Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive, 1991) Review

Mega Drive, Reviews No Responses »
Dec 212011
Sonic 1's US cover.

Sonic 1's US cover.

Sonic the Hedgehog – he’s the blue blur we’ve all come to love over the years! Sonic saw the light of the world on June 23rd, 1991. Initially created as Sega’s new mascot to rival Nintendo’s Mario, Sonic took of like no one had ever expected. With smoothly scrolling levels, loop-de-loops, great music, as well as a well thought-out plot, what’s not to love about Sonic? Sadly, this hasn’t been true for quite a few newer games that came after the Mega Drive era, but that’s a whole different story by itself.

This game is quite a classic of the Mega Drive library – and loved by young and old alike.

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Posted by Tristan Seifert at 16:43 Tagged with: , ,

Ristar (Mega Drive, 1995) Review

Mega Drive, Reviews No Responses »
Sep 252011
This is what the US Ristar box looked like from the front.

This is what the US Ristar box looked like from the front.

Ristar, or Ristar the Shooting Star is a game centered around a yellow star with long, stretchy arms. At the beginning of the game, you can see a cutscene showing that the evil tyrant called Greedy has corrupted the planet leaders. They make a desperate plea for help at their temple, which is received by Ristar. He is awoken from his capsule underwater, which transitions in to the title screen. Basically, you need to get through all seven planets, beat the bosses, and then finish the final boss off to complete the game.

By many people Ristar is considered to be “quite the hidden gem” of the Mega Drive’s array of released games, for a number of factors I’ll outline below.
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Posted by Tristan Seifert at 19:17 Tagged with: , ,

Virtua Racing (Mega Drive, 1994) Review

Mega Drive, Reviews No Responses »
Sep 182011
The cover of the US Version of Virtua Racing.

The cover of the US Version of Virtua Racing.

Virtua Racing, or V.R. for short is a port of the formula-one arcade racing game by the same name. It started as an experiment from Sega to test their 3D capabilities of their new Model 1 arcade board. Eventually, it was decided to develop it into a fully delveloped arcade game release. Due to the popularity of this game, people demanded a home console port. Sega developed a 3D rendering DSP, called the Virtua Processor, which was also their response to Nintendo’s SuperFX chip. Virtua Racing was the first and only game to use this chip, and was reflected in the $100 price tag.

Due to it’s incompatibility with the 32X addon, Sega developed a special 32X version of Virtua Racing that used the 32X’s 3D rendering capabilities.
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Posted by Tristan Seifert at 19:59 Tagged with: , ,

Sonic the Hedgehog OVA Commentary

Commentaries No Responses »
Sep 162011

After a year-long hiatus, we’re finally back with lots of more scrumptiousness. We’ve shifted our focus away from Sonic to more overall games, and will be doing commentaries on various things such as this. Without further ado, I present to you – the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA Commentary!

Sonic OVA, or “Sonic the Hedgehog – The Movie” as it is often called, was Sonic’s first major movie appearance. Released in 1996 in Japan, and September 9th, 1999 in the US on VHS tapes. Sonic OVA’s storyline was split into two in the Japanese version, but spliced together into one continuous segment of 55 minutes for the US release.
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Posted by Tristan Seifert at 23:25 Tagged with: , ,
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