SEGA Shop, Capcom Shop. Tets goes to these as well.

 On the same day that I went to the Transformers meets Japan popup shop, I decided to hit up the newly opened SEGA shop, as it also happens to be in Shibuya, hiding within the Parco building, which was just around the corner.

Incidentally, on the same floor was the also relatively newly opened Nintendo shop, a Capcom shop and a Godzilla shop.

Tourists were everywhere!

SEGA Brawlers that Didn't Make the Cut

 

So in my series of games stemming from my experience with Brawlers, I'm gonna bang on about the Brawlers from SEGA that didn't make the cut. 

Also for brevity's sake, games that I played on SEGA hardware (arcade, master system, Megadrive, Saturn etc etc) will be included here.  So a game not made by SEGA, but I mainly experienced on a SEGA machine is here.

Awwright?  All right! 

The list:

• Alien Storm
• Altered Beast
• Die Hard Arcade
• Guardian Heroes
• Nekketsu Oyako
• Pu Li Ru La
• Spiderman: The video game
• SOR 3
• The Crow
• The Crows, Battle action

Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon, so far

 

Back in my list of games for 2022, I listed Sonic Frontiers as my game of the year, and I stand by that.  I really did enjoy it.  It was not perfect, but the gameplay was fun, the story made sense and the characters acted like you would expect them too.  Plus Knuckles wasn't portrayed as a dumbarse.  

However in typical SEGA fashion, it was obvious that the game was rushed and things didn't quite seem finished.  Ignoring the technical issues like pop-in and the weird juxtaposition of cartoon characters and real world looking er, world, it was very bad at explaining mechanics and gameplay bits n pieces.

However after a year, we have the "Final Horizon" update for it, which really makes things fit together well.

Ha ha ha ha, I lie, it does not do that.

At all.

I have 4 main complaints where I think the game manages to mess up:

1. The story
2. The controls
3. The platforming
4. The difficulty

Beware spoilers (for the DLC)

Adventures in Sonic Unleashed Part 3 of?... Probably 3.

 So, the last Gaming diary post I did was actually one on Warhammer 40K; Space Marine.

I've given Sonic Unleashed a crack between now and then, but I feel that I am at the point where I am just not feeling it.

Why?  Well the bad parts of the levels seem to outweigh the bad parts aaaannnnd the piss-farting around in the hub world to get to the levels is kind of annoying.

YES, it could add to the world building and make the story better.

YES, it probably makes some kind of logical sense and links the levels together.

BUT

I juts don't care enough.  I took a break and can't remember what I am supposed to be doing, or where to go, and after spending probably a good 20 minutes slogging through some not too bad, but definitely should be shorter than it was Werehog level, I am feeling that I have run out of good natured Sonic love for this game.

Like seriously, I believe the last level I completed was long and had this annoying platforming section, which if you fell from equaled insta-death. The level in general was too long to get to that section, and that section was definitely too long to be enjoyable.

Like the Bay Transformers movies, sometimes people need to know that less is indeed more.

Adventures in Sonic Unleashed Part 1 of ?

 So after finishing my session (not the game) of Sonic Adventure 2, I decided to give another try to Sonic Unleashed, called Sonic World Adventure in Japan.

I remembering preordering this game for my Wii back in the day, purely because it came with a Sonic the Werehog action figure.  When I picked it up, the staff told me I was the only person to preorder. ha ha ha.

The game at the time was fine, I remember that the Sonic day time levels were quite something and I was pretty impressed with the speed, but the Night-time Werehog levels were kinda boring, long and a bit of a drag.  

Since I've been looking back at older Sonic games, I had discovered that the PS3 version is deemed better than the Wii version and that the Werehog levels were different.  So here we go.  SA2 down, no inclination to take on Sonic '06 (seriously, I've tried like 8 times), how do I go with Sonic Unleashed?

Replaying Sonic Adventure 2

 So after my pushing through and reliving the joys of Sonic Adventure DX on my PS3, I discovered there is a version of Adventure 2 on the PS3 as well.  Blow me down says I, might as well try and get a bit of that action.

With some messing about, I did eventually have it ready for play.  So, how did it go?

Gaming for the year of 2021

So in the vein of my toys of 2021 (in draft, but my games post finished sooner), I briefly want to talk about games that I have acquired over the course of the year.  "Modern games" which I use the term loosely as I often buy games that are years old when cheap have been relatively few.

Retro games - ie games for my Saturn were looking rather thing until a certain point in which I got rather excited and went nuts.  Most games I'll play at least briefly when I get them, so can comment on everything. Let's do it

First off derp Modern games

- and this will consist of Nintendo Switch/PlayStation 3/4 games.  It'll be interesting to see if Sony bust out the hours you spent on a game list again this year.  Last time it was many many on Shadow of Mordor/War.  My Nintendo Switch lists my most played game.... as.... the YouTube app.  And yes, it's handy to watch YouTube through without having to slap up the tv to the internet etc.  I don't even watch that much YouTube Or so I thought...

Anyhoo, click the jump to progress to the info

Sonic Mania Plus Japanese Packaging

Finally Sonic Mania got a physical release, something they should’ve done at the start.  Considering how Sonic Forces got one, it just baffles me why this one didn’t.  Perhaps that’s a good thing though, as if it had got a physical release at the start, we wouldn’t have had the additional bits for the “Plus” made.  Regardless, I’ve been playing through the normal one and even went to the expense of getting the Plus copy, instead of just paying the extra 500 yen for the upgrade.  I wanted that Soundtrack dammit.

I figured that the release of Plus would be relatively the same all over the world.  As it turns out, it is not.  Check out retroking Simon’s coverage of the UK box.


So to compare, here are some shots of the Japanese box.

Saturn's Metal Slug Slowdown Conparison

Here is a video I made that is meant to show the difference in slowdown when using the 3 main RAM carts for Saturn Metal Slug. Starting with the Action replay, 4mb Ram and the 1MB Ram.  Check it out.


Jump to about 10:50 for a direct comparison.

When's a Collector's Edition, not a collector's edition?

when it's

Sonic Mania,

 the game that looks very nice.  Also a bit of a sad situation for SEGA really.  They have to get fans to program a good 2 Sonic game.    As a fan of Sonic's games ( no, I didn't program this one) and generally disliking many modern Sonic games, I was excited to hear of a Collector's Edition Sonic Mania.

Ooh, says I, that will go nicely with my Sonic Adventure 2 Special edition (Celebrating 10 years of Sonic) and my Sonic Generations (celebrating 20 years of Sonic) special editions.

You may have gathered that I have a loong history with Sonic and I consider myself a GAME collector, for better or worse.  So it was with some dismay that I noticed a most important item missing from the Sonic Mania Collector's Edition.

Let's look at what you get.

• Box  -check
• Statue (with SEGA start sound) -check (and kinda cool)
• SEGA cart ring holding thing  -- Check (also very cool!)
• Game  - ?

Oh,

• Metallic Collector's Card with Download code  --ooooh..... check... I guess.

Wow, now I find it odd, being a collector's item, aimed probably at collectors.
Probably at collectors of Sonic games.
Collectors who like Sonic games that have the old style of gameplay.
Collector's that are very highly likely to have played on a Megadrive/Master system, which meant having physical copies of the game.

But there is no disc for the game.  Really?

So, I might as well go and buy a dl code and some random Sonic merch and make my own ltd Sonic Collector's set.  WOW!  Only 1 in the whole world!

 L@@k! RARE!  Sonic Mania LTD edition

That's how I'll list it on ebay.

Really, I think considering how it's a Collector's edition, they could've set up a small run of discs or something for it.  Sheesh.  Lazy effort detected.

Some Collector's Edition, obviously not aimed at game collector's that's for sure.

Who's it for?

Trinket collectors.

Come on SEGA, where's my damn physical copy of the game?  Don't you have any faith that it will make money?  Or are you too busy thinking up new pachinko machine ideas.

ThunderForce IV : Great Gaming Moments

Been a while since I've done one of these, so here's one that's been in the back of my mind for a while, it's the wonderful SHMUP, Thunderforce IV on the Megadrive.  I didn't own this game, I hired it and that's how much this one stuck with me! Wow!

Sega Saturn Transparencies explained!

In a delightfully lazy effort as an update post, I am going to drop in this video I stumbled upon while cruising YouTube one day.  You may have noticed that I kind of rather like the humble SEGA Saturn game console.  You would be right!

However I have always been interested in the main weakness of the console, well perhaps a popular note of discussion, that the Saturn can't do transparencies (well).  This always bothered me a little bit, as I have many games with the old mesh making up for transparent effect in games, yet I've also seen games using some rather nice looking transparencies too.  I have also seen games using BOTH mesh and transparencies.  This has aroused my curiosity and despite some reading upon it, I never really understood the situation very well.

Until I came across this video, which explains it rather well, along with some example footage.  It's pretty well done.

Although I strongly slapping on the annotations as the guy's English, while grammatically isn't bad, his accent is VERY strong.

Clockwork Knight; Unwrapped

In the episode of Unwrapped, I have a play of Clockwork Knight on the Saturn.  I'd heard that as far as platformers go it isn't too bad and as I am a big fan of platformers, I thought I'd check it out.



After playing it a bit more in the following days I've come to the conclusion that its's not ad, but not fantastic either.  I do see it as being a bit of a nice one for showing off the old 32bit gaming power of the Saturn in the early days

Tets plays Rabbit for the first time.

Yes, oddly enough, that is a game's name.  Strange.  So long story short, was cruising some shops for some classic Saturn game goodness, bought Destruction Derby and as I was finishing the cruise of the shelf, I came across a game with "kanji" and "Rabbit" in the title.

Well, I'll be, a game called Rabbit. Gonna have to chuck that in my basket.

And so I did.  The back of the case had some small photos of the game, but it was rather hard to tell what was going on.  I refused to have my impressions soured by others on this game and thought I would go in blindly.

This is the result:

Power Drift - Unwrapped

Hm, I think it's wonderful that I can occasionally find a minty fresh still factory sealed game from the 90s.  That's exactly what I have here too.   Or Had.  Otherwise I couldn't play it and the only that irks me more than an unplayed with toy, is an unplayed with game.

So here's a video of me playing Saturn Power Drift for the first time.

...and also sucking at it quite a lot.

Great Gaming Moments Ep 6: Gran Chaser's Delightful Mediocrity

I think the title of this one summarises it up nicely.  Yup, somehow I am still going with Great Gaming Moments and Gran Chaser is featured today.

I picked this game up for 80Yen while cruising some local second hand shops.  I looked at the back and though "Haven't found any of the ones I am really looking for, and this one doesn't look too bad.  Why the hell not?"  Turns out that it's actually on OK racing game for the SEGA Saturn.  I believe that in places other than Japan it's called Cyber Speedway and had the story mode cut.  So to add to the glorious mediocrity, that's included too!

Tets Plays with toys: Star Sabre & Exhaust

If you have been following my twitter and Instagram, you will probably have seen what I have been doing lately.  Now, it turns out that I took quite a few more photos than I initially intended.

A by-product of a fun toy it would seem.

So here is a super lazy collection of those phone pictures in one spot.  I think some people would refer to this as a "Pictorial Review," but I won't.  If there is no opinion, there is no critical evaluation = not a review.  So I find it unlikely that a post full of pictures only is a review.  Maybe they just forgot about the word gallery.  Rant over.

Yay.

Raiden's BIG Guns : Great Gaming Moments Episode 5

This episode has a look at Virtual On and Raiden's lasers of death and destruction!  Note the snazzy new intro.  Oh I say! I've gone all classy!

American Saturn Software package review. Albert Odyssey

I’d been eyeing off this game on and off for a while, umming and arr-ing about actually getting it or not.  I finally dropped the cash and ended up with my very first American Sega Saturn game.  Odd really since I have had the facilities to play them for a while but have just never bought any.  So now I own the highly regarded Albert Odyssey. 

While I am excited about Albert Odyssey, I am not so excited at the style of packaging the American games come in.  I thought the PAL (Australian/European) cases were annoying, but these US ones appear to be worse.

Great Gaming Moments Episode 2: Sonic 3d Flickies' Island

So, onward and upward.  In the intervening time, I managed to cobble together some footage and so I present the next episode in my Great Gaming Moments, Sonic 3D, Flickies' Island on the Sega Saturn.