Gabriel
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- Mar 4, 2019
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I'm playing a lot of SNES and Genesis lately. At the moment I've retired my Genesis/SegaCD/32X and am using emulation for that system set, while I'm still using original hardware for the SNES (with a flashcart). I get better video out of my SNES on my TV than I do from my Genesis. Plus, it's just easier to get SegaCD games to run in emulation.
One game that I've always known about but never given a chance was The Haunting: Starring Polterguy for the Genesis. In the past I sort of noted this game, but never gave it a chance. It just wasn't the kind of thing I was interested in back in the day and even in the emulation/flashcart era, I never looked back into it. Well, I had been seeing it mentioned in YouTube videos a bit, and decided to download the rom to check it out. Surprisingly, it's pretty cool. Most of the entertainment comes from watching the animations of the various scares you perform against the family in the game. I'm not sure if I would have felt it was worth $50 back in the day, but it's worth free today. I'd say it definitely would have been worth a rental. So, Haunting was a cool discovery.
A game I rediscovered was Outrun 2019 on the Genesis. I think I rented it back in the day, played it for a weekend, liked it, and then just never saw it anywhere to buy for an affordable amount. I might have an actual cart that I picked up from a couple of bucks when stores were selling used rental games, but I never sank any real time into it. Well, recently I've played it quite a bit. I like how the tracks are open ended instead of closed circuits. I also like how there are multiple tracks instead of the standard Outrun "tree" route. The mechanics of the game are pretty cool, as they don't have "drifting" which all other racing games after a certain point seem obsessed with. I like some of the graphical gimmicks such as tunnels, overpasses, and transparent roads. It wasn't exactly a cutting edge game back when it was released, but as a 16 bit racer, time has been kind to it. It's short, but it has some good replay value due to the length of the courses and the alternate routes.
A SNES game I never gave a chance was Batman Returns. I have never been a Batman fan. In fact, the rabid fandom and insistence of that rabid fandom that Batman is the best ever and the movies related to the character are the best ever really turns me off and makes me hate the entire franchise. Plus, I've seen the Burton movies and never found them particularly interesting as stories and films. They have an interesting look to them, but that's about it. So, as you might imagine, I never gave the Batman Returns game a look because of all those factors but also because it was a single player only brawler. Why make a brawler and not make it two player co-op? Well, that question still stands, but Batman Returns is a single player brawler that manages to be a lot of fun. It looks fantastic. It plays fantastic. And it has enough variety that it doesn't get stale. It mixes up the brawler gameplay with some platforming gameplay. Normally that's not my taste, but it breaks up the monotony of beating opponent after opponent. The stages each have their own feel. It's just a good game. I think my only complaint is the opponents during the brawler sections are a bit samey and needed more variety, but they look good and it's fun to beat the crap out of them. There are just enough brawling mechanics to make things fun instead of endless button mashing. I'm sold on this game. It has entered my regular play list, and I'll probably hunt down a real cart.
On the other end of the spectrum there's Alien Vs Predator for the SNES. This is a brawler, but not based on the Capcom arcade game of the similar name and theme. AvP on the SNES is single player. Once again, WHY ONLY SINGLE PLAYER? You play a Predator and beat up a fuckton of Aliens. The graphics are nice. They're not as good as Batman, but the game does look nice. There are story scenes between levels which look really good. The Predator looks a bit squat and lame, but the Aliens look great with tons of detail. The bosses all look cool, although the final boss is a bit small and squat for a climactic alien queen, but they all have really good sprites. Your Predator can fight with punch and kick, pick up weapons such as the spear, the disc, and the invisibility cloak. The Predator can even fire his shoulder mounted laser cannon or use it as a screen clearing attack. The first couple of stages are cool, with pretty decent design, and it seems to be shaping up to be a solid brawler. Then on the third stage the designers got lazy and the stage design becomes a repeating pattern for what seems to be forever. You basically get on a ship and then you spend an eternity (two/three LONG levels) walking down a corridor. Every few steps, two Aliens with huge lifebars drop down and you have to fight them. It gets repetitive and monotonous and boring. Even when I got to the Alien queen, it was a bit disappointing because she seemed like any other boss. In fact, a couple of the earlier bosses had been more impressive. AvP turned out to be exactly the kind of brawler that critics of brawlers hold up as examples of the genre being only "walking left and mashing the button." That said, I had a bit of fun with AvP. The license elevated it a bit. I probably wouldn't play it if it were just a standard street brawler, but since I was killing Aliens, it was a guilty pleasure. If I had purchased it back in the day for full price, I probably would have liked it for a day or two but then felt regret about the purchase. If I had managed to snag it for a couple of bucks in a rental store liquidation, I probably would have been happy about it. I don't think it's worth the $30 price it seems to go for on ebay, but it's worth a free rom download, and would have been worth a rental.
Another guilty pleasure I discovered was Fighting Masters on the Genesis. I saw a video saying that it was an utter shit fighting game. It is. it is really bad. But it isn't without entertainment value. Where Fighting Masters excels is in characters. I don't think I've ever seen such a whacked out cast as exists in this game. There's a dragon man, a phoenix man, a horse man, a plant thing, and characters I don't even know what to describe them as. The game they feature in is effectively one of those VS modes that you used to see as bonus modes in scrolling brawlers, except in Fighting Masters, that's the entire game. You have an attack button and a jump button. There's no strategy, no combos, no nothing. There is only mashing. It makes Pit Fighter look technical. It is GLORIOUS SHIT, because it's perfectly playable. Two players can pick whacked out characters and make stupid jokes while frantically mashing jump and attack. My partner and I had great fun with this one just picking characters and making fucked up banter while playing. This game is not regular rotation material, but I think it's perfectly good to pop in and just goof off for a while. To be clear, this game would NOT have been worth it back in the day. But, I dare say it would have been worth a rental, or worth buying if it was something like $2.99. It is absolute shit, but it's entertaining shit.
One game that I've always known about but never given a chance was The Haunting: Starring Polterguy for the Genesis. In the past I sort of noted this game, but never gave it a chance. It just wasn't the kind of thing I was interested in back in the day and even in the emulation/flashcart era, I never looked back into it. Well, I had been seeing it mentioned in YouTube videos a bit, and decided to download the rom to check it out. Surprisingly, it's pretty cool. Most of the entertainment comes from watching the animations of the various scares you perform against the family in the game. I'm not sure if I would have felt it was worth $50 back in the day, but it's worth free today. I'd say it definitely would have been worth a rental. So, Haunting was a cool discovery.
A game I rediscovered was Outrun 2019 on the Genesis. I think I rented it back in the day, played it for a weekend, liked it, and then just never saw it anywhere to buy for an affordable amount. I might have an actual cart that I picked up from a couple of bucks when stores were selling used rental games, but I never sank any real time into it. Well, recently I've played it quite a bit. I like how the tracks are open ended instead of closed circuits. I also like how there are multiple tracks instead of the standard Outrun "tree" route. The mechanics of the game are pretty cool, as they don't have "drifting" which all other racing games after a certain point seem obsessed with. I like some of the graphical gimmicks such as tunnels, overpasses, and transparent roads. It wasn't exactly a cutting edge game back when it was released, but as a 16 bit racer, time has been kind to it. It's short, but it has some good replay value due to the length of the courses and the alternate routes.
A SNES game I never gave a chance was Batman Returns. I have never been a Batman fan. In fact, the rabid fandom and insistence of that rabid fandom that Batman is the best ever and the movies related to the character are the best ever really turns me off and makes me hate the entire franchise. Plus, I've seen the Burton movies and never found them particularly interesting as stories and films. They have an interesting look to them, but that's about it. So, as you might imagine, I never gave the Batman Returns game a look because of all those factors but also because it was a single player only brawler. Why make a brawler and not make it two player co-op? Well, that question still stands, but Batman Returns is a single player brawler that manages to be a lot of fun. It looks fantastic. It plays fantastic. And it has enough variety that it doesn't get stale. It mixes up the brawler gameplay with some platforming gameplay. Normally that's not my taste, but it breaks up the monotony of beating opponent after opponent. The stages each have their own feel. It's just a good game. I think my only complaint is the opponents during the brawler sections are a bit samey and needed more variety, but they look good and it's fun to beat the crap out of them. There are just enough brawling mechanics to make things fun instead of endless button mashing. I'm sold on this game. It has entered my regular play list, and I'll probably hunt down a real cart.
On the other end of the spectrum there's Alien Vs Predator for the SNES. This is a brawler, but not based on the Capcom arcade game of the similar name and theme. AvP on the SNES is single player. Once again, WHY ONLY SINGLE PLAYER? You play a Predator and beat up a fuckton of Aliens. The graphics are nice. They're not as good as Batman, but the game does look nice. There are story scenes between levels which look really good. The Predator looks a bit squat and lame, but the Aliens look great with tons of detail. The bosses all look cool, although the final boss is a bit small and squat for a climactic alien queen, but they all have really good sprites. Your Predator can fight with punch and kick, pick up weapons such as the spear, the disc, and the invisibility cloak. The Predator can even fire his shoulder mounted laser cannon or use it as a screen clearing attack. The first couple of stages are cool, with pretty decent design, and it seems to be shaping up to be a solid brawler. Then on the third stage the designers got lazy and the stage design becomes a repeating pattern for what seems to be forever. You basically get on a ship and then you spend an eternity (two/three LONG levels) walking down a corridor. Every few steps, two Aliens with huge lifebars drop down and you have to fight them. It gets repetitive and monotonous and boring. Even when I got to the Alien queen, it was a bit disappointing because she seemed like any other boss. In fact, a couple of the earlier bosses had been more impressive. AvP turned out to be exactly the kind of brawler that critics of brawlers hold up as examples of the genre being only "walking left and mashing the button." That said, I had a bit of fun with AvP. The license elevated it a bit. I probably wouldn't play it if it were just a standard street brawler, but since I was killing Aliens, it was a guilty pleasure. If I had purchased it back in the day for full price, I probably would have liked it for a day or two but then felt regret about the purchase. If I had managed to snag it for a couple of bucks in a rental store liquidation, I probably would have been happy about it. I don't think it's worth the $30 price it seems to go for on ebay, but it's worth a free rom download, and would have been worth a rental.
Another guilty pleasure I discovered was Fighting Masters on the Genesis. I saw a video saying that it was an utter shit fighting game. It is. it is really bad. But it isn't without entertainment value. Where Fighting Masters excels is in characters. I don't think I've ever seen such a whacked out cast as exists in this game. There's a dragon man, a phoenix man, a horse man, a plant thing, and characters I don't even know what to describe them as. The game they feature in is effectively one of those VS modes that you used to see as bonus modes in scrolling brawlers, except in Fighting Masters, that's the entire game. You have an attack button and a jump button. There's no strategy, no combos, no nothing. There is only mashing. It makes Pit Fighter look technical. It is GLORIOUS SHIT, because it's perfectly playable. Two players can pick whacked out characters and make stupid jokes while frantically mashing jump and attack. My partner and I had great fun with this one just picking characters and making fucked up banter while playing. This game is not regular rotation material, but I think it's perfectly good to pop in and just goof off for a while. To be clear, this game would NOT have been worth it back in the day. But, I dare say it would have been worth a rental, or worth buying if it was something like $2.99. It is absolute shit, but it's entertaining shit.
