PixlBit

At first, this blog may look just like another one of my typical “Here’s a list of games I’ve been reviewing lately blogs.”  And, well, it kind of is.  BUT, this time we have a THEME!  You see, SEGA recently sent me a batch of classic titles to review on the 3DS, so I decided to do them all at once and make a SEGA week.  And I got a SEGA related Christmas present so I decided to write about that as well.  So if you could please read as many reviews as you can and maybe post a comment or two, I’d really appreciate it.

The 3D updates on the 3DS are pretty well done.  I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth so I couldn’t really talk much about the 3-D graphics in the games, since I can’t see those kinds of effects.  But I’ve heard they’re very well done.  But I could talk about all the other cool extras and features they added to these classics.  For instance, in the arcade titles, you can choose to have the clicking button sound effects in the background, as well as whirring sounds if you are playing an arcade game that moves around!  You can even choose to make the screen tilt around, if the game did that in the arcade, too.  For the Genesis titles, you could opt to toggle on and off certain gameplay tweaks that would change a few things about the games, but not mess them up in any way.  So let’s take a look at what I reviewed on the 3DS:

3D Galaxy Force II (3DS)

When I was a kid, most video games in arcades only cost a quarter to play. The first time I saw an arcade machine that was 50 cents to play was After Burner in the late 80’s. It was a sit-down cabinet and it moved around, so that’s why it cost more. But even then I thought that was an outlandish price to play a game. But shortly thereafter, at a nearby movie theater, we saw this other arcade game that blew After Burner out of the water. It was Galaxy Force II! (I never even saw Galaxy Force I).  Galaxy Force II in the arcade was almost as much of an amusement ride as it was a game. The sit-down arcade cabinet not only moved up and down, but turned in 360 degrees, too! So why did I never play it? Well, because it cost $1.50 to play! Considering I could make a quarter last 30 minutes with a game of Ms. Pac-Man, paying that much for one game seemed crazy back then.   Galaxy Force II is one of my favorite of the 3DS classic SEGA titles I reviewed.  I also liked how this review turned out especially, so if you only can read one, I hope you make this one it.

3D Space Harrier (3DS)

Space Harrier was super popular in arcades when I was little.  It was always near the front entrance where everyone could see it.   But I didn’t play it much because all the bigger kids would hog it.  Did you know that Space Harrier is set in the same world as Fantasy Zone?  I wish that SEGA would release the last Space Harrier game that was in arcades and port it to a home console.  And that game was called Planet Harriers!  Anyone here ever play it?

3D Super Hang-On (3DS)

Even though I didn’t play Hang-On very much in arcades (motorcycle games just didn’t appeal to me), I always knew it was in the arcade I was at. For some reason, every arcade I went to that had it; the volume was turned all the way up. So wherever you were at, you could hear the “dong…dong…dong…” music on the title screen every few minutes.  Playing this always makes me think of Rad Racer.  I wish SEGA would make more OutRun games.  I know they don’t because they don’t have the Ferrari license anymore, but I don’t think anyone would care if they just used a generic looking sports car instead.  One neat thing about the 3DS version of Super Hang-On is you can opt to use the motion sensor on your 3DS to tilt it around to steer!

3D Altered Beast (3DS)

I don’t really like this game much, but some of the things in it crack me up.  Like the kooky “Wise Fwom Your Gwave” voices, and the fact that your guy grows muscles every time he powers up.  Wish I could do that in real life.  One neat thing they added to this one is a beast randomizer that lets you turn into other animals in levels.  So you don’t always have to play Stage 1 as the wolf, for instance.  I wish this was the arcade version instead of the Genesis one, though.

3D Ecco the Dolphin (3DS)

I never had a Genesis as a kid, and most of the time I was pretty OK with that.  I was pretty happy with my SNES.  But when Ecco the Dolphin came out, i so wanted to play that.  Years later, I did finally get to try it.  Sadly, i was disappointed.  The game was very hard and goals and objectives were very unclear.  Surprisingly, my favorite Ecco game is Ecco Jr.  It's not as frustrating, it's fun for kids, and they even have facts about dolphins and sea life.  One good thing about the 3DS version of Ecco is that you can turn on a Super Dolphin mode, which cuts down on the frustration factor.  But goals are still unclear.

3D Sonic the Hedgehog (3DS)

I never really understood the draw of the first Sonic game.  I would always ask myself, “This is better than Super Mario World…HOW?!?”  But then, I really liked Mario World.  I liked Sonic 2 a little more (mainly because it had Tails in it), and Sonic 3 was even better.  But I still just can’t ‘get’ the first game.  But I know a lot of people like it so I guess I’ll just shut up about it.  In this version, you can choose to turn on a stage select and Sonic’s spin dash from other games.

And that’s all the 3DS classics I reviewed.  They also have versions of Shinobi III and Streets of Rage you can download, but I didn’t get review codes from SEGA on those.  I’m a little bit disappointed at that, because I love me some Streets of Rage (I always played as Blaze for some reason).  Oh well.

SEGA Genesis Classic Game Console with 80 Built in Games: Part 1

For Christmas I got this new SEGA Genesis console that has 80 games built into it.  It looked pretty cool at first.  It was really small, and even though it had games already on it, you could still put Genesis cartridges into it and controllers in the controller ports.  Unfortunately, once I plugged it in and played it, I was rather disappointed.  The games work fine but the sound is TERRIBLE!  It’s not noticeable in games I’m not familiar with, but with titles like Ristar and Streets of Rage 2…UGH!  You’re really better off just getting the Genesis collections on CD for Xbox 360 and whatnot.  In this first section I talked about the classic Genesis games on here.

SEGA Genesis Classic Game Console with 80 Built in Games: Part 2

The second half of my review on this console, I talked about the other 40 games on here that aren’t Genesis classics.  Yeah, half of the games on this console are casual and arcade action games that weren’t Genesis classics, and they’re all awful.  I think the box is a bit misleading when they said 80 games were on it and only showed Genesis cartridges on the front.  On the back of the box they show screens of all the games, so smart shoppers can tell. But still, if I were writing the text on the box, I would’ve said something like, “40 Classic Games and 40 Original Titles” or something.  I know that most of these multi-pack-in game consoles are a little shady, but the box for this one made it look pretty legit.  So overall I was a bit disappointed.  Oh well.

Can You Get All the Chaos Emeralds?

OK we’re going to conclude this blog with a silly little SEGA related game.  In the comments section, I want you all to try and name some of my favorite SEGA characters.  If you read this blog and my reviews, it shouldn’t be too hard to do.  For each one you get correctly, you’ll win a Chaos Emerald.  Name seven characters and you’ll get all the Chaos Emeralds and you’ll be able to turn into Super…Whatever Your Name Is and then you can defeat the final final boss!  Also, you’ll win a bonus emerald if you can think of a good blog idea for me to write about (I’m running low on blog ideas right now).  So until next time or whenever, later!  --Cary