150 Megadrive/Genesis games at a nice reasonable pace

I will make sure its in the first ten for you Ironhide after all I have to respect a guy named after one of the best Autobots.

It's probably one of my most played MD games, the music is fantastic too.

Ironhide wrote:One word, Skitchin'.

THIS

I have started my Skitchin review, played a few hours of it, despite having played it a lot as a kid, just so I can make sure im not remembering it wrongly with any pre held ideas if that makes sense. I have written about 500 words and will now play a bit more before going further with it.

http://grview.grcade.co.uk/reviews/150-mega-drive-games-reviewed-5-atomic-runner-aka-atomic-runner-chelnov/

Thats my review of Atomic Runner

OK considering brining this back, I really really let it fall on its butt and decided to keep on focusing on the SNES games more but now im wondering if I should split my work between the snes and the megadrive.

I can't promise to follow every entry but hell yeah you should pick this up again. Mega Drive for life, forever

150 MegaDrive games reviewed: Review 5 Gain Ground, Video to follow at some point.

Gain Ground started off as an arcade game. Which was released in Japan, the United States and Canada in 1988, it ran on the Sega System 24 architecture, which is the same hardware that would go on to be used for the game Bonanzo Brothers. Gain Ground was ported to the Sega Master System in 1990 and then the Sega Mega Drive or as americans know it the Genesis in 1991. There was also a PC Engine Super CD-ROM² version called Gain Ground SX which was released a year later, that is the only version I have never played. I will obviously be focusing on the megadrive one here.

Gain Ground originally came into my life back in my childhood megadrive owning days, I used to visit an indy games store which not only had an awesome selection it also did a pretty roaring trade in import software. Now one of the best things about this shop is that once a game had been released in the UK any Japanese copies it had laying around would generally get marked down to £5 which just so happened to be just exactly the amount of pocket money I got per week, so as you can imagine at one time my collection was very heavily filled with Japanese games, and on one fateful week the game I happened to buy was none other than Gain Ground. I have to say that from the second I got home I adored the game and over the years the more I have played it the more I have appreciated what it has to offer. I find it important to admit here that although I consider Gain Ground a MegaDrive title as I have previously mentioned it was an arcade machine first and even hit the Master System before finding itself on the MegaDrive/Genesis but I didn't realise this at the time as the Megadrive was my first exposure to the game although I did play the other two later.

OK so I am going to start with giving you an idea of what Gain Ground's story is. Basically there was a society which had endured peace so long that they basically lost both the brains and the guts for war. This concerned the government and so they decided to develop a computer simulation however suddenly and without warning, there Supercomputer went haywire, to combat this 3 warriors were dispatched in to the Gain Ground system to rescue those who are trapped in it and to try to shut the system down. Not to be too nit picky but if you have 3 warriors good enough to do this then surly you could have just got them to train people instead of building a computer system that might kill us all? Just a thought.

I think its an interesting fact to slip in at this point that the makers of Gain Ground said that they were inspired by the classic Gauntlet, but does that mean that it plays like Gauntlet? Well you play as small little characters and you move in a similar way and your trying to reach the exit in every level but then that's about the point any real similarity ends. Unlike Gauntlet you don't play in big screened mazes full of scrolling you play in little compact stages, yes you have to depend on both your instincts and reflexes but arguably a lot more in this game as its one hit and your dead territory here so every decision and movement really counts. The thing that makes Gain Ground great is that its one of those games which is incredibly easy to pick up but hard to master, the controls are simplistic and work well, add on top of that the fact that it always makes you feel like you have the abilities needed to complete a level and that if you don't its your own fault not any bad programming or glitches.

So what do you do in Gain Ground well quiet simply you start with 3 characters and you either have to kill every enemy in a level or get at least one of the characters through the levels exit to progress. If a character dies well at first they remain on the ground as a little icon guy who you can save if you have a character left to pick them up on there way to the exit, in much the same way you will come across new characters, they will start off as little guys in the level who if you collect will then join you. Each of the characters comes from a different time period and has different skills, you will find knights who shoot fireballs, guys who use rifles, women with grenades, people with spears and even people with ray guns and all of them will have there own advantages, disadvantages and uses and its up to you to work out who to use when and how.

You can play Gain Ground for a long time or you can pick it up now and then and have a quick little blast on it, it also has a two player mode in which you try to get through the levels together which is brilliant for when you want a good buddy game, lets face it so many games over the years have only offerd versus modes when it comes to multiplayer.

The graphics in this game are incredibly simplistic, they are small and basically functional, it is certainly not a game which is going to sell itself on its looks, I think the music is very catchy and it really helps to heighten the feelings of tension and excitement you get when playing this game. I do think though that despite how basic this game looks if you give it a good go especially if you try it side by side with a buddy then you will be sold on it. If I had to score this game I would give it a 8 out of 10, I think its a unique game that should definitely be tried by more people.

So what about playing it now? Well it actually seems to be one of those games that varies wildly in price , if you can play import games then if your lucky you might find a Japanese copy complete for about £25, I remember a few years back you could get English carts of it for like £10 but loose carts of it in general look a bit thin on the ground now days. Looking up copies of this game on ebay showed me something that annoyed me no end, someone was selling a boxed Japanese copy where the cart had been filed down to fit in an European Megadrive, it looked like it had been filled by a drunken 5 year old high on sugar, it was a complete mess. Now while id still rather not see altered carts the very least the person who did this could do would be to heat up a knife and do a nice smooth job of it

OK so as for other ways to sample this game well there was a remake for the PlayStation 2 as part of Sega's Japan-only Sega Ages 2500 series and it found itself included in the Sega Megadrive Collection on the PlayStation 2 and the PSP in 2006 and then in the Sega/Sonic Ultimate megadrive Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2009, it also made its way on to the PC through steam. However you try it though I think its a great game and its a shame its never had a sequel.

Gain Ground is a Sega Ages release on Switch right? I've been tempted to check it out, your review is definitely helping

OrangeRKN wrote:Gain Ground is a Sega Ages release on Switch right? I've been tempted to check it out, your review is definitely helping

Yep the arcade versions a Sega ages release on the switch, I grabbed that myself , the arcade one is shorter though it's 40 levels instead of 50, not sure if the mega drive one is on the switch Sega collection or not.

Ah okay! Are they mostly the same otherwise?

I would like to request Tiny Toons: Buster's Hidden Treasure please and thank you

OrangeRKN wrote:Ah okay! Are they mostly the same otherwise?

I think the arcade one is 3 player if I remember correctly but beyond that and a little shorter yep they are the same game.

I have 3 scripts ready and 3 lots of video recorded just need to record my voice.. They are Gain Ground, Bonanzo Bros and AlienStorm.

I will happily move on to requests but wanted to cover a few certain things first..

My Gain Ground review : Review number 6

My Alien Storm Review



I remember when Alien storm first came out most people rather unfairly in my opinion referred to it as Golden Axe with aliens. On the surface Alien storm does share quiet a few similarity's with GoldenAxe both were made by Sega both are basically games in the old side scrolling beat em up mould, they have a choice of 3 different characters 1 of which is a lady. I would argue though that Alien storm was trying to be so much more.

Golden Axe and a lot of games like it suffer from the repetitiveness of the genre. You kill identy-kit enemy after enemy then get to the odd boss who is basically a enemy who looks a bit different hits harder and has a longer health bar. This is where Alien storm did a little something more, it stood out at the time for me by trying to add some different styles of game play to the mix to reduce the repetitiveness. Firstly you have Operation Wolf (light gun) inspired bits were you go through TV shops and supermarkets blasting aliens and shooting energy and health to collect them. Then you have sections when you are running along and shooting at enemy's trying to reach the end of the level. For a beat em up it seems quite fast really with skilled players diving across the screen from side to side dodging the hordes. With Alien Storm there is the sense that they really did try hard to throw a few curve-balls in to the mix to help keep the gameplay fresh and exciting, you can note that both this game and Golden Axe 2 came out in the same year and while this game basically tried new things Golden Axe 2 was a more of the same sequel that really didn't offer anything the first hadn't. Yet Golden Axe would go on to get a second sequel in Japan at least in the form of Golden Axe 3 and would eventually get a modern if poor sequel Golden Axe Beast Rider. In contrast Alien Storm never got a sequel which I think is a crying shame.


OK so lets talk about the games story well its not inventive in anyway what so ever its plot is basic Aliens are trying to invade earth and you have to stop them, you have your typical choice of 3 combatants in this case a Man a Woman and a Robot. There not bad they do the job but its the aliens that are truly worthy of praise there's a reasonable number of different types from little goblinesqe things that claw at you to sludgy things that scrape along the floor and try to swallow you whole but the real beauty of it is when you see them hiding in dustbins or dressed as civilians despite having a huge purple melon for a head. The game does have the cloned baddies who are the same as others in the game but different colours but it is not as bad for this as some games.'' The story might be a bit of a typical one plot wise but it is also kind of awesome B movie cheese and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world, you take how B movie it feels and then factor in the humour and I think this gives this game such a unique character.

The games style is a sort of what people in the 50s thought about space men and aliens your wearing a sort of shiny boiler suit with a short distance hand laser connected to a back pack fighting evil hideous aliens while objectives are shot up on the screen at the start of every level like ' SAVE THE PEOPLE' . The game comes across as incredibly camp but in a fun amusing way, it doesn't play it safe and sensible no instead it embraces its inner wackiness and camps it up and bless it this really works for it.

The whole point of this review then is to help people decide if its worth downloading or hunting down a cart of Alien storm. My answer is a definite yes; simply put, on the face of it the Final Fight and Streets of Rage games may appear to have held up infinitely better than Alien Storm, what with there higher quality soundtracks and more serious tone. But this game has its own spark. It brakes up the action in interesting ways and in doing so tries to tackle some of the weaknesses that caused the genres demise, it has a sense of humour and is different enough to the other games of its type to stand on its own and not be considered just another one of those final fight clone games. Is it a streets of rage beater? No is it better than golden axe? Well I guess that would depend on your choice of poison sci fi or fantasy but for me Alien Storm wins.'' if I was to give this game a rating out of 10 stars I would give it 9 out of 10 Its interesting, its different and its fun it will make you smile while your playing it, most importantly if your anything like me then you will just keep coming back to it.

It is important to note that the game can be picked up now days in a varity of ways , you can obviously get the original cart but it was also available on a Mega Games cart along with other games and these carts despite having more on them can often be cheaper on places like ebay. The game has also made its way to a view of the sega compilations over the years so its worth checking if you have it on one of these or can get hold of it cheaply this way.

The whole honest truth is that the point of this review was that I was commissioned to write something, this review was supposed to end up inprint, there are a few occasions when I have nearly ended up writing for a well known site or getting paid for my review work and it has always fallen through, I started my original blog as I didn't want my work in this case to go to waste. I still do consider Alien Storm as a better game than Golden Axe but the honest truth is that there is plenty of room for both games to sit beside each other, as fun as top 10 games on this or that system list can be no one is ever likely to put a gun to your head and order you to decide which game you need to save and which will be burned at the steak.

Bonanza Bros Megadrive Review 8

Ironhide wrote:It's probably one of my most played MD games, the music is fantastic too.

I lost my notes to the Skitchen Review during hardrive failure ages ago but thought id mention I am halfway through writting a new Skitchen Review to go in here.

OK I think Skitchen is cursed I have had more computer errors and issues meaning that a complete written skitching review, a toe jam and earl written review and a contra 3 written review as well as some other bits and pieces have been lost, im pretty annoyed right now as this has pushed my whole reviewing stuff back about half a week, think I will take a small break for a few days for my sanity.

My 9th Megadrive/Genesis Review World of Illusion my Christmas Review special.. I really intended my Christmas special to be a SNES game but this just had to be done..