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Super Famicom - Bubsy

Title: Bubsy / やまねこバブジーの大冒険

Developer: Accolade / Solid Software

Publisher: Pack-in-Video (Victor Company of Japan) / Poppo

Release date: 17 June 1994

Catalogue Code: SHVC-UY-JPN

Genre: Platform Action

Ah yes, Bubsy Bobcat, published by Victor JVC. With the upcoming release of Bubsy in The Purrfect Collection by Limited Run Games and Atari, I thought I'd give Bubsy a try and see what's up. Bubsy 1 is the only Bubsy game to see a Japanese release, and even then in Japan it was a Super Famicom exclusive.

With all of the SNES/SFC games that I have played so far, Bubsy remains one of the least favorite platform games I have ever played. Collecting balls of yarn, avoiding flying manholes, and hoping to receive a ''!'' shirt just to ensure temporary protection can be boring after consistent playing. Sure, the game seems interesting at first with the unique creatures and the lush backgrounds, but after a while, the game gave me a headache (seriously) after playing it for a while.

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Is Sonic Frontiers your favorite Sonic game to play?

Yes

No

It used to be, now its something else (comment)

Never played Frontiers/Results

Thanks for the poll! Polls for the Sonic fandom on just about anything. Share polls you like to get more data. Asks and submissions always open.

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Sega Mega Drive - Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R

Title: Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R / イチダントアール

Developer/Publisher: Sega

Release date: 13 January 1995

Catalogue No.: G-4128

Genre: Puzzle

The sequel to the Tant-R port to the Mega Drive. After coming this far in the review, my mind has finally decided that it enjoys Ichidant-R more than it does Tant-R, but not by much. This is not only because I like the theme better, but also because the mini-games themselves are more fun. I find both games worth owning, but if you are out for only one of them, this is the one to choose. It goes for around the same price, and if you haven’t played the prequel, the rehashing won’t bother you. The big downside is that it isn’t available in English, but at least most of the game is playable anyway. Ichidant-R fits well as a single player pick up and play game or as a party game for both expert and novice players.

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Sega Mega Drive - MegaPanel

Title: MegaPanel / メガパネル

Developer/Publisher: Namco

Release date: 22 November 1990

Catalogue No.: T-14073

Genre: Puzzle

In a world of samey, same-but-different puzzle games, Megapanel succeeds for me because it’s so unorthodox. I’ve never played anything quite like it – though I’m sure similar puzzle games exist, especially in Japan. Sliding tiles around is consistently smooth, clearing them is rewarding, and the uncovered anime pictures are usually good for a chuckle. The meat of the game, though, is the Pin-Up mode. This mode has a definite anime feel to it. The objective here is to use the blocks to drop bombs on a picture of a woman that's been covered with tiles. The bombs you drop by clearing rows will cause the picture to be revealed, tile by tile. Some tiles are darker than the others, requiring more hits to be removed. The higher you go, the tougher it gets, as is the norm for most puzzle games. This mode is why I initially figured Megapanel didn't make it to the west - it was rumored that the higher you went in levels, the more revealing the pics got until the women in them weren't wearing anything at all. Most importantly, in an era of Tetris pretenders, Megapanel goes its own way. For that, it has my respect.

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Sega Mega Drive - Dodge Danpei

Title: Dodge Danpei / 炎の闘球児ドッジ弾平

Developer/Publisher: Sega CS1 / TV Tokyo / Shogakukan Production

Release date: 10 July 1992

Catalogue No.: G-4076

Genre: Dodgeball

There is a PC Engine game of the same name bearing the same license but that's completely different. I'm not the biggest dodgeball fan out there, but I have to say that if you're prepared to put up with the Japanese-filled options, this is really superb. It's great as both a one and two-player game and has enough depth of gameplay to keep you interested for longer than the first few games.

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Sega Mega Drive - EX-RANZA

Title: EX-RANZA / エクスランザー

Developer: Gau Entertainment

Publisher: Sega

Release date: 28 May 1993

Catalogue No.: G-4097

Genre: Shooting

Known as Ranger-X outside Japan, I picked this copy up 4 years ago, before reading any reviews or even having heard of the game. I was purely attracted by the box art and visuals (much like I was attracted to the box art for The Hybrid Front for example). I was so pleasantly surprised by what I experienced. Jaw-droppingly detailed visuals and smooth animation, accompanied by an extraordinary soundtrack and gigantic, fearsome bosses.

Of course, even a stellar audio-visual experience is worth nothing if not accompanied by good gameplay. Fortunately, Ex-Ranza delivers on this point as well. The stages are varied and interactive. From breaking down barriers to smashing the windows of a skyscraper during your ascent. The little details, such as the environments and unique enemies, are a sign of the dedication that was put into this game.

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Sega Mega Drive - Atomic Runner Chelnov

Title: Atomic Runner Chelnov / チェルノブ

Developer/Publisher: Data East

Release date: 16 October 1992

Catalogue No.: T-13073

Genre: Action Platformer

A case of a reworked home console version of an arcade original being better than the arcade original it was based on. Atomic Runner is a great game, and fans looking for a new run-n-gun title to burn through on the Genesis/Mega Drive should give it a go. I can only say try this one, and don't get put off by its difficulty, because it's great fun all the way. It's also pretty inexpensive and easy to find, so what are you waiting for? There was also going to be a Sega Saturn port of the arcade original but that never happened. The only point that it once existed was a functional prototype that did not have sound effects. Still, this Mega Drive version here is superior.

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Sega Mega Drive - Rent A Hero

Title: Rent A Hero / レンタヒーロー

Developer/Publisher: Sega

Release date: 20 September 1991

Catalogue No.: G-5508

Genre: RPG

Rent A Hero often pops up in fans’ lists of games they would like to be translated. Released in 1991 exclusively in Japan, it sure looks intriguing in the beginning. You play as a nameless young guy in a family that recently moved into town and there is a housewarming party going on. At some point your father sneaks upstairs to don his Godzilla costume, while your call to the local delivery service gets you no food but a superhero costume instead, right to your doorstep. Obviously enough, you’ll get into that costume and start a little show fight with Godzilla dad, only to send him flying into the wall with your first punch. Having found out that the suit boosts your strength, you’re now a superhero for hire! From your PC you’ll get a diverse range of job requests from the citizens, ranging from food delivery or finding lost kittens to more advanced fare like playing bodyguard or helping the police in crime investigation.

It’s not only in storyline and some quirky quests that the game diverges from your standard RPG fare. For starters, there are no experience points or leveling up. You can transform into the superhero using a command in the menu to boost your stats, and though even walking around will drain the suit’s energy, you’ll want to keep it on most of the time since your non-hero self is literally unsuited for the random battles you’ll get into. During random enemy encounters the action is displayed from the side, fighting game-style en lieu of a round-based system. There can be multiple enemies on screen, but you can’t move into the background, so it’s not really like a brawler but more like a very basic versus-fighting game with three moves and cruel hit detection. You can either punch, jump kick or use a special attack that will drain your battery and is thus very limited in use. These specials also need to be developed first by sending money to the suit’s company. You can also donate money for the development of new versions of the suit, the closest thing to leveling up. Managing your funds is vital to survival in this game.

While even the most basic fighting games can be fun, in Rent A Hero, even touching an enemy costs you health points, so you need to be exceedingly careful. Fighting is usually done by approaching the enemy, trying to get in a punch or aiming a kick very precisely, and immediately backing away before you take a blow. The occasional bosses can kill you within seconds, so you’d better save your battery and spam them with specials. Overall, the fighting feels stiff and awkward, but it remains playable, and getting through a fight without losing health can be rewarding in that peculiar way of beating a game’s subpar programming. Another annoying factor, though, is the random nature of the enemy’s strength, along with the random amount of money you get after a fight. Sometimes you run into a tough adversary and get almost nothing in return, which is more than a little weird.

As for the rest of the gameplay, you mostly walk around the city following a lead, talking to different people, and stacking up on healing items for your limited inventory. You’ll also have to send money for the rental of your suit. Yes, you work for the company, yet you pay them for the rental, plus you finance their technical development! It might be a new idea, but it doesn’t really add to the game’s experience when you don’t pay the rental fee in time and lose your suit. There are attempts at variety with missions where you have to defuse a bomb, for example, but there are no mini games or such fancy ideas for this, so despite the different jobs, gameplay is fairly limited in its range. You do get a little puzzle from time to time. These word-based puzzles and the strictly verbal hints at your next target are what make this game unplayable if you don’t have at least basic Japanese skills (there are only kana used, no kanji).

From time to time, there are a few nice touches. For example, you’ll run into an arcade with various Sega machines like Out Run or G-LOC standing around, each one playing a little tune from the game if you examine it. And the overall atmosphere of the game is a welcome change from most RPGs, with some more or less funny dialogue lines and a mostly realistic setting instead of dungeons and dragons. Another welcome feature is that a few hours into the game, you get a handy item that will let you save at any time into three slots. Since random fights can get unexpectedly tough, you’ll find yourself saving and loading a lot.

On the technical side of things, I’m afraid to say that Rent A Hero doesn’t shine. As you can see in screen shots, the level graphics look quite drab and wouldn’t have stood out positively even in the beginning of the system’s lifespan. The backgrounds during fights actually vary nicely according to the surroundings, but the animation of the character sprites is laughable. Apart from the cool title tune, the music is somewhere between okay and annoying, with particularly horrendous music playing in the shops.

My overall impression is that there was a severe lack of funds or time in the making of this game. Despite this, there are some redeeming features, mostly having to do with how unusual parts of the game are. The remake for the Dreamcast (later ported to the Xbox), which was again doomed to stay in Japan, is proof enough that the game has some promising aspects, and it seemed to have a few fans. Some nice details and nods to Sega’s fans, like a Mega Drive sitting proudly in the protagonist’s room or the arcade, as mentioned earlier, make this a clear contender for a cult classic. And it could have been a killer had it been given a bit more variety, graphical sheen, and a smoother fighting system. While I wouldn’t call the game a hidden gem, here’s hoping that the long-abandoned translation will someday be finished, so that all fans can play this fairly decent and unusual RPG. However, if you’re looking for the definitive version of the game, I’d advise you to go for the remake.

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Sega Mega Drive - Fire Dragon Fist Master Xiaomei

Title: Fire Dragon Fist Master Xiaomei / 焔龍聖拳シャオメイ

Developer: PiXEL Co. Ltd.

Publisher: PiXEL Co. Ltd. / Columbus Circle

Release date: 29 December 2023

Genre: Beat-em-up

You heard that right. A brand new Sega Mega Drive game released in 2023, nine months after the Nintendo Switch original. In case you never heard of this game, this is the Mega Drive's equivalent to Irem's Kung-Fu Master or Spartan-X, only this time we have a female protagonist. Simple rules, left and right to move, up to jump, down to crouch, button 1 is kick, button 2 is punch. Defeat your enemies, fill up the special gauge, and use your ultimate dragon fist! Just like the good old days.

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Sega Mega Drive - Power Instinct

Title: Power Instinct / 豪血寺一族

Developer/Publisher: Atlus

Release date: 18 November 1994

Catalogue No.: T-144013

Genre: Fighting

Power Instinct or Gouketsuji Ichizoku to give it its Japanese name is a decent arcade 1-v-1 fighter that plays smooth and fast but isn’t without flaws. The octogenarian granny is very fun and one of the quirkiest and freshest ideas I’ve seen in any 16-bit fighting game. Too bad the other seven selectable characters are very generic and uninspired – the standout features of the Power Instinct series didn’t really get to shine in this first installment. While the gameplay is pretty good, sound and graphics are sadly below average. All in all, the game is definitely worth a look and can be fun to play, but it isn’t really one of the big hitters. Curiously this Mega Drive release stayed in Japan while the Super Famicom/SNES version saw a western release.

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Sega Mega Drive - Fantasia

Title: Fantasia / ファンタジア ミッキーマウス・マジック

Developer: Infogrames

Publisher: Sega of America

Release date: 22 November 1991

Catalogue No.: G-4061

Genre: Platformer

As a film, Fantasia is a cinematic masterpiece, filled with awesome visuals and an epic soundtrack that takes the viewer on a journey that overwhelms the senses. As a game, however, it falls apart on so many levels as to not only stain the good name of the movie, but that of its star Mickey, as well. This game was rushed and released in a nearly unplayable state, thanks to dodgy hit detection, sadistic level design that leaves you guessing where you can and can't go, oh, and nothing that can complement the good visuals and the animation here. This game used the predecessor to the GEMS sound drive - the SMDS (Sega Music Development System), which meant the music composed of high-pitched squeals and harsh bangs well-known to western Genesis sound design. The development team over at Infogrames was composed of 6 people who lacked experience in developing console games at that time.

Former Head of Product Development at Sega of America, Ken Balthaser Jr. has said on record that he regrets releasing it in its current "unplayable" state. I quote: "The graphics were wonderful, and they really caught the mood. They did some really cool things with parallax scrolling in there, but again…hindsight's 20/20. I wish now that I would've just said no and sent it back for another two months or so, to tweak the gameplay. I think it could have been a really fantastic game if we had done that."

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Sega Mega Drive - VIXEN 357

Title: VIXEN 357 / ヴィクセン３５７

Developer/Publisher: NCS Masaya

Release date: 23 October 1992

Catalogue No.: T-25133

Genre: Strategy

A strategy game in the same vein as Masaya's own Langrisser series. Vixen 357 isn’t quite up there with the Shining Force games and Langrisser I & II, but it’s still a very good game. It gives that addiction these kinds of titles give, and has a unique sci-fi mech feel that not many other games on the console can provide. If the game had more meat on the bones, it could have been an all-time classic. But then again, not all companies have that kind of budget needed to make such games, and Vixen 357 is, despite its few flaws and the language barrier, very well worth playing for fans of the genre.

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an art piece to say,,,

thank you all so very much for the support/kindness/love with every post i make! i read every comment everybody leaves and genuinely enjoy everyone’s interaction to my content!

not only that but the positivity that is shown is smth i was never prepared for when it comes to posting online, but here we are! and i cant thank you all enough for such a wonderful community we’ve grown to be!!

so enjoy this and expect much more content in the future :)) love you all, and thank you again!!❤️❤️❤️

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Sonic Heroes Collab! 🔵🟡🔴

A group of us got together to redraw an early render of the playable characters in Sonic Heroes. Check out all of the artists below!

Artist Credits: Sonic - @cory-the-hedgehog Tails - @gsvproductions Knuckles - @drawntildawn Shadow - @nenafena Rouge - GamerTimeArtz Omega - @mauhawkman Amy - @ess-n-stuffs Cream - @katieee-llyn Big - SamE8189 Espio - @naptoku Charmy - @theartpal Vector - @fishflop

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Sony PlayStation 5 - Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Title: Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown / テストドライブ アンリミテッド ソーラー・クラウン

Developer: KT Racing (Klyotonn)

Publisher: Nacon SA / 3GOO

Release date: 12 September 2024

Genre: M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing)

When this game was released it was in a pretty much mediocre state. It looked pretty lifeless but then again, so were many of the games released during the PS5's life. One thing that really put many people off buying the game at launch was when it was revealed that the game would be online-only, meaning the game would not work if you didn't have a stable internet connection. So basically, just like Need for Speed 2015 then. That being said, I took a look at this game in a video game store with low expectations and I was surprised at what I saw. I mean, you're racing in Hong Kong now? The first TDU game took place in Hawaii, and the second TDU game took place in both Ibiza and Hawaii. Now we're in Hong Kong? This is some Sleeping Dogs type shit here. I was surprised to see that the cars controlled pretty well, owing to Klyotonn's experience with the racing game genre. For a game published by what is primarily a gaming accessories manufacturer, this game is pretty solid in my experience. I still wouldn't buy it yet, but eh, you could do worse than this, if you're tired of boring racing game cliches.

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Microsoft XBOX 360 - Test Drive Unlimited 2

Title: Test Drive Unlimited 2 / テストドライブ・アンリミテッド2

Developer: Eden Games S.A.S.

Publisher: Atari SA / Cyber Front

Release date: 30 June 2011

Catalogue No.: JES1-00129

Genre: M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing)

The same concept as the original Test Drive Unlimited but now with more up-to-date cars and bikes (and the omission of Lamborghini from the roster for some reason), and the addition of SUV and classic car challenges. Avatar customization has been beefed up and I also noticed that the cars' handling was looser thanks to the new F.R.I.M. (Free Ride Instant Money) mechanic. Massive props for bringing in the VW Touareg V10 TDI and the Audi Q7 V12 TDI quattro though. Two absolutely bonkers SUVs that are rare to see in real life.

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Microsoft XBOX 360 - Test Drive Unlimited

Title: Test Drive Unlimited / テストドライブ・アンリミテッド

Developer: Eden Games S.A.S.

Publisher: Atari SA / Microsoft Game Studios

Release date: 26 April 2007

Catalogue No.: 4PU-00001

Genre: M.O.O.R. (Massively Open Online Racing)

The game that took the long-dead Test Drive series to a new dimension, years after the pretty disappointing Test Drive 6. I've not played a whole lot of Test Drive games in my time. However, the titles that I HAVE played, I have enjoyed very much. Out of all of them, though, Test Drive Unlimited is my absolute favorite. This game takes place on the beautiful island of Oahu. Sports cars, superbikes, player avatar customization, the lot. An island full of awe-inspiring scenery, an incredible landscape, and many high-end sports cars and bikes that are always looking for a race. Never have I ever played a game that was so deserving of a perfect score before this title came along. It really lives up to the "Unlimited" part of the name.