I just played a bit of it, and really, Genesis Sunset Riders is a good game. It's not nearly as great as the arcade & SNES game, but it's a lot of fun regardless. Even if the levels are new and not as good and a lot of stuff is missing, there's enough of Sunset Riders' style there to make it great fun -- I really like the style of the arcade game. It is kind of interesting how much easier both games are than Contra, though. I mean, Contra and Sunset Riders are the two main Konami run & guns that generation on consoles, but while the SNES and Genesis Contra games are very hard, the Sunset Riders games are only moderately challenging; I've beaten both of them (SNES and Genesis), while I've never finished a Contra game. I guess it's nice to have a more approachable Konami run & gun.
I can play the SNES version for days.
I play the arcade version and instantly get annoyed by the sloppy hit detection intentionally implemented to result in more deaths and in turn, more quarters fed into the machine.
Some smart person needs to take the SNES version and put some 4 player into it. Cowabunga - best version.
In addition to the removal of 4 player, the SNES version is also the most censored version, and it has some level design changes as well. For the most part the SNES game is identical to the arcade original, but a few parts are different -- compare the last levels for example, they are not the same.
As for censorship:
- Neither console game has any female enemies; they are replaced with male ones (in the arcade game the grenade-throwing enemies are female). Yes, the Genesis version is censored -- female enemies and drinking are not in it. It's just censored less than the SNES game.
- SNES version has no doors where after you go in and come out your guy appears with a scantily-clad woman or beer bottle; instead he just strikes a pose. The Genesis version has only the scantily-clad women, but no beer. which is weird -- Sega was okay with that, but not drinking? What? And because of its more repetitive stages, this is REALLY noticeable -- there are a lot more doors in the Genesis game, because it's not an arcade port so they made the levels longer and not as tightly designed as the arcade levels that the SNES mostly adopts, and the animation is the same in every one, always a woman wearing little.
- The SNES version has no Indian enemies in the level where you fight them, they're all replaced with normal cowboy baddies. The Indian boss still is in the game though (though you don't kill him, of course, just as in the arcade game). In the Genesis game, there are Indian enemies in the two levels where you go for the Indian boss (since he's one of the four they put in that version).
- In the SNES game, the dancing girls and woman/women behind door(s) are fully dressed, while on the Genesis they have skimpier outfits, as it is in the arcade game.
Honestly, I don't think any of these changes hurt the games; the game is just as great with the censorship.
I don't mind so much when a console version is reduced from 4- to 2-player. I often find it to be a more playable experience with just one friend, as opposed to the on-screen chaos of 4 players going at it. Sure, sometimes the chaos is half the fun, but generally speaking, it's easier to co-op with just one partner. Yeah, it would be great to at least have the option of up to 4 players. But I'm cool with 2.
It's a greater travesty to reduce an originally 2-player game down to single-player game. NES Double Dragon comes to mind. It was fleshed out a bit to make up for it, but they fully rectified the problem with the sequel.
I know that because of hardware limitations it probably couldn't have been done, but 4 player in stuff like Sunset Riders or beat 'em ups would have been great to see. On a related note, none of the 4 player beat 'em ups were 4 player on consoles either; as far as I know the PS2 is the first console with a 4 player co-op mode in a beat 'em up, and the only one I know of before the PS2 with 3 player co-op is Three Dirty Dwarves on Saturn.
Sure though, having SOME multiplayer is better than none at all (or alternating only in a game that should be simultaneous), that is certainly true.
I assume it's easiest to just buy an old junk game and modify it?
