My Top 100 Sega Genesis/Megadrive games - Part 1

Part 1 (100 - 91)

Part 2 (90 - 81)

Part 3 (80 - 71)

Part 4 (70 - 61)

Part 5 (60 - 51)

Part 6 (50 - 41)

Part 7 (40 - 31) 

Part 8 (30 - 21)

Part 9 (20 - 11)

Part 10 (10 - 1)

Sega Genesis/Megadrive is part of my early childhood. So i'm inspired to make my top 100 Sega Genesis/Megadrive games but alas! I only played less than 100 games in my childhood. But don't you worry! I eventually find other favorite game to put in the list.

I will make other version of this top 100 games for other console. You may think this is too ambitious of me but you see. This top 100 list is actually cunning way of me to show off more various games with less screenshots. Oops! I spilled the beans.

Anyway on each article i enlist 10 games starting from bottom to top. So here it is:

#100 Heavy Nova 

First, we have Heavy Nova. It’s pretty early game for Sega Megadrive made by Micronet in 1991. The title screen doesn’t contain any information regarding the gameplay. If you didn’t know the game, you probably think this is space shooter game and you are wrong.      

 

The game is 2D beat em up game with robots. You control this taller humanoid robot. Left and right on D-Pad to move the robot left or right. Up on D-Pad to initiate jet thruster. Down on D-Pad to crouch. ‘A’ button to punch. ‘B’ button to kick. These small robots may seem easy prey for your taller robot but your punch will sail above them harmlessly. No attack can be performed while crouching. Having no crouching attack is very bad thing on 2D beat em up game. Fortunately, by pressing kick button your robot will perform heel drop that very suitable to defeat these small robots    

 

After dealing with smaller robots and mines, I reach the boss level and the game turns into Fighting game. My robot has more move in this mode like this flying kick. But it’s not performed by special command input. It comes out in range context. If I press kick button while there’s some distance between my robot and my opponent here, my robot does this elegant kick. Beside more expanded moveset, there’s power bar. The longer the bar, the more damage you can inflict. However, it drains by some amount everytime you attack. So, this power bar prevents you to mash button randomly to win the fight. But tell me, does Street Fighter 2 implement this power or stamina bar like in this game? Of course not! The fight will be slow if Capcom do that. Besides the robots are sluggish.

 

Apparently, there’s leveling system. Now, my robot has ability to grab. He can grab grounded opponent and later slam them hard by grabbing their head. Very satisfying.   

The game is tedious. The platforming part is quite bad and the fighting part is lackluster in every aspect. However, I can’t hate a game where a robot can perform Pile Driver. That’s also why I love Guardians. I played this game in my childhood with my older brother and we like it. I’m pretty certain the real charm of this game is in 2 players mode. You can forget the tedious platforming level and just straight duke it out with your relative in 2 players mode. It’s certainly not as fine as Street Fighter 2 but it’s pretty enjoyable.

This game probably my first experience in fighting game. It’s not that bad. I mean it could be worse. Like what if 3 y.o. Werdito was exposed to first Street Fighter instead, right?

#89 Lethal Enforcer II

 

Next, we have Konami’s Lethal Enforcers 2. Why I choose the 2nd game? That’s because this game has wild west setting whereas first Lethal Enforcers takes place in modern era. In wild west setting, you got gun that’s more primitive than in present days. That way, the gameplay become more challenging and fun.

 

The control is straight forward and simple. D-Pad to move the reticle. ‘A’ button to shoot and ‘B’ button to reload. Shoot the enemies before they shoot you. You can also use your gun to find hidden item like that rifle behind “Bank” signboard.   

 

Then inside the bank, I shoot some bandit with Cannonball. I certainly break that bandit’s ribs along with right lung. I know shooting human with cannon seems overkill but tell that to 18th century warfare. Napoleon or other war leader don’t think using cannon to defeat human soldiers, as overkill. Most likely.

 

The bosses on Lethal Enforcers 2 are typical someone with big health and has projectile that you can shoot to deny their attack. However, in “Saloon” level the boss fight is annoying and tedious. It tries to replicate shooting duel but in very unfair manner because I’m alone against these 3 schmucks. 2nd player can make this boss fight easier. In this boss fight, you only allowed to shoot at someone who ready his gun but it’s in random order and the pause between these bandits ready their gun and fire is very short. If the allowable target is on the other corner of the first target, you won’t make it. I wish there’s a button to move the reticle faster. If the solution is: use Konami Justifier, that’s kind of not good solution. I mean sure, you can aim faster with the lightgun pistol but accuracy can be iffy.      

 

Later levels feel more irritating. I mean very loathsome. To the point of being dick or arsehole, if you will. Not only the enemies shoot faster, but also they come out in unexpected spot. Like that desperado hangs under the train. First, how he’s able to do that? Is he used to be circus performer or something? Second, no way his aim is deadly or accurate enough to hit me. He’s hanging upside down while pointing his gun for God’s sake!

 

Not only the enemies getting unexpected, but also the civilians. See that old man in the left side, who look like British colonial explorer? Of course, I instinctively shoot him. Turns out, he just points a lantern at me. Does he think he’s in Amnesia game or something? Put that lighting tool and wave your arm mindlessly like other reasonable civilians.

I had some rough experience with this game however this final boss fight is very neat. This Amerindian Necromancer keep summoning skeletons that when give enough time will throw axe at you. Naturally, you can kill (or maybe the correct term is unkill maybe?) the skeletons but their head will bite or headbutt you. The solution to this is shoot their head so you can neutralize them safely. Not only the necromancer summons skeletons to aid him but also shoot fireball directly at you. You can negate his attack by shooting like in other boss (other than the trio gun duelist) but with extra layer of clever strategy.

Even though my overall experience with Lethal Enforcers II is relatively rough and tedious, this game deserves to be in the list because of cannon, Gatling Gun, and the final boss.

#98 Terminator  

That's the picture of Arnie himself as Terminator, robot that come from future to kill Sarah Connor thus annihilating the leader of human resistance in future: John Connor. Young me only know Terminator 2 and he thinks it was awesome. He thinks this game is based on it but obviously not. Silly him. This one is based on the prequel where you play as Kyle Reese, one of best soldier of human resistance and he tries to prevent the assassination.      

 

Here he is in military get up completes with cap. The first thing he fight is this sub-boss! Other game gives you some free place to acquaintance with the control and throw easy to dispatch slow enemy one or two. Not in here, Kyle must defeat this big robot that capable of rapid firing relentlessly. Kyle's attack is grenade lobbing which is perfect to land hit on the sub-boss' weak point there on its abdomen but its firing in general direction where you will stand to lob grenade successfully. Note that you can't lob grenade while jumping. Think of this big robot like Asylum Demon in Dark Soul.     

Then flying HK impedes Kyle Reese's mission. I laugh at those bombs with cute parachute but they got me good. I can't avoid them. Oh duh! I can destroy them with my infinite grenade. I even able to destroy the flying HK with it.

The grenade is decent weapon until i fight these Arnie's clone in narrow corridor. The grenade keep hitting the ceiling. I can throw grenade while crouching but the throwing range become shorter. On the other hand, the enemies firing their rifle immediately plus the bullet travels really fast. There's random chance that deceased enemy will drop cylinder canteen that can replenish my health but most likely i get killed first before i get the health pickup. Kyle Reese terminated...before even meet Sarah Connor and later make John Connor.  

 

I give it another try but this time i lower difficulty to easy. Now the game put machine gun near the first ladder on this underground section. The gun is awesome! It's hitscan weapon. Those Arnie's clones don't stand a chance at all now.

Judging by the jankiness of difficulty (especially the way the game forces you to take damage) and the visual art, i can tell that this game is Amiga-ish. Speaking of it, there's difference between Europe version and USA version due to difference in television setting. In Europe version, enemy's projectile speed is reasonable while in USA version it becomes too fast.

Even with all of jankiness, i still think this game is my favorite. It's also pretty short only consists of 5 or 6 short stages.  

#97 Pit Fighter

We got Pit Fighter, next. I think this game is staple for every Sega Genesis owner in my country Indonesia, next to Golden Axe at the time.

 

There are 3 characters that I can pick: Buzz the wrestler, Ty the Tasmanian tiger the kickboxer, and Kato the blackbelt Karateka. I’m not sure who’s my main back then. Probably Kato because he can strike like Hadou-Ken move but without the projectile. Alas! I don’t remember how to pull that out except mashing punch button and it doesn’t work.

The control is quite simple. D-Pad to move your fighter around. ‘A’ button to punch. ‘B’ button to kick. ‘C’ button to jump. Pressing both ‘A’ and ‘B’ button to grab opponent. The throw kind of lame though. You hoist your opponent above your head and then toss them away.

 

Next opponent is Southside Jim. Due to limitation of Sega Genesis, Jim has distorted leg. But never mind that. This match has more complexity with the presence of crate and knife that you can throw at Jim.      

 

Suddenly, a spectator stabs me from behind. How rude! Also, bad sportsmanship if you can call illegal fighting is sport.

 

There’s bonus stage takes form in mirror match. Instead of health, you have knock down count. Any attack that doesn’t knock your opponent, is useless. So, I rely on the big jump kick. Now that I think about, this jumping kick resembles the one in Heavy Nova.     

 

The scoring screen is pretty iconic where your fighter is lifted by forklift. The higher your fighter get lifted, the more money you get on the bottom of the fork. To be honest, it doesn’t make sense. Plus, the money look like moss in Sega Genesis’ graphic engine.

The graphic and the music is worse than arcade version but it’s serviceable and pretty good port for the console.

#96 Golden Axe II

I believe everyone agree that Golden Axe is awesome game when it comes out or even to this day. But the first sequel feels kind of lackluster. We shall see about that later.

Maybe someone at Sega got complaint about midget/leprechaun/Halfling/Tuyul kicking to get magic potion in prequel so Sega decide to change them into black mage a la Final Fantasy like. Once you knock them out, they drop spellbook that increase your magic by one. But they are against that so they fight back by shooting slow magic orb. At least better than no resistance by those midget/leprechaun/Halfling/Tuyul.

The first Bizzarian you get in this game is this lizard that gives your enemies nasty back kick. Sadly, it's not as intuitive as chicken leg with its tail sweep.   

 

Then there's lots of reskin of old enemies. Including that minotaur. It's basically just that big bald giant with hammer only get make over into something less human. I also like to add that the playable characters are the same: Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gillius Thunderhead. In terms of gameplay, there's not much change from the prequel. There's new magic casting mechanic where you can hold the magic button to determine the power. The longer you hold the button, the stronger the magic that you cast. But you can also change it into the old mechanic of "with simple single press of magic button, you will spend all of your magic".      

 

Gillius magic is now rock magic. I'm still not impressed with this game.

 

On to duel mode. It's ok. the chicken leg is back! And i ride the red version of lizard that can breathes fire. I'm delighted!

PS: While playing as Ax Battler here, i keep singing the intro of Conan the adventurer (Youtube link).

It has the same problem with Final Fight 2 which doesn't improve the gameplay formula from the prequel. But there's more Bizzarians and new magic system. They count for something. The game still worthy on my list anyway. So give it a shot!   

#95 Blackthorne

Next we got Blackthorne. Blizzard entertainment is involved in this as publisher if i'm not mistaken. Back in 90s, i only knew Blizzard from Warcraft 2. So what's this game is about?

It's cinematic platformer which is the genre of Prince of Persia but with gun. I know other cinematic platformer with gun: Flashback. This one is more in metal music-like tone. You play as buff guy who looks like belong to rock band with shotgun and black shade. Turns out he's prince from other world who barely escape from kingdom that's invaded by demonic army. Now he's back to free the kingdom. I haven't played this game for years as i practice with control i accidentally kill a prisoner. Oops!

The control kind of complex. "A" button to holster/draw your shotgun. While your gun is drawn, "B" button to shoot forward, and "C" button to shoot backward. While your gun holstered, "B" button to jump, holding "C" button plus direction left/right to run. There's practice (tutorial) that you can access from main menu if you need to train before the game started.

 

I took many medieval fantasy like children take candies in Halloween night, so i thought the orc doesn't have gun but i was wrong. They also have the benefit of using gun too so our hero doesn't have much advantage but at least he doesn't use sword or whatnot. You can hide to background by pressing up on d-pad. Let them shoot their gun while hiding, once  they finish they will pump their gun for awhile before hiding and there's your opportunity to land a hit on them.

 

Enemy can whack you if you hide near them thus preventing turtling. I wish i can do melee hit too. Unlike Flashback where i can whip pistol anyone there plus you can chain it after rolling which has better distance and faster. But in terms of visual presentation, i like Blackthorne better.

 

There's tougher enemy that you can't kill with shotgun. Preposterous! One big thing i learn from Doom: every demon and alien can be killed with shotgun blast and Blackthorne defies it! So the solution to this you have to use limited-in-quantity bomb which can also destroy door. So you can get soft-locked if you use to many bomb but fortunately the game has password system so you can restart the level easily. Throughout the level, there's prisoners that are either locked in chain or digging with some kind of sophisticated proton tool. They usually talk same dialogue like NPC in RPG but some of them gives you key or healing potion.

This game is good and neat but unfortunately i'm not so fans of cinematic platformer genre and note that you can't reconfigure the control. However i can dig this and probably will continue play it so it's belong in the list!

#94 ESWAT

Next on the list is another SEGA's game: ESWAT with subtitle "City under siege" which gives the title "B" grade movie feeling. Up to this day, i don't think i know for sure what E in ESWAT stands for. Enhanced? Eradicator? Extraordinary? Some people says that ESWAT is homage of Robocop and i can see why. Because both of them are police in blue cybernetic steel suit. Ok, add Megaman homage into the mix because of that cannon arm. Note that the arcade version of ESWAT is very different than here.

But both game starts you as ordinary officer for some first stages. The first boss level is a chopper. You may think single policeman against a combat chopper seems overwhelming but once you memorize the pattern the first stage boss is pretty easy.

This boss fight feels plain compared to Angry Video Game Nerds against helicopter guitar.   

By destroying that helicopter, i get promoted from captain to chief but still no super armor yet. Instead, i have to infiltrate cyber prison and ends up fighting 2 evil robot who most likely stage a massive jailbreak. Again, this may look overwhelming but you should know that their bullet can be destroyed with yours. One is content with shooting while standing while the others jumps pretty often and shoot while crouching. In the shooter platformer game like this the key to survive is crouch when encounter enemies and then shoot them. This cliché makes me bored and This game is no different. At least you can move while crouching but not as fast as in Vice: Project Doom.    

After finishing this mission, you're allowed to don the super suit.

 

Lucky for you and me, i keep a savestate so i can skip to final stage. While wearing super armor, you gain access to bigger health bar and stronger weapons but you have to pick them up first. This rocket launcher for instance. The rocket will crawl through floor even if you aim the weapon up like this. It's useful for this descending elevator section like this or defeating enemy behind obstacle.       

 

The final boss is the leader of terrorist organization named E.Y.E which i don't know what it stands for and he's on super suit like mine but gold. He fires Plasma Cannon (abbreviated as P.C.) like what i have. I can shoot it normally for small plasma projectile but if i wait a bit it before firing it will get bigger and deal more damage. The way he use the P.C. is to wait to get bigger first. So  you can't just damage race with the final boss. My tips for this final fight is get to upper platform and use Rocket Launcher blindly or using other weapon  and shoot him offscreen

 

Later he uses the flamethrower weapon and overheat his armor. Once i approach him (otherwise the game won't progress), his suit explode and mine too. So we duel only with handgun. In rather bland twist, the final boss is a robot. Like all robot in this game, he's destined to explode. No jail for robot. You see what happens if 2 evil robot go to jail like in stage 2, instead of execution? That's why we no longer take robot into custody.  

Then our protag leaves the burning E.Y.E Headquarter. No suspect to arrest. No Eyewitness. Perfect day, officer! I notice that the police car is the same as in Streets of Rage. So i like to make theory that after destroying the terrorist organization and losing his super suit, he choose to be support for Axel and Co rather than take action directly. This incident gives our hero here some mental breakdown due to super suit loss, so give him a break.   

Aside of featuring super suit, there's not much to this game. Why SEGA don't give the player opportunity to be in super suit from the beginning? Considering it's the main feature of the game. You get infinite weapon than your standard bullet but if you die you will lose the weapon that you use last time. There's interesting mechanic of jetpack where you can fly freely but not infinitely. Once you get the power suit there's not much else that game can offer. The flamethrower weapon is one time use weapon that drain fuel bar up to yellow zone thus allow you only to float. Fuel bar can replenish over time but it takes very long time to fill entire bar from yellow zone. Later stage there's special floor that can recharge your fuel bar thus allowing you to use jetpack more frequently for more complex platforming but that's about it. The game feels stretches its welcome with overly long stages. There's no password that allow you to continue in the middle of them. There's only 3 continues that feels too few for finishing the game.

But again, i feel like it belong in my top list although it's partially because i played in when i was young. ESWAT is not bad only feel bland and boring if play too long.

#93 Splatterhouse 3

Now we're into horror territory with Splatterhouse 3 in #97. Quick summary who's new to the series: Guy named Rick wear Terror Mask (that may or may not hockey mask) turns into muscular guy that kill all sort of grotesque monsters. If you think pious guy that does exorcism feels very vanilla. Bootleg Jason Voorhees A muscular guy that wears unholy mask bashing monster left and right that makes bloody mess probably to your liking. Quick recap: 1) In the first game, Rick tries to rescue Jennifer his girlfriend but she turns into monster and Rick has no other choice to kill her. 2) In the second game, Rick rescue Jennifer from hell and effectively makes her alive again. Now, Rick married with Jennifer and have a son David. All goes well until Evil One arises inside his house thus making it filled with monster. So who you gonna call? Not this time though. Terror Mask is back and Rick have no choice but to wears it and bust all the monster by himself. At least he doesn't need to pay service to exorcist or group of men carrying proton pack.  

Unlike previous installment, Splatterhouse 3 is side scrolling beat em up instead of plain 2D beat em up. Good news for me who's the big fan of the genre. Rick has long reach on his job but unfortunately enemies have even longer reach. See that monster long arm plus his long claw? That's what i'm talking about. You don't get to see enemy's health bar at all but you can see their damaged state when they're close to die like in here where they lost their head after my severe beating.

To get far in this game you have to rely on this spinning kick with input command: back, forward + attack. It doesn't matter whether you assume back is left or right and vice versa, it will works anyway. By spinning like demented water sprayer, Rick is invincible during the move and he can deal bigger damage than combo. Moreover, enemies will be knocked away less than with other attack. You think move that makes enemies knocked in less distance is disadvantageous, you're right if you're talking about other Side-scroller brawler. But in Splatterhouse 3, you have to be efficient with the time. If they knocked too far, sometime they like to hang out offscreen instead get back to fighting Rick as soon as possible like manlier monster. You see, there's tight time limit in this game and it determines whether you are able to save Jennifer and David or not. If timer runs out before you defeat boss in some stages, they die.

Things get more complex as you are given maze on each stage. You can see the map by pressing start button when you have cleared a room from monsters. X marks the spot, i mean the finish line. On other stage you have to race to that X as fast as you can and beat the boss or Jennifer or David die. So choose the path wisely. The answer may be obvious to take the shortest route, but i'm informed that it's filled with lots of monster, even more than in longer route. Yellow door is shortcut, or so i heard. While the white door is one-way entrance.       

 

Yes, i know that the timer reaches "0" but in this boss fight it doesn't matter. Maybe if you reach boss here before running out of time, you will have to restart the stage of something i'm not sure. Anyway, he is the Evil One. With the power of dark stone he will rule the world unless you defeat him that is. He's pretty easy to deal with. He like to shoot fireball from his forehead to the floor. You can jump him and give his forehead some serious kick. He's like Ryu player who like to spam Hadouken but don't know how to unleash dragon uppercut. I forget to tell you that besides heart that refill your health there's blue orb that will fill power bar when picked. If the power bar is filled, Rick can transform to become more muscular and monstrous than ever. In this form, he deals more damage and takes less damage. There's rumor that he can shoot tendril, replacing the spinning kick move but i have no idea what's the input command for it.

With Evil One defeated, the game ends right? Haha! No. The terror mask possess the shattered body of the evil one and claim he will rule over the world! My question and everyone's: how the hell Rick still wears Terror Mask if it possess the villain's deceased body? I know that the developers aren't that cruel leaving mask-less power-less wimpy real Rick to fight against the final boss. Let's just say there's still some part of Terror Mask that becomes  one with Rick.

The first form is easy to deal like Evil One. But when it takes 2nd form, you're really in world of pain and agony. It shoots fast spikes and it likes to conjure the phantom of its own image that homing on Rick really hard. It doesn't move fast but it keep chasing you for very long time and Rick is not built for speed. He's really slow. He's slightly faster than that P.O.W but that doesn't mean much. Almost everything is faster than Rick. Is that not enough to agitate you, the final boss also like to teleport around if Rick approaches him. Somehow, the only reliable way to damage it is by grabbing it. If you manage to jab it, it will immediately counter your attack thus interrupting your combo everytime. Once you throw it like a sack of garbage, it will conjure the phantom and you have to run to corner and hope the phantom will vanishes before reaches you or it won't conjure the seconds one after the other has vanished. I should mention earlier that the shadow can take lots of your health. You can minimize the damage if you have transformed first or you can negate it once if you transform before the phantom reaches you.

 

Finally, i defeat it with barely any live and hitpoints left. Alas! I use the password in which Jennifer is dead. Thus i face the ending where David ask where's Jennifer. I know that green color represents how sad David is when he lost his mother but he looks more like ghost to me which makes the ending is even worse. Rick will be haunted by ghost David over losing her mother for eternal.  

 

This is much better but less lighting than this will be better, guys! The game offers you multiple endings but as far as i know they only consists of 1 screen only. Another difference although not significance is Terror Mask's last words change depends on ending you got but that's all there to is.

To make playing this game more enjoyable you should activate cheat that disable timer if it exists or using password. You should also choose the password carefully as there's different password for each route (Jennifer lives or not and David lives or not). It seems enemies like to waste your time instead of your life like what manlier monsters do. They take too many hits. With racing against time, i can't enjoy the combat like in other beat em up game which is freaking shame. There's some enjoyable thing in this game such as using weapon and there's quick throw move executed by holding down or up + attack. It deals less damage but it's executed faster than regular throw (holding left or right + attack) and throw enemies in less range which can save your precious time.

Even with mandatory of using password or whatnot, Splatterhouse 3 deserves to be in the list. Can say no to beat em up game, you see.

#92 Golden Axe III

Golden Axe III has the opposite problem with Golden Axe II. It tries something new but not favorable on some part even though the title screen is pretty the same with the first game.

 

You get 4 character to select excluding Gillius Thunderhead as he's content with only freeing the one that you chose from curse. There's the old character: Tyris and Ax. While there's new character: some burly big guy and this panther-man. I don't know their name so i just assume the panther-man is T'challa and i'm stick with it. The midget/leprechaun/Halfling/Tuyul is back and i proceed to whip them with my tail. Demoman_taunts05.wav.

 

The first Bizzarian is this two-legged snail that attack with tongue. Again, not as good as Chicken Leg. I feel like the graphic in this game is grainy. I'm not talking about this desert stage. The graphic is just not good to me. Compared to the first game that has smoother graphic and brighter color.      

 

Phoenix from Fighting Master comes in, drop this armored man, and then leaves. You chicken! After defeating the knight, you get to choose the path between (another) barren land yonder or grassy hamlet. I choose the latter

 

The panther-man's magic is mist: mist that passing by, 2 mists that collide vertically, and the most powerful one is the same later but with thunders. I bet the thunders are the most damaging part of the magic. His magic is something but feels not satisfying somehow. Maybe because i can't grasp the concept of mist that hurting enemies. Beyond that, you have to fight other heroes that you don't choose. Beat them and the spirit that possess them is gone. Not good boss fight design, i must say.   

 

On to duel mode. It's become fighting game more than ever with addition of health bar. I forget to tell you about the moveset. There's like 3 combo depends on the distance between you and your opponent like in previous game. Combo that initiate within longest range does least damage but maximum reach. Combo that initiate within medium range does mid damage with mid reach. The Combo that initiate within close range has become like grabbing akin in Final Fight style. There's new input move: back+attack. When in neutral, it will initiate block that allow you to negate enemy's attack for set of time. While in middle of combo, you will unleash early combo finisher. Useful if you have urgency to end the combo fast. While in grabbing, you will throw enemy backward and it's the only big finisher in grabbing. There's jump+attack move that useful when you're surrounded by enemy and forward jump+attack will unleash strong attack but with some delay. The move maybe guard break, a strong attack that can break enemy's block. The magic system is back to " use all magic potion within a button press". There's also low attack with input down+attack that bypasses block, maybe?   

As i said before that Golden Axe III tries something new but on some part, they're not good. The graphic and music are gritty. The combo flows more slowly and the running speed is significantly slower. Some of the boss fight are just fighting other heroes. I think the game becomes nigh unwinnable on final level. But there's new thing that works well like you can destroy some object to reveal magic potion or food item. The moveset is quiet good and the roster is fine. Overall the game is worth to try for new moveset that relatively functional.

#91 Super Off Road

It's pretty unusual of me to like racing game but here it is. Super Off Road fills my childhood with joy and bit of agony. Why agony? You will see later. Note: there's Denso trademark on the car. Either Denso endorse this game or the developer can get on with it without being noticed by Denso's lawyer.

 

Right on the start, the game presents you with woman in bikini, and very showy on top of that. Innocent young Werdito ignores this back in the day. How nice of him. I know that race queen is ordinary part of racing industry but not him too. He's too naive to understand about it. Anyway, after putting your name, the game ask you to define the control. Unusual but pretty nice of them. Beside D-pad for direction, you only need 2 buttons: Nitro boost and acceleration

 

I'm there controlling the red car. You complaint that the cars are too small to see and you're correct. That's my problem with this game. Another problem is there's no arrow that indicates where you supposed to go in entire track and the tracks always have overlapping route. The only indicator for that is where the cpu-controlled cars move. They always know where to go. Colliding with them can throw your car off from track and that happens frequently. The status hud is simple and also too small to be conveniently read. You get Lap in which you're in and the number of nitro boost that you currently have. You notice that i have no nitro boost. Even though i have cash in the beginning to buy some, i decided not to buy nitro boost because of my nature being cheapskate. It was bad decision. To get this far in this game you should have nitro boost. Accelerating your car as much as possible sometime is not enough to win the race. This principle is akin to in Top Gear 2.  

 

I end up in last place but at least i get some cash by picking a money bag back there. This time i learn my mistake, i will buy some nitro boost even though it's for short-time use compare to these permanent upgrades. You probably know the gist of them. Tires for better handling or in other words: capability to turn your car better/sharper and speed to increase your car's maximum speed. Shockbreaker is fairly unusual for upgrade in other racing game. It's to suppress your car's wobble usually due to ramps, hills and holes. Since this is off-road, you will meet them a lot. I think bumping into another car also cause wobble. Wobbling makes your car slow so shockbreaker can increase your car efficiency and pretty essential upgrade too.

 

You see that fart in front of my car? That's the effect of nitro boost from other competitor and it smells funny. There's grey cylinder on the corner left of finish line. That's nitro boost pick up. I should get it because i depleted my nitro boost!  

 

Sniper_cheers02.wav. I'm on 3rd place. Let's ignore the fact that other champions are like me. At least the ladies are various and i get the one with the wildest haircut. She's probably Tarzan's daughter. I'm down with that. Someone become Tarzan's son-in-law is not something you don't see every day.

Super Off Road has problem on display with everything being too small so the developer can cramped entire track into one screen. I believe Micro Machine can make racing game better to look while playing. At least you won't get problem with split-screen. The direction control is pretty much tank control: left on D-Pad to turn left and right on D-Pad to turn right. If i remember correctly, if you get to final position twice you will lose continue and you get limited amount of it. With no password system or whatnot, the continue system feels cruel. Nonetheless, it's still fun racing game. It has useful pick up items and purchasable upgrades. But getting hit by other racer that ruins your racing is annoying. If you can overlook that inconvenience, it's still good racing game that you can play in short term. 

Here's the list so far:

That's it for this part. See you on next part and hope that your favorite game will be on the list, somehow.

 

 

Garou - Mark of The Wolves (Neo Geo)

What's with me review SNK fighting game one after another? I'm not a huge fans of SNK's fighting game, even. There's fact that there's dozens fighter game made by SNK even more than from bigger company such as Capcom (which i'm fans of due to their Beat em up games) or Konami (who no longer make any fighter game to this date). Imagine: there's several Samurai Shodown games, some Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. Not to mention we got King of Fighters on roughly every year of 90s and it still goes on until today. Plus some less-famous title such as Last Blade and Savage Reign. But maybe Capcom can compete on the numbers of Fighter games due to Marvel/X-Men Vs series even though they're not Capcom's original and use Marvel comic's property. Where was i? Oh, right. This time i review another SNK's fighting game: Garou - Mark of The Wolves (1999). 

Garou - Mark of The Wolves takes time setting in future of Fatal Fury. I think it's iconic Fatal Fury scene (even though i know it from Capcom Vs. SNK) where Geese Howard fell from Geese Tower Rooftop after defeated by player's character. Terry Bogard is the valid perpetrator as he's the main protagonist of Fatal Fury series. But in his defense, he tries to safe Geese but he refuse it because of his pride or something and thus he falls to his death. So after Geese's death, Terry adopts his son: Rock Howard and he treats Rock as his own child/little brother/nephew and after some time later when Rock is grown up, Terry leaves on a train to presumably another fighting tournament and that's the setting of Garou - Mark of The Wolves. What's Garou? I'm not expert at Japanese. My best guess is related to wolf, maybe?        

 

Thank you, Kagerou! If i'm not mistaken Hungry Wolf refers to Terry Bogard himself. It's common term in Japan for plucky young man who's always eager for challenge in martial art or fighting world.    

 

This game no longer use 2 extra layer: outer and inner like in previous Fatal Fury. So it becomes fairly generic Fighting game but there's T.O.P which is special part of your health bar. You can choose to place it on first, middle, or last part of your health bar. Once your health in  the T.O.P section, you deal more damage and your health regenerates up to highest part of T.O.P. Also you are able to perform T.O.P attack by pressing both hard punch and kick. If your health doesn't reach or exceed T.O.P area, you are unable to do T.O.P attack. There's also Just Defend which is blocking enemy's special attack in perfect timing which can heals you. Rock and Terry are so kindly to do some demonstration here. But i won't play as one of them even though they're the main protagonist. I have someone else in my mind.

 

Like when i play the game for material of Fighting Stage #4, i play as the pirate lady B. Jenet. Why my main is B. Jenet? Let's just say sometime i have "mundane" taste on picking character in Fighting Game. Oh, look! Rock Howard himself is willing to be my first opponent. How nice of him.

 

You probably can guess the basic mechanism of this game. Move joystick left/right to move. Move it to down direction to duck. Move it to up direction to jump. Move joystick backward to block enemy's attack. There's 4 buttons: 2 for punch and 2 for kick. What makes me baffled is the their configuration is jumbled. Let's say that they're A, B, C, and D. A is weak punch and B is weak kick. While C is strong punch and D is strong kick. The configuration in any Capcom game feels more intuitive to me whch is A to C for punch and D to F for kick. But maybe that's just my minor complaint.

Rock Howard's fighting style is kind of mixed Terry's and his father's (indicated by his ability to unleash Reppuken). While B. Jenet is strange one. She has projectile move but not as unintuitive as any shoto because she takes time to crouch and swipe her dress first before the wind projectile come out. On the plus side, it deals multiple hit when connected.

 

Her anti air move (quarter circle forward + kick) is also not instant to come out. The weak version of this move is most likely the most appropriate on as anti air move which is she hops short distance with her knee forward and then she jump high swiping with her dress. If the first hopping part is deleted, the move will be good anti air move but no. It takes too long to be a response to upcoming jumping kick. So most of the time, her head get kicked before eventually do the anti air part. I know the hopping part is for extra kick but i see it as useless part. The super version of this special move (quarter circle forward X 2 + kick) straight out the high swipe part multiplied which is perfect anti air move but requires a whole super bar.

 

"Beauty victory" she said as Rock lies unconsciously on parking lot. Good for her. And i get SSS rank. To get the real ending, you have to finish all rounds with average of at least AAA grade and in 1 credit. I believe anyone else is more knowledgeable than me about how to get very good grade. I think it will be easier to get it by putting T.O.P on early part of your health. Finishing enemy with super move most likely contribute to that but only if it's not blocked. Keeping the T.O.P bar maybe takes part too. I doubt finishing round with perfect health. As long as your health is high enough, will do the trick. Maybe your capability to make longs string of hit by combining every moves, is another big factor for grading. Since i'm not [insert name of 1-CC elitist here], i can do so much to achieve that except by shear luck and savestate.

 

My next opponent is Gato which is Spanish for "Cat". But i don't think his move is related to cat. Or maybe he's cat lover like me. Even so i have to beat him.

 

One of move that i like to use is this rolling kick. Good for defense and offense. I thought there's no air block but Gato there proves me wrong. I'm not bright. 

 

There's also post-fight quotes and they're specific to the winner and the loser. Bonne Jenet jests Gato serious face. She's schmuck.    

 

Meanwhile some mysterious burly man getting impatient to fight me who only fought 2 opponents.

 

My next opponent is Kim Jae Hoon which is one of Kim Kaphwa's son. The other is Dong [No giggling please] who's on casino area and not as serious as his brother. Jae Hoon is just straight young Kim Kaphwa who love justice and serious about it. You see he's doing some stretching before upcoming fight while B. Jenet have a toast with her pirate crew and later slam the glass on the floor. Lucky for Kim Jae, the glasses are completely gone otherwise his bare feet will get some sharp shard which can be very bad as Taekwondo practitioner's main weapon are their feet.

 

The he sets me on fire with his burning anti air move. Medic_autoonfire03.wav

 

As B. Jenet wins the fight, she's lifted by her pirate crew. The old ones try to catch breath after running along with his peer. Poor old man. I don't know what's the dog doing there. Maybe he likes the smell of Kim's feet?

 

My next opponent is Hotaru Futaba who's another female character in this game. I blame Street Fighter 2 for being standard of fighting game with only 2 female characters. Why not more than that, huh? well at least better than no female character at all. Anyway, here's me execute a super move. For some reason, Jenet's kick can unleash many torpedo. Demoman_sf12_badmagic11.wav  

 

Here's another special move that i mentioned as perfect for anti air. It ends with Jenet blows a kiss then a heart icon appears  and hit her enemy. Why his kiss blow hurt her opponent? I have no idea.

 

Zangief train by fighting wild bear while Khushnood Butt [Again, no giggling please] sparring with bear that he has trained. Engineer_autodejectedtie02.wav

In Japan version, his name is Marco Rodriguez which is the similar name of mixed martial artist: Ricco Rodriguez. To avoid confusion, SNK rename him into less serious name. I mean seriously. Who can take someone serious when fighting a man named Butt?

 

Actually, he's quite formidable opponent as expected by Kyogenryu-style Karateka (i heard he's directly studies from Takuma Sakazaki himself). He's clearly shoto with powerful move and obviously he has better anti air move than me. In fact everyone in this game has better anti air move than Jenet.

 

He wins this round and to show everyone his mighty muscles he rips his karate-gi. Yes. Yes, impressive. But there's still (at least) one more round before you fully win. I will wait for you to change your spare cloth by lying here in this grassy ground injured and humiliated.

 

Ha! I got you before you do the uppercut anti air. Have you wonder how B. Jenet has good might on her own? Unleashing torpedoes and slashing wind. My best guess is thanks to the power of Jolly Roger that embedded on her dress.     

 

Ok. This guy is totally creep. He must be sick criminal. Raping his victims and then murder them and then raping them again. Absolute Freak! 

 

Remember when i say "Everyone in this game has better anti air move than Jenet"? It seems Freeman here doesn't have any or maybe he doesn't have opportunity to do it. Which mean i can kick him in the face with no worry.  

 

Therefore i can spam my other favorite move: multiple dive kick. Sometime i can use it to make enemy's guard break. Unlike Street Fighter Alpha, there's no guard bar so i have no idea how long enemy can block my attacks. but with this move, i can give them guard break status fairly often.  

 

Eventually, i encounter the mysterious figure. Heavy_meleedare07  

 

Medic_sf12_badmagic05.wav. I make a big discover! This wind projectile can hit enemy on the ground. I didn't know this before. Honest.

 

As you expect from a man with well-built muscles all over his body, he hits hard like very hard. Like this kick that unleash a huge blast and his tricky anti air. You expect to be able  to punish him when he's still in air while in his anti air move, right? But he will perform dive kick immediately after his anti air animation. With that kind of anti air move, he's untouchable shoto clone but fortunately he doesn't have shooting energy move so he's bit balanced.

 

There's the usual throw enemies by pressing forward + hard punch when close to them in this game. But there's tech hit which can prevent you for throwing them. Well, Grant here always do tech hit whenever i attempt to throw him. On the other hand, he can slam me to the ground easily despite my attempt on doing tech hit by spamming every buttons. He's pretty unfair if you can tell him already and remember that you have to defeat him in at least AAA grade to get real ending.

 

Tell that to politician, buddy. If you just rampaging on modern society with just your muscle's strength. SWAT team and military will most likely gun you down and that's the end of your wisdom along with your life. But i appreciate your thought. I don't know whether this is coincidence or not but his picture here like Phantom of Opera and he said "Phantom".

 

Everytime you use continue, you will be given assist: 1) you get full super bar 2) Enemy's difficulty is decreased or 3) Enemy's health down to 25%. You can choose not to have any of the service if your honor get the best of you or something. I think the most useful one is health decrease so i choose that.

 

By choosing the Enemy's health reduction service, the pros: you work less now that enemy is dying. The cons: Grant's T.O.P immediately kicks in so he's more dangerous right of the bat. That's because he always put T.O.P part on last portion of his health.

 

See that huge damage that he inflicts by using his super move level 2! Devastating, ain't it? I forget to tell you that there's 2 level of super move determined by the strength of attack button that used. The super bar also has 2 level. But it's not marked with level number. S power indicate that your super bar is filled a layer or level and P power indicate that your super bar is filled to 2 layer or level which is the maximum capacity.  

 

Eventually i defeat Grant. He keels over and die. Credit rolls with background of giant skull statue that also exists on the Grant's stage. It reminds me of Curse of Dead Gods so this game deserves another good credit for me.

This happens if you don't qualify to real ending, that is. If you look carefully on pre-fight screen before fighting Butt. Next opponents after him are  Freeman and Grant. So I'm short of 1 slot in opponent bar on the bottom. Should you qualify for real ending...

 

...you get to fight this scum-sucking criminal. I don't know why we move from inside of Mesoamerican temple into this schmuck's sanctuary. Are they miraculously connected like every area in Dark Souls 2? I have no idea.

 

As per usual, Kain here has better anti air move than me. He also have projectile shooting move that doubled as back hop move. Unusual but i say Kain is still more fair compare to Grant.

 

Ok, he defeated me but my point stands still he's more enjoyable to fight than that bastard Grant. Why do you think that B. Jenet lacks of feminine? Is it because she's pirate? Woman can also become pirate too, you know.   

 

It's obvious that B. Jenet is sexy female character. But she shows her funny side when she's defeated because of time out and she make that pouting face. She doesn't look as gorgeous as Victoria's Secret model anymore, does she?

 

I didn't know before that Kain has super move where he conjure energy projectiles from above and they're able to hit me while i'm still on the ground. Totally fair. [Small Sarcasm]

 

I figure that he's much easier to deal with when we're close so i ditch the "keeping distance with him" strategy. Once he's defeated by one round, he reveals his true nature: he has T.O.P on his entire health bar. That means he can regenerate his health anytime. If you slacking too long he will heal big time so aggressiveness is the key. 

 

He has another super move where he conjure big energy that homing on you slowly. It sure can annoys you but you can still block it. But eventually i can defeat him.

 

Dude. That's because you look me so sharply. I don't like it. As in villain rule 101 "With thine demise, thine sanctuary will initiate self-destruct automatically". The sanctuary begins to crumble. B. Jenet try to help Kain to get out but he stands still as if he wants to die along with this place with his sister picture on it. What's with SNK Fighter's characters that overly obsessed with their sister anyway? There's Billy Kane, Gato and Kain too. They more look like incest freak than loving brother. 

 

After the screen goes black for awhile, Jenet wakes up surrounded her pirate crew. They save her in last minute but forget to get the treasure. She is mad at them and the crew run away in fear. She's ungrateful jerk.

 

Then she feels touched as she look at the ruins of the palace. She swings her mood really big. The end. For real this time.

 

SNK's Garou - Mark of The Wolves (1999) is another SNK FIghting game that i quite like. It ditches the extra 2 layer that i'm not fans of and the boss is overpowered without feeling too unfair. Maybe the only thing that i don't like is: how mysterious to get big rank for every match in order to fight Kain and get real ending. Other than that, the gameplay is fine. You can chain your normal and special move if you're skillful player unlike me. There's also move cancel but i never bothered with it. The T.O.P system is both functional and interesting special feature. The Just Defend (blocking at perfect timing) is good extra but hard to pull out. My personal mistake is probably pick B. Jenet as my main as she lacks of proper anti air move. Compared to other agile fighters in Street Fighter Alpha: Rolento and Guy, she's less intuitive but i still like her. The game can be completed relatively fast especially if you don't aim for real ending. The music is pretty nice. The sound and visual effect is very good.

It's fairly obvious that Garou - Mark of The Wolves (1999) get my recommendation for SNK Fighting game. Even though i'm not some kind of professional fighting game expert. That much is we know. :p