PixlBit

I played the first 20 games in the 50 game collection today. Here are the details.

Interface. Like some other collections, such as Activision Anthology and Intellivision Lives!, SGC's menu screen is a 3D rendered environement. Activision's was a game room, and Intellivision's was a restaurant or arcade room, and SGC's is a bedroom with a CRT TV, console, stereo, and shelf of games.

At first I was underwelmed  by its kind of old school graphical detail and simplistic text labels, but I came to like it a lot because it works really well. Right at the shelf of games, you can choose one and it'll let you launch any challenges for that game and tell you about any achievements for it. Then you can load the cart into the Genesis deck and adjust emulation settings and either play full screen or framed by the CRT TV, which is what I did for the full retro experience. These games are 3:4 formated anyway, so why not. 

Also, you can designate any game as a favorite and it will move to the top left of the shelf for quicker access. I put Fatal Labyrinth and Golden Axe there today. 

What I played. 20 games in alphabetical order. Here's a list with some comments. 

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle: I actually played a lot of this even though it's a platformer, which I usually don't enjoy. I was going for the achievement to win 50 rock, paper, scissors matches. You do this to win items you can use in the world. Some are very helpful like the ring that lets you shoot an energy blast, the motorcycle that lets you plow through everything but red rocks, and the helicopter that lets you fly and shoot rockets.

I discovered the rewind button which allowed me to reduce the frustration of platforming to a great degree. I wish all platformers had this especially retro ones because they are made artificially hard to extend gameplay. I wanted to see all the interesting levels in this game. 

Alien Soldier: Pretty cool Contra: Alien Wars style shooter. I got an achievement for using all four weapons you carry with you. The main character reminds me of the robo dudes in Vanquish. 

Alien Storm: Like a scifi Streets of Rage. There are some cool weapons in this and some interesting segements where the perspecive shifts to a fixed screen while you hide behind boxes with enemies firing at you. I had no patience for it today. I love the colorful graphics and alien monster designs though. 

Altered Beast: Played just a little bit of it. Back in the day, that arcade cabinet version was probably pretty cool with its digitized voices and beast transformation scenes.

Beyond Oasis: I should have put this in my favorites. I got a lot farther in it than before when I played it on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection. I think I didn't realize how to equip things and use the magic water faerie. I figured it out this time, but I got stuck on a firey skull boss.

I beat the crab with my dagger like the challenge said but you have to activate the challenge seperately from the normal gameplay to get it. They only gave me a few pieces of food to regain health, and so I didn't beat it that way. Darn it.

The graphics are gorgeous in this game. Really stunning for the time. Pixel art for sure. 

Biohazard Battle: A SHMUP. Pretty good one too but hard. 

Bonanza Brothers: This is a stealth game. Your robbing a building full of security men. For the life of me, I couldn't keep from getting seen. Reminded me of Elevator Action in it's design, or that game Exit. 

Columns/Columns III: Your Tetris spin-off where you match three colored blocks to clear the screen. I manged to get the achievement and challenge for Columns. 5000 points done two different ways. 

Comix Zone: Really cool game where you move and fight within cells of a comic book. I'm not great at it though. 

Crack Down: Interesting top down view game where you run through a maze of corridors and rooms trying to set timed bombs and escape before they all go off. You can kind of sneak but you inevitably have to shoot guards. I couldn't figure out how to avoid their shots though. 

Decap Attack: Platformer where you are a mummy who can launch his head as a projectile. I kept dying. Darn it. 

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. A variant of Collumns but the colored beans are like goo and stick together. I beat the first opponent, got beat by the second, and then got beat by the challenge opponent. You can play two-player, and I think online too because there is an online multiplayer feature in SGC. I haven't tried it yet though. 

Dynamite Headdy: This 2D platform game looks fantastic and starts right off with a boss fight. Your character looks a bit like Rayman and can stretch out its head to knock things for damage. I couldn't beat that cat after the first sequence though. Not sure what I was doing wrong there. 

ESWAT: City Under Siege: Main character is litterally a robocop. Then you run-and-gun in a 2D side-scrolling way like you do in 90s video games. It didn't capture my attention. 

Fatal Labyrinth: This is a Rogue-like I believe with a top down view. It's turn-based. When you move a square, the enemies move a square. You can equip all sorts of weapons, equipment. You pick up magic items but they don't tell you what they do until you use them. You start in a town and can talk to townspeople but can't go anywhere but towards where the dragon is supposed to be. I went that way and got killed pretty quick. Then I found if I pushed the start button in the town I would suddenly appear in a dungeon. I did better there and leveled up but eventually got killed by some strange sentient crystal. It's a cool game. I put it in my favorites. I'm not sure how exactly to progress in it though. I may look up the manual. 

Flicky: Flicky is old school even for the 90s. You got your fixed screen and horizontal platforms like Mario Bros. You're a bird that's saving chicks from cats. Grab 'em all and bring 'em to the exit. You can pick up some items and throw them to stop the cats too. It's frantic and kind of fun. 

Gain Ground: Top down view warfare game. You control a character and move up the screen through defenders who shoot arrows and spears at you. There are three characters you can choose from, one throws spears, but another shoots a gun and another can throw grenades. You just have to exit the fixed screen or kill everything before a timer runs out. It was ok. The screen gets full of enemies after a while and it's hard not to die. These arcade games can be annoying at times. Quarter munchers. 

Galaxy Force II: On-rails shooter. You view your space ship from third person and travel through 3D space shooting enemies. I didn't like the way your ship takes up a lot of the center part of the screen. I couldn't see what I was targeting most of the time. It auto targets for you though. Controlled sort of clumsily too. 

Golden Axe: Can be infuriated to me because getting a hit on an enemy is sort of guesswork because you can't tell depth very accurately. I still love it though. The Dwarf really is the best character to use but I like the others better. I've gotten pretty good at this game now. 

That's what I played this time. 30 more to go.