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Sega Genesis/MegaDrive Appreciation Thread: Alien Storm > Golden Axe

T

televator

Member
Falcon talkin shit about Heist? C'mon Falcon!
RTe0K.gif

:p
 
Bar81

Bar81

Member
Okay, my MD obsession is now officially at unhealthy levels - I just bought this (it's a Zippo lighter btw - and no I don't smoke; not that I would use this even if I did):

Zippo-MD2.jpg
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
Speaking of Mega Drive merch, Cospa made a MD1-shaped tote bag a few years ago.
King of Games had a run of baseball style shirts with MD logo and 16-BIT insignia on it.
Galaxxxy recently came out with a Megadrive-themed tank top.
 
L

lazygecko

Member
I thought Bloodlines' graphics had more life to them than Super Castlevania 4. Everything is just more/better animated and doesn't feel as stiff, which goes a long way.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
televator said:
Falcon talkin shit about Heist? C'mon Falcon!
:p
Click to expand...
Oh come on, as if you can't tell that it's a rushed knockoff port? All the backgrounds come from other TMNT games, all the levels* are just straight "walk to the right" cooridors with VERY rare environmental obstacles (many fewer of them than any other TMNT beat 'em up I think), the story is a rehash of past games, etc etc. Hyperstone Heist has absolutely no new ideas, except for walking on water in some of those sewer levels... and that's not a good idea, for sure. :) It's got too few levels which are too long, too, sharing that same design flaw as Bloodlines, Genesis Sunset Riders, and more. Only Rocket Knight Adventures does that to any success, because it looks like they actually cared about it (and clearly gave it more budget). Anyway, Hyperstone Heist has too few bosses. It's also very easy, probably even EASIER than SNES Turtles IV, which is really saying something given how easy that game is! What a massive downgrade both of them are in that respect from Turtles III... and in level designs too, Turtles IV may be far better than Hyperstone Heist there, but it's no match for Turtles III. Of course Hyperstone Heist also doesn't have the 'throw enemy at screen' move, any areas using nice hardware tricks so there's nothing to compensate for losing the Mode 7 stage, etc.

The only thing the Genesis game does that the others don't is I think that maybe it can put like one more enemy on screen or something? Pretty minor point though, compared to all the downgrades.

Slermy said:
I think a big part of the reason is just because it came out so late in the system's life that most people don't have fond memories of it.

I agree though, an amazing game.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm sure that Turtles III's late release date is the reason why it's often overlooked. If you play II and III on the NES, though, honestly I find it hard to go back to II... sure, I absolutely loved the arcade version and it's one of my favorite arcade games, but the NES version isn't nearly as good. But Turtles III, it's really impressive across the board. It's the longest of the classic Turtles beat 'em ups, it has the best and most interesting level designs, it's got lots of variety and challenge... it's just an amazing game! It really is too bad, as I said above, that the SNES and Genesis games don't continue to have level designs as interesting as III does. I find beat 'em up levels which move around, like Turtles III or the Streets of Rage games at times, more interesting than the 'just walk to the right at all times' design of many Capcom games or the two 4th gen Turtles games most of the time.

Teknoman said:
The Adventure is waaay too slow compared to Bloodlines.
Click to expand...
It is very slow, and that's frustrating sometimes, and it's definitely down there with Bloodlines as the worst of classic Castlevania, but I do enjoy Adventure some... it's not THAT awful, it's just an okay early Game Boy game. (The slow pace also means that it plays great on an original GB screen with no significant blurring issues!)
 
F

Foxix Von

Member
KGj4RZW.jpg


Score: 704050

This game is hard as balls. We totally need more people in on this. I need others to share this pain with. I can't remember the last time I've raged this hard at a game and that's saying something as I've been playing Mario Kart 8 lately.
 
Z

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
sixteen-bit said:
I'm so used to folks saying Thunderforce is easy. Maybe I'm conflating Thunderforce V with the rest of the series.
Click to expand...

I bet hardcore shooter fans think its easy, but its still a fairly tough game. Not exactly as easy as something like Lords of Thunder.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Yeah, Lightening Force is a hard, HARD game. I've only ever beaten it on Easy with the 100-lives mode (set lives to "0" and you get 100 per continue)... but at least it has 100-lives mode, to make beating the game possible! Otherwise I never could.

As for this, I was just playing it for a little while. On Normal, I haven't yet managed to beat the first level without game over.

sixteen-bit said:
I'm so used to folks saying Thunderforce is easy. Maybe I'm conflating Thunderforce V with the rest of the series.
Click to expand...
Maybe you're confusing Thunder Force III with IV/Lightening Force (or TF II)? The third game is often called easy, but not the fourth one I think... or the second.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Awesome Fox! Also keep in mind its all about fun and community, so post scores even if you dont beat the highest.

Did your eyes almost vaporize during the second half of air raid? I tried to organize the order of attack from what felt easy to hard.
 
T

televator

Member
A Black Falcon said:
Oh come on, as if you can't tell that it's a rushed knockoff port? All the backgrounds come from other TMNT games, all the levels* are just straight "walk to the right" cooridors with VERY rare environmental obstacles (many fewer of them than any other TMNT beat 'em up I think), the story is a rehash of past games, etc etc. Hyperstone Heist has absolutely no new ideas, except for walking on water in some of those sewer levels... and that's not a good idea, for sure. :) It's got too few levels which are too long, too, sharing that same design flaw as Bloodlines, Genesis Sunset Riders, and more. Only Rocket Knight Adventures does that to any success, because it looks like they actually cared about it (and clearly gave it more budget). Anyway, Hyperstone Heist has too few bosses. It's also very easy, probably even EASIER than SNES Turtles IV, which is really saying something given how easy that game is! What a massive downgrade both of them are in that respect from Turtles III... and in level designs too, Turtles IV may be far better than Hyperstone Heist there, but it's no match for Turtles III. Of course Hyperstone Heist also doesn't have the 'throw enemy at screen' move, any areas using nice hardware tricks so there's nothing to compensate for losing the Mode 7 stage, etc.

The only thing the Genesis game does that the others don't is I think that maybe it can put like one more enemy on screen or something? Pretty minor point though, compared to all the downgrades.


Yeah, I'm sure that Turtles III's late release date is the reason why it's often overlooked. If you play II and III on the NES, though, honestly I find it hard to go back to II... sure, I absolutely loved the arcade version and it's one of my favorite arcade games, but the NES version isn't nearly as good. But Turtles III, it's really impressive across the board. It's the longest of the classic Turtles beat 'em ups, it has the best and most interesting level designs, it's got lots of variety and challenge... it's just an amazing game! It really is too bad, as I said above, that the SNES and Genesis games don't continue to have level designs as interesting as III does. I find beat 'em up levels which move around, like Turtles III or the Streets of Rage games at times, more interesting than the 'just walk to the right at all times' design of many Capcom games or the two 4th gen Turtles games most of the time.
Click to expand...

I had a lot of fun for game with as many problems as you say. In fact I had more fun with than all the turttle games.
 
R

Rydeen

Member
Anybody know if the U.S. version of Contra Hard Corps isn't clocked correctly for NTSC users? I ask because everything feels like it's running a little "faster" than it should be, the music is a tempo or two faster than what usually sounds normal, even the voices like "Locked and loaded!" are pitched up a few notches and sound goofy and high pitched. It all feels like a game that, for whatever reason, was localized in English in PAL territories first, over-clocked so it would play correctly on PAL systems and output, then sloppily was released in NTSC regions without modifying it. Anybody know or care to shed light on this?
 
Z

zmet

Member
Yeah, but Amazon Japan shipping to the U.S. is about $30 for an item that small. That's why I usually use a forwarding company like Tenso whenever I order from them, since Amazon shipping within Japan is free. I usually end up saving a little money for shipping when using Tenso (usually half of what Amazon charges).
 
T

Tain

Member
Rydeen said:
Anybody know if the U.S. version of Contra Hard Corps isn't clocked correctly for NTSC users? I ask because everything feels like it's running a little "faster" than it should be, the music is a tempo or two faster than what usually sounds normal, even the voices like "Locked and loaded!" are pitched up a few notches and sound goofy and high pitched. It all feels like a game that, for whatever reason, was localized in English in PAL territories first, over-clocked so it would play correctly on PAL systems and output, then sloppily was released in NTSC regions without modifying it. Anybody know or care to shed light on this?
Click to expand...

Interesting. I've only ever owned US Hard Corps and never really compared JP Hard Corps to it. I always figured that's just how the game was, and some pretty in-depth reviews never mentioned anything like that, but I'm a little curious now.
 
F

Foxix Von

Member
Rydeen said:
Anybody know if the U.S. version of Contra Hard Corps isn't clocked correctly for NTSC users? I ask because everything feels like it's running a little "faster" than it should be, the music is a tempo or two faster than what usually sounds normal, even the voices like "Locked and loaded!" are pitched up a few notches and sound goofy and high pitched. It all feels like a game that, for whatever reason, was localized in English in PAL territories first, over-clocked so it would play correctly on PAL systems and output, then sloppily was released in NTSC regions without modifying it. Anybody know or care to shed light on this?
Click to expand...
Huh. I've never seen anyone take notice of that before. As far as I know it's clocked correctly, or at the very least I have never seen anything to suggest otherwise. They did tweak the hell out of the game to increase its difficulty during localization, so I wouldn't actually be all that surprised if they did. Now I'm curious to see some comparison videos. That'd be one hell of a discovery that no one picked up on.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Rydeen said:
Anybody know if the U.S. version of Contra Hard Corps isn't clocked correctly for NTSC users? I ask because everything feels like it's running a little "faster" than it should be, the music is a tempo or two faster than what usually sounds normal, even the voices like "Locked and loaded!" are pitched up a few notches and sound goofy and high pitched. It all feels like a game that, for whatever reason, was localized in English in PAL territories first, over-clocked so it would play correctly on PAL systems and output, then sloppily was released in NTSC regions without modifying it. Anybody know or care to shed light on this?
Click to expand...

No, I think the Japanese version is the same. It's just a fast, up-tempo game. Remember that the Japanese version has 3 hit points per life and infinite continues, so it's not nearly as hard as the US one.
 
T

Timu

Member
A Black Falcon said:
No, I think the Japanese version is the same. It's just a fast, up-tempo game. Remember that the Japanese version has 3 hit points per life and infinite continues, so it's not nearly as hard as the US one.
Click to expand...
I need that version.

*checks price of 200+ bucks*

Nevermind.
 
A Black Falcon

A Black Falcon

Member
Timu said:
I need that version.

*checks price of 200+ bucks*

Nevermind.
Click to expand...
The Japanese version has cheatcodes too, to make it even more playable! These were removed from the Western versions, of course, because Konami hated us or something.


However, not only is it expensive, it's also region-locked, so you'd need a region-modded or Japanese system to play it (or maybe Gameshark plus the correct code). And the text is in Japanese only, which matters if you want to understand the story -- and remember, the game has a story and branching design where you choose which stage to play next, leading to multiple endings, etc.
 
M

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
So I recently got back into the Genesis/MD, and saw that quite a few of my games are actually ntsc (I live in Pal-land), however, for some reason I tried Phantasy Star 3 (ntsc) and my pal Mega Drive got it to work. Does that mean that the region-lock only applies to selected games?
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Morfeo said:
So I recently got back into the Genesis/MD, and saw that quite a few of my games are actually ntsc (I live in Pal-land), however, for some reason I tried Phantasy Star 3 (ntsc) and my pal Mega Drive got it to work. Does that mean that the region-lock only applies to selected games?
Click to expand...
Most early games are region-free. Most late games are not. Late 1992 is where that distinction starts to take shape IIRC.
 
R

Rydeen

Member
A Black Falcon said:
No, I think the Japanese version is the same. It's just a fast, up-tempo game. Remember that the Japanese version has 3 hit points per life and infinite continues, so it's not nearly as hard as the US one.
Click to expand...
Yeah I'm aware of the differences in the Japanese version, but I'd like to find some footage of the PAL version running on a European MegaDrive for comparison's sake, can't find any on YouTube that are clearly that version though.
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
Morfeo said:
Ah never knew this. Thanks alot!
Click to expand...
What's weird is that I've noticed that a lot of my JP imports are locked out of US systems but not PAL ones.

JP Gunstar Heroes has both the Japanese and English versions on the cartridge, but it won't boot on a system set to USA mode (English/60hz). If I start the console in English/50hz, though, I can get it to load the English script since it thinks it's running on a PAL system, and then I can flip it to English/60hz after it boots to play at the correct speed. And if I just start it in Japanese/60hz, it loads the Japanese script.

You can change the script for some games on the fly if you have a switch installed. Flipping between Japanese and English on the Streets of Rage 1 intro will change the text as it's still loading and scrolling, mixing both languages as you flip them.
 
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