-between rounds. Granted, double-speed CD-ROM drives were the norm when PlayStation and Saturn launched in the mid-'90s, but holy moly do they show their age nowadays. Other minor knocks against Marvel Super Heroes include a lame gameplay gimmick based on the plot from The Infinity Gauntlet that allows characters to power up using a variety of gems that in the end doesn't really add to the tried-and-tested Street Fighter II formula. There's also substandard artwork and hokey plot lines during the many end sequences, but the same could be said for practically every one of Capcom's fighting games at the time.

Playing Marvel Super Heroes on Saturn won't make you forget the fighting-game perfection that is Street Fighter Alpha 2, but the game is somewhat of a technical marvel in how just a little boost of extra RAM could turn the Saturn into an arcade powerhouse. It's also a sad reminder at what might have been possible had Sega played its one trump card in time to save the doomed Saturn.

Gameplay footage of Marvel Super Heroes from YouTube:




Relevant Links

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Sega Saturn on Wikipedia

Marvel Super Heroes on Wikipedia

The Infinity Gauntlet on Wikipedia

Review: Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer

Developer: SideQuest Studios

Publisher: eastasiasoft

Platform: PlayStation3

Available Now on PlayStation Network

I’ve been meaning to get to this game for a while now. Not because it’s been out for some time, but because I really loathe it. Side-scrolling action games for Xbox Live Arcade, Wii Virtual Console and PlayStation Network seem to be the chic thing nowadays, but it’s amazing how painfully mediocre most of them are. It’s obvious to me that with Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer, the developers were out to make the ultimate side-scrolling shooter. The tried-and-true elements are all there. It’s got the lush and crisp visuals. It’s got the techno soundtrack. However, the weapons system is beyond lame. The gameplay is weak and a sad attempt at ripping off the chain system in the influential Treasure classics Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, and the game as a whole is just kind of boring.

And it must be stated: The title is ridiculous. I could deal with Einhänder (by which this game was obviously inspired), but Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer? I looked up the translation on Wikipedia, and I think they should have just called it “Mercenary-X: Set To Defy The Impossible.” Much easier to pronounce and slightly awesome.

The biggest problem with this game is how it throws hordes of enemies at you without giving you an adequate weapons system with which to deal with them. The wide-open level layouts would have been ideal for cutting loose with some heavy-duty firepower, but Söldner-X instead forces you to pick at enemies with a paltry peashooter of a main weapon. Properly chaining enemies of the same type supposedly augments your firepower, but not enough in my opinion, and the whole chaining thing comes off as a cheap gimmick anyway. It’s no where near as cleverly used as it was in the aforementioned Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga. In what I suppose is the developer’s idea of a gameplay innovation, a weapon can overheat if you use it too much – forcing you to switch to another gun while the other cools off – a truly horrible idea for a game like this. It’s a bad idea not only because it severely limits the amount of destruction you can unleash, but also because of how utterly crappy the other weapons are.

One of the two selectable weapons you get at the beginning is the Beam, and man, do I hate the Beam. First of all, it doesn’t look like a Beam. It looks like bolts of electricity. And yes, the bolts do go through otherwise impenetrable objects, but it isn’t very strong when it comes to blowing shit up. In fact, you’re more likely to be blown up yourself when using the Beam, so I never use it. The Pulse and the Bow aren’t much better, though. In fact, none of the weapons you’re given are very impressive, either from a visual or a gameplay standpoint, which to me spells certain doom for a game of this type.

So let’s summerize: This is an action game that tells you to blow up the bad guys, but forces you to do so with weak weapons that don’t look cool while at the same time imposing annoying gameplay restrictions? Oh, and I didn’t even mention the boring story sequences in-between levels and a narrator that spews annoying sound bites while you play. No thanks. I don’t care how fancy the graphics and effects are, or how loud the techno music is, there are so many great action games out there that allow me blow shit up in a multitude of satisfying ways, and now Söldner-X comes along and frustrates the hell out of me with bad ideas and boring gameplay.

My advice: Dig out a classic like Super R-Type, Thunder Force III or Galactic Attack. Not only will save yourself 10 bucks, but you’ll have infinitely more fun than playing Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer.

Relevant Links

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Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer on Wikipedia

I Still Have My Sega Game Gear, And Here's What I Think ...

It's funny what was once considered portable.

My little brother and I got a Sega Game Gear for Christmas in 1991. At the time, we thought it was the coolest thing ever, despite only having the pack-in game Columns at first. It was the promise of the Game Gear that excited us so much. Sure, our friends with Game Boys had all kinds of great games to choose from, but soon we'd be able to play Sonic the Hedgehog in full color ... in the dark!

Sega's Game Gear was supposed to be the platform that challenged Nintendo's mighty Game Boy for portable gaming supremacy, and in the end it really never came close. You can't blame Sega for trying. After all, there was no other real competition out there. Atari's Lynx and NEC's TurboExpress, though vastly superior in terms of processing power, were expensive, didn't have enough good games and were poorly marketed.

Even though Game Gear was priced more than $50 higher than Game Boy, there was definitely room there for Sega to grab of piece of Nintendo's dominance in the handheld arena. In retrospect though, it's easy to see why Game Gear – a noble effort to be sure – never quite caught on.

First of all, the thing is a beast. Game Gear is easily twice the size as the original Game Boy, which itself seems oddly large and bulky compared to the tiny versions released later. But even the old Game Boy could be stuffed into your jacket pocket. A Game Gear might fit into a jacket pocket, if forced, and provided you're fine with half of it hanging out.

The original Game Boy was well-known for its lousy, pea-soup tinted, two-color screen, but it could be powered for about 10 hours on two AA batteries. By contrast, Game Gear lasted a measly TWO hours on SIX AA batteries! Maybe that was by design though, because a Game Gear loaded with batteries is a heavy bastard to play for more than two hours.

Game Gear also had several unique accessories available – none of which did anything to enhance the portable aspect of the platform. There was the TV Tuner, which allowed you to watch color TV on your Game Gear; the Super Wide Gear, a magnifying glass that fit over Game Gear's screen; a large rechargeable battery pack that was laughably almost as big as the Game Gear itself; and my favorite, the Master Gear Converter – the only Game Gear accessory I own – a large component that attaches to the back of the Game Gear and allows you to play Sega Master System games (very few of which are actually worth playing unfortunately).

In the end however, it came back to the quality of the games available, and Game Gear simply didn't have enough of them. Many of the first games from Sega had a rushed-to-market feel, while second-rate publishers like U.S. Gold and Flying Edge released mostly garbage when the platform should have been hitting its stride. Sega did do a good job of porting over its key franchises to the Game Gear, as there were several games released from the Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi and Streets of Rage series, though RPG fans were hung out to dry as Sega choose not to release two titles from its popular Phantasy Star series in North America.

By the end its life cycle, there were several good games in the Game Gear library, but I had since lost interest in the platform and never got around to playing them. I missed out on games like Vampire: Master Of Darkness, Jurassic Park, Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi and Shining Force: The Sword Of Hajya. While I could probably track those games down at my local used game store, sadly, my Game Gear seems to be on its last legs, so I wanted to revisit the platform and the games I have for it while I still can. So without any further delay …


Columns (Sega, 1991)

Sega's obvious answer to Tetris, Columns was the pack-in game when the Game Gear launched in 1991, just as Tetris came with every Game Boy when it launched a couple years prior. Unfortunately, Columns isn't a very captivating puzzle game and can't hang with a masterpiece like Tetris. Rows of connected jewels drop down into a well just like in Tetris, but instead of wiping out lines of blocks, the job is to create space by matching up three or more jewels of the same color. Columns is indeed an impressive showcase for Game Gear's color screen, but for some reason the game doesn't progress past level nine, and there's no reward for setting high scores. Back in the day, Columns was pretty and mildly entertaining, but playing it today feels like wasting time. Perhaps the game's most lasting legacy: Capcom borrowed some of the basic gameplay from Columns to make their brilliant puzzle game, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, which was released for a variety of platforms and is now available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.


Ninja Gaiden (Sega, 1991)

Sega already had a version of their own ninja action game, Shinobi, on the Game Gear, but you can never have enough ninja games, so a reprogrammed version of Tecmo's blockbuster Ninja Gaiden was also available at launch. Sadly, this Game Gear version – while doing its best to mimic the action of Ninja Gaiden on the Nintendo Entertainment System and featuring some nice graphics here and there – kind of sucks. You control the lead character, Ryu, in a new adventure that departs from the storyline in the NES games. The story is told in animated cut scenes similar to the NES games, but they're very poorly written and rendered and don't do much to compliment the mediocre action. Ninja Gaiden on Game Gear isn't very difficult either. I think I remember completing the game less than a day after buying it, and it wasn't long after that I regretted not giving Shinobi a try instead.


G-LOC: Air Battle (Sega, 1991)

Another Game Gear launch title, G-LOC: Air Battle is a port of a little-known Sega arcade game, which itself was a successor to Sega's popular, high-octane, air combat game, Afterburner. G-LOC puts you in the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat and allows you to select from missions such as "SHOOT DOWN 40 FIGHTERS" or "DESTROY 15 WARSHIPS." The action itself isn't half bad. You're equipped with a vulcan cannon and missiles and can see incoming enemies on a handy radar display at the bottom of the screen. You can also accumulate points after every mission that allow you to upgrade weapons, fuel capacity and armor – a feature exclusive to the Game Gear version that does give the gameplay some needed depth. However, there's literally no variety in the mission objectives – it's always about shooting down fighters and destroying warships – and there's even less variety in the scenery you fly over (mountains or water). As monotonous as that seems, thankfully G-LOC isn't a very long affair, even on the "Expert" setting, so just as a simple air combat game, G-LOC is a solid but very unspectacular addition to the Game Gear library.


Dragon Crystal (Sega, 1991)

Dragon Crystal is a strange little game, intended, I think, to satisfy any role-playing gamers who bought a Game Gear at launch and had nothing to play. As I write this, I struggle to find the words to describe this game. A port of a Sega Master System title of the same name, Dragon Crystal puts you in control of a little hero as you navigate your way through a seemingly endless number of labyrinths. An egg follows you wherever you go, out of which a little dragon eventually hatches and grows as you gain levels. In all the times I've played Dragon Crystal, I've never seen the dragon do anything but follow you around, but then again, it's been many years since I've given the game very much of my time, so maybe the dragon contributes more to the game, and I've merely forgotten. In any case, the gameplay consists of walking through mazes, picking up objects, weapons and armor and fighting little monsters – not unlike Diablo only somehow a lot less fun (and, truth be told, I'm not much of a Diablo fan). Dragon Crystal apparently falls into an RPG subgenre called "roguelike," which I had never heard of before, but according to Wikipedia is "characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement." So maybe fans of roguelike games will want to track down a copy of Dragon Crystal. My thoughts after buying this game and playing it for the first time: "People who have Game Boys get to play Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda. I sort of wish I had a Game Boy right now."


Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega, 1991)

It was right around the time Sonic The Hedgehog was released on Game Gear that things began to look up for the handheld platform. Finally, Game Gear had a showcase platformer featuring Sega's iconic mascot. I managed to get a free copy of the game as soon as it came out through some kind of promotion Sega was doing to get people to buy Game Gears, and after enduring the never-ending mediocrity of Game Gear's library up to that point, much to my relief, the game was actually really good!

Sonic The Hedgehog on Game Gear captures much of what made the original Genesis game so fun. The levels aren't as large so there's not as much exploring to do, and sadly there are no loops to traverse or walls to break through, but everything else is just about perfect. The game really benefits from sky-high production values across the board, something previously unseen on Game Gear. Even the music is good. There are new zones to explore, bonus stages and Chaos Emeralds hidden throughout the zones. This was the first of nine Sonic titles released on Game Gear and one of the few Game Gear titles worth playing.


Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Sega, 1992)

Electronic Gaming Monthly apparently named Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for Game Gear the best portable game of 1992. I'm sure the folks at Sega really appreciated that free bit of publicity, because Sonic 2 is nowhere near as fun as its predecessor. Sure, the levels are bigger; Sonic can now smash through walls and collect rings he's dropped; and his pal Tails is featured in the game, but make no mistake, this game is a big letdown considering how good the first Sonic The Hedgehog was. Clearly, this game was made by a different developer than the first. Gone are the vibrant colors and crisp visuals from the first game. In their place are muddy colors, smudgy sprites and ugly environments. Also, Sonic 2 has some of the worst music and sound design I've ever heard in a Sonic game. The game is just brutal on the senses, and I see no reason for it other than the decision by Sega to hand the franchise over to another developer because, again, the first Sonic The Hedgehog had high-quality graphics and sound. The gameplay will still satisfy Sonic fans, and the game is definitely more challenging than the first, but to me, this is a clear step down in quality. Especially disappointing when you consider how good Sonic The Hedgehog 2 on the Sega Genesis is.


Defenders Of Oasis (Sega, 1992)

With the release of Defenders Of Oasis, Game Gear loyalists finally had a real role-playing game to call their own. Thankfully, it also happened to be very good – easily one of the top 10 games for the platform. An epic, turn-based RPG adventure in the same vein as the old Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games on the NES, Oasis puts you in a setting not often explored by other games in the genre: ancient Mesopotamia and its mythology. As in Dragon Warrior II & III on the NES, other warriors join your party throughout the game, including, awesomely enough, the famous Genie (of the lamp). This is as well-made a game as any RPG of the day, and though the storytelling is sometimes hampered by childish writing and suspect translation (a hallmark of RPGs back then), it's refreshing to be fighting in the desert against Ali Baba and his thieves using a jambiya as opposed to the standard RPG fare (say, for instance, fighting in a dungeon against a legendary dragoon with a bastard sword). Had Defenders Of Oasis been released on the NES, it would have been remembered as a classic. Those of us lucky enough to have actually played it will have to settle for recognizing it as one of the few great Game Gear titles.


Batman Returns (Sega, 1992)

Before Acclaim took over videogame adaptations of the Batman movies in the mid-1990s and nearly ruined the Batman brand name in the process, there were actually some really fun Batman games available for the various platforms, and Game Gear was no exception. Batman Returns is an action-platformer similar to Sunsoft's great Batman for the NES. Using the various locales from the film as backdrops, Batman fights mostly with his batarang, but can also punch; signal the Batmobile for reinforcements; jump and swing using his grappling gun; and float around using his cape. The graphics and sound are top-notch, the gameplay is smooth, and I like how you can choose between two routes before each stage. Working in game development for over five years now, I know how easy it can be to sleepwalk through the making of a licensed game, so I appreciate the ones that have high production quality and are fun to boot. Batman Returns is a pleasant surprise in the Game Gear library.


World Cup USA '94 (U.S. Gold, 1993)

The 1994 World Cup in the United States is still known as one of the most successful and exciting World Cups in history, but wow, what a mess of a soccer game this is. I don't know anyone who loves the sport of soccer more than me, and I take offense at this game because it's an insult to the sport. In a laughable attempt to make the game accessible to people of many languages, the game's many menus are filled with icons of the USA '94 doggie mascot doing various things that for the life of me I cannot decipher. These menus are the worst I've ever seen in a videogame and are an affront to humanity. If you can actually plow through the menu system and get a game going, it doesn't get much better. From an overhead view, tiny players scamper about like fleas on a gigantic field knocking the ball around. The action moves so fast you can hardly tell which player has the ball, and the crowd noise is mind-numbingly repetitive and annoying. None of the team rosters feature actual player names, so there isn't much authenticity to the proceedings. British publisher U.S. Gold put a lot of terrible games into the world in the mid-1990s, and World Cup USA '94 is certainly one of those games.


Mortal Kombat (Acclaim, 1993)

Let’s face it. Mortal Kombat was more than just a video game – it was a cultural phenomenon. I honestly always preferred Street Fighter II, but there’s no denying Mortal Kombat’s impact on the game industry and pop culture, and Game Gear can lay claim to having the best portable version of the infamous violent fighting game. It runs a bit slow compared to its Sega Genesis counterpart; the controls are sluggish; there are only two stages in which to fight; and the “Test Your Might” bonus levels are missing. However, the digitized characters look great, and even though a couple had to be left out, the ones that are there have made it into the Game Gear with all their moves intact. Entering a secret code enables spattering blood during fights, which is all anyone seemed to care about when the game made the transition from the arcades to the home consoles. Credit to the developer Probe for making an extremely playable version of Mortal Kombat for the Game Gear, which is more than can be said for the extremely lacking Game Boy version. Word is that the sequel, Mortal Kombat II, also handled by Probe, was even better.


Fatal Fury Special (SNK, 1994)

A superb port of the Neo Geo original by developer Takara, Fatal Fury Special might be the best fighting game on Game Gear and is certainly one of the platform's showcase titles. Concessions definitely had to be made to squeeze it into a Game Gear cartridge, but this is about as good a version of an arcade fighting game as you could hope for on a portable 8-bit platform. I must state that I'm not the biggest fan of SNK's fighting games (and there are many). I've always thought they were all just cheap imitations of Capcom's Street Fighter II. Fatal Fury Special on Game Gear is as close to Street Fighter II as you're ever going to get however, and I know a good game when I see one. Fans will be happy to know that the eight playable characters that did make it into the game have all of their signature moves intact – impressive considering Game Gear only has two buttons – and even Ryo from SNK's Art Of Fighting is among those playable characters. Fighting game fans with a Game Gear owe it to themselves to track down a copy of Fatal Fury Special.


FIFA International Soccer (EA Sports, 1994)

At first glance, FIFA International Soccer on Game Gear has no discernable differences from the Sega Genesis/Sega CD version. Credit has to go to the developer Tiertex Design for somehow shoehorning this game onto Game Gear. Granted, I was never a big fan of the original FIFA games, mostly due to the awkward isometric perspective during gameplay and the lack of any player or league licenses, and unfortunately, FIFA on Game Gear inherits all of those shortcomings. This is one great-looking game however, and the gameplay, while not great, moves at a good pace and is solid enough to make it the best soccer game available for the system.


NHL Hockey (EA Sports, 1995)

Once again, EA found a developer that managed to squeeze a Sega Genesis game into a Game Gear cartridge, and again the result is a great-looking game that plays only so-so. NHL Hockey looks nearly identical to the great NHL ’94 for the Sega Genesis/Sega CD. All the real players and teams are represented, as well as full season and playoffs modes. Unfortunately, the gameplay is much slower than its 16-bit brethren, and the controls are sloppy. Only one other hockey game was released for the Game Gear however – Sega’s NHL All-Star Hockey – which I’ve never seen nor played. I have played NHL All-Star Hockey on the Genesis and Sega Saturn, however, and I can definitively state that they were all garbage. NHL Hockey looks really, really good, and plays good enough that NHL fans might enjoy themselves. So I feel good in declaring NHL Hockey as the best hockey game for Game Gear.

In Closing …

It’s really fun looking back on the Game Gear days. Really, was there ever a more exciting time to be a gamer? We had Sega coming into its own with the Genesis; Nintendo wowing the industry with the Super NES; outsiders like NEC trying to grab a piece of the market with the TurboGrafx-16; Game Boy versus Game Gear versus Lynx versus TurboExpress – not to mention the thriving arcade scene. The current state of the game industry looks completely stale in comparison.

The Game Gear was the longest surviving competitor to the Game Boy, but in truth, was the first in a long series of failed game platforms for Sega. Still to come were the Sega CD, 32X, Nomad, Saturn and, sadly, the Sega Dreamcast, which to this day is known as the one Sega platform that had true potential. In the portable arena though, Nintendo is still the only one that has gotten it right – from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color to the Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Advance SP and now with the Nintendo DS and its many permutations. I still play my Game Boy Advance regularly (mostly when I’m in the bathroom).

The Game Gear will likely be remembered as nothing more than an interesting footnote in portable gaming, but at least back then it was possible for companies to take risks on a new gaming system. Of the major players in the industry back then, only Nintendo remains (though not the dominant force it once was). Perhaps that’s why I still support Nintendo: It’s the one true game company left and the last remaining link we have to a time when video games were original, exciting and, most of all, FUN. Sega’s Game Gear was ultimately a part of all that, which is why I still have mine.

Relevant Links

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Game Gear on Wikipedia

Wii = Fun!

My wife and I went into Toys R Us over the weekend to buy some presents for an adopt-a-family program, and of course, also walked out with a present for ourselves -- a new Wii! We promptly returned home and spent the rest of the weekend playing it, basically stopping only to eat. We had a blast, and at least for the foreseeable future, I see us spending our nights together not watching Netflix, but playing the Wii.

Among the current crop of game consoles, the Wii stands alone. Its small and nondescript presence under our TV belies the amount of fun to be had upon turning it on. Not only are Wii Sports, Wii Play, Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii totally unique and ridiculously fun games unavailable for any other system, but the Wii Virtual Console contains a stunning amount of old-school games from a variety of classic game consoles like the NES, Super NES, Turbo Grafx-16, Sega Genesis and Commodore 64. And that's not all. Nintendo somehow managed to squeeze four GameCube controller ports and two memory-card slots into the side of the Wii, so now I can play all the great GameCube titles I missed out on. Funny how Nintendo could do such a thing for the Wii, while I still can't play PlayStation and PlayStation2 games on my PlayStation3, which is about three-times the size of the Wii. Good job, Sony.

Granted, I wasn't impressed with the selection of Wii games currently on store shelves. Much of Wii's game library seems like kiddie stuff to me, and right now the only other game I really want to buy is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which came out about three years ago (and I'll probably end up opting for the GameCube version if I can find it). So I guess I understand why hardcore gamers have been dismissive of the Wii, but I also understand why so many people have embraced it. As long as it's taken me to get on the Wii bandwagon, there's one thing I can't deny: Nintendo has made video games fun again.

Lightening Force: Quest For The Darkstar (Thunder Force IV)

Developer: Technosoft

Publisher: Sega

Platform: Sega Genesis

Released: 1992

First of all, this game should have been called Thunder Force IV as it was in every other part of the world. The lame jackasses in marketing at Sega of America are responsible for this travesty of a title. Let's do a brief analysis ...

 
Lightening Force: Quest For The Darkstar. For the love of Christ, that's not even the proper spelling of lightning -- at least not anymore! I think people stopped using that spelling just after Chaucer died. According to Dictionary.com, "lightening" now has something to do with the uterus descending into the pelvic cavity in the late stages of pregnancy, so maybe these morons at Sega had something else in mind for this game.

And "Quest For The Darkstar?" What is that about? The game's cheap, black-and-white instruction manual actually elaborates on this unfortunate premise with an utterly laughable story that I won't give further attention by regurgitating here. This is what infuriates me about the executive and marketing side of the game industry. These people actually think they can do it better than the creative people responsible for making the game. What justification did these simpletons at Sega have in rewriting the storyline in Technosoft's prized action franchise? Thunder Force III was a huge hit on the Genesis two years prior. They had to think the sequel would sell at least as much, so they try to change the story? Granted, Technosoft's original story was hardly high literature. In fact, Thunder Force III was famous for its poorly translated in-game narrative, but it was 90 million-times better than this "Darkstar" garbage. So in retaliation for one of the many blunders in Sega of America's long, storied history, the game will be known as Thunder Force IV from here on out.

Thunder Force IV is one of the best action games for the Sega Genesis -- a platform loaded with great action games. However, it is not a better game than its great predecessor. It really wants to be. It really tries to be. It's surely one of the best-looking games ever released for the Genesis, and its production quality across the board is top-notch. It's in its over-reaching design choices that the game falls short of greatness.

You can't really fault Technosoft for trying new things with this game. Fans of the series were expecting something new with this installment, but how do you improve upon near perfection? For one, you can move your ship a full screens-length up and down while the action scrolls along horizontally. In theory, this would give you more room to maneuver, but there's no indication of where objects are off-screen, so this actually makes it easier to miss power-ups and crash into enemies. This was fixed in the sequel, Thunder Force V, which implemented a heads-up display that highlighted off-screen objects.

More problematic was the decision to mess with the weapons system. I loved all of the weapons in Thunder Force III -- not only for the way they looked, but for their usefulness. In Thunder Force IV, the Sabre, Lancer, Fire and Wave weapons have been replaced with Blade, Rail Gun, Snake and Freeway respectively. These new weapons still look cool for the most part but aren't as practical as their fore bearers. The Lancer-Rail Gun and Fire-Snake changes are mostly even swaps. However, Blade doesn't come close to the awesome destruction of the Sabre, and the Freeway weapon is just a pain in the ass to use.

It's easy to see why these changes were made. The addition of the wider playing area demanded new weapons to cover all of that open space. This was certainly the reason for the Freeway, though I don't think it works very well. I'm sure the Sabre was scrapped to accommodate the Thunder Sword -- a powerful, charge weapon you acquire in the game's later stages. The Thunder Sword is so strong that they probably needed to tone down the effectiveness of the main weapon to balance things out. Even so, I think the weapon changes hurt more than help overall, but at least the kept they Hunter -- a weapon which has became a staple in the series.

Honestly, these are my only real problems with the game. My only other gripe -- and this is minor -- is that Thunder Force IV is not quite as accessible to as wide an audience as Thunder Force III was. Indeed, Thunder Force IV is relentlessly difficult, especially in the game's later stages. Make no mistake, this game was made with hardcore gamers in mind, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. However, I still can't beat this game without using the 99-lives cheat in the option menu. The game's last two stages are just merciless, especially in "Maniac" mode. Much respect goes to those of you who can beat the game in this mode on a single credit.

Thunder Force IV is still a high-quality action game -- one of the best of the 16-bit era. This game couldn't have been ported to the Super NES and remained intact due to that platform's difficultly handling high-powered action games. It was tried by Seika with Thunder Force III, in the form of Thunder Spirits, and the result was less than pleasing. It's evident that Technosoft wanted to make the ultimate Genesis shooter with Thunder Force IV, and they damn-near pulled it off. You have to give them props for that.

Relevant Links

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Thunder Force on Wikipedia

Play Thunder Force IV on easyretro.com

The Great Games: Thunder Force III (Sega Genesis)

Developer: Technosoft

Publisher: Technosoft

Platform: Sega Genesis

Released: 1990

One of the frustrating things about video games for me is the utterly lame way we define certain genres within the industry. First-Person Shooter. Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Then there's my favorite genre: Unfortunately known as the horizontally or vertically scrolling shooter; the side-view or top-down shoot 'em up or more simply, the "schmup." That's right ... schmup. You could mix and match any of those words, and it would still make sense to any gamer as to what you're talking about, but I prefer to put them all in the category of Action Game. It's less specific to be sure, but much easier on the tongue and far less nerdy.

In any case, the genre is almost as old as video games are. Famous examples include Williams Electronics' Defender, Namco's Xevious and Konami's Gradius. Later games such Irem's R-Type and Seibu Kaihatsu's Raiden II upped the ante in terms of firepower and graphics, but the basic formula was the same: Guide your little starfighter through a variety of space-themed levels, blasting the holy hell out of anything and everything in your path.

I could write a whole story on the genre -- its evolution, the best games, the worst games -- in fact, I think I'll do just that in the very near future. For now, I want to focus on one of my all-time favorites, Technosoft's Thunder Force III.
 
Hardcore Sega supporters will remember Thunder Force III as one of the seminal games for the Sega Genesis. I remember I was in junior high when a neighborhood friend raided his parents' Christmas-present stash weeks before Christmas, found the game, opened it and played it in secret for days. He called me and told me I had to come over and play this awesome new game. He was right. Thunder Force III was the game that made me want a Genesis. Don't ask me how he managed to return the game back to its pre-Christmas hidey hole -- shrink-wrapped and all -- without his parents finding out.

Thunder Force III is the perfectly balanced action game. Good graphics, well-weighted gameplay, an excellent soundtrack, and a high tempo throughout. It doesn't have the visual flash of some similar games released a couple years later, but those games were in turn not as fun as Thunder Force III.

The game's story is pretty standard stuff as action games go, and is hilariously narrated in the game's conclusion in the form of scrolling text with one of the more famous examples of Engrish usage in recent memory. Basically, an evil computer is trying to take over the galaxy, and you and your little spaceship are the only ones who can stop it.

Thunder Force III does a pretty cool thing right at the start by allowing you to choose which level -- or in this case, planet -- you'd like to attack first. You're treated to a map of the galaxy which displays a group of planets with names like Hydra, Ellis and Gorgon (I've gotta say, I love those names). Of course, in typical video game fashion, each planet is dominated by extreme elemental conditions -- you've got the fire planet, the water planet, the ice planet and so on.

While practically every action title of the era had similarly themed stages, Thunder Force III makes inventive use of these scenarios in its level design -- they're not just backdrops for the action; they're part of the action. For instance, in Haides -- a rocky, cave-like environment -- frequent earthquakes shape and shift the surrounding rock formations as you progress through, and if you're not paying attention, you'll fly right into a cavern wall or rock. In Seiren, the water level, rising currents can push your ship into an enemy or other obstacle, while in Ellis, the ice planet, you have to constantly be aware of falling ice shards.

The weapons system in Thunder Force III is perhaps its most notable achievement. The way in which you acquire weapons is certainly nothing new. Just as in countless other games of this ilk, you simply have to shoot a tiny, fast-moving red ship to release a weapon icon, and pick it up. However, unlike a lot of other old-school shooters, once you've collected a weapon, it stays in your arsenal so you can select it anytime you need it. Also, the weapons themselves are unique and spectacular in their design and execution. Each one not only has a specific use depending on the situation, but they also look great. The game's most fun weapon to use, the Hunter, sprays shots that track and destroy in a very satisfying way, but it's not the best weapon to use against a level boss, as it doesn't inflict a great deal of damage. There's also the Wave, which penetrates through otherwise impenetrable environment objects; the Sabre, an extremely powerful weapon that cuts a clean path of destruction ahead of you; Fire, which is useful in tight spaces as it hits enemies above and below; and the Lancer, a deadly weapon which covers your rear. There's also the CLAW, a pair of small satellites that orbit your ship and essentially double your firepower, as well as absorb enemy fire; and the Shield, a force field which can take three hits before disappearing. I like how a voice, presumably the co-pilot's, announces each weapon when you acquire it.

Another gameplay feature that separates Thunder Force III from its counterparts is the ability to adjust the speed of your ship on the fly. Games in the Gradius and R-Type series forced you look for powerups to increase your ship's speed, while never allowing you to decrease it. Thunder Force III takes a more sensible approach in allowing you to adjust your speed from very slow to very fast (and two points in-between) as the situation demands.

When I play Thunder Force III, however, I don't think much about its technical and design achievements. In fact, one aspect of the game that's disappointing is the lack of spectacular, or even decent, explosions -- usually a basic requirement of action games. The meager explosive effects in Thunder Force III were probably a necessity to keep the game moving along without the slowdown that plagued most console action games of the late 80s and early 90s, but even so, they leave something to be desired.

Also, the game isn't that difficult, even in "Mania" mode. I don't think that hurts it at all, however. Whenever I play it, it's always set to "Mania," and it's always about finishing the game by losing the fewest amount of lives and gaining as many extra lives as possible, because your points total at the end is determined by such achievements. I like games that encourage high scores, and in this case, more tension and excitement is created in pursuit of the ultimate high score.

With Thunder Force III, it's all about the genuine feeling of excitement you get while playing through the game -- a sustained adrenaline rush few games achieve. This is helped greatly by, dare I say, one of the best soundtracks in any action game, period. A good musical score can go a long way in helping an action game achieve critical mass, and the music accompanying the mayhem in Thunder Force III is just about perfect -- especially through the game's first five stages. In fact, I would so far as to state no other game depends on its soundtrack more to carry it through some of its weaker moments.

Not surprisingly, Thunder Force III is just one game in a legacy that includes 12 releases across a variety of game platforms. Some of them have never been released in North America, and as such, I've never played the original Thunder Force, which came out in the early 80s on Japanese computers, nor the latest, Thunder Force VI, released last year for the Sony PlayStation2. I do own several games in the series however, including Thunder Force II, the first release of the series on the Sega Genesis; Lightening Force (known as Thunder Force IV outside of North America); and Thunder Force V, a Sega Saturn import which was released in North America on the Sony PlayStation as Thunder Force V: Perfect System. I also have Thunder Spirits for the Super NES, a sub-par translation of Thunder Force III that doesn't do the Genesis version justice.

All of these other episodes in the series only highlight why the third installment is so great. The sequel, Lightening Force, went all out in the visual department and ratcheted up the difficultly to insane levels, but in the process lost the balance that made Thunder Force III so playable and fun. Rare is the game that sacrifices excellence in one area of its production for the sake of maintaining an overall excellence.Thunder Force III finds a perfect blend of good ideas, good visuals, good gameplay and good sound, and the result is a Great Game.

Gameplay footage of Thunder Force III from YouTube:
 


Thunder Force III end sequence, including scrolling Engrish narrative:



Relevant Links

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Thunder Force series on Wikipedia

Play Thunder Force III at easyretro.com

The Great Games: Super Dodge Ball (NES)

Developer: Technos Japan Corp.
Publisher: CSG Imagesoft Inc.
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Released: 1988


I grew up in Buffalo, NY and attended a small, Catholic elementary school in the working-class neighborhood of South Buffalo, just a couple of blocks from our house. Apart from the crazy nuns who ruled with iron fists and the epic snowball fights that would erupt as we walked home after school, my most memorable times at the school were playing dodge ball during gym class and at Boy's Club on Friday nights.

The funny thing about dodge ball at the time was how many variations the game had -- rarely being the free-for-all scenario you commonly see nowadays. When I played in school, it was always two teams separated by a line that neither could cross. Hit an opposing player, and they're out. The team with the last man standing wins.

Sometimes the rules allowed players to be brought back into the match when their team caught an opponent's throw. Sometimes we played "Army Dodge" in which getting hit on a limb could force you to play hopping on one leg or playing with both arms behind your back. In another variation, "Doctor Dodge," a "doctor" would stand in a safe zone behind each team. When his or her teammates were hit, they were forced to lay down on the spot and wait for their doctor to run out and drag them back into the safe zone, after which they would be revived and could ran back out into the match. Hit the other team's doctor while he's performing this emergency service, and you win the game (this version of dodge ball was my favorite).

Dodge ball has since been mostly banned in schools because, I guess, of the "violent" act of throwing a ball at another human being, but the game has also enjoyed a renassiance of sorts as grown-ups and hipsters now play dodge ball in organized, adult leagues.

While I do still sometimes get a kick out of throwing things at people, I have no desire to play in one of these leagues. Besides, I've long had a game in my possesion that not only captures what made dodge ball so much fun as a kid, but also might be one of the most original and fun two-player games of the past 20 years.


Super Dodge Ball first hit North American shores in the arcades, but the version released on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1988 is the one that everyone remembers. I've met a couple of snobby gamers who dismiss this game as silly and point out all the slowdown and visual flicker that occurs when too many character sprites are on-screen at once, but make no mistake, Super Dodge Ball is a Great Game. 

Super Dodge Ball presents dodge ball not as the school-yard game we're all used to, but as a hardcore international sport on par with soccer. Although the every-man-for-himself Bean Ball mode does in fact pay tribute to dodge ball's roots by taking place in a school yard, the main one and two-player modes feature nine international teams competing in a World Cup-style format. The one-player story mode puts you in control of Team USA as they fly across the globe and play teams from nations such England, Iceland, India, Kenya, China and Japan, starting with a match in front of the Statue of Liberty against their American rivals, the Team All-Stars.

The various locales in Team USA's travels are great in capturing the flavor of each country. In England, you play on a cobblestone street in front of London's iconic skyline. Iceland's court, of course, is a sheet of ice which has players hilariously sliding all over the place, while in Kenya, the muddy ground makes running around difficult. The final match is against the USSR (it was the 80s after all), and in the fine Technos tradition of Double Dragon and River City Ransom eventually gives way to a battle against Team USA's dark, evil twins.

The two-player versus mode is more straight forward. The setting is more like that of an international friendly in soccer, in a neutral stadium, and even allows for each player to play as the same team, which is sometimes the best option for a totally fair match between experienced players. The great thing about Super Dodge Ball is that each team has various strengths and weaknesses, and every character in the game is rated among seven statistical categories, such as "Throwing Power" and "Damage Capacity." For instance, Team USA is a very well-rounded team, whose mercurial captain Sam possesses punishing power throws. India's players, on the other hand, all have very low numbers in the "Energy" category, but all can withstand a tremendous amount of damage before losing a health point -- especially the character Swami, who is almost always the last man standing and is damn-near impossible to kill.

The version of dodge ball played in Super Dodge Ball is a six-against-six affair in which the two opposing teams play on a court divided by a center line. Each team consists of three players on each side, along with three additional players who occupy the out-of-bounds space surrounding the opposing team's side. This is an important detail, as this setup allows for some really fun gameplay dynamics. Not only can you fake out your opponent by passing to these guys and attacking from behind, but you can also senselessly nail the ones surrounding your team from point-black range as they stand there defenseless.

Of course, there are other differences between this game and its real-life counterpart -- the most obvious being that every character in Super Dodge Ball possesses two signature power throws -- one while running on the ground and one while in midair. These throws are embued with snazzy special effects and inflict heavy damage on the other team, but can also be caught and nullified like any other throw. Another obvious departure from the dodge ball of your childhood: These characters actually DIE when their energy is depleted -- becoming little angels that float up to, well, heaven I suppose.

There are other fun gameplay touches, like when a character with low energy will stop for a few seconds to catch his breath after taking a hit or running around too much, which leaves him mouth-wateringly wide open to an attack. I also love how characters will sometimes sneakily step over a line to snatch the ball before an opposing player can pick it up, and how a computer-controlled teammate will also frantically ask for the ball if you look in his direction.

I also like the basic arsenal of moves the player is given. You can run, jump, dodge, catch, pass and throw -- that's quite a bit for a controller with a d-pad and two buttons.

The game does have a few flaws, chief among them is the inability to play as any team in the one-player mode. Guiding Team USA to the world title is fun, but it wouldn't have been difficult for Technos to give the player the freedom to choose between all the teams. Also, the Japanese version of Super Dodge Ball supported the NES four-player adapter, called the Satellite in the US. Apparently the game was released in North America before the Satellite was, hence that support being removed for its release here. That's too bad, because while the Bean Ball mode is fun with two players, it would have been an absolute blast with four (though I do wonder if that would have worsened the already bad sprite flickering and slowdown that sometimes plagues this mode).

I also have to mention Super Dodge Ball's soundtrack -- it's utterly brilliant. Whomever composed the music for Technos' games has to be considered a genius in how he or she got such memorable and imaginative tunes out of the NES hardware. Each stage in Super Dodge Ball has its own unique score, and while some people can't stand the MIDI format, somehow each track evokes the setting and action in a really fun and light-hearted way. You'll find the same kind of brilliance in all of Technos' other NES games, from Double Dragon II: The Revenge to the great River City Ransom.

While Super Dodge Ball was something of a cult hit in North America, in Japan it was merely one title in a popular series of related sports and action games by the developer Technos. Of the sports games, only the soccer game made to our shores -- published by Nintendo as Nintendo World Cup. The classic Technos game, River City Ransom, featured the familiar school-yard setting, as well as Technos' signature character design, but was actually more of a parody of Technos' own arcade hit Double Dragon.

Even though smart gamers have been championing Super Dodge Ball as a classic since it was released, it has finally become recognized as such after languishing in obscurity for many years. While Japanese gamers have had more than their share of dodge ball-related videogames, it wasn't until recently that sequels began appearing in North America.

Super Dodge Ball Advance was an early title for the Game Boy Advance, and while it was developed by former members of the original team and had fantastic graphics, it was severely lacking the playability and fun of the original.

Another new portable game, Super Dodgeball Brawlers, was released last year for the Nintendo DS, but again, while the visuals were excellent, somehow it failed to capture what made Super Dodge Ball so fun.

Luckily, fans of the original can now find it on Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console.

Gameplay footage of Super Dodge Ball from YouTube:




Relevant Links

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Super Dodge Ball on Wikipedia

Play it on your PC at nintendo8.com