Archive for Genesis Reviews

REVIEW: Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse

When we are young, we all play licensed games. If you say you never did, you are either a liar or never owned a game system when you were seven years old. Most people have fond memories of the licensed games they played back in the day, like Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Ducktales, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There were certainly still shovelware titles (I’ve got Gameboy ports of Jurassic Park and Barbie: Game Girl that are good examples, though still playable), but man, I loved Disney games when I was younger. This and The Lion King for SNES got rented over and over again. I left the SNES at home and recently spotted a Genesis port of this, so I thought I’d test to see how cloudy nostalgia-vision was.

In this case, I was thankfully not disappointed.

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REVIEW: Sword of Vermillion


Not caring about Square, I consider the Genesis the supreme 16-bit RPG system. There’s Phantasy Star 2, 3, and 4 (classic), Shining in the Darkness (old school), and Shadowrun (excellent), but also numerous PC ports and American games: Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, Might & Magic: Gates to Another World, Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun, Faery Tale Adventure, etc. Yet one of my favorite Genesis RPGs is the neglected Sword of Vermillion. Genesis fans don’t like Sword of Vermillion’s homely graphics and repetitive structure, but if you have patience for Phantasy Star 2, you may dig it.

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REVIEW: Super Hydlide

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I’m probably the Hydlide series’ biggest fan. While there is a lot to complain about Virtual Hydlide (and to a lesser extent, the original Hydlide), Super Hydlide is a fine RPG aside from any of my bias. Actually a remake of Hydlide 3 for the MSX and Famicom (which explains its dated visuals), it is the second Hydlide game released in the US and full of interesting ideas even if flawed in implementation.

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REVIEW: General Chaos

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General Chaos is a real-time squad-based tactical game where you face off against similarly outfitted enemies on one-screen battlefields. Play takes place entirely on the tactical level. There is no resource management or strategic positioning between battles. The only thing that follows you from one battle to the next is your number of remaining medics (which revive the dead). In this sense, General Chaos is a very straightforward experience. But even considering its simplicity there are lots of interesting tactical calls to be made.

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REVIEW: Battlemaster

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Battlemaster is a real-time squad-based strategy game (with some RPG touches) that is balls hard in every way. Your troops are always outnumbered, underpowered, and at the mercy of killer traps. The mechanics are opaque, the puzzles are obscure, the controls are terrible, and it’s is exhaustingly long. It’s the perfect test of your patience and tactical nads.

… continue reading this entry.