Category Archives: Sega

Sega Sunday #2 – 8bit Altered Beast

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I love Altered Beast, I grew up playing it on the Sega Mega Drive. Once I started collecting video games I found out it was originally an arcade game and there were ports to several home consoles. Most people know about the Sega Mega Drive Altered Beast, but it was also released for the Sega Master System, the NEC PC Engine (both on HU-card and on CD-ROM) and finally I have also found a port of the Altered Beast (Jūōki) game for the Famicom! There’s probably  more that I don’t know about..
Altered Beast Famicom, back and front box

This Famicom version surprised me though since Sega and Nintendo were such big competitors and Altered Beast were one of Sega’s pearls. But it actually says copyright Sega really tiny in the bottom of the cartridge.
Jyuuouki (Altered Beast)

Here’s all the Altered Beast games I have and know about:
Altered Beast games

Tonight I’ve been playing the 8-bit versions on Famicom and Sega Master System to compare the two. The Famicom version has been totally re-done by Asmik, and compared to all the other ports of Altered Beast this one really stands out. It’s faster, the character isn’t as stiff as he is in the other Altered Beast games and the sprites have gotten a cute and more rounded makeover, compared to the masculine muscular macho-style of the original ^^ You also have 3 continues which makes the game a bit easier. Here’s a comparison of screenshots from the Famicom version and the Sega Master System version:
Altered Beast - start screen
Altered Beast - Stage 1
Altered Beast - werewolfAltered Beast - Stage 3 vs 2

What’s really interesting though is that in the Famicom version they’ve put in a whole new stage as a second stage, the regular stage that I’m used to where you transform into a dragon is the third stage of the Famicom version. In this stage you transform into a lion and the stage boss is a pig ^^ I think you will be able to transform into a shark in later stages as well (based on the box cover art)
Altered Beast Famicom stage 2
Altered BEast Famicom Stage 2 boss

On the Famicom version I managed to get to the stage where you transform into a bear, which in this version is stage 4. On the Master System version I didn’t even manage to get to the first boss before getting a game over >_< This version is if possible even stiffer than the Mega Drive one. I have beaten the Mega Drive Altered Beast a few years ago after I figured out you could change settings and increase your amount of health and lives, but this Master System version is really really hard and I haven’t found any way to get continues or an easier setting..
Altered Beast - Game Over
The game over text is much cuter in the Famicom version ^_^

I managed to record my efforts on Jūōki for the Famicom, but I was too lazy to bring out the DVD burner to record my failures in the Sega Master System version.. Anyway, here’s the video of my gameplay from Altered Beast on the Famicom, check it out since it’s got some pretty sweet 8-bit Altered Beast tunes! :D

Sega Sunday #1 – Shiten Myooh

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Sega Sunday has a nice ring to it! I will try to post something Sega related on sundays hereafter ^_^ Just based on the amount of Sega games I own I would be able to make a new Sega Sunday for 7,5 years!! :D haha

The Sega game I will cover today was released in Japan and it’s called Shiten Myooh! I bought it only because of the name, it made me giggle ^^ It turned out to be a pretty cool game though!
shiten-myooh startscreen

Shiten Myooh is a Sega Mega Drive game, and it’s got some pretty cool artwork!
shiten myooh boxed

I was so happy when I tried it and found out it was an action platformer where you can play co-op with a friend! :D There’s 4 characters to choose from, if you’re playing solo these 4 characters basically mean you have 4 lives before you’re game over. However if your playing 2 players you only have 2 lives each since there’s still only 4 characters to choose from.
shiten-myooh character select
If a characters dies you won’t be able to use them again:
shiten-myooh character select death

Here are the character profiles (in japanese), scanned from the manual:
Shiten Myooh manual 1
Shiten Myooh manual 2

There’s 6 main stages, and before each stage you can choose which character you wanna play, they all have different abilities and special powers that can be useful in various situations, so there is probably strategic choices you can make depending on the stage.
shiten-myooh level select
shiten-myooh character special attach

During the stages you can pick up powerups. Not until at the very end we realized that depending on the color of the item it belonged to certain characters, and picking them up with the wrong character would just make it disappear. We also figured out that you can change characters during the stages to enable you to pick up the right powerup.
Shiten Myooh manual 3

After each stage there’s a boss, some where really difficult, even on the first couple of stages! It was easier when you were 2 players, but if one died and had no characters left you were left alone to finish it. You have unlimited with continues though, so as long as you beat a boss that stage would be cleared.
shiten myooh boss

So I tried this out with my friend Annett first, and we almost beat the game (so we thought)! We just couldn’t get past the forest stage that required simultaneous precision jumping, if one fell both would fail.. However I tried the game a few weeks later with my friend NinjaBrite and we managed to beat that damn Forest stage! That’s when we found out there was also a 7th stage.. and an 8th stage.. and a final boss! Here’s a scan of the manual showing the final stages:
Shiten Myooh manual 5

Now after beating the 8th stage we thought we had beat the game since there was this awfully long cutscene, looking like some dude thanking us for our effort. And also after beating the first 6 stages there’s no indication of what’s to come…
shiten myooh before final boss
The text was all in japanese so we didn’t quite know what was going on, but I started filming the ending, still holding the controller, and BAM! There’s a final boss fight!

shiten myooh final boss

So here’s the movie of my reaction to the SURPRISE BOSS FIGHT! :D (excuse the Swedish gibberish) ;D

shiten myoh end

Twinkle Tale for Sega Mega Drive

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I recently bought this amazing shooter from FredJ, it’s called Twinkle Tale for Sega Mega Drive! It was released exclusively in Japan in 1992, developed by Zap Corporation and published by WAS (Wonder Amusement Studio). I’ve never heard of any one of these two, but they sure did a great job with this game!
Twinkle-Tale-Sega-Mega-Drive-Complete

Twinkle Tale is an overhead shmup, but it’s different since your character is walking around on the ground and you can walk in all directions. There are chests to open, narrow paths to follow and different roads to choose from (they all lead to the same end though). At first glance it looks like a fantasy RPG (and you all know how fond I am of RPG’s… >_<) but when you start shooting, feeling the fluent controls and experiencing the amazing graphics and sprites it all changes and you can’t do anything but love this game! ^_^
Twinkle-Tale-Sega-Mega-Drive-Cartridge

Since I still can’t record gameplay from my japanese Sega Mega Drive I had to use my iPhone to try and take some screenshots..
Twinkle Tale start screen copy

You can set the game to various difficult levels, I started on normal, but it was still pretty difficult.. The controls are pretty simple. You have a magic attack which is limited unless you pick up power-ups for it, but 3 is the maximum you can carry. You shoot with the B button and you can change between 3 various shots with C.
twinkle tale configuration mode

The first shot is straight forward and powerful, the second one spreads wider and is a bit less powerful, the third shot is a homing shot that aims directly towards any enemies but is pretty weak. This third one is the one I ended up using mostly during the stages since it took out all the smaller foes and medium foes quickly, but on the bosses I preferred the strong shot. You can level up all your shots to a maximum of lvl 3. If you get hit you loose one lvl of the shot you have equipped. You will quickly find power-ups though, since there are a lot of chests and stuff that carry items in all the stages.
Twinkle-Tale-Sega-Stage-1
twinkle-tale-stage2

You have three life bars, once you get hit three times it’s Game Over. However you have a couple of credits. You will encounter mobs of enemies coming at you, goblins throwing sticks, bats, mages, giant stone golems, skeletons, gargoyles and various other creatures. The enemies are very varied and well made and you encounter new ones on each stage.
Twinkle-tale-sega-game-over

You will also encounter various obstacles throughout the stages, like falling rocks in narrow paths, shooting arrows from the walls etc.
Twinkle-tale-falling-rocks

twinkle-tale-arrows

I made it as far as to the second boss on my first couple of credits. I made a few stupid mistakes, like walking right up the path where the boss would come from, thinking that was the way out, and he killed me instantly >_< I bet my second attempt will go much better! I just had to stop to write about it first ^_^ I also took some picture from the manual. It looks like it’s torn all around the edges but that “rip” is actually printed on the paper, I guess to make it look old?
Twinkle-tale-SMD-manual
Twinkle-Tale-Sega-Mega-Drive-Manual

And here’s the first boss, a three headed dragon-lion-thingy:
Twinkle-Tale-Sega-Mega-Drive-Boss1

twinkle-tale-gate

And the second boss, a giant floating knight casting lightning:
Twinkle-tale-sega-mega-drive-boss-2
Twinkle-tale-sega-mega-drive-boss2

This game is pretty rare, and it wasn’t cheap, but I’m really happy I bought it. It’s an awesome addition to my collection and it has great replay value! I will continue my attempt to advance past the second boss after this post ;D

Secret Sega prize!

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Today the secret prize has arrived to theSegaDude who won the contest!
secret prize!!!

For those of you who were curious, then here is what it contained! :D
secret prize! content

I actually waited until the winner was announced to decide what the package should contain, since I wanted to optimize the prize for whoever would win ^_^ Since theSegaDude is a Sega collector, the price was Sega inspired! :D

First of all a game, that I don’t think he already had in his collection: Tiny Toons Adventure: Busters Hidden Treasure
tiny toon adventures busters hidden treasure sega mega drive

Then I made SEGA coasters with perler beads! :D
sega coasters 8bit perler beads

And then I also made a few artworks from Sega characters such as Sonic and Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone (which is theSegaDude’s avatar) ^_^
opa-opa fantasy zone perler bead
sonic 8bit perler bead art

Check out the unwrapping of the prize on theSegaDude’s site! :D

Package in the mail today! Atari, Sega, PC Engine & Atomic Robo-kid!

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Today I got two packages in the mail. It was a treat since I had totally forgot what it was that I had bought ^_^ (Yes my memory is sometimes like the one of a goldfish >_<) Anyway, the first package came in a padded envelope, inside was this really convenient box for the size of a CD case! (Yes, small details and things like this amazes me…)

And in the package was also what looked like a 10.000 ¥en bill?!

But this turned out to be a printed thank-you-for-buying-note! Really clever ^_^ Thank you Game Sensei! It was a true pleasure doing business with you :D And below you can see that the game I had bought was Atomic Robo-kid for PC Engine!

So I tried this game out tonight, and it was a blast!! A great horizontal shooter, with this cute Atomic Robo-kid sprite and cool powerups! It was really fast and fun!

Below follows a montage with screenshots and gifs I made from gameplay footage ^_^ All images are clickable to view larger :)

I got to the second boss, but then I got a Game Over after having used up all my continues >.< It was quite hard, but I will try to give it another go soon ^_^ In the second package I got two Sega games, Gangster Town for Sega Master System and Slime World for Sega Mega Drive. I’ve been looking for Slime World since I saw that TheSegaDude had gotten it ;D And I finally found a decent japanese copy of the game. Can’t wait to try it out! :D

I love the boxart for Slime World!! I have no idea what Gangster Town is.. it was dirt cheap! so I bought it…

Two other games were hiding in the second package! Star Wars Jedi Arena and Millipede for Atari 2600! Millipede also had a manual, something I was not even aware of when I bought it on Ebay ^_^ It’s huuuuge compared to the actual game haha! :D

The Millipede manual actual contains some hints to this incredibly frustrating game ;D It says:
Make sure you keep your eye on the millipede while you’re getting rid of the other pests. The millipede can sneak up on you if you’re not careful (NO SHIT!) so keep it under control.
… Each insect has its own unique sound so listen closely and you can anticipate what will be coming next! (I actually did not know that! Did you?)

Retro Room – My Collection

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I’ve been quite busy this last week, I’ve moved my previously tiny little retro gaming corner into a bigger room in our house! :D This was much needed since my games didn’t fit in there anymore O_o

My previous Retro Room (that’s what I call it due to the vintage interior design and all the retro video games) was quite narrow and I have been working for years adding furniture to the puzzle in an attempt of trying to make all my games fit in there. Here’s some pictures of how narrow my previous Retro Room was:

Eventually it was filled with so many games that I had no more room of storing them, they were lying all over the place and it looked messy :( 

So my boyfriend and I decided to change rooms, he got my old one and I got our big work-room for myself! :D
It was a lot more work than I had anticipated, putting up new wallpapers, moving all the things out of both rooms and then moving stuff back in and arranging the furniture in a good way.. it was quite messy during the process:


But I tried keeping things organized since most of my games were already in alphabetical order..

So after a whole weekend of decorating and stuff my new Retro Game Room is finally finished! Here’s the results:

Underneath the big TV int he middle I have 11 consoles all connected to it ^_^  (NTSCN NES, SNES, Twin Famicom, SMD, DC, PS2, Saturn, N64, SFC, SMS and GC) on the right TV I only have an NES and on the left TV Japanese SMD, SMS, PC Engine and Atari 2600.



My 8-bit perler beads came in handy when decorating some dull spaces ^_^

My NES Zapper corner, along with some SFC, FC, SNES and N64 games ^_^

The painting here is made by a friend of mine and I love it so much! It’s some of my favorite game characters of all time ^_^ Samus Aran, Sephiroth, Master Chief and Lulu from FFX :D


My Castlevania collection now takes up TWO shelves! and is the centerpiece of my collection ^_^

I have 4 large bookshelves next to each other on this wall, and on the last one I ran out of shelves because I used them all in the others. I am in the process of getting more shelves though, so soon I’ll be able to stack this last bookshelf full as well, I have one more box of games outside the room waiting to be unpacked ^^

My little space invaders shelf ^^ I used to have only Famicom games in it, but now I put my C64 games on the top compartments and my Famicom Konami games on the bottom (the bottom ones doesn’t have endlabels :( and also there’s a Wonderswan!)

I also really love my new Nintendo neon sign! It really lights up the room ^_^ I have two more neon signs on the way, I’ll blog about them when they arrive :D

In this corner I have my desk, hardly visible here though. I also have all my boxed GB, GBC and GBA there and some Famicom games ^^

Finally my Commodore 64 got it’s own place and didn’t have to stay on the floor anymore! :D

I also have a few consoles which I have doubles of, and these I keep on the desk in case I want to record gameplay :) Like my Famicom with Disk System :D

I am incredibly satisfied! And I want to give out a special thanks to my wonderful friend Becky who helped me move and organize everything this weekend! :D

My Castlevania Collection!

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So what’s on this shelf.. well I have scanned all of my Castlevania games, so let’s start with the 8-bits and move forwards ^_^
edit: now my collection is taking up two shelves ^_^


Castlevania
The first Castlevania adventure for the NES. I have finally found a nice complete edition ^_^


Castlevania II Simon’s Quest
The second Castlevania adventure for the NES. Still looking for a complete one…


Castlevania II Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld
Here’s a handheld version of the Simon’s Quest Castlevania game. It’s really nothing like Simon’s Quest for the NES, it’s a very basic sidescrolling beat ‘em up, but still a nice edition to the collection ^_^


Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse for the NES
This one is a PAL edition and it’s complete in box quite nice condition.


Castlevania Blood Moon
This is not an actual release, it’s an NES reproduction cart with a fan-made hack of the Castlevania game.


Castlevania Chorus of Mysteries
This one is also an NES reproduction cart with a fan made hack.


Akumajou no Densetsu 悪魔城伝説 (Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse)
The third Castlevania game, released for the Famicom.


Akumajou Special Boku Dracula-kun 悪魔城すぺしゃる ぼくドラキュラくん
A cute platforming spinnoff of the Castlevania series. Released for the Famicom by Konami.


Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania I)
The first Castlevania adventure for the Famicom Disk System. I have this one complete with the outer plastic box and manual, but scanning the complete package with that box looks terrible >_< So I just scanned the inner case with the game and inlay.


Dracula 2 The Accursed Seal (Noroi no Fuuin) ドラキュラII呪いの封印 (Castlevania II Simon’s Quest)
The second Castlevania game on Famicom Disk System. Same here I have it complete in box with manual, but scanned the inner case with game and inlay.


Dracula Densetsu トラキュラ伝説 (Castlevania Adventures)
The first Castlevania game for the Game Boy. I wrote a bit about this game here. One thing that baffles me about this game is that hearts = health, where is the wall chicken?! I have this game in PAL edition as well, however only the loose cartridge.


Dracula Densetsu  II トラキュラ伝説II (The Castlevania Adventure II Belmont’s revenge)
The second Castlevania game for the Game Boy. Great adventure, great music. Shouldn’t be missed out on, all the Castlevania Game Boy games are completely new adventures, not just ports of the NES/Famicom adventures. I have this in PAL as well, but just the cartridge.


Akumajou Dracula Shikkokutaru Zensoukyoku 悪魔城ドラキュラダークナイトプレリュード (Castlevania Legends)
Probably my favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy. I made a video of where I finished it here. Really hard final boss! But thanks to the password system I managed to go back and finally beat him ^_^ Great music in this one! Like most Castlevania games ;D You should really check out my video just to listen to the first stage song, a great remix of the Daylight music from Simon’s Quest! Also the Final Boss brings back the Vampire Killer theme song but in a new version, it’s kickass!! What are you waiting for? Go put on that video in the background to listen to those awesome tunes! ^_^


Castlevania Legends
I also have the PAL edition for Game Boy.


Akumajou no Dracula 悪魔城ドラキュラ (Castlevania)
The Famicom Mini Edition. Castlevania re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan.


Castlevania NES CLASSICS
The NES Classics edition for the Game Boy Advance.


Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
My favourite Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. You can collect the enemies’ souls and gain their powers! :D AWESOME!


Castlevania Circle of the Moon
Also for the Game Boy Advance, also a great adventure with some memorable tunes ^_^


Castlevania Circle of the Moon Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ 白夜の協奏曲 オリジナルサウンドトラック
The original soundtrack for Circle of the Moon to Game Boy Advance. This one is amazing! Here are some of my favorite Castlevania songs! :D


Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance
The third Castlevania adventure for the Game Boy Advance. There was a Game Boy Advance release that contained both Aria of Sorrow and Harmony of Dissonance but I haven’t been able to find it yet in decent condition.


Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow
For Nintendo DS. I have the game for Order of Ecclesia as well but without box and manual and I’m still keeping an eye out for Portrait of Ruin..


Castlevania Portrait of Ruin
Another Castlevania game for the DS, I just got this (that’s why it’s scanned with plastic around) so I haven’t been able to try it out yet.


Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
This one is also brand new, another Castlevania game for the DS. This one however I had the game cartridge for previously so I have played it and got pretty far, and it was great! But then I got stuck >_<


Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo 悪魔城ドラキュラX 血の輪廻 (Castlevania Rondo of Blood)
Finally got my hands on the rare Castlevania game, Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine! :D It’s in super nice condition, but unfortunately I am unable to play the game since I don’t have a PC Engine duo or the CD-ROM2 >_< but I’m getting one soon!!


Akumajou Dracula 悪魔城ドラクラ (Super Castlevania IV)
The first Castlevania game for the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom. This is the Japanese release. I have Super Castlevania IV for PAL as well, however only the cartridge :(


Akumajou Dracula XX 悪魔城ドラクラXX (Castlevania Vampire’s Kiss)
One of the rare Castlevania titles. This is a japanese release, complete and in great condition. The PAL version is really hard to find.. but I’m looking ^^


Castlevania The New Generation
The only Castlevania game I know of that was released on Sega. This one is PAL for the Sega Mega Drive, complete and in awesome condition ^^


Castlevania
The first Castlevania game for the Nintendo 64. Definitely not a favourite.. Castlevania games really should stay in the 2D platforming genre…


Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録 (Castlevania)
I have the N64 Castlevania game in it’s Japanese release as well..


Castlevania Legacy of Darkness
When I finally bought Legacy of Darkness for the N64 I realized it was the same game as Legend of Cornell in Japan.. But now at least I can play it :D

Akumajou Dracula Mokushiroku Legend of Cornell 悪魔城ドラクラ黙示録レゲンドオブコーネール (Castlevania Legacy of Darkness)
This one is also for the Nintendo 64, but I don’t know much about it. I don’t have a Japanese N64 so I haven’t been able to try it out yet. But I can’t say I’m in a rush to do so, since the N64 is my least favourite console of all time.. edit: now I’ve found out that Legacy of Darkness and Legend of Cornell is the same game! It wasn’t much better than the previous N64 Castlevania game, same awkward 3D adventure >_<


Castlevania Chronicles
A PAL edition of the Castlevania Chronicles for the Playstation 1 (PS1)


Castlevania Symphony of the Night
A mint complete edition of a PAL SOTN. Here’s where the Metroidvania style of Castlevania games began. I like it alot ^_^ I especially love that they went back to 2D platforming instead of messing around with awkward 3D..


Castlevania Symphony of the Night Tiger handheld
Much like the Simon’s Quest Tiger handheld, this is also just a side-scrolling beat ‘em up game, though a bit more advanced with more options.


Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles
Mint PAL edition for the PSP. This one I was particularly happy about when I got since I would be able to play the rare Rondo of Blood adventure that had been released long ago on the PC Engine, but NOW that I HAVE a PC Engine I am looking for the actual Rondo of Blood for the PC Engine. Soooooon it will most definitely be a part of my Castlevania collection :D edit: I now possess the PC Engine version too ^_^


Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles Soundtrack 悪魔城ドラキュラ Xクロニクル オリジナルサウンドトラック
I also have the original soundtrack from Japan for the PSP game: Castlevania The Dracula X Chronicles. This is a 2-disc collection, quite nice ^_^ It bugs me that they put the cover image in the wrong direction..


Castlevania Lament of Innocence
First Castlevania adventure for the Playstation 2. Here they went back to 3D, however I must say it looks better than on the N64 ;D


Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Another Castlevania game for the PS2. Stupid sticker ruining the front… >_<


Castlevania Judgement
This is the only Castlevania game I know of for the Wii and I just recently got it. I don’t really play the Wii that much, but now I have to try this game out ^_^


Castlevania Lords of Shadow
And finally a Castlevania game for the Xbox 360. It’s supposed to be good, but I haven’t actually had the time to try it yet o_O

Charity game collecting!

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Recently I stumbled upon a retro gaming blog focusing on purchasing games through charity organizations. I don’t remember the name of the blog, I accidentally closed the tab after following a link to Oxfam’s webshop where they indeed had some retro games! I found three neat Sega Mega Drive games there in great condition to a very decent price, between 3-5 GBP each, and the money goes to charity! :D The games I got there were Earthworm Jim 2, Mega Games 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Wow.. only sequels o_O I also got Space Invaders Anniversary for the PS2 ^_^

There was of course a lot of crap as well, but it’s worth checking out once in a while, here’s a link to Oxfam’s webshop >>

I have also gotten a bunch of other Sega Mega Drive games recently, Asterix and the Power of the Gods was apparently a quite rare one according to retrocollect.com. I also got Pocahontas which was supposed to be a fun Disney game, however I got stuck on the first screen of the game and couldn’t get any further.. I might give it another go soon though. Also got True Lies since it’s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger! and  Cheese Cat-astrophe starring Speedy Gonzales, a fun platformer. Revolution X was a game based on Aerosmith, you get to see some cutscenes where they are performing but apart from that you are just steering a cross around and shooting guys popping up everywhere, it got kinda boring after a while.. Alisia Dragoon was however a cool platformer where you’re a girl with a dragon. I also got Mega Games 6, it had World Cup Italia, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, The Revenge of Shinobi, Super Hang-On and Columns in it.

I also got a few Master System games this last week.
Dragon the Bruce Lee Story, a platformer where you run around as Bruce Lee, no music just crappy sound effects, slow movement speed and lack of kung-fu moves…
Spiderman Return of the Sinister Six was pretty cool though, I loved shooting Spiderman’s web and swinging around ^^
Back to the Future Part III sucked just as much as AVGN said it did.. I couldn’t get past the first stage either..
The Flash was fun and really fast! Just like the Flash should be ^_^ Made me think of the Big Bang Theory and Sheldon when I was playing it.. zoom zoooom!
Mercs was just like Commando or Ikari Warriors, but the music wasn’t anything special. You had only one life, but quite a lot of health.
Tom & Jerry the Movie was a platformer where you play as Tom and you have to chase Jerry, and if you make it to the end of the stage he actually catches Jerry (even though he never manages to do that in the series!?) It got kind of repetitive after a while and the steering was really stiff..
Aztec Adventure was fun until I died and realized i had to start all the way from the beginning again!! wtf.. I was really into it, changing weapons to get further ahead on the Zelda-look-a-like map areas but as soon as I died they put me all the way back at the beginning of the maze, then I gave up…
Running Battle was at first sight like a Streets of Rage kind of beat’em up until my boyfriend who was trying it out realized he had a gun as well (!) and then it got super easy just shooting all the foes in their faces ^_^
Cyborg Hunter is a platformer where you run around on different levels trying to pick up items that you needed to advance, but the problem was that you had to take an elevator to get to the different levels to search for the items, but the elevators where so hard to maneuver, we couldn’t figure out how to make it go up or down or even how to exit it, it all seemed to happen randomly.. maybe we just couldn’t figure out the controls.. I dunno..

So that was it for my latest  Sega purchases, let me know if there’s any game in particular you’re interested in seeing a deeper review of and I’ll make one ^_^

Alex Kidd in Shinobi World for Sega Master System

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I recently got a few new Sega Master System games, one of the was Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. I love the Alex Kidd games, so I was excited to try it out. However, on the second stage I got stuck… Watch my video below to see how I dealt with it!

Japanese Sega Master System – Satellite 7, Astro Flash and Penguin Land

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This weekend I bought a Japanese Sega Master System, so I would be able to play those games as well ^_^ It looks almost exactly like the PAL version of the first Sega Master System, but it has some differences. First of all here’s a picture of my PAL Master System:

Now the Japanese version doesn’t have a RESET button (not as far as I’ve seen anyway), the same button exists on the same place on the JP system, but it’s called RAPID (for rapid fire I suppose). The slot for the cards instead of cartridge games exist on both systems but as far as I know only the Japanese system actually released games on cards (correct me if I’m wrong..) Therefore on the Japanese system it also reads “CARD INPUT” right above the slot. It reads CARD INPUT on the right side of the card slot on the PAL system, but on the Japanese system they replaced that with “3-D GLASSES” and it has a little input for those there… Confusing.. Anyway, here’s the pictures of my Japanese Sega Master System:

I also got a few games for it. One cartridge game called Penguin Land. It’s a fun platform puzzle type game. The Japanese cartridges look a lot different from the PAL ones. They’re bigger and have a funny shape on the back.

I tried connecting the Master System up like I do with all my other systems, but it refused to let me record decent video of the gameplay. The images turned weird black and white just like my Japanese Sega Mega Drive. It’s weird, it doesn’t do that with my Famicom.. So anyway, I had to take some photos with my phone to be able to show the games, you’ll have to excuse the shitty quality >_<

First of all all the games start off with saying “Sega Mark III” which is the predecessor to Sega Master System in Japan. You can play all those games on the Master System as well, the difference of the systems is basically that the Master System has FM Sound, and they have a totally different design of the consoles. Anyway, here’s Penguin Land!



The objective is to get your egg down to the bottom safely. If it falls more than three squares it crashes, if it touches an enemy the enemy breaks it and things can fall on your egg if you don’t watch out. You can dig holes in the ground and push your egg. It’s a fun game, and it’s not as easy as it looks. You have to find the right path or your egg won’t survive the trip.


You only have 3 eggs (lives), but if you reach a higher stage you can always choose which stage you want to start from, thereby starting from where you were.

Another couple of games I got were Astro Flash and Satellite 7. These two were both card games in really beautiful paper cases! :D

These are both great shooters! Satellite 7 is above view scrolling upwards while Astro Flash is side scrolling ^^


Sorry again for the shitty image quality >_<


I think the Sega Mark III logo is really cool ^^ It’s like I know it’s SEGA but I don’t recognize it since I grew up with the traditional later blue SEGA logo. It’s retro! ;D


In Astro Flash your ship can also transform into a robot ^_^ Cool!

That’s it for today, I’ll be back soon with some PC Engine and other cool stuff! :D

Dick Tracy for Sega Mega Drive and some other purchases

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Haven’t had much time to game this week, but some packages has arrived this week. Among these I got Dick Tracy for the Sega Mega Drive, which I realized I really wanted after reading about TheSegaDude’s new additions! The Japanese cover looked a little bit cooler with the Katakana though.. but at least I will be able to record when I play it since I got the PAL edition ^_^

I also got Ecco the Dolphin for Sega Game Gear, just because it was cheap ^^

And I found a game called Secret Command, don’t know anything about it yet, but I will try them all out tomorrow ^_^

Sega Game Gear!!

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I finally got myself a Sega Game Gear! And it’s in original box, from Japan :D

And it’s in pretty good shape ^_^

So now I’m finally able to play all the Game Gear games I’ve been purchasing! Though this sucker demands 8 AA-batteris! EIGHT! And it sucks them clean quite fast.. I need to get myself a power adaptor..


I’ve gotten a few games, they are: Fantasy Zone, Battletoads, Columns, Dragon the Bruce Lee story, Popils, Sonic Spinball and Sega Game Pack 4 in 1 (this one I only bought because it was really cheap and it was listed as Rare on Retrocollect.com)..

One of my favorites is Battletoads, even though the cartridge label was slightly faded from sun exposure, it’s still a great game! And the Game Gear version is way better than the Game Boy version, then again it’s two completely different systems. The Game Gear version looks just like the NES version! And the music is awesome ^_^ Once I get a power adaptor I’ll try to see if I can get passed the third stage! I managed on the Famicom :D

Another favorite is Fantasy Zone! The cartridge is really pretty ^_^ But it’s also a really fun shooter!

And I looove Tetris-style games, so Columns is an obvious choice of mine. I can play it for hours! That was the game that emptied the Game Gear batteries!

The other 4 games I basically just started up to see that they worked, I will give them a go another day ^^ I completely forgot about the 2 games my friend had bought me, Castle of Illusion and Wonderboy. I will have to get more batteries before I can try those two out as well..

And still I can’t stop beading… here’s my Space Invaders!

My Hero gameplay

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For those of you who are still doubting the difficulty of this game, here is an unedited video of my first 10 minutes of gameplay (this is not the first time I play the game either, I’ve tried it before on several occasions, usually when you wanna mess with your friends and make them play a shitty game).

You can also hear the crappy music that keeps repeating and the Game Over sequence that you can’t skip!

Ps. watch at 5.48 to see the never ending army of fucktards >_<

Review a Bad Game Day: My Hero

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I totally forgot about the Review a Bad Game Day! Even though I’ve gotten several reminders on my Twitter, but I just saw Alana’s review of Total Recall and remembered it! So here’s a shitty game in my opinion!

My Hero for the Sega Master System:

A bunch of seedy Punks try to steal your girl. Battle knife throwers, ferocious bulldogs, flying bottles, even the gang leader – Mohikan. Hopelessly overwhelming? Take heart. You have incredible kung fu skills. But the punks have your girl.

Now that’s the story. Here’s the truth:
A never ending army of millions of annoying sprinting hunchbacks stole your girlfriend. Dagger throwing fucktards, pissy tenants dropping bottles from windows on the second floor,  bouncing star-balls of doom.. with spikes and stairs that reach to your chin and are lethal deathtraps!! Completely overwhelming, nei, impossible! I can’t take heart, my kung-fu skills are poor, and the punks can keep that stupid girl who gets herself kidnapped! >_<


They come from all directions and they are faster than you! They also come without a pattern so it’s a hit or miss..


Dagger throwing and bottle dropping assholes..


Spikeballs of Doom


Chin-high stairs


It’s a Lethal Death Trap!!

Now, the hordes of enemies coming at you are impossible to dodge. You will die eventually, and expect it to be fast. I even stopped just to see if they would keep coming and they did. I tried all different strategies I could think of, but I couldn’t make it past the staircase death-trap. I only got there once as well.. o_O

The controls are slow, everything moves fast except for your character, he is just strolling around like he had no worries, and he has a punch on one of the buttons (this one is useless! the reach is barely existent and the enemies will charge at you so fast he won’t have time to pull out his fist out of his ass!) and the second button is a jump-kick. This one kills on the way up and on the way down. Most efficient, however still it puts you in certain death situations. You have one opportunity to turn within your jump, and that’s when you’re right in the middle of the jump, if you have guys coming up behind you and you missed to turn around midair they will come straight at you from behind! >_< Kung Fu skills my ass! This guy is wearing what looks like a blue suit and has blond fluffy styled hair, I bet the only skills he has is either something to do with accounting or tying his tie.

Also where are the ferocious bulldogs? Not that I would say I am missing them, there are ENOUGH enemies in this game already! But I wasn’t even able to get so far as to encounter any dogs or the Mohikan for that matter..

From this game you can expect a shitty impossible challenge, with annoying music that just repeats and repeats, frustration and dying over and over and over and over and over and over and over again… and again.. and some more!

And to top it all off, the whole game is puke green as far as I’ve seen…

Game Gear Games and RED L.E.D

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Starting the morning off with some coffee in my favorite mug…

Now today I got a package, my dear friend Mona had been to a flea market and found some Game Gear games and called me to see if I was interested. Since they were so cheap of course I wanted them! So she picked them up for me :D and today I got the package from her in the mail.

I don’t have an actual Sega Game Gear yet, but now there’s even more of a reason to get one! :D

She had also gotten me a surpriser gift!

A C64 game called RED L.E.D! Can’t wait to try it out ^_^

Now I probably won’t be updating for about 2 weeks since I’m having a bunch of relatives visiting from the US due to a wedding, but I’ll be back soon ^_^

Captain Silver for Sega Master System

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Now I’ve finished testing and cleaning all the Sega Master System games I’ve bought the last couple of weeks. And here they are!

There are way too many games to review them all at ones. So I’m just gonna start with one that I kinda really liked :D


Captain Silver!

This game is hard. It’s a real challenge. The biggest part that makes it so hard is that you die of only one hit, and you only have 3 lives and no continues! I don’t really mind the game being quite hard though, because it’s fun. The controls are smooth and responsive and you know that it is manageable you just aren’t allowed to make any mistakes! ^_^


You play as the pirate Captain Silver, and you collect letters, letters to spell your name. There are several different enemies, a pirates greatest enemies are according to this game: cats, walking lions, medieval troubadours and witches on broomsticks… and not to forget, green blob-thingys falling from trees WATCH YOUR HEAD!


There is also a fountain that kills you! Seriously if you land in the fountain you die. Because he gets wet?? But you can land on the tops of sprinkling water to get across.. o_O makes no sense

There’s a shop that I found where you could buy a fairy, she gives you the ability to shoot projectiles from your sword (!), boots which make you jump higher for a limited time, a jug of coffee or something that makes you blink (I haven’t figured out what it does, it certainly isn’t invulnerability though, I tried that…) and a clock which gives you more time. I actually got a time over a few times.. >_<

I made it to the boss at the end of stage one. It’s another witch on a broomstick just slightly larger than the previous witch I encountered. She wasn’t too hard, I just had to make sure I wasn’t standing beneath her when she dropped green blobs..

And I made it to the very beginning of stage 2. That’s how far 3 lives get me! Here you have pirates with guns shooting at you and birds flying towards you and stuff coming up from the ground without notice.. damn.. this game is hard

It’s a great platforming game though, the intro music is amazing! the level music is mediocre.. but the controls are smooth and and it’s a fun challenge!

I actually made a video of it a bit differently this time. Since I had been getting some requests to put voice commentary in my videos I finally tried it out. Personally I prefer watching gameplay videos of only the original game with original music and sound effects and no comments.. but that’s just me. This is for trying to please the crowd! ;D Let me know what you think, should I continue on this track or go back to my regular gameplay vids?

So many games…

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Been quite busy lately.. haven’t really been able to play and review any games because I’ve had so many games arriving that all my time has been consumed with cleaning and testing them all! haha

Here’s a few of them:


Soon I’m done and I’ll be ready to start enjoying the games and writing about them as well ^_^

I was just going to get Gain Ground for the Sega Mega Drive…

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At my last retro gaming event a friend thought I should get a game called Gain Ground for the Sega Mega Drive. He said it was a great game. The only one I could find at that time on Ebay was a japanese version, so I bought it, and while I was at it I checked out the sellers other auction.. and then I couldn’t restrain myself!

I ended up buying 12 Japanese Sega Mega Drive games! :D And the packages arrived today ^_^


In the shopaholic-rush that I get sometimes.. I accidentally bought a game I already had.. Fantasia >_< which is stupid hard! Though this is the Japanese version instead of the PAL, perhaps it’s better.. but I doubt it! I also got Cyber Police ESWAT and of course the Gain Ground that I set out for ^_^


I also got Insector X, which I guess is a sequel to the Famicom game with the same name. I recently got the Famicom version and I liked that game so I just supposed it would be even better in 16-bit! :D King Colossus and Senjo no Oukami II also seemed interesting, I just watched brief youtube videos, and I basically buy anything that is platforming, puzzle or shooter ^_^


Magical Taruruto-Kun is a popular series on the Famicom, so bought it cause I recognized the name. Junction seemed like a cool arcade/puzzle game, kind of like Marble Madness but kind of different, I can’t tell whether it will be amazingly cool or just awful until I try it out though ^^ Phelios I had been wanting to get on several occasions and this time it was just reasonably priced ^_^


And last but not least Shiten Myooh, Midnight Resistance and Time Dominator. I just HAD to get Shiten Myooh because of the funny name  and cool box art ^_^ and Midnight Resistance looked kind of like Contra, can’t wait to try that out! Time Dominator looked like a total ripoff from the Sonic games! Really fast and similar graphics and gameplay.. hmm..

Well I just wanted to share what was in the mailbox today, now I’m off to try them all out! :D and try to figure out how to capture those friggin’ screenshots with COLOR! ;P

Japanese Sega Mega Drive Games

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I bought some more Sega Mega Drive games, now for my japanese Mega Drive that I recently got ^_^ Mainly shmup’s but also some puzzle and platformers! All in super nice condition (except for Alex Kidd which had some torn corners)

The games were: Dangerous Seed, Puyo Puyo 2, Ex-ranza, Forgotten Worlds, Alex Kidd in Miracle world….


…And an accidental Super Famicom Game, Valken. I was so caught up in the auctions that I didn’t notice that this one wasn’t Sega! haha, but it doesn’t matter since I have a Super Famicom as well, so I can play it ^_^

Tonight I’ve been trying them all out, and I was recording gameplay for about 2 hours, but when I was finished the results looked like this:

All black and white >_< or just weird.. so back to square one, trying to figure out how to record a JAPANESE Sega Megadrive onto my iMac..

All the games were really good though! (didn’t try the Super Famicom Valken..)
Alex the Kidd is a classic, just like Puyo Puyo, it just can’t go wrong ^_^ The other games I had never heard of before when I saw them in the auction. A lot of people were bidding on them though, and they started getting a bit pricey, and that just made me want them more ! :D I’m happy that I really enjoyed all of them! Especially Ex-ranza! Amazing shmup! With great controls, fantastically fast movement, awesome music and just great gameplay ^_^ I wish I could have showed you some screenshots, but  you will have to settle for an audio clip that I managed to extract of the intro song for Ex-ranza. It’s great!


I’m really into japanese Sega Mega Drive games now, I’ve already ordered 12 more from Ebay ^_^ Hopefully they’ll arrive soon, and hopefully by then I will have found a solution to yet another recording problem..


Aren’t the Puyo Puyo blobs simply adorable?!!  yatta! :D

Retro console photo shoot!

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Today the weather was really nice, so I decided to take some of my consoles for a little stroll ^_^







I photographed a few more, but haven’t had time to resize them yet.. tomorrow perhaps ^^

..and even more Sega games =D

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Today I got more games!

Here’s the lot of Sega Mega Drive games, and one Sega Master System game:

Chakan, DJ Boy, Fantasia, Greendog, Last Battle, Rambo III, Rolling Thunder 2, Taz in Escape from Mars & Double Dragon.

I tried all the games briefly and got stuck playing a few of them. First off Fantasia which was really hard compared to other Mickey Mouse games like Castle of Illusions (looove that game!!!). You start off with a few shots (represented by the magic hat at the bottom) and they disappear immediately! Even if you die you don’t have new shots, you will have to collect them through a random magic book that comes flying (if you can catch it, Mickey is really slooow..) and even then you just get two shots. So you basically just have to avoid all the dangers by jumping, which is not easy since there’s enemies everywhere…


I made it to the second stage and then I gave up… >_<

Rolling Thunder 2 was nice, much like Rolling Thunder 1 that I have on Famicom and NES (where it’s called Code Name: Viper).

You can choose between playing as the male or female character, Albatross and Leila.

It wasn’t too hard if you took it slow and figured out where all the enemies came from, but you can’t rush through the game. One hit kills you. And you can’t jump and shoot, which is really annoying. It was the same in Rolling Thunder 1, but in the NES version (Code Name: Viper) they changed it so that you could jump and change directions and shoot while in the air.

I will try to finish this game later, I just managed to get to lvl 2 in my first attempt.

Then I played Last Battle.. and the first thing that greets you is a bunch of scrolling text. The Story. And it never ends…

It even scrolls just a little bit too fast so that it makes it hard to read, and you will miss a few rows here and there. What were they thinking?!

At least they made a nice title screen after the story…

Then there’s the gameplay.. it’s stiff… and slow.. and the enemies are easy, they die from just touching your toe.

The stages are really short and at the end you meet  some person that tells you something and your character responds:

What?!?!?!?!?

Seriously?!?!?!?! Who wrote this???!

And after a 2 stages I must have taken a wrong turn on the map cause I ended up at some boss that I could hardly even get close to and that killed me in a few blows….

One life, that’s all you get!  ò_ó

Chakan was really cool though, great story and nicely told, with music, images and good writing (compared to the shitty Last Battle way of doing things…)

Awesome…. ^^

So I tried out the four stages I could find in the room, and I couldn’t beat them. This game is really hard.. there’s flying enemies coming at you from all directions and almost unbeatable beasts on every stage. It was a good game though. I will have to practice and try it again.



This stage was unbearable! Flying shit and fishes everywhere and everything drains the life of this so-called “immortal” Chakan character >_<

If there is any game you would like to see more of just let me know and I’ll make a longer review if I can ^_^

My Sega Collection

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Thought I’d share what is in my Collection of Sega right now. They’re in alphabetical order just taken down from the shelves (except for Castlevania on Sega Mega Drive at the end, since it has it’s place among my Castlevania collection) ;D









There are a few carts and one Mega CD game, but I didn’t bother to take a photo of that ;D

I also just bought more Mega Drive games that hasn’t arrived yet, but I’ll post a picture when I get them ^_^

And this is what my Retro video game room looks like:

I’ll try to go through all my Atari, NES and Famicom games and everything else eventually with detailed pics like the Sega collection.


This is my Castlevania shelf and below that I have the space shooters and various other Famicom games and my Metroid darling (there’s a Japanese version in mint condition of Super Metroid in the back corner, hard to see). At the bottom you can spot parts of the Atari collection.


Here is my shelf of stuff I like and other stuff that just couldn’t find a place somewhere else ^_^ I love Bucky O’Hare for NES, and Binary Land (Famicom), Mega Man X and my mint Mario Bros for Atari 2600, that one always baffle people ^^


And another shelf with my Virtual Boy games and and stuff.

Sega Mega Drive games received!

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I was E-baying a few days ago and found some interesting titles through one seller, and I just ended up buying a few extra since  I was gonna pay shipping anyway…

So here’s what I got by mail today:

Battle Squadron, Skeleton Krew, Phantom 2040 and Wings of Wor.

I had recently lost an auction with Skeleton Krew so this was the game I was actually out looking for. It’s a really cool platform shooter or as they call it on the back cover “outeRAGEous blastfest!!!”.

It really does have some cool effects to it that are not usually seen in Mega Drive/Genesis titles. It kind of felt a bit like the advanced SNES games.


When the Boss appears he is hovering up and down and also sideways. It’s really well made, and they really manage to give a good three dimensional feeling to it. The controls are also smooth and easy once you get into them!

I only played through the first stage and saved the password, so I will make a longer review of this game later perhaps. =)

So after finding Skeleton Krew I browsed through the sellers other Sega titles looking for things I previously didn’t have, and looked up videos of the gameplay of the ones I found. I usually don’t buy Sega games without boxes, but after finding Wings of Wor and seeing the gameplay on youtube I had to have it!! And there were only cartridges of Wings of Wor on Ebay… I assumed it was rare..

I read a bit about it and found that the original Japanese version was called Gynoug, and there were complete Japanese versions of Gynoug on Ebay, however my Sega Mega Drive is PAL so I wouldn’t be able to play them.. So I figured that the Wings of War needed to be the PAL version. However, reading about it today on wikipedia it says that Wings of Wor was the north american version?! So I am now officially confused >_< Either way it worked when I played it on my Mega Drive.. (!)

I also briefly tried the other two games today to make sure they were in working condition. Phantom 2040 was horrible, no horrible doesn’t even describe it.. I will have to dedicate a whole angry post to it later, IF I will be able to put myself through playing it again >_<

And Battle Squadron was a mediocre shooter similar to many others. I will have to attempt it again though and perhaps I’ll grow fond of it, the back cover made it seem intriguing with Biotech Wingmen, Mutant Cybersnakes, Magno Strykers and MechnoGuardians! i didn’t get that far this time though.. Also it has the benefit of being 2 player. I love 2-player games so I can play simultaneously with friends ^_^


It seems like the Danish  people have developed Battle Squadron, hooray for Scandinavia! ^_^

Wolfchild for Sega Master System

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I recently bought Wolfchild for Sega Master System, mainly because the cover made it look like a really cool game:

Doesn’t that look absolutely rad?!

Well it’s not.. it could have been a really great game, the graphics are really good for an 8-bit game, the enemies and the stages are well designed, the gameplay is kind of fluent.. but.. there is NO MUSIC in ANY of the STAGES! why?? There’s a song during the start screen, this song is totally ok, if they were too lazy to just make any other songs then they could’ve just kept that one during the stages as well! But no, it’s just plain quiet, and you just hear the sounds of your punches and jumps… it’s weird..

Also the story is never being explained during gameplay, or even before that.. you will have to read the back of the cover to know that:
“Chimera terrorists have kidnapped Saul Morrow’s father and killed his mother and brother. Will his ability to transform into a lycanthrope warrior – a man-wolf with psychic powers – be enough to defeat an entire army?”
Or start reading the manual, where they’ve actually made a comic explaining the events, it’s 4 pages long.. or short…:

“Sometime in the future, high atop a remote island somewhere in the southern pacific”… WTF



Still, this comic only explains the event of Saul transforming into a Wolfchild. What about the Chimera terrorists? Who are they? Who is their leader? Why have they kidnapped Saul’s father?
When you’re Game Over the game tells you:

Who the hell is Draxx?!? There’s nothing about him/or her in the manual, or on the back of the cover! This story is really confusing and vague..

Well apart from this, here’s Saul:

After collecting hearts you turn into a wolf (or Wolfchild??) that has Psychic Powers, which apparently makes it possible for you to shoot laser from your paws….

The first boss i ridiculously easy.. you just walk under him and stand behind him and keep punching.. it doesn’t hurt you to touch him.

The game really has some nice graphics and environments, here’s stage 2:

The second boss wasn’t too hard either. There was a simple pattern to his appearances on the screen and you just had to position yourself away from his line of fire and try to get some shots in whenever he appeared.

On the third stage they increased the difficulty level quite a bit. The stage was overall longer than previous ones, also it had a lot of traps and enemies that came at you without a warning, like the larva randomly falling from the ceiling, and this almost always got you hurt.

When I got to the third boss I was really irritated by the game, not having any music and all.. the constant jumping, bumping and punching sounds really got on my nerves.. I wasn’t able to try the spider boss enough to figure out a pattern, and I got Game Over.. I did not feel like starting up the game again.. even though it does give you password codes for each stage, which is a bonus! And the codes are only 5 letters long! Thumbs up Wolfchild, you did something right!

Here’s a video where you can experience the frustration of not having any music while playing.. I eventually looped the intro song (since it is quite good) so you wouldn’t have to listen to the quietness forever.

Someday I might try to finish this game.. but not until I’ve forgotten about the traumatic experience of playing a 16-bit game that feels like an Atari game with bad sound effects and no music.. probably won’t take long though since my memory is terribly short >_<

Championships of Shitty…

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Actually, Champions of Europe, however it is exceptionally shitty. Not only do I not like sport games to begin with, but this just turned out to be the worst sport game I have ever played.
 Look how fucking psyched they are! Don’t be fooled by this misleading cover!! The game is nothing like what they’re apparently experiencing..

First of all we couldn’t even start a game, we had to resort to the manual (which I rarely do, I prefer figuring out shit myself) to find what all the icons meant and what the hell you needed to choose for a game to actually start.

Most obvious seemed to press the button at the bottom, but they put a demo as the default so before figuring out to change that we watched the demo three times.. >_<

Gameplay.. omg.. you can’t even grab the ball and bring it with you. You have be exactly ON the ball and even then your character will constantly give it tiny little kicks so you can basically just go straight forward with the ball. It’s not easy steering around on a giant football field with the tiniest little character in 8-bit with a D-pad..
We just ran around in circles around the ball until somebody accidentally touched it and it flew out of the field. That’s basically what we did for 2 whole games. No goals. Just chasing the ball around, without results..

You could apparently shout out some kind of formation codes for your teammates, but I don’t know football, so I don’t know the freaking codes!! >_< and they didn’t seem to do much use anyway..

4-3-3 guys! 4-3-3!!!

no wait.. 4-2-4! no! 5-3-2.. or wait was it 4-4-2? no I’m pretty sure it was 5-3-2.. FOUL!

This was the last time I had my boyfriend choose which retro game he wanted to play with me >_<

I advice you NOT to play this game if you ever come across it..
Here’s a funny video I put together summoning up the game:

Psycho Fox for Sega Master System

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Yesterday I played through Psycho Fox for Sega Master System.

I’ve visited this game many times, and I always really liked it. It is however pretty hard, the steering is stiff and it’s hard to maneuver the characters, which makes you inevitably fall into the arms of death. This has always led me to give up after a few stages, but not this time! (Thank heavens for unlimited continues!)

Psycho Fox is a side scrolling platformer, with good graphics for the 8-bit era and cute characters with some nice ability differences. You can eventually play as four different characters and change in stage whenever you have a ladder. You just have to press the PAUSE button which is on the Sega Master System located on the console and not the controller, just right next to the reset button.. so don’t be hasty!

You start off playing as the Fox. His speed and jump is moderate. He’s the character in the middle, which you eventually will end up not using, unless you need a continue and start off without ladders again.. This character is definitely the cutest though in my opinion!! ^_^

And as soon as you have collected a ladder, by either killing enemies or finding it in an egg you can change to either one of the other three characters. The Hippo is only good for one thing, which is breaking stone walls. Apart from that ability he is the slowest character.

Then there’s the Tiger, he is by far the fastest character, but his jumps are as good as the Fox’s. There are a few areas in the game where he can be beneficial, but mainly I preferred playing the last character.

The last character is the Monkey, he runs like the Fox but he jumps spectacularly! This gives you an advantage on most places in this game. Since the movement is still pretty stiff and jumping far won’t be possible unless you have some space to make a run for it first the Monkey gives you a chance to survive in some places where precise jumping is needed, since he has a little more airtime for you to steer him towards where you want to land.

There are 7 bosses in total in the game, which means 7 worlds each with 3 levels where you always encounter the boss at the end of level 3. The first three bosses re-appear on stage 4-5 and 6, and the 7th boss is unique.
The first boss is a thing made of layers that jumps around, you will have to shoot off his middle layers by jumping on a little canon. He will re-appear on stage 4, but this time sliding towards you instead of jumping.

The second boss is a mosquito which you will have to spray 3 times with the giant bug spray can. He will re-appear the same on stage 5.

The third boss is a giant tiger-cat-thing that just runs back and forth, you just have to jump on him three times. This doesn’t sound too hard, but in this game, with the shitty movement, and not to forget ONE HIT AND YOU’RE DEAD AND HAVE TO START FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE STAGE, then it is actually quite frustrating at times..

The final boss is a giant Fox! I always thought that you were playing as the Psycho Fox, but I guess it’s the Fox at the end who’s Psycho..

This guy shoots lightning bolts at you and you have to punch the container on the ground to shoot bouncing red balls at him. After just three hits he’s dead. However, watch out for that lightning.. this took me quite a lot of tries.. and having to run through the entire stage after getting hit once is not uplifting I tell you….

It felt really good after having finally beaten the game though! =D

This game had the weirdest ending..

A Sumo-like fox stomping his feet and clapping his hands in slow-motion with a bunch of random animals and a retarded horse.. shouting DOSUCOI! I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean.. and the credits after that where quite entertaining, there was an animated polaroid camera showing pictures of each of the creators. Imaginative ^_^

“Responsible Person” hahaha ^__^

Here’s a video I put together of the gameplay:

Here’s another video of all the full length boss fights:

And here’s a final video of the entire ending:

X-Men Children of the Atom

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I’m not really that into fighting games.. I think it’s mainly just button mashing. Sure you can print out a chart with all the special moves for every character, sit down for hours and memorize them all and then be able to pull them off while playing, but still a n00b can go up against you and be totally unpredictable and just beat your ass by repeating a single kick-move.. basically I’m the n00b, but I still don’t find fighting games enjoyable.

I bought X-men Children of the Atom for Sega Saturn thinking it was more like previous X-men games (like the ones for NES or the old Arcade game) where you run around 1 or 2 players and kick butts and collect power ups, but it turned out to be a fighting game.. how disappointed was I! >_< (I know I could have done some research before, but most of my purchases are done on impulse, I like being surprised) ^^

So this is not really gonna be a review, but for those of you who are interested in seeing some gameplay of X-men Children of the Atom, or just see me get my ass handed to me since I suck horrendously at fighting games, then by all means enjoy this video!

Die Hard Trilogy

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Continuing on the theme of games based on movies, here’s a review of Die Hard Trilogy for Sega Saturn!

As the title suggests, all three movies are in the game. You get to choose which of the films you want to play (after way too many loading screens…) so I started with the first one.

First of all I was amazed at how AWFUL the graphics were, then again I’m used to either Xbox 360, or the 8- & 16-bit 2D games, so I always get surprised seeing the stages of graphical evolvement in-between there… I’ve played quite a lot of Dreamcast, but this is just before that, where CD was the shit and they put real footage and films into the games to make them look “better”, but it was just awful.. Even the N64 games looks better o_O they at least mainly stayed with the ‘cartoony’ graphics instead of trying to make it look ‘real’.

I also got really annoyed by the controls, it was stiff and really hard to move the dude around, and there was no aim, you just kind of pointed and shot.. however after I while you get into it, and all the violence just starts getting entertaining. All of a sudden I realized I was enjoying the game, and I made it to stage two, but then I died, and after dying you’re game over (!). One life, no continues. That’s die hard.. I guess it’s realistic though, but still, this is supposed to be a game!

So basically the game is about shooting down bad guys and saving hostages and you have to advance through the different floors of the building. But I went straight onto the second movie…

Now this movie had a totally different game style! Instead of third person you go into first person and you can’t steer the camera. You just get on the camera ride through the airport and try to aim and shoot at the… baddies.. (sometimes russian, sometimes german..)

WHOOPS! Still you have to try to save hostages that are being guarded by bad guys, however I tend to keep killing them off.. unintentionally of course ;D

It’s quite brutal at times…

Just look at that skeleton flying towards me!! =D

This game never gives you any instructions.. there was a ticking number that kept occurring during this stage and it said “SAFE”.. Safe what? Is there a safe being broken into at the airport? How do I stop it? I can’t go past the camera angles that the game gives me, so I just kept popping bad guys. The “SAFE” timer usually just counted to zero and nothing happened. But like the fourth time it appeared I was game over after it finished counting.. o_O I don’t know why, so I went on to the next movie instead.

In this game you can just forget everything you’ve learned in the previous two, cause this is once again a whole new type of game. It’s a racing game!

You just get put in a car and have to drive down a linear road, without instructions.. I just stepped on it and tried to make it to the end of the road (cause I figured there must be something I’m heading towards..) as fast as I could, and I didn’t make it…. I had 3 tries here (instead of the previous one-miss-and-you’re-Game-Over type of attitude the previous two movies had), but I still wasn’t close to making it.. even though I didn’t crash or anything in at least one of the tries.. I don’t get it!!!

Shitty shitty game! This just pissed me off! I started liking the first movie, but then the game just thought “Oh yeah? you like this? well fuck you, then we’ll make you play completely different!”

Another reoccurring thing in this game was explosions… everywhere.. all the time.. they just blew shit up.. I guess it’s a “reference” to the movie? I dunno..

Woah, what does that last one remind you of? yikes… O_o but Sega didn’t know at the time :/

So anyway, here’s a movie I put together of the gameplay through the three movies of Die Hard Trilogy on Sega Saturn, check it out ^_^

AVGN made a review of another Die Hard game, it’s worth watching =) It’s Die Hard for NES.

Lemmings 3D! WTF!!

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Tonight I started trying out all my new Sega Saturn games. The first one was Lemmings 3D. I like Lemmings, the old ones for Sega Mega Drive (a.k.a. Genesis), so I figured this couldn’t go wrong. Lemmings, in 3D!! Just the thought of it was blowing my mind.. how disappointed was I…

This game was the biggest WTF-experience for me this year, how they were even allowed to release this kind of shit eludes me.. The graphics are horrible, however I guess they were restricted by the capacity of the Saturn, but I mean, there are better looking games for that console. The controls are indescribable, nothing makes sense and no matter what you are trying to press nothing happens that advances the gameplay. I just moved around the camera angle for 30 minutes and could hardly get that to work in my favor..

Why did they even try to make Lemmings anything other than a 2-D side-scroller, this is what works best for this type of game, why change something that was already good? They could have just enhanced the graphics and maybe added some quirky extra actions with the evolved Saturn controller that had more buttons?

Well just watch this video I made of the gameplay and you will understand why this game sucks ass…

I heart Castlevania!!

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Hooray for today! For today I got a special lot of games from the internetz ^___^ One of my favourite game series of all time is Castlevania, and today I received three games from the series that I have not previously owned or even tried!! This is sooo exciting! =D Following is the pictures I took of the games, you can click them if you wanna see them bigger ^^

The first one is Castlevania Legends for Gameboy, complete in great condition!

The second one was Castlevania III Dracula’s Curse for NES! Which now gives me a complete collection of the NES Castlevania games ^_^ Also complete, in pretty good shape (for its age) except the stupid price sticker on TOP of the Original Nintendo Seal >_<

The third one was Castlevania the New Generation for Sega Mega Drive!! Exciting!!! =D This too complete and in really awesome condition, except for a small sticker on the game cartridge but I think it’s removable =)

So tonight I will be absorbed in the mystical fantasy world of Castlevania, slaying Dracula and what not, and tomorrow evening you’ll get to see my reviews of these most likely awesome games! My hopes are high!

Sega Saturn Game Lot!

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I got the games I ordered to my Sega Saturn. The games are: The Lost World : Jurassic Park, Wipeout 2097, Die Hard Trilogy, Gun Griffon, Tomb Raider, Black Dawn, Ghen Wars, Sega Ages Volume 1, Lemmings 3D, Panzer Dragoon II, Street Racer, Virtual On and Crackdown for Sega Megadrive (or Genesis as they call it in the US).

Most of the games I bought mainly ’cause they were extremely cheap, and that also most definitely means that they are crappy, but there’s a charm to playing even the crappy games sometimes, AVGN made that abundantly clear ^^
The only slightly pricier one was Panzer Dragoon II, I read that it was a great game though (the first one, but I assume that the sequel must at least be tolerable as well then).

I bought Crackdown to Mega Drive because it made me think of the Crackdown games for Xbox 360 (which I strongly enjoy), and deep down I was hoping that it was a long forgotten prequel to these games.. it’s most likely not though..

There was no picture of the Crackdown game when I ordered it, so naturally I googled it to see what it actually was. This is what I found…

I had seen this picture before, on some joke-site or something, and I thought: “For real?! Coooool! You fight a giant evil goat! And you’re playing as kickass 90′s Arnold/Jackie Chan wannabes with a sidekick chimp and… star troopers?!? AWESOME!”

Now.. google can be misleading sometimes. I of course got the boring PAL version. This made me go deeper into google’s black depth of facts and fiction and this is what I found:

The first one must be fake ’cause I only found one single picture of it on one single actual box cover. The second one appeared multiple times when googling the US version (Genesis) so it must be the official US release. The third one has Japanese writing in top right corner, so it’s the Japanese release. And the last one is the one I got… kind of resembles the first picture, evil guy in the back (but not a goat..), two armed guys in front (however no machine guns or Jackie Chan wannabes, instead caucasian blondes in colourful tights! AND NO MONKEYS OR STAR TROOPERS!!!) Damn.. that’s disappointing..

So I’ve tried playing Crackdown for Sega Megadrive, and it was actually pretty good. It had an intro telling the story of two agents having to plant special bombs. Best of all it has a multiplayer mode where you co-op through the missions, and good music. The gameplay was smooth and easy controls, you could sneak up against walls, shoot different weapons or knock out bad guys with your fists, and shoot in 8 different directions.

Downside.. the actual gameplay takes place in only like 1/4 part of the screen! What’s up with that?!? Do I RLY! need to know every tiny little detail about the different bad guys on each stage? Couldn’t the ammo and life info be displayed discretely in the bottom of the screen over the actual gameplay, like in any other game like Super Mario Bros for example? Well, apart from that it seemed like a good game. I’ll review the Saturn games later =)

I got a Sega Saturn for Xmas!!

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So this is my first post, I always hate having to write this first one, it will just be looking so pathetic and alone on an all new blog, awaiting it’s peers..

Anyway, lately I’ve been watching quite a lot of AVGN (Angry Video Game Nerd), I really do love that guy ^_^  Perhaps that’s why I finally set off to start a blog about something I find really interesting, and perhaps this time I will keep it updated and not slowly fade  away into the No-Internet-Zone..

This Xmas I got a really nice gift from my boyfriend, the Sega Saturn! Which was the last console that I needed to complete my collection of Sega (well, except for the Game Gear which is a portable console… but all in time.. all in good time). I’ve actually never even played on a Sega Saturn, so now I’ve gained a lot of new experiences! or something..

Sega Saturn in original box

Apart from the Sega Saturn in original box, controllers and all I also got three games for it. Soviet Strike, Trash it (brand new and sealed) and Virtua Fighter 2, which the game retailer had recommended to my boyfriend who bought it for me. So these are the only three games that I have played so far for the Sega Saturn..

Soviet Strike was a bit of a disappointment, it was partly story based and the version he got for me was French. The one language that makes no fucking sense to me whatsoever! ABO?! I am fluent in English, Swedish, I speak German and Japanese, I have slight understanding in many other languages, BUT fucking French (even after having lived with a French guy for several years!!). So yeah, I tried blowing up some stuff with the chopper, but had no clue what the objective was, since they were yelling it repeatedly to me in FRENCH! I turned it off shortly after..

I briefly tried playing some Virtua Fighter against my boyfriend, that was like 2 weeks ago, and seriously, I have no freaking recollection of even playing the game!! Seriously! That’s how bad it was, well actually not even bad, since if it was horrible I would have remembered HOW horrible. It was just … pale.. apparently plain boring, unimpressive graphic, plain controls, I dunno.. then again I’m not that into fighting games..

Trash it definitely looked like the best game of the three, the screen-shots on the back looked exciting, the gameplay looked intriguing, however…. I never opened it… Since it’s still in it’s original packing I didn’t wanna break it because I’m a collector.. >_< I did look up some videos of the actual gameplay and it would probably have been the best of the three. I guess I’m gonna have to buy another Trash it, in used state so I get to try it!?! ;P

All in all though I’m really happy having the Sega Saturn, and I spent the following week on Ebay finding other games for it, they will probably arrive tomorrow!

Bye for now /stopXwhispering