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• The Untold Story of Sega Killing Their Own Hardware Business

  It’s been a straight up Sega love fest here lately. Not sure what it is about this first week of November, but for some strange reason I’ve simply had blast processing on the brain. I didn’t even realize it until reading Ars Technica’s retrospective, but the love in is appropriately timed; the Sega Mega Drive, our beloved Genesis, just turned twenty years old. While the Super Nintendo was my only true 16-bit love, the Genesis and I had our fair share of good times as well. Now, I’ve always understood it that Sega’s failure as a hardware manufacturer was a direct result of overextension, squandering the good will and widespread success they had with the Genesis in North America, Europe, and even South America by way of releasing too many expensive add-ons for the system that no one wanted or understood. The finicky Saturn hardware, stealthily released at an astronomical price point with too few games, and the Dreamcast’s inability to compete with Playstation 2 certainly didn’t help, but the real beginning of the end was the massive amounts of money poured into the Sega CD, 32-X, and the many different combinations of the two sold alongside good ol’ Genny. But, according to Technica, flooding the hardware market wasn’t the whole reason behind Sega’s fall from grace. According to the article, Sega of Japan shot themselves in the foot, promptly cutting off all support for the Genesis in 1995 after the Saturn launched because of sour grapes over the system’s failure in Japan and success in America. Read More... Posted Nov 07 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, sega, genesis, super nintendo, mega drive

• Growl, Snarl, Bark: Screw Attack's Top 10 Genesis Games

  Nothing instigates Holy Forum Wars like Top Ten Lists. I've seen them all; I've smelled the blood as it flowed across the text. Top Ten Toothpicks. Top Ten Clothes Pin Brands. Top Ten Dog Breeds (From one to ten: German Shepherd, Newfoundland, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Pharaoh Hound, Corgi, American bulldog, Redbone Coon Hound, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Scottish Terrier, thine Mother, Ha ha ha). Video game-related Top Tens generate the most fun through flaming bitchslaps and the subsequent weeping. Screw Attack, a site that normally never seeks cheap attention through tits and swears has put together a video collection of the Top Ten Genesis Games with the aid of tits and swears. Read More... Posted Sep 26 2008, 04:30 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: screw attack, genesis, game music, strider, game trailers, nadia oxford, top ten genesis games, sonic 3, sonic 2, top ten lists

• Alternate Soundtrack: Altered Beast vs. Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

  Altered Beast tells the story of a Centurian raised from the dead to rescue Athena from blahblahblah whatever. Altered Beast was an arcade beat 'em up from Sega in the 1980's, back when stories in video games existed but really served no purpose. Why did Donkey Kong kidnap Mario's girlfriend? Who cares? Climb to the top of the tower! And since when are Sega games known for their stories? Sonic the Hedgehog has a story, but all you care about is running real fast. NiGHTS has a story, but all you care about is flying around in circles. Crazy Taxi probably has a story, but it's even less important than the one in Sonic. In Altered Beast, you are a dude in a tunic who beats up zombie monsters. You collect power-ups which first transform you into an oiled-up beefcake of homoerotic manliness and then into one of several powerful man-beasts. Read More... Posted Aug 05 2008, 10:30 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, sega, genesis, arcade, altered beast

• Fifty-Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

  It’s hard to overstate our love for Kurt Kalata’s Hardcore Gaming 101. Every time HG101 runs a new series retrospective, it makes me punch myself directly in the forehead while wondering either a) why didn’t I think of this or b) why have I never heard of this game before? Option b was the dominant thought while I was checking out the most recent update. HG101 contributor Jave has a look at the unlicensed Genesis and NES monstrosities known as Action 52. I’ve never heard of Active Enterprises’ Frankenstein Monsters before reading the piece, but now it’s a moral imperative I seek them out. Unlike the myriad bootleg NES and Genny game cartridges that jammed variable numbers of existing games into a single package, Action 52 is a collection of fifty-two originals, all of them apparently awful. The retrospective is a great read on its own but particularly interesting is the theory Jave floats in his introduction: terrible games lead to good games. Read More... Posted Jul 29 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nes, hg101, gears of war, genesis, dark sector, kill.switch, action 52

• Alternate Soundtrack: Streets of Rage 2 vs. Test Icicles

  The city that had been plagued with crime and violence was safe and peaceful. However, evil has once again cast its shadow over the city. So begins a Sega classic. In the 1990's, it seemed like all console games were desperately trying to ape one of three games. All platform games tried to be Super Mario Brothers. All fighting games tried to be Street Fighter II. All beat 'em up games tried to be Streets of Rage. And like all 1990's games, the story in Streets of Rage was present but completely unimportant. You chose a character, walked towards the right side of the screen, and beat up anybody who stood in your path. Pleasures don't get much simpler than this. Read More... Posted Jul 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, sega, genesis, test icicles, streets of rage

• The Chrono Trigger Port: Are You Excited or Disappointed?

  Though the 16-bit console wars were savage in the early '90s, the end was in sight by 1995 and the Super Nintendo was crowned the obvious winner. (Except by pouty Genesis fanboys who feebly compared Phantasy Star IV to Final Fantasy VI. I mean, it's a good try, but...nah.) The Genesis was panting and dry-heaving at the finish line, but the Super Nintendo barely broke a sweat. In fact, it looked healthier than ever thanks to an injection of A+ games at the end of its life. One such title was Chrono Trigger, a now-legendary RPG by Square(-Enix). We should all hope for the dignified hero's death that the Super Nintendo recieved thanks to Chrono Trigger's legacy. Read More... Posted Jul 02 2008, 07:30 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: remake, nintendo ds, rpg, chrono trigger, Playstation, square-enix, genesis, chrono cross, luca, port, marle, robo, super nintendo, phantasy star, crono, 16-bit, final fantasy iv, console wars

• Don’t Call It Retro: Mega Man 9 and Design Resurrection

  As 61 Frames Per Second’s newest team member Nadia pointed out earlier today, Mega Man 9 is a reality. Revitalizations of long-dormant franchises have been a mainstay in the gaming business since the Playstation 1-era, trading on nostalgia and brand recognition to push new designs. But the past few years have seen a growing trend of proper numerical sequels releasing a decade or more after their predecessors. Games like WayForward and Konami’s Contra 4 and Taito’s Legend of Kage 2 are not only sequels in name; play in these games is built on the same archaic fundamentals as their ancestors. Both Kage 2 and Contra 4’s only real advancements are slight visual upgrades and mechanical tweaks (both games, being designed for the Nintendo DS, introduce skills that necessitate play on both the system’s screens.) Mega Man 9, however, is unique. It is being made using the exact same tools and in the same style as it was twenty years ago. The decision to build Mega Man 9 as an NES game is not mere retro pandering. Series creator Keiji Inafune has said numerous times that he’s kept making (and remaking) 2D Mega Man games (alongside teams like Inticreates, the team helming 9’s development) because it’s important to continue refining and rediscovering what made a simple design successful in the first place. With the freedom offered by digital distribution venues like WiiWare, creators like Inafune no longer need to ensure their games will be modern enough to succeed on store shelves. They can also utilize outmoded hardware, like the NES, to make their games. Read More... Posted Jun 26 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, capcom, nes, mega man, contra, genesis, keiji inafune, mega man 9, turbo-grafx, legend of kage

• Up All Night: Ex-Mutants

  Mmm, yes. Licensed games. One of the true go-to places for trashy goodness, especially during the halcyon days of 8 and 16-bit. You never had to look farther than whatever movie was coming out to get an idea of just how many shitty platformers would be released in any given month. I’m not even talking big name action stuff. I’m talking about Home Improvement. Cool World. Bebe’s Kids. Comic book games, however, have always been more of a tributary of the licensed-game shitriver as opposed to part of its central flow; the overwhelming majority of them are terrible but there are many that are perfectly playable, fun games. One of the Genesis’ most visually stunning games was 1993’s X-Men, a prime example of a license put to good use. 1992’s Ex-Mutants, today’s dollop of joy here on Up All Night, is the exact opposite. It’s an awful license – if you too were fooled by the clever name, Ex-Mutants was a mid-‘80s rip off of the X-Men – used to make a bad platforming action game. Read More... Posted Jun 09 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, up all night, ex-mutants, genesis, x-men