rj_gunner
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Raiden II
1993
It may be pretty obscure and generic when compared to many of the different shmups to have come out from the late 80’s to early 90’s, but all in all, the original Raiden was still a good enough time. It had fun and challenging gameplay, great weapons and weapon mechanics to mess around with, and it did feel immensely satisfying to get through some of these extremely challenging sections that were present in the game, despite arcade syndrome and its checkpoint system being a pain in the ass to deal with. Not only that, but it managed to do pretty well for itself as well, becoming one of the best-sellers for the arcade during its initial years, even if things were a tad slow at first, which meant that sequels were naturally going to follow. I mean, why not, it’s not like Seibu Kaihatsu had any other extremely popular games before this one… unless you are a huge fan of Dynamite Duke. But anyway, three years after the original game would come out, we would end up getting the sequel, Raiden II.
I wasn’t expecting too much out of this game, since it didn’t look like anything too impressive considering the screenshots I had seen from it, but I was hoping to get something noteworthy considering how long it took me to set it up. I had initially tried to get the game running on the totally legal Mame emulator, but I for the life of me couldn’t find the proper files for the rom online, whether it be due to roms not having it, or other websites preventing me from looking elsewhere because of my adblocker. So, eventually, I just decided to go with the version found on The Raiden Project, a collection for the PlayStation that features both Raiden 1 and 2 on it, with the port pretty much being one-to-one with the original arcade version. That was great to find, so I finally got the chance to jump into it, and what I got was… certainly more Raiden, alright. I would say it is better than the original Raiden, but that is only be a small margin, as in many ways, they are very similar in quality, but I did end up having a good enough time with the game anyway, so that is all that matters.
The story fills all the requirements of an arcade shmup sequel, where three years after their defeat, the Crystals return to take over Earth once again, thanks to the remnants of their machines forming a brand new army to take the planet over, so it is up to the Fighting Thunder to set out once again to take them down, which is about as generic as a sequel plot can get, but then again, I wasn’t expecting much from the story regardless. The graphics are practically identical to that of the original game, with only slight improvements seen here or there in terms of the icons and animations, but it still overall looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of decent tracks to listen to while blowing shit up, but nothing that managed to stick with me when I was done, and the control/gameplay is also practically identical to that of the original game, so any fan of the original can feel right at home with this game.
The game is a vertical scrolling shmup, where you take control of a Fighting Viper, go through eight different stages across several generic environments on Earth and in space, shoot down any enemy that comes your way using whatever weapons that you have at your disposal, gather plenty of different power ups and bombs to get yourself better equipped for the task, while also upgrading said power ups to their maximum potential, and take on plenty of big, threatening bosses that will give you a pretty rough time if you are not a god at dodging and firing back. A lot of this is what you would expect not just from Raiden, but from any other shmup of this era, although to its credit, it still manages to be fun enough for what we get here, and there are one or two new additions that do make things a little more interesting.
In terms of the main gameplay mechanics, nothing is changed: you are still flying along, shooting people down, and trying not to die, but what you shoot down people with has been improved upon in this installment. Most of the weapons and missiles that you get, along with the power ups that can upgrade them, are the exact same, with the exception of a brand new weapon known as the Bend Plasma. At first, when you get it, it doesn’t seem like much, just another regular shot weapon for your ship, but then when you fully upgrade it, it basically takes the form of a Proton Pack, with it being a laser that automatically homes in on whatever enemy is near, which makes it an instant favorite of mine. I love me some all-powerful lasers, and having one that can also home in on people is oh so sweet to get your hands on.
Right alongside this is a new type of bomb known as the Cluster Bomb, which is basically just one bomb containing a bunch of smaller bombs, which are deployed upon use and will consecutively blow up whatever is around you. I don’t think I prefer this one over the regular bomb, as it just does a lot more damage, but this one does cover a much wider range, so it could be useful for taking out any smaller enemies that are surrounding you at all sides, which is nice. And finally, for one last tiny change that was made to the game: the checkpoint system is gone, with it working much more like a regular arcade game whenever you die, and thank god for that too. Makes things a lot less stressful.
With that being said though, it doesn’t eliminate all stress completely. Just like with the original game, arcade syndrome is in full force, as you will be dealing with plenty of things at once shooting at you from all directions, and you need to be a shmup master in order to get through a lot of it. I don’t think I would say this is as hard as something like Truxton II, but it can still get pretty damn difficult. Aside from that though, there isn’t really much else I can say about this game. It is essentially just a slightly better Raiden, which is great to see, especially since it has its own set of stages, bosses, and different power ups to try out, but if you weren’t captivated by what the original Raiden gave you, then this game most likely won’t change your mind on that.
Overall, despite a major lack of change and how it is still incredibly difficult, Raiden II is a step in the right direction from the original game, and just a good game in general, taking everything that worked from the original game, improving on it with some changes and new additions, and just making for a really solid time that any shmup fan could get behind. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original Raiden, as well as for all those shmup fanatics out there, because while this is far from one of the best ones out there, it still manages to provide the explosive and challenging fun that many would look for from one of these games, and that’s all that matters. But before we go though, I do wanna briefly go over the slightly updated version of this game that was released just a year after this game, Raiden DX. Not much was changed with this version, except there are now a couple of new modes to try out that do change up how the game plays, which is cool, but it doesn’t really alter anything too much to where I would say you need to jump on it if you loved the original so much. And… that’s about it. I would go ahead and ask that the next game in this series tones down the difficulty like I did last time, but seeing as this game didn’t do that, I can only assume it will keep going up from here, and I will be dead by the time I reach Raiden V.
Game #537
I wasn’t expecting too much out of this game, since it didn’t look like anything too impressive considering the screenshots I had seen from it, but I was hoping to get something noteworthy considering how long it took me to set it up. I had initially tried to get the game running on the totally legal Mame emulator, but I for the life of me couldn’t find the proper files for the rom online, whether it be due to roms not having it, or other websites preventing me from looking elsewhere because of my adblocker. So, eventually, I just decided to go with the version found on The Raiden Project, a collection for the PlayStation that features both Raiden 1 and 2 on it, with the port pretty much being one-to-one with the original arcade version. That was great to find, so I finally got the chance to jump into it, and what I got was… certainly more Raiden, alright. I would say it is better than the original Raiden, but that is only be a small margin, as in many ways, they are very similar in quality, but I did end up having a good enough time with the game anyway, so that is all that matters.
The story fills all the requirements of an arcade shmup sequel, where three years after their defeat, the Crystals return to take over Earth once again, thanks to the remnants of their machines forming a brand new army to take the planet over, so it is up to the Fighting Thunder to set out once again to take them down, which is about as generic as a sequel plot can get, but then again, I wasn’t expecting much from the story regardless. The graphics are practically identical to that of the original game, with only slight improvements seen here or there in terms of the icons and animations, but it still overall looks pretty good, the music is good, having plenty of decent tracks to listen to while blowing shit up, but nothing that managed to stick with me when I was done, and the control/gameplay is also practically identical to that of the original game, so any fan of the original can feel right at home with this game.
The game is a vertical scrolling shmup, where you take control of a Fighting Viper, go through eight different stages across several generic environments on Earth and in space, shoot down any enemy that comes your way using whatever weapons that you have at your disposal, gather plenty of different power ups and bombs to get yourself better equipped for the task, while also upgrading said power ups to their maximum potential, and take on plenty of big, threatening bosses that will give you a pretty rough time if you are not a god at dodging and firing back. A lot of this is what you would expect not just from Raiden, but from any other shmup of this era, although to its credit, it still manages to be fun enough for what we get here, and there are one or two new additions that do make things a little more interesting.
In terms of the main gameplay mechanics, nothing is changed: you are still flying along, shooting people down, and trying not to die, but what you shoot down people with has been improved upon in this installment. Most of the weapons and missiles that you get, along with the power ups that can upgrade them, are the exact same, with the exception of a brand new weapon known as the Bend Plasma. At first, when you get it, it doesn’t seem like much, just another regular shot weapon for your ship, but then when you fully upgrade it, it basically takes the form of a Proton Pack, with it being a laser that automatically homes in on whatever enemy is near, which makes it an instant favorite of mine. I love me some all-powerful lasers, and having one that can also home in on people is oh so sweet to get your hands on.
Right alongside this is a new type of bomb known as the Cluster Bomb, which is basically just one bomb containing a bunch of smaller bombs, which are deployed upon use and will consecutively blow up whatever is around you. I don’t think I prefer this one over the regular bomb, as it just does a lot more damage, but this one does cover a much wider range, so it could be useful for taking out any smaller enemies that are surrounding you at all sides, which is nice. And finally, for one last tiny change that was made to the game: the checkpoint system is gone, with it working much more like a regular arcade game whenever you die, and thank god for that too. Makes things a lot less stressful.
With that being said though, it doesn’t eliminate all stress completely. Just like with the original game, arcade syndrome is in full force, as you will be dealing with plenty of things at once shooting at you from all directions, and you need to be a shmup master in order to get through a lot of it. I don’t think I would say this is as hard as something like Truxton II, but it can still get pretty damn difficult. Aside from that though, there isn’t really much else I can say about this game. It is essentially just a slightly better Raiden, which is great to see, especially since it has its own set of stages, bosses, and different power ups to try out, but if you weren’t captivated by what the original Raiden gave you, then this game most likely won’t change your mind on that.
Overall, despite a major lack of change and how it is still incredibly difficult, Raiden II is a step in the right direction from the original game, and just a good game in general, taking everything that worked from the original game, improving on it with some changes and new additions, and just making for a really solid time that any shmup fan could get behind. I would recommend it for those who were fans of the original Raiden, as well as for all those shmup fanatics out there, because while this is far from one of the best ones out there, it still manages to provide the explosive and challenging fun that many would look for from one of these games, and that’s all that matters. But before we go though, I do wanna briefly go over the slightly updated version of this game that was released just a year after this game, Raiden DX. Not much was changed with this version, except there are now a couple of new modes to try out that do change up how the game plays, which is cool, but it doesn’t really alter anything too much to where I would say you need to jump on it if you loved the original so much. And… that’s about it. I would go ahead and ask that the next game in this series tones down the difficulty like I did last time, but seeing as this game didn’t do that, I can only assume it will keep going up from here, and I will be dead by the time I reach Raiden V.
Game #537
Demon Front
2002
Funny story about Demon Front:
I've searched far and wide for this game's name for years. There was a place in my hometown named "Mundo Pequeño" for children's parties that had a single arcade game beneath the play area. I remember being about 5 years old and stumbling upon it. For the next five years, every single time a friend of mine had a party there, I immediately rushed to the Demon Front arcade to play it. It was one of the most magical experiences I've ever had.
When a kid came to play with me, we banded together to beat level after level up until the very final boss. I beat the game so many times, and I still wanted to play it again every time I came to "Mundo Pequeño". After years of playing it, when I was around 10-11 years old, a tragedy happened.
The machine started failing for some reason. Maybe rainwater got to it, or the years and elements just started to affect it. But the colors changed and became all red. Also, a periodic glitch made the game crash and erase all your progress. Still, I wanted to keep playing Demon Front. I still enjoyed it, but it felt sad to see the arcade machine suffer (apparently) permanent damage.
About a year later, the machine was gone. I guess it finally broke down. It was sad to see something that brought me so much joy disappear, and by then I had kind of outgrown children's parties. I spent a few more times in that place, without the game that I spent countless hours playing. And years later, it faded into an obscure memory.
Now, I finally remembered this game. I saw a couple of gameplay videos on YouTube and the nostalgic memories came right back. Apparently, it is a very rare Taiwanese title that was only released on specific arcade game boxes. In a way, it is kind of a miracle that I was able to experience it, but I feel so happy to at least remember it once again.
I've searched far and wide for this game's name for years. There was a place in my hometown named "Mundo Pequeño" for children's parties that had a single arcade game beneath the play area. I remember being about 5 years old and stumbling upon it. For the next five years, every single time a friend of mine had a party there, I immediately rushed to the Demon Front arcade to play it. It was one of the most magical experiences I've ever had.
When a kid came to play with me, we banded together to beat level after level up until the very final boss. I beat the game so many times, and I still wanted to play it again every time I came to "Mundo Pequeño". After years of playing it, when I was around 10-11 years old, a tragedy happened.
The machine started failing for some reason. Maybe rainwater got to it, or the years and elements just started to affect it. But the colors changed and became all red. Also, a periodic glitch made the game crash and erase all your progress. Still, I wanted to keep playing Demon Front. I still enjoyed it, but it felt sad to see the arcade machine suffer (apparently) permanent damage.
About a year later, the machine was gone. I guess it finally broke down. It was sad to see something that brought me so much joy disappear, and by then I had kind of outgrown children's parties. I spent a few more times in that place, without the game that I spent countless hours playing. And years later, it faded into an obscure memory.
Now, I finally remembered this game. I saw a couple of gameplay videos on YouTube and the nostalgic memories came right back. Apparently, it is a very rare Taiwanese title that was only released on specific arcade game boxes. In a way, it is kind of a miracle that I was able to experience it, but I feel so happy to at least remember it once again.
Strikers 1945
1995
Strikers 1945 was (and kinda still is) my go-to "this arcade is cool if they have this game" game when I was in high school.
I didn't have too much experience playing shmups thanks to my parents never letting me play the cool "blow up a bunch of dudes in a plane while flashy stuff happens on the screen" games when we went to bowling alleys. They let me play the occasional beat-em-up when I got a chance, but for some reason or another shmups were always verboten when I was little. By the time I got a little older and was given more autonomy, arcades in the US were very obviously dying out, but I would still find the occasional game cabinet in movie theaters and pizza places. My local movie theater specifically had Strikers 1945 and I would go out of my way to play it a decent number of times before or after seeing a movie. I was never any good at it, but dodging projectiles for a few minutes and seeing the flashy bullet effects and explosions always gave me enough of a dopamine bump to give it another try whenever I found another cabinet of it somewhere. It was my go-to shmup.
Now that I'm much older and have played way more video games, I think it's safe to say that Strikers 1945 is best left in my nostalgia.
The gist of giant ships and planes transforming into machine gun-wielding mechs is cool as hell, but almost every other aspect of the game is either weak or forgettable.
The sound design across the board is just flat-out bad.
It's still fun, and it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first bullet-hell/shmup I actively remembered the name of, but after playing it comfortably in my living room via emulator with infinite coins instead of in a noisy, cramped, dimly-lit corner of a movie theater, I think it's safe to say that Strikers 1945 is just alright.
Don't ever ask me to 1cc a shmup by the way.
Never ask me that.
I didn't have too much experience playing shmups thanks to my parents never letting me play the cool "blow up a bunch of dudes in a plane while flashy stuff happens on the screen" games when we went to bowling alleys. They let me play the occasional beat-em-up when I got a chance, but for some reason or another shmups were always verboten when I was little. By the time I got a little older and was given more autonomy, arcades in the US were very obviously dying out, but I would still find the occasional game cabinet in movie theaters and pizza places. My local movie theater specifically had Strikers 1945 and I would go out of my way to play it a decent number of times before or after seeing a movie. I was never any good at it, but dodging projectiles for a few minutes and seeing the flashy bullet effects and explosions always gave me enough of a dopamine bump to give it another try whenever I found another cabinet of it somewhere. It was my go-to shmup.
Now that I'm much older and have played way more video games, I think it's safe to say that Strikers 1945 is best left in my nostalgia.
The gist of giant ships and planes transforming into machine gun-wielding mechs is cool as hell, but almost every other aspect of the game is either weak or forgettable.
The sound design across the board is just flat-out bad.
It's still fun, and it will always hold a special place in my heart as the first bullet-hell/shmup I actively remembered the name of, but after playing it comfortably in my living room via emulator with infinite coins instead of in a noisy, cramped, dimly-lit corner of a movie theater, I think it's safe to say that Strikers 1945 is just alright.
Don't ever ask me to 1cc a shmup by the way.
Never ask me that.
Halley Wars
1989
I just did not realize there was an FDS version of this game due to the version label for this page being wrong as of writing this so I’m sorry folks, you’re getting a Game Gear review from me.
This one I was expecting to be pretty middling but this was a fun game with a massive flaw. You go through seven stages destroying any enemy in your way with bosses at the end. The gimmick here is any enemy that goes past you and touches the bottom of the screen does damage to the Earth. If it hits 100% then you get an instant game over regardless of your lives counter. This mechanic isn’t too hard to manage but I find the enemy placement by stage 6 gets a bit cheap and lame. There’s also some powerups you can get like the explosive pod which can shoot with you but can be used as a bomb.
You got a fun shmup with a neat concept that isn’t even too challenging so what’s the problem? It has the worst controls I’ve seen in a shmup. So get this, if you at any point go diagonally, you have to let go of the d-pad to start moving in a cardinal direction. Meaning if you hold up right, you can’t go just right till you let go as you’ll continue to go up right. I don’t get this and I even checked the FDS original and this wasn’t the case there. If you’re like me and have played a lot of these, this will screw with you the entire time. It’s a good thing the game isn’t too hard or I’d be furious but this alone sours my opinion on the game a little bit.
The difficulty like I said isn’t hard but the bosses are pretty easy too which is surprising, even the final one isn’t too bad. At least the aesthetic of the game will keep the game from being stale and even the music is pretty nice though to be fair, this is not an original GG game so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I hate having to be so critical because I really wanna say it’s good but those controls are my number 1 issue. Someday I’ll play the FDS version and will probably leave a comment if I think it’s better or not. Maybe someone else could do it for me but I’m very doubtful that’ll happen. It’s still one of the better shmups on the handheld despite the issues. Still you’re probably better off playing one of the Aleste games.
This one I was expecting to be pretty middling but this was a fun game with a massive flaw. You go through seven stages destroying any enemy in your way with bosses at the end. The gimmick here is any enemy that goes past you and touches the bottom of the screen does damage to the Earth. If it hits 100% then you get an instant game over regardless of your lives counter. This mechanic isn’t too hard to manage but I find the enemy placement by stage 6 gets a bit cheap and lame. There’s also some powerups you can get like the explosive pod which can shoot with you but can be used as a bomb.
You got a fun shmup with a neat concept that isn’t even too challenging so what’s the problem? It has the worst controls I’ve seen in a shmup. So get this, if you at any point go diagonally, you have to let go of the d-pad to start moving in a cardinal direction. Meaning if you hold up right, you can’t go just right till you let go as you’ll continue to go up right. I don’t get this and I even checked the FDS original and this wasn’t the case there. If you’re like me and have played a lot of these, this will screw with you the entire time. It’s a good thing the game isn’t too hard or I’d be furious but this alone sours my opinion on the game a little bit.
The difficulty like I said isn’t hard but the bosses are pretty easy too which is surprising, even the final one isn’t too bad. At least the aesthetic of the game will keep the game from being stale and even the music is pretty nice though to be fair, this is not an original GG game so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
I hate having to be so critical because I really wanna say it’s good but those controls are my number 1 issue. Someday I’ll play the FDS version and will probably leave a comment if I think it’s better or not. Maybe someone else could do it for me but I’m very doubtful that’ll happen. It’s still one of the better shmups on the handheld despite the issues. Still you’re probably better off playing one of the Aleste games.
GG Aleste
1991
A friend of mine through circumstance ended up being gifted a box of old gaming bits including some Megadrive controllers and a broken Sega Master System. With a bit of research online he managed to repair it fixing the cracked motherboard to get the TV picture back. This led him onto then being asked to repair a neighbours Gamegear. After tinkering with that and becoming interested he then ended up buying a broken one for pennies from an online seller to repair for his own use. He's very handy like that.
Why am I telling you this? Because before Christmas I went to stay with him for a week and for the first time in my life, play a Gamegear. First I tried the original Gamegear he repaired for his neighbour with the original backlit screen. Playing Sonic on it I was pretty unimpressed to be honest. The poor lighting made seeing details or enemies difficult and the small screen coming from playing my Steamdeck made going back to it hard. Playing his own Gamegear though where he had modified it adding a modern LCD screen was literally like night and day. I could see the light, literally. Playing the same Sonic game I could see the detail, colours and animations. Sonic actually seemed...pretty good? This led me to take an invested interest in what actually is available on the Gamegear. Something I'd never so much as glanced at, which has led me to try GG Aleste.
Initially I thought GG Aleste was just a Gamegear port of the original Aleste from the MSX but upon starting realised I was quite quickly wrong. You play as the daughter of the original protagonist from the MSX game in an alternative timeline, Ellinor Waizen. There isn't much other story to be had here except the opening scene if you leave the title screen running of her taking off in the Galvanic Gunner fighter craft, and an end scene upon beating the game.
The game plays over 7 vertical scrolling stages or rounds as the game calls them which mostly end in boss fights. Most of the enemies are pretty much the same for every stage without too much variation. Some of the boss designs are pretty decent though with the final couple being especially cool like a mixture of H.R Giger and Cyberpunk fused. In between these there are a couple of bonus stages to collect power ups and boost your score. Killing every enemy will give you a huge bonus point score but as you can only see your score between levels rather than during it, it comes together as earning points feeling pointless? (ba dum tss)
Speaking of power ups, the Galvanic Gunner Fighter has two ways of increasing how it attacks. Firstly is just power chips that drop from certain enemies increasing your base attack power, there are also 8 different weapon types that can be collected like homing, wide shot, laser etc. These level as you collect multiples of them for more shots, spread or damage. There is no bomb, special or charge shot though you do explode when you die. Dying is actually fairly un-punishing letting you keep your current weapon type just dropping the power level as consequence for your play error.
And that's pretty much all there is to it, the game doesn't have any extras or much to encourage re-playability. What you get here in totality is an extremely simple shoot 'em up but it isn't bad. It's pretty easy without flourishes but it is running on a Gamegear and except for a couple of moments of slowdown is a pretty fast paced game for an 8 bit system. It has some varied level locations, ok music and stunning front cover art. If you're interested in games of yesteryear or gaming history you can do far worse then play this little title.
+ Simple, easy and short.
+ Looks and runs pretty well.
+ Cover art is gorgeous.
- Kind of forgettable experience overall.
- Lack of enemy variety or reasons to replay.
Why am I telling you this? Because before Christmas I went to stay with him for a week and for the first time in my life, play a Gamegear. First I tried the original Gamegear he repaired for his neighbour with the original backlit screen. Playing Sonic on it I was pretty unimpressed to be honest. The poor lighting made seeing details or enemies difficult and the small screen coming from playing my Steamdeck made going back to it hard. Playing his own Gamegear though where he had modified it adding a modern LCD screen was literally like night and day. I could see the light, literally. Playing the same Sonic game I could see the detail, colours and animations. Sonic actually seemed...pretty good? This led me to take an invested interest in what actually is available on the Gamegear. Something I'd never so much as glanced at, which has led me to try GG Aleste.
Initially I thought GG Aleste was just a Gamegear port of the original Aleste from the MSX but upon starting realised I was quite quickly wrong. You play as the daughter of the original protagonist from the MSX game in an alternative timeline, Ellinor Waizen. There isn't much other story to be had here except the opening scene if you leave the title screen running of her taking off in the Galvanic Gunner fighter craft, and an end scene upon beating the game.
The game plays over 7 vertical scrolling stages or rounds as the game calls them which mostly end in boss fights. Most of the enemies are pretty much the same for every stage without too much variation. Some of the boss designs are pretty decent though with the final couple being especially cool like a mixture of H.R Giger and Cyberpunk fused. In between these there are a couple of bonus stages to collect power ups and boost your score. Killing every enemy will give you a huge bonus point score but as you can only see your score between levels rather than during it, it comes together as earning points feeling pointless? (ba dum tss)
Speaking of power ups, the Galvanic Gunner Fighter has two ways of increasing how it attacks. Firstly is just power chips that drop from certain enemies increasing your base attack power, there are also 8 different weapon types that can be collected like homing, wide shot, laser etc. These level as you collect multiples of them for more shots, spread or damage. There is no bomb, special or charge shot though you do explode when you die. Dying is actually fairly un-punishing letting you keep your current weapon type just dropping the power level as consequence for your play error.
And that's pretty much all there is to it, the game doesn't have any extras or much to encourage re-playability. What you get here in totality is an extremely simple shoot 'em up but it isn't bad. It's pretty easy without flourishes but it is running on a Gamegear and except for a couple of moments of slowdown is a pretty fast paced game for an 8 bit system. It has some varied level locations, ok music and stunning front cover art. If you're interested in games of yesteryear or gaming history you can do far worse then play this little title.
+ Simple, easy and short.
+ Looks and runs pretty well.
+ Cover art is gorgeous.
- Kind of forgettable experience overall.
- Lack of enemy variety or reasons to replay.
The G.G. Shinobi
1991
I’m not gonna lie to y’all, I wasn’t looking forward to playing this game at all. I didn’t necessarily think it was gonna be terrible, certainly not as bad as the last Shinobi game that I played, but after The Cyber Shinobi left just an awful taste in my mouth, I was extremely put off from this series for a while. However, giving up on the entire series just because of one rotten entry wouldn’t be fair, so I figured I would go ahead and venture forward in this series to see if Shinobi can get its groove back, one way or another. So far in this series, we have had several arcade titles and plenty of console titles, but we haven’t had any instances where the series would tackle a handheld game. Kind of surprising, considering how many other franchises jumped on this bandwagon as soon as they could, but I guess Shinobi wanted to take its time in that regard. But, eventually, it would join the crowd with the release of the first handheld Shinobi game, The G.G. Shinobi.
When going into this game, I didn’t really have any high expectations whatsoever. I figured it would just be yet another Shinobi game, but it just so happened to be released on the Game Gear, and that was the only change. So, after playing it, I can definitely say that I was… half-way right. It is, more or less just another Shinobi game, and it was now on the Game Gear, but they do change some things up this time around, but not enough to where I would ever go back to this. So, with that in mind, I would simply say that this game is just ok, as it doesn’t do anything really anything that wrong, but there is really no reason to seek this game out if you were curious about it.
The story is, what a shocker, evil has taken over the land of Ninja Valley, and a bunch of other ninjas from your clan are captured, so it is up to you to go and save them, so it is a pretty standard Shinobi plot all around, nothing to really latch onto or get that mad at, the graphics are pretty good for the Game Gear, and it does resemble a Shinobi game, which is a lot better then I can say for other titles on the system, the music is alright, consisting of a lot of the typical tracks that you would hear not just from a Shinobi game, but one that was made on the Game Gear, the control is mostly what you would expect from one of these games, and it is kind of stiff, but nothing that you can’t get a grasp of, and the gameplay is mostly run-of-the-mill for this series, but there are one or two new additions to the formula this time around.
The game is still an average action 2D platformer, where you take control of one of five ninjas, take on a bunch of stages that are themed on what you would usually see from this game, take out a bunch of enemies using either regular attacks or super attacks that you can find lying around, gather plenty of health, extra lives, and super attacks from item boxes scattered throughout each stage to help you out along your journey, and take on a set of simple bosses, ones that will give you a hard time once you first encounter them, but once you figure out their patterns, they go down pretty easily. It is, more or less, everything that you would expect from a typical Shinobi game, but to give it some credit, it does have several unique element that no other game in the series has had until now. That at least helps out with the monotony.
First of all, similarly to Mega Man, in the beginning, you are given the choice of taking on the stage in whatever order you want, which not only gives the game some kind of replayability, but is also a nice change from previous Shinobi games, where you were always going in a set order for all of the stages. The second, and undeniably biggest change to this game, would be with the other ninjas. At the end of each of the main four stages, you will rescue one of your ninja brothers, who’s only difference compared to you is that they are a different color, so this game is essentially just Mighty Morphin’ Power Ninjas. But, what does make them stick out is that each of them has a unique weapon that they can use to take on enemies and tackle stages, such as with the pink ninja throwing bombs, and the blue ninja having this chain whip he throws out at enemies. Not only that, but each one of them also has their own unique special moves, which not only help out in taking out enemies and bosses, but can also help you out in traversing several levels that are otherwise impossible without them, so that is cool that the special moves are now more useful than just being a last resort.
Unfortunately though, none of that can save the game from, again, being your typical Shinobi game. Everything that you would expect from one of these games is present here, ranging from the enemies, the locations, and even with the boss designs, and while this may satisfy the most die-hard Shinobi fans, I was already starting to get sick of this formula that wasn’t getting any major changes to keep the game fresh. The addition of other ninjas to play as is nice, but you are gonna have to do a little better than that to make me like this series again. Not to mention, the final stage SUCKS. It is essentially a giant maze stage, where you go through plenty of these rooms with different deadly traps, which not only are extremely frustrating to navigate half the time, but you also have to redo multiple times if you go down the wrong fact. This is also paired with having to refight pretty much all of the previous bosses depending on which direction you take, and as you can imagine, it is not a fun time at all. It is a unique approach to a final level for a Shinobi game, but one that I am not welcoming in the slightest.
Overall, despite not doing too much wrong overall, and having some appreciated changes, this is basically just “the handheld Shinobi” and nothing more, being exactly what you would expect in both the best and worst ways possible. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of Shinobi, as well as those looking for more quality games to play on the Game Gear, but for everyone else, there really is no reason to seek this title out whatsoever. It did end up getting a direct sequel, so hopefully that entry changes things up, but honestly, I don’t really have too many high hopes. Also, The G.G. Shinobi is just a stupid name, anyway. I guess they wanted to distinguish this from the other titles somehow, but they could’ve given it a cool subtitle like “Shinobi Warriors” or something like that, but no, we get The G.G. Shinobi instead. 10/10.
Game #380
When going into this game, I didn’t really have any high expectations whatsoever. I figured it would just be yet another Shinobi game, but it just so happened to be released on the Game Gear, and that was the only change. So, after playing it, I can definitely say that I was… half-way right. It is, more or less just another Shinobi game, and it was now on the Game Gear, but they do change some things up this time around, but not enough to where I would ever go back to this. So, with that in mind, I would simply say that this game is just ok, as it doesn’t do anything really anything that wrong, but there is really no reason to seek this game out if you were curious about it.
The story is, what a shocker, evil has taken over the land of Ninja Valley, and a bunch of other ninjas from your clan are captured, so it is up to you to go and save them, so it is a pretty standard Shinobi plot all around, nothing to really latch onto or get that mad at, the graphics are pretty good for the Game Gear, and it does resemble a Shinobi game, which is a lot better then I can say for other titles on the system, the music is alright, consisting of a lot of the typical tracks that you would hear not just from a Shinobi game, but one that was made on the Game Gear, the control is mostly what you would expect from one of these games, and it is kind of stiff, but nothing that you can’t get a grasp of, and the gameplay is mostly run-of-the-mill for this series, but there are one or two new additions to the formula this time around.
The game is still an average action 2D platformer, where you take control of one of five ninjas, take on a bunch of stages that are themed on what you would usually see from this game, take out a bunch of enemies using either regular attacks or super attacks that you can find lying around, gather plenty of health, extra lives, and super attacks from item boxes scattered throughout each stage to help you out along your journey, and take on a set of simple bosses, ones that will give you a hard time once you first encounter them, but once you figure out their patterns, they go down pretty easily. It is, more or less, everything that you would expect from a typical Shinobi game, but to give it some credit, it does have several unique element that no other game in the series has had until now. That at least helps out with the monotony.
First of all, similarly to Mega Man, in the beginning, you are given the choice of taking on the stage in whatever order you want, which not only gives the game some kind of replayability, but is also a nice change from previous Shinobi games, where you were always going in a set order for all of the stages. The second, and undeniably biggest change to this game, would be with the other ninjas. At the end of each of the main four stages, you will rescue one of your ninja brothers, who’s only difference compared to you is that they are a different color, so this game is essentially just Mighty Morphin’ Power Ninjas. But, what does make them stick out is that each of them has a unique weapon that they can use to take on enemies and tackle stages, such as with the pink ninja throwing bombs, and the blue ninja having this chain whip he throws out at enemies. Not only that, but each one of them also has their own unique special moves, which not only help out in taking out enemies and bosses, but can also help you out in traversing several levels that are otherwise impossible without them, so that is cool that the special moves are now more useful than just being a last resort.
Unfortunately though, none of that can save the game from, again, being your typical Shinobi game. Everything that you would expect from one of these games is present here, ranging from the enemies, the locations, and even with the boss designs, and while this may satisfy the most die-hard Shinobi fans, I was already starting to get sick of this formula that wasn’t getting any major changes to keep the game fresh. The addition of other ninjas to play as is nice, but you are gonna have to do a little better than that to make me like this series again. Not to mention, the final stage SUCKS. It is essentially a giant maze stage, where you go through plenty of these rooms with different deadly traps, which not only are extremely frustrating to navigate half the time, but you also have to redo multiple times if you go down the wrong fact. This is also paired with having to refight pretty much all of the previous bosses depending on which direction you take, and as you can imagine, it is not a fun time at all. It is a unique approach to a final level for a Shinobi game, but one that I am not welcoming in the slightest.
Overall, despite not doing too much wrong overall, and having some appreciated changes, this is basically just “the handheld Shinobi” and nothing more, being exactly what you would expect in both the best and worst ways possible. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of Shinobi, as well as those looking for more quality games to play on the Game Gear, but for everyone else, there really is no reason to seek this title out whatsoever. It did end up getting a direct sequel, so hopefully that entry changes things up, but honestly, I don’t really have too many high hopes. Also, The G.G. Shinobi is just a stupid name, anyway. I guess they wanted to distinguish this from the other titles somehow, but they could’ve given it a cool subtitle like “Shinobi Warriors” or something like that, but no, we get The G.G. Shinobi instead. 10/10.
Game #380
Midnight Resistance
1989
One day, while I was fucking about on the Genesis Mini 2 that I definitely have, I stumbled upon this random game called Midnight Resistance, and I thought “Eh, why not, it may not be the worst thing ever”, and then one microsecond into starting the game, I then realized that it was a blatant Contra clone. I then got a tiny bit upset for a split second, until I then realized this game was made by Data East, and I thought “Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh… that makes way too much sense.” So, after that discovery, I then decided to stick through with the rest of the game, and to my surprise, I discovered that the game wasn’t a steaming pile of dogshit, and is instead somewhat good. Yes, it is still a blatant Contra clone, and it doesn’t do too much to stand out against it, but it is still fun at times, and there are things that the game does that I would actually like to see in an actual Contra title (and if they actually are in one of the games, I probably haven’t played that one yet, so stop typing that comment right now).
The story has plenty of plot elements that usually aren’t in games of this era, such as drug cartels, family kidnappings, and governments not wanting to help out (which isn’t too far off from the truth, AMIRITE), which is generic for the type of game this is, but the effort is appreciated, the graphics are fine for what they are, but not gonna lie, the animations for your character’s actions are pretty damn bad, the music is pretty good, even if some of the tracks are very samey, the control is not that good at all, with it being pretty hard to get used to, even if some parts of the control are admirable, as I will touch upon later, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a Contra clone, but there are some unique elements that make it stand out from it.
The game pretty much plays almost exactly like Contra, where you go through plenty of side-scrolling stages, shoot up anyone that stands in your way with plenty of weapons, gather said weapons and items from enemies to help you out along the way, and take on bosses at the end of each stage. Again, it is pretty much exactly like Contra, but unlike Contra, there are additions to the game that make it standout (somewhat) from those titles. First off, unlike in Contra, you have a button which allows you to lock onto a direction to aim while shooting, so for instance, if you are shooting up, and you hold down the button, you will continue to shoot up no matter what direction you move in afterwards. Not only is this a pretty good change to the gameplay, but it helped out tremendously when taking on the threats you face in this game (as well as helping deal with the jank-ass control).
In addition, the way you acquire weapons is also different. Unlike in Contra, where you can grab them from enemies whenever they drop them, instead here, at the end of each stage, you are taken to a storage room where you can use keys gathered from enemies to choose weapons, bombs, and other items to use for the upcoming stages. Yes, you could say this is more limiting compared to what Contra had, but it does let you try out the weapons to see which one is best, as well as strategize while using said weapons, which is appreciated. What also helps this is that, whenever you die, your weapons and items drop to the ground, allowing you a chance to pick them back up when you respawn, which was also really helpful, especially when it happened in some pretty tough fights.
Of course though, this is no Contra, and as such, it does have issues that need addressing. Ignoring the control and graphics issues I already mentioned, some of the bosses can be pretty damn annoying, which is understandable, given what the game is, but it is still apparent, there is limited ammunition for special weapons, which just seems unnecessary for this type of game, and there is plenty of slowdown that can be found in some sections where a lot is happening on screen. In addition, unlike Contra, which had different types of stages to mix up the gameplay and keep things fresh, this game just has the 2D side-scrolling stages only, which isn’t really all that bad, but I’m just saying, if you are gonna blatantly copy another game, you may as well go all the way with it. Really though, those are the only real problems that I have with the game, as aside from that, it is only held down moreso by just not holding up in comparison to the big boys, and anyone who has played said big boys would know exactly what I am talking about.
Overall, while not a bad game by any means, and while it does have a few admirable elements that I wish that its inspiration series would take after, at the end of the day, this is just when you ask your parents if you can have Contra, but they tell you they have Contra at home, and of course, it isn’t as good or exciting as the original thing. I would only recommend it for those who really love Contra, and want something else to satiate that desire for more of it, but aside from that, it doesn’t really warrant any kind of attention. It really makes sense though, when looking at the title of the game, since it really is a MIDnight Resistance that we are dealing with here.
Game #252
The story has plenty of plot elements that usually aren’t in games of this era, such as drug cartels, family kidnappings, and governments not wanting to help out (which isn’t too far off from the truth, AMIRITE), which is generic for the type of game this is, but the effort is appreciated, the graphics are fine for what they are, but not gonna lie, the animations for your character’s actions are pretty damn bad, the music is pretty good, even if some of the tracks are very samey, the control is not that good at all, with it being pretty hard to get used to, even if some parts of the control are admirable, as I will touch upon later, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a Contra clone, but there are some unique elements that make it stand out from it.
The game pretty much plays almost exactly like Contra, where you go through plenty of side-scrolling stages, shoot up anyone that stands in your way with plenty of weapons, gather said weapons and items from enemies to help you out along the way, and take on bosses at the end of each stage. Again, it is pretty much exactly like Contra, but unlike Contra, there are additions to the game that make it standout (somewhat) from those titles. First off, unlike in Contra, you have a button which allows you to lock onto a direction to aim while shooting, so for instance, if you are shooting up, and you hold down the button, you will continue to shoot up no matter what direction you move in afterwards. Not only is this a pretty good change to the gameplay, but it helped out tremendously when taking on the threats you face in this game (as well as helping deal with the jank-ass control).
In addition, the way you acquire weapons is also different. Unlike in Contra, where you can grab them from enemies whenever they drop them, instead here, at the end of each stage, you are taken to a storage room where you can use keys gathered from enemies to choose weapons, bombs, and other items to use for the upcoming stages. Yes, you could say this is more limiting compared to what Contra had, but it does let you try out the weapons to see which one is best, as well as strategize while using said weapons, which is appreciated. What also helps this is that, whenever you die, your weapons and items drop to the ground, allowing you a chance to pick them back up when you respawn, which was also really helpful, especially when it happened in some pretty tough fights.
Of course though, this is no Contra, and as such, it does have issues that need addressing. Ignoring the control and graphics issues I already mentioned, some of the bosses can be pretty damn annoying, which is understandable, given what the game is, but it is still apparent, there is limited ammunition for special weapons, which just seems unnecessary for this type of game, and there is plenty of slowdown that can be found in some sections where a lot is happening on screen. In addition, unlike Contra, which had different types of stages to mix up the gameplay and keep things fresh, this game just has the 2D side-scrolling stages only, which isn’t really all that bad, but I’m just saying, if you are gonna blatantly copy another game, you may as well go all the way with it. Really though, those are the only real problems that I have with the game, as aside from that, it is only held down moreso by just not holding up in comparison to the big boys, and anyone who has played said big boys would know exactly what I am talking about.
Overall, while not a bad game by any means, and while it does have a few admirable elements that I wish that its inspiration series would take after, at the end of the day, this is just when you ask your parents if you can have Contra, but they tell you they have Contra at home, and of course, it isn’t as good or exciting as the original thing. I would only recommend it for those who really love Contra, and want something else to satiate that desire for more of it, but aside from that, it doesn’t really warrant any kind of attention. It really makes sense though, when looking at the title of the game, since it really is a MIDnight Resistance that we are dealing with here.
Game #252
Trouble Shooter
1991
Dirty Pair is one of many highly influential 80s animes whose impact both in and out of Japan still reverberates through media today. Hell, you can find numerous references to the show in Star Trek: The Next Generation, of all things. I've always had some passing familiarity with it, though I wrote it off for many years as some skeevy fan service show. I finally got around to watching it in 2020, and while I can't deny there's definitely some of That Stuff in it, I was surprised by how much heart it had, and how it has some strikingly progressive things to say given the time and cultural climate of its release.
So, it's not much of a surprise to me that Trouble Shooter wears its own reverence for Dirty Pair so proudly. It is borderline litigious in how close it comes to just being Dirty Pair: The Game, and that's probably the best thing Trouble Shooter has going for it, because it is otherwise and extremely rote shoot-em-up.
You control Madison and Crystal, the Trouble Shooters - guns for hire that are tasked with rescuing a prince from the clutches of the evil Blackball. It's got a bit of a reverse damsel-in-distress thing going on that I'm into, and the writing is overall charming if a bit reigned in compared to Dirty Pair. The player has direct control over Madison and secondary control over Crystal, who follows your movements and can be flipped to fire to the front or back. You'll need to manage her firing direction quite a bit, and that's really the main mechanical gimmick of the game. Everything else is pretty straight forward. It's competent enough, but so unremarkable that there's virtually no reason to play this game when the Genesis has dozens of far more interesting shoot-em-ups, including (or so I've heard) its sequel.
I'll also say that I'm not a huge fan of how it feels to control Madison. You lack fine control over her movements, so you kind of need to expect that inputs on the d-pad or going to push you a bit further than you probably want to go. There's also a few segments where the screen will move and attempt to crush you against edges of the screen and geometry. I experienced a few deaths I would consider cheap because of this, but once you know where the screen is going to move to, you won't fall for the same trick twice. It is also a short game, and I occasionally found myself inclined to go back to the title screen upon getting a game over simply because it would not take long to get back to where I was, and I'd have the opportunity to get better equipped with health and weapons than if I simply ate a credit.
I hear Battle Mania is the one to play between the two of these, but was also cautioned that my opinion of Trouble Shooter would be impacted for the worse if I played that game first. I'm glad I followed that advice, because I don't think Trouble Shooter is particularly great in a vacuum.
So, it's not much of a surprise to me that Trouble Shooter wears its own reverence for Dirty Pair so proudly. It is borderline litigious in how close it comes to just being Dirty Pair: The Game, and that's probably the best thing Trouble Shooter has going for it, because it is otherwise and extremely rote shoot-em-up.
You control Madison and Crystal, the Trouble Shooters - guns for hire that are tasked with rescuing a prince from the clutches of the evil Blackball. It's got a bit of a reverse damsel-in-distress thing going on that I'm into, and the writing is overall charming if a bit reigned in compared to Dirty Pair. The player has direct control over Madison and secondary control over Crystal, who follows your movements and can be flipped to fire to the front or back. You'll need to manage her firing direction quite a bit, and that's really the main mechanical gimmick of the game. Everything else is pretty straight forward. It's competent enough, but so unremarkable that there's virtually no reason to play this game when the Genesis has dozens of far more interesting shoot-em-ups, including (or so I've heard) its sequel.
I'll also say that I'm not a huge fan of how it feels to control Madison. You lack fine control over her movements, so you kind of need to expect that inputs on the d-pad or going to push you a bit further than you probably want to go. There's also a few segments where the screen will move and attempt to crush you against edges of the screen and geometry. I experienced a few deaths I would consider cheap because of this, but once you know where the screen is going to move to, you won't fall for the same trick twice. It is also a short game, and I occasionally found myself inclined to go back to the title screen upon getting a game over simply because it would not take long to get back to where I was, and I'd have the opportunity to get better equipped with health and weapons than if I simply ate a credit.
I hear Battle Mania is the one to play between the two of these, but was also cautioned that my opinion of Trouble Shooter would be impacted for the worse if I played that game first. I'm glad I followed that advice, because I don't think Trouble Shooter is particularly great in a vacuum.
Trouble Shooter
1991
I might be getting old because every game that's short, sweet, has good music, and makes me laugh is a good one in my book.
What sets Trouble Shooter, or Battle Mania, apart from others is its comedic tone, which reminds me of old animes such as Dirty Pair or Excel Saga. Bosses are very silly but actually well designed, and every level feels unique in its own right.
The sprites are a bit too big for my liking; the music is fine, but the percussion instruments are a tad loud and won't let you hear the melody clearly. Stage 3 I also think could have been better handled since there's no way to know where you're supposed to go and I had a couple of cheap deaths: very trial and error. But other than that, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I can't wait to play its sequel.
What sets Trouble Shooter, or Battle Mania, apart from others is its comedic tone, which reminds me of old animes such as Dirty Pair or Excel Saga. Bosses are very silly but actually well designed, and every level feels unique in its own right.
The sprites are a bit too big for my liking; the music is fine, but the percussion instruments are a tad loud and won't let you hear the melody clearly. Stage 3 I also think could have been better handled since there's no way to know where you're supposed to go and I had a couple of cheap deaths: very trial and error. But other than that, I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I can't wait to play its sequel.
Trouble Shooter
1991
I've been wanting to play the Trouble Shooter series for years (or Battle Mania as the series is called in Japan.) due to it's overall premise. It's a bit of a parody of the shoot 'em up genre in some ways though it does try some mechanically interesting ideas with it.
You control two combat operatives called Madison and Crystal who have been hired to save a kidnapped prince. Both characters have jet packs and blasters as basic gear and in between each level can select between 4 special weapons for their packs. This power up is their super attack essentially, (like a bomb in other shoot 'em ups) that after use recharges to fire again like it's an 80's powerpack. There are a variety of choices from lightning waves, missile barrages and lasers. If you don't like one then you can change it on the next mission to find one you like most though I found some more useful than others but that did also vary by level.
The main weapons they carry don't change, Madison fires little blue balls whilst Crystal carries a blaster that rapid fires some kind of orange arc beams that seem really powerful. You can get a few basic power ups that strengthen their attack, (In Maddison's case expand her cone of fire) and some speed ups, health ups and slow downs as well as one option turret that flies along firing with you. Overall the upgrades are limited and will mostly come down to your choice of special weapon. So load outs and power ups are pretty limited but where Trouble Shooter is interesting is that Crystal is more like an invincible option that follows you rather than a playable character. Only Madison actually takes damage and with a push of a button you can have Crystal flip 180 to start firing backwards to cover the rear if needed or have them both face forward for a full frontal barrage.
It's a really neat little idea to have it as a flexible use mechanic and what got me so interested in the series in the first place but it's just so bizarrely underused as a mechanic. Some enemies come from behind occasionally and a couple of bosses move around making it useful but it just doesn't feel like the game is designed around it enough and the limited weapons and lack of equipable load outs for each character compound that further. The level designs occasionally use it like in the second level with buzz saws coming from both directions as you travel down an underground base shaft which I liked and one boss in particular utilised it more than the others. Speaking of levels the game has 6 short stages even for a shoot 'em up and there seems to be little variety between playthroughs and it's on the easy side.
Though I enjoyed playing this quite a bit I was hoping to like this game more than I did overall. On the presentation front it has some decent music Stage 5 theme especially stood out as action packed and upbeat when I played. I like the visuals with chunky colourful sprites, paralax scrolling, level settings and anime character portraits during scenes. The mechanics and story writing though leave it as a good overall experience but it could have been an amazing one. So a good game but with missing potential as a final verdict.
I hear the sequel takes the idea and amps it up to 11 so I look forward to trying that.
+ Nice visuals and music.
+ I like the cover art of two sci-fi aerobics instructors, haters be damned.
+ Two characters with left or right shooting options is neat...
-...but severely underutilised.
You control two combat operatives called Madison and Crystal who have been hired to save a kidnapped prince. Both characters have jet packs and blasters as basic gear and in between each level can select between 4 special weapons for their packs. This power up is their super attack essentially, (like a bomb in other shoot 'em ups) that after use recharges to fire again like it's an 80's powerpack. There are a variety of choices from lightning waves, missile barrages and lasers. If you don't like one then you can change it on the next mission to find one you like most though I found some more useful than others but that did also vary by level.
The main weapons they carry don't change, Madison fires little blue balls whilst Crystal carries a blaster that rapid fires some kind of orange arc beams that seem really powerful. You can get a few basic power ups that strengthen their attack, (In Maddison's case expand her cone of fire) and some speed ups, health ups and slow downs as well as one option turret that flies along firing with you. Overall the upgrades are limited and will mostly come down to your choice of special weapon. So load outs and power ups are pretty limited but where Trouble Shooter is interesting is that Crystal is more like an invincible option that follows you rather than a playable character. Only Madison actually takes damage and with a push of a button you can have Crystal flip 180 to start firing backwards to cover the rear if needed or have them both face forward for a full frontal barrage.
It's a really neat little idea to have it as a flexible use mechanic and what got me so interested in the series in the first place but it's just so bizarrely underused as a mechanic. Some enemies come from behind occasionally and a couple of bosses move around making it useful but it just doesn't feel like the game is designed around it enough and the limited weapons and lack of equipable load outs for each character compound that further. The level designs occasionally use it like in the second level with buzz saws coming from both directions as you travel down an underground base shaft which I liked and one boss in particular utilised it more than the others. Speaking of levels the game has 6 short stages even for a shoot 'em up and there seems to be little variety between playthroughs and it's on the easy side.
Though I enjoyed playing this quite a bit I was hoping to like this game more than I did overall. On the presentation front it has some decent music Stage 5 theme especially stood out as action packed and upbeat when I played. I like the visuals with chunky colourful sprites, paralax scrolling, level settings and anime character portraits during scenes. The mechanics and story writing though leave it as a good overall experience but it could have been an amazing one. So a good game but with missing potential as a final verdict.
I hear the sequel takes the idea and amps it up to 11 so I look forward to trying that.
+ Nice visuals and music.
+ I like the cover art of two sci-fi aerobics instructors, haters be damned.
+ Two characters with left or right shooting options is neat...
-...but severely underutilised.
Checkered Flag
1994
"We have Virtua Racing at home."
It feels like I might say that a lot while playing through these Jaggy games, but here it seems like it was obvious what they were going for. It's kind of funny going from comparing a 3D Jaguar game and a Super FX SNES game to another one and comparing it to a 3D Genesis game. It's a shame both attempts are lackluster compared to their competition, but I do think Checkered Flag is a bit more respectable than Cybermorph.
Besides not being original at all, Checkered Flag's biggest problem is it's handling. The F1s have this odd momentum-based handling to them, where it starts slow and a split-second later attempts to hurl you straight into a wall. It's guaranteed you'll be smacking between corners like a ping pong ball for at least two races until you get used to the crap factor. If you feel this will make the game very difficult for you then fret not, as crashing in Checkered Flag is the equivalent of your overly kind mother giving you the weakest verbal warning that is never backed up, as the worst thing that could happen is your F1 car doing a single quick flip and landing straight onto it's tires with little speed lost. The CPU driver's competency all seem to be based entirely on the position of the planets in the solar system. One race I'll have a few near my ass at all times, meanwhile in another race one of the drones will apparently pass out drunk in the middle of the track and become a stationary obstacle, and the race will be like taking candy from a drunk baby.
The music was kinda nice at least, shame some of it loops way too quickly for how long the game wants you to race normally. Not the worst racing game I've ever played, if the handling were better I could see this being one of the better titles on the system....even if it still is for me so far. Massive apologies to anyone who thought I'd eventually get back to playing PC Engine games... mid is calling for me.
It feels like I might say that a lot while playing through these Jaggy games, but here it seems like it was obvious what they were going for. It's kind of funny going from comparing a 3D Jaguar game and a Super FX SNES game to another one and comparing it to a 3D Genesis game. It's a shame both attempts are lackluster compared to their competition, but I do think Checkered Flag is a bit more respectable than Cybermorph.
Besides not being original at all, Checkered Flag's biggest problem is it's handling. The F1s have this odd momentum-based handling to them, where it starts slow and a split-second later attempts to hurl you straight into a wall. It's guaranteed you'll be smacking between corners like a ping pong ball for at least two races until you get used to the crap factor. If you feel this will make the game very difficult for you then fret not, as crashing in Checkered Flag is the equivalent of your overly kind mother giving you the weakest verbal warning that is never backed up, as the worst thing that could happen is your F1 car doing a single quick flip and landing straight onto it's tires with little speed lost. The CPU driver's competency all seem to be based entirely on the position of the planets in the solar system. One race I'll have a few near my ass at all times, meanwhile in another race one of the drones will apparently pass out drunk in the middle of the track and become a stationary obstacle, and the race will be like taking candy from a drunk baby.
The music was kinda nice at least, shame some of it loops way too quickly for how long the game wants you to race normally. Not the worst racing game I've ever played, if the handling were better I could see this being one of the better titles on the system....even if it still is for me so far. Massive apologies to anyone who thought I'd eventually get back to playing PC Engine games... mid is calling for me.
Just about everything I disliked about Shadow Dancer Arcade has been changed and fixed here. My main criticism was that the dog companion was not very fun to use despite being such a great idea for a game mechanic because of how you controlled him. Instead of Crouch+A, you hold A to charge your Dog Meter and then Yamato attacks when you release in range of an enemy.
Yamato's attack speed and attack range is a lot better too. He feels a lot smarter as a companion and I feel more in control over his actions. In Shadow Dancer Arcade, I'd be calling for Yamato to attack an enemy on the platform directly above and in front of an enemy and he wouldn't budge, but he'd go and attack some random enemy off-screen because I was trying to crouch-kick one of the disappearing ninjas. Now, Yamato can attack from pretty much anywhere as long as you're facing the enemy on the screen and he's barking.
Enemies generally feel more fair and fun to fight against, their placement feels more fair. Ninjas especially are much easier to deal with than the arcade version now that you can properly crouch-attack. They added these cool rolling armadillo ninja enemies that I like a lot, they have a cool design.
None of the levels are the same, which is a good thing, because I think every level in this version is more memorable and more fun than the arcade one. The elevator climb up the Statue of Liberty was way more fun than the sewer level with the alligators that decide to push you off the platform you're on.
The only thing I mourn is the loss of a couple of bosses. The train boss was better than the face in the wall and the guandao lady on the rocket platform was a cool boss, just not a great final boss, but even the really lame bosses like the giant floating wheel that shoots fireballs was better than the samurai throwing rubber bouncy balls in the airplane. The final boss is very challenging, but actually makes you think about patterns and what you're doing as opposed to mashing shurikens in place and jumping occasionally. He's also a lot cooler. The rocket launching platform was a cool setpiece, but travelling inside the Statue of Liberty to go underground and find the hideout of Union Lizard is pretty cool as well.
Oh, and score DOES reset when you use a continue, incentivizing getting really good at one-credit runs. That was something I was eventually hoping would be implemented.
Usually, I find that console conversions of arcade games are vastly inferior and not worth playing, but this is one of the Genesis' best imo.
High Score: 701,500
Yamato's attack speed and attack range is a lot better too. He feels a lot smarter as a companion and I feel more in control over his actions. In Shadow Dancer Arcade, I'd be calling for Yamato to attack an enemy on the platform directly above and in front of an enemy and he wouldn't budge, but he'd go and attack some random enemy off-screen because I was trying to crouch-kick one of the disappearing ninjas. Now, Yamato can attack from pretty much anywhere as long as you're facing the enemy on the screen and he's barking.
Enemies generally feel more fair and fun to fight against, their placement feels more fair. Ninjas especially are much easier to deal with than the arcade version now that you can properly crouch-attack. They added these cool rolling armadillo ninja enemies that I like a lot, they have a cool design.
None of the levels are the same, which is a good thing, because I think every level in this version is more memorable and more fun than the arcade one. The elevator climb up the Statue of Liberty was way more fun than the sewer level with the alligators that decide to push you off the platform you're on.
The only thing I mourn is the loss of a couple of bosses. The train boss was better than the face in the wall and the guandao lady on the rocket platform was a cool boss, just not a great final boss, but even the really lame bosses like the giant floating wheel that shoots fireballs was better than the samurai throwing rubber bouncy balls in the airplane. The final boss is very challenging, but actually makes you think about patterns and what you're doing as opposed to mashing shurikens in place and jumping occasionally. He's also a lot cooler. The rocket launching platform was a cool setpiece, but travelling inside the Statue of Liberty to go underground and find the hideout of Union Lizard is pretty cool as well.
Oh, and score DOES reset when you use a continue, incentivizing getting really good at one-credit runs. That was something I was eventually hoping would be implemented.
Usually, I find that console conversions of arcade games are vastly inferior and not worth playing, but this is one of the Genesis' best imo.
High Score: 701,500
Elemental Master
1991
Replayed for a Difficult Mode 1CC
Technosoft's project furthest from their comfort zone, eschewing their sci-fi horizontal setpieces for vertical on-foot fantasy shooting, with more traditional fleet-like swarms of enemies - and it has some of their tightest game design for it. The density of each level is very impressive. My favorite part of the game is the weapon system - the usual TF alternate shots are unlocked from the first four bosses, are permanent upgrades, and each have a screen-clearing charge shot. They're not equally balanced (you can get by mostly with the 3-way spread and its orbital bomb super), but all very fun to experiment with like any other Technosoft game.
My main critique is the difficulty: Pretty easy until around the stage 6 boss, and then those last couple fights are make-it-or-break-it. This also introduces the problem with its healthbar system; theres no incentive to practice earlier stages because unlike other shmups, there's no power ups or lives to carry with you to the later sections. The solution would be buffing the early-game stages in difficulty or replacing the healthbar with hearts or lives, maybe something like BM Daiginjou where all damage takes away lives but they're as plentiful as HP would be in other genres.
Technosoft's project furthest from their comfort zone, eschewing their sci-fi horizontal setpieces for vertical on-foot fantasy shooting, with more traditional fleet-like swarms of enemies - and it has some of their tightest game design for it. The density of each level is very impressive. My favorite part of the game is the weapon system - the usual TF alternate shots are unlocked from the first four bosses, are permanent upgrades, and each have a screen-clearing charge shot. They're not equally balanced (you can get by mostly with the 3-way spread and its orbital bomb super), but all very fun to experiment with like any other Technosoft game.
My main critique is the difficulty: Pretty easy until around the stage 6 boss, and then those last couple fights are make-it-or-break-it. This also introduces the problem with its healthbar system; theres no incentive to practice earlier stages because unlike other shmups, there's no power ups or lives to carry with you to the later sections. The solution would be buffing the early-game stages in difficulty or replacing the healthbar with hearts or lives, maybe something like BM Daiginjou where all damage takes away lives but they're as plentiful as HP would be in other genres.
"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
Batman on Genesis is alright, it's one of those action sidescroller type deals. I don't really care for the jumping much though, it's a bit stiff and you have this weird double jump that you won't realize you have until the game asks you to get over a tower of crates that's too tall for you to jump over without it. Which is funny, because it also insults our intelligence by allowing enemies to run right past it and attack you. Like how dumb is Bruce in this game?
Bats: "Ah god, I can't get over these crates!!!"
enemies harmlessly walk right by it
Thug: "Wow, what a dingbat. Eheheheheh."
The peak of the game is the auto-scrolling shmup sections with the Batmobile and the Batwing, thankfully they aren't five hundred million centuries long like the one in Adventures of Batman and Robin. The bosses are the weakest part for sure, it's unfortunate there's also a boss rush at the end which annoyed me enough to want to rate the game lower, but the game very generously allows you to continue indefinitely. Thank you very much.
Why does The Joker have Terry Bogard's Power Wave? I was half-expecting him to ask if I was okay.
Batman on Genesis is alright, it's one of those action sidescroller type deals. I don't really care for the jumping much though, it's a bit stiff and you have this weird double jump that you won't realize you have until the game asks you to get over a tower of crates that's too tall for you to jump over without it. Which is funny, because it also insults our intelligence by allowing enemies to run right past it and attack you. Like how dumb is Bruce in this game?
Bats: "Ah god, I can't get over these crates!!!"
enemies harmlessly walk right by it
Thug: "Wow, what a dingbat. Eheheheheh."
The peak of the game is the auto-scrolling shmup sections with the Batmobile and the Batwing, thankfully they aren't five hundred million centuries long like the one in Adventures of Batman and Robin. The bosses are the weakest part for sure, it's unfortunate there's also a boss rush at the end which annoyed me enough to want to rate the game lower, but the game very generously allows you to continue indefinitely. Thank you very much.
Why does The Joker have Terry Bogard's Power Wave? I was half-expecting him to ask if I was okay.
(This is the 25th game in my challenge to go through many known games in chronological order starting in 1990. The spreadsheet is in my bio.)
I hadn't posted this review on here back when I played it, so I'm adding it now.
Sunsoft released 4 different games under the name Batman in 1990, and this review is for the Sega Genesis version.
The Game Boy version I played previously was rather simple and while it was fun, it didn't feel like Batman. Among other reasons, Batman uses a gun throughout that game, which doesn't suit him all that much.
The Sega Genesis version is much more sophisticated and actually uses gadgets and weapons that you know him for. You fight by punching and throwing batarangs. You can climb up using a grappling hook. You drive the Batmobile in one section. And while it comes together to deliver a solid platformer for its time, regular cheap deaths are to be expected here thanks to sometimes unresponsive, often inconsistent controls. At least that is my experience and if you have experienced it differently, I'd love to know about that.
I'll explain what I mean, but first, let's look at my thoughts on the game's story and storytelling.
STORYTELLING | 1/10
The story is mainly told in a scrolling text before the game starts, plus a few lines when the game ends. There is also a scene where you see the Joker next to Vicki Vale while you fight a different boss.
The plot has similarities to the 1989 movie by Tim Burton and the premise is that The Joker and his goons are plotting to take over Gotham City. They've also kidnapped photographer Vicki Vale. Throughout the game, you have to fight Joker's henchmen to get to him and put an end to this unrest.
It's the barest of bones as far as storytelling in game goes and that's fine, just know to not expect anything.
GAMEPLAY | 12/20
You get 3 Lives and 5 Continues and have to try and go through about half a dozen different stages, each concluding with a boss fight. The final stage pre-Joker fight even has you fight all previous bosses in succession, a boss rush basically, and it's the part where I likely would have given up if it weren't for save states.
The first level has Batman walk across the Gotham streets with a bunch of goons standing in his way with either pistols or knives. You can easily punch them, or throw the limited amount of batarangs you have at them. There are icons to collect that give you more batarangs, and others that give you a health or even a whole extra life.
You can duck, jump, somersault and even use a grappling hook to jump onto higher platforms. There are lots of platforming sections over bottomless pits that will test your patience, because that was the part where I started to get frustrated with the controls.
I can't say with full confidence that my emulator did or did not have issues (I'd guess no issues there) but the somersault was very inconsistent and almost felt random at times. In one area where you have to jump on top of small platforms, doing a somersault becomes necessary. Somersaulting requires you to press the jump button twice. For some reason, the second tap sometimes wouldn't trigger and I would end up falling into a pit, which takes a whole life away. Was it my fault? Was it the emulators? Was it the games? All I can say is that I didn't have issues like this with the majority of other games I've played, so I'm gonna go with faulting the game.
While most stages consist of platforming, there are two different stages, one each for the Batmobile and the Batwing. Both offer a nice change of pace, but I found them to be somewhat frustrating. The Batwing part has a few moments where 7 or 8 enemies are on the screen at once and it's almost impossible to find space to move your Batwing into. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that you get 4 health points after you lose your first life and no health items during the entire run. It's the same with the Batmobile part, only there you have these vans that throw bombs and I kind of found it hard to understand where exactly they would drop. Sometimes I would think that I am far enough away from them, only to be hit anyway, and since each hit takes 2 health, dying in these parts is extremely easy unless you play it perfectly.
The boss fights are OK but pretty easy once you know what to do, which you will know pretty fast. The Joker fight especially was ridiculous on Normal difficulty as the game gave me enough batarangs to essentially insta-kill him without getting touched once.
Overall, it's a middle of the pack platformer, which means it's an enjoyable enough game, but it doesn't stand out.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10
No voice acting. I liked the sound design, my only issue with it was probably that there wasn't enough or pretty much any environmental sound. Would have enhanced the experience that tiny bit more. The soundtrack of this game is great. There is a different track for each stage and all are bangers.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
Graphically this fits the mood of a Batman game really well, and the streets of Gotham especially look really good for a game of its age. All in all, you can tell that this is a Batman game, and you don't need to control Batman throughout it to realize that.
ATMOSPHERE | 7/10
It already starts off pretty well in the first stage, where you find yourself walking through the streets of Gotham, which look really good. Driving through them and over a bridge in a high speed chase, climbing up a cathedral and walking through a museum were all moments that provided plenty of atmosphere. I would have loved some environmental sound to really drive some of it home, but even so the package here is well above average graphically.
CONTENT | 7/10
It took me 5 hours to beat it after 3 non-save state attempts and one including save states. It'll probably take closer to 10 hours if you want to try to beat it with only your 5 continues, but considering that the Batwing/Batmobile stages and the final boss rush stage are rather unfair considering they are pretty long and don't offer that many healing items (only 1 each for the Batwing/Batmobile stages), I'd say not all hours would be of high quality. Still, this is a tight package with solid gameplay throughout, minus some of my issues with some platforming segments being frustrating due to unresponsive controls.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
I didn't like how they only give you one health item for the entirety of the Batmobile and Batwing sections, they were way too long for that. The final stage also dragged on for far too long and felt like a lazy way to add a few more hours of frustrating gameplay, only for the game to finish off with one of the easier final bosses you'll ever see. I did like how the game attempted to mix up the platforming with the shoot 'em up like Batwing/Batmobile sections, despite my issues with them, I think every platformer should have something like that.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 4/10
Graphically, this is a step above many other platformers I've played, though this is my first Sega Genesis game, so I can't compare it to its contemporaries. The grappling hook is a nice feature and overall, this game is worlds above the Game Boy version, but it doesn't seem to be innovating in any notable way.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
No reason to replay this after beating it apart from the usual reasons, which would be beating your high score and playing it on Hard instead of Normal, if you didn't do so before.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 60/100
A average (=solid) platformer for its time that actually looks like a Batman game (looking at you, Game Boy version) and has plenty of cool moments involving Batman's actual gear. There is only a setting, no story development apart from the typical good guy beats bad guy moments, so you will only be playing this for its gameplay, which should entertain for a few hours but frustrate for just as many. At least the soundtrack is great throughout.
WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
H. H. W. for VGCE, Issue 31 (Aug 91): "There's an I've-played-something-like-this-before flair to Batman." | This is true for many other games that VGCE gave high grades for. Maybe by 1991 the landscape changed drastically?
Boogie Man for GamePro, Issue 24 (July 91): "Even though you may have done it all before, it's never looked this good." | Between this and the previous review, I'm getting real looking at a glass half-full / half-empty vibes
Matthew A. Firme for GamePlayers, Issue 25 (July 91): Well, it's not a review as much as it is a guide, however they do call Batman the Sega Genesis Game of the Month in this one
I hadn't posted this review on here back when I played it, so I'm adding it now.
Sunsoft released 4 different games under the name Batman in 1990, and this review is for the Sega Genesis version.
The Game Boy version I played previously was rather simple and while it was fun, it didn't feel like Batman. Among other reasons, Batman uses a gun throughout that game, which doesn't suit him all that much.
The Sega Genesis version is much more sophisticated and actually uses gadgets and weapons that you know him for. You fight by punching and throwing batarangs. You can climb up using a grappling hook. You drive the Batmobile in one section. And while it comes together to deliver a solid platformer for its time, regular cheap deaths are to be expected here thanks to sometimes unresponsive, often inconsistent controls. At least that is my experience and if you have experienced it differently, I'd love to know about that.
I'll explain what I mean, but first, let's look at my thoughts on the game's story and storytelling.
STORYTELLING | 1/10
The story is mainly told in a scrolling text before the game starts, plus a few lines when the game ends. There is also a scene where you see the Joker next to Vicki Vale while you fight a different boss.
The plot has similarities to the 1989 movie by Tim Burton and the premise is that The Joker and his goons are plotting to take over Gotham City. They've also kidnapped photographer Vicki Vale. Throughout the game, you have to fight Joker's henchmen to get to him and put an end to this unrest.
It's the barest of bones as far as storytelling in game goes and that's fine, just know to not expect anything.
GAMEPLAY | 12/20
You get 3 Lives and 5 Continues and have to try and go through about half a dozen different stages, each concluding with a boss fight. The final stage pre-Joker fight even has you fight all previous bosses in succession, a boss rush basically, and it's the part where I likely would have given up if it weren't for save states.
The first level has Batman walk across the Gotham streets with a bunch of goons standing in his way with either pistols or knives. You can easily punch them, or throw the limited amount of batarangs you have at them. There are icons to collect that give you more batarangs, and others that give you a health or even a whole extra life.
You can duck, jump, somersault and even use a grappling hook to jump onto higher platforms. There are lots of platforming sections over bottomless pits that will test your patience, because that was the part where I started to get frustrated with the controls.
I can't say with full confidence that my emulator did or did not have issues (I'd guess no issues there) but the somersault was very inconsistent and almost felt random at times. In one area where you have to jump on top of small platforms, doing a somersault becomes necessary. Somersaulting requires you to press the jump button twice. For some reason, the second tap sometimes wouldn't trigger and I would end up falling into a pit, which takes a whole life away. Was it my fault? Was it the emulators? Was it the games? All I can say is that I didn't have issues like this with the majority of other games I've played, so I'm gonna go with faulting the game.
While most stages consist of platforming, there are two different stages, one each for the Batmobile and the Batwing. Both offer a nice change of pace, but I found them to be somewhat frustrating. The Batwing part has a few moments where 7 or 8 enemies are on the screen at once and it's almost impossible to find space to move your Batwing into. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that you get 4 health points after you lose your first life and no health items during the entire run. It's the same with the Batmobile part, only there you have these vans that throw bombs and I kind of found it hard to understand where exactly they would drop. Sometimes I would think that I am far enough away from them, only to be hit anyway, and since each hit takes 2 health, dying in these parts is extremely easy unless you play it perfectly.
The boss fights are OK but pretty easy once you know what to do, which you will know pretty fast. The Joker fight especially was ridiculous on Normal difficulty as the game gave me enough batarangs to essentially insta-kill him without getting touched once.
Overall, it's a middle of the pack platformer, which means it's an enjoyable enough game, but it doesn't stand out.
MUSIC/SOUND/VOICE | 8/10
No voice acting. I liked the sound design, my only issue with it was probably that there wasn't enough or pretty much any environmental sound. Would have enhanced the experience that tiny bit more. The soundtrack of this game is great. There is a different track for each stage and all are bangers.
GRAPHICS/ART DESIGN | 8/10
Graphically this fits the mood of a Batman game really well, and the streets of Gotham especially look really good for a game of its age. All in all, you can tell that this is a Batman game, and you don't need to control Batman throughout it to realize that.
ATMOSPHERE | 7/10
It already starts off pretty well in the first stage, where you find yourself walking through the streets of Gotham, which look really good. Driving through them and over a bridge in a high speed chase, climbing up a cathedral and walking through a museum were all moments that provided plenty of atmosphere. I would have loved some environmental sound to really drive some of it home, but even so the package here is well above average graphically.
CONTENT | 7/10
It took me 5 hours to beat it after 3 non-save state attempts and one including save states. It'll probably take closer to 10 hours if you want to try to beat it with only your 5 continues, but considering that the Batwing/Batmobile stages and the final boss rush stage are rather unfair considering they are pretty long and don't offer that many healing items (only 1 each for the Batwing/Batmobile stages), I'd say not all hours would be of high quality. Still, this is a tight package with solid gameplay throughout, minus some of my issues with some platforming segments being frustrating due to unresponsive controls.
LEVEL/MISSION DESIGN | 6/10
I didn't like how they only give you one health item for the entirety of the Batmobile and Batwing sections, they were way too long for that. The final stage also dragged on for far too long and felt like a lazy way to add a few more hours of frustrating gameplay, only for the game to finish off with one of the easier final bosses you'll ever see. I did like how the game attempted to mix up the platforming with the shoot 'em up like Batwing/Batmobile sections, despite my issues with them, I think every platformer should have something like that.
CONCEPT/INNOVATION | 4/10
Graphically, this is a step above many other platformers I've played, though this is my first Sega Genesis game, so I can't compare it to its contemporaries. The grappling hook is a nice feature and overall, this game is worlds above the Game Boy version, but it doesn't seem to be innovating in any notable way.
REPLAYABILITY | 2/5
No reason to replay this after beating it apart from the usual reasons, which would be beating your high score and playing it on Hard instead of Normal, if you didn't do so before.
PLAYABILITY | 5/5
The game worked well at all times.
OVERALL | 60/100
A average (=solid) platformer for its time that actually looks like a Batman game (looking at you, Game Boy version) and has plenty of cool moments involving Batman's actual gear. There is only a setting, no story development apart from the typical good guy beats bad guy moments, so you will only be playing this for its gameplay, which should entertain for a few hours but frustrate for just as many. At least the soundtrack is great throughout.
WHAT THEY SAID AT THE TIME
H. H. W. for VGCE, Issue 31 (Aug 91): "There's an I've-played-something-like-this-before flair to Batman." | This is true for many other games that VGCE gave high grades for. Maybe by 1991 the landscape changed drastically?
Boogie Man for GamePro, Issue 24 (July 91): "Even though you may have done it all before, it's never looked this good." | Between this and the previous review, I'm getting real looking at a glass half-full / half-empty vibes
Matthew A. Firme for GamePlayers, Issue 25 (July 91): Well, it's not a review as much as it is a guide, however they do call Batman the Sega Genesis Game of the Month in this one