Back in 1996, there was no way I
would have considered creating a Saturn tribute site...
frankly, I hated the thing. Actually, I really hated
Sega more than anything, but I bashed the Saturn anyways
because, as the latest product from a company that specialized
in screwing over its customers, I felt the attacks were
richly deserved.
Then my friend showed me Virtua
Fighter 2. And then another friend rented a Saturn and
showed me NightWarriors. After that, I was much more
open-minded. Even if Sega dropped the system into the
trash a couple of years after it was released (and sure
enough, they did...), it didn't matter to me, because they
could never take away my copy of NightWarriors. I loved
that game so much that I bought it before I purchased
a Saturn!
When I moved to Arizona, I bought that
Saturn, and more Saturn games. A lot of
Saturn games. Because of the great distance between
towns (every city was seperated by at least twenty miles of
desert), I couldn't really rent anything, so I'd just buy a
used game instead. I'd buy a Saturn game EVERY TIME
I was in Tucson or another large city, and by the time I'd
moved back to Michigan I had a lot of them. I even started trading with a Japanese guy about a
year before returning to my home state... I had so many import
Saturn releases because of those trades that I knew I had
to devote a section of my web site to them.
And here it is! Welcome to The Lost
Rings, a magical land that's a million miles from the
status quo of the Playstation product line. It's a place
where the skies are blue all day long, and where quirky
Japanese titles blossom on every tree. In this
land, 2D gameplay rules, and a responsive six-button
controller is his queen. You're invited to sit back,
take in the colorful scenery, and discover what this distant
planet has to offer. If this is your first trip, you're
sure to be pleasantly surprised!
ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
FEATURING VIRTUA FIGHTER
OK, now this is just stupid. Who got
it into their fool heads that people would want to see the two
beefiest Virtua Fighter characters mix it up with Japan's
finest wrestlers as well as a few has-beens from
America? Sega put a lot of work into this game, although
I can't even begin to understand why... the concept is just
too freaking weird for wrestling purists, and anyone who got a
kick (and a flaming turnbuckle drop) out of the Wrestlemania
arcade game isn't going to like All Japan's surprisingly
reserved style of fighting. There's no trash talk from
the grapplers, no two story drops from an iron cage, and no
hard-core matches with trash cans and stop signs strewn
throughout the ring. Pro wrestling has never been so...
polite. I guess that's to be expected from the Japanese,
and so is the quality of the game... the wrestlers are nicely
animated and light-source shaded, and there's a lot less
button mashing here than in most wrestling titles.
Unfortunately, All Japan Pro Wrestling is so boring that most
gaijin just won't care, and the lack of any American
wrestling legends (unless you count Steve "Dr. Death"
Williams, and I'm sure you don't) only makes matters
worse. Maybe this game would have been a little more
exciting if it had featured, well, actua fighters.
CAPCOM COLLECTION, VOLUME
FOUR
I was talking for a while with some
friends about the evolution of Capcom over the years, and how
whenever the company changes artistic directions and game
design styles they never, ever look back. Remember the
detailed, extremely colorful games like Final Fight and Willow
they used to release in the early '90s? Although they're
still attractive and very fun to play, it doesn't look like
Capcom will ever go back to that style of game design again...
and that's a little depressing. Similarly, Capcom hasn't
even touched the military shooter genre for almost a decade,
even though 1943 and Commando were the games that first got
them noticed in America. It doesn't look like they'll
ever make another game like Commando again, but at least the
fourth volume of their generation series lets you enjoy the
original as well as its sequel, MERCS, and Gun.Smoke, the
oddball sequel set in the old west.
Starting things off is Commando, perhaps
the first Capcom release that really clicked with
Americans. Its military theme, attractive graphics, and
an endless supply of Nazis to slaughter gave Capcom the solid
footing in US arcades they just couldn't get with bland
shooters like Vulgus. However, what was sadistic fun in
the late 80's isn't all that and a bag of K-rations now...
about the only thing in Commando that hasn't been surpassed by
more recent shooters is its level of difficulty. Not
only is your soldier grossly outnumbered, he's outgunned and
outclassed as well. Pat pointed out so many examples of
this while I was playing that I couldn't help but notice a few
myself... the Germans can throw their own body weight in
grenades, have motorcycles that can survive a direct hit from
a nuclear blast, and hide in Axis-friendly trenches that
double as death traps for American troops. Worst of all,
Aryan breeding (or more accurately, inbreeding) has made the
krauts deadly to the touch, and although there was a knife in
one of the home versions of Commando that let you survive one
encounter with Hitler's henchmen, it sure ain't
here.
Commando shows almost as much mercy as a
drill sargeant frustrated with his new recruits, and some
players crave that kind of challenge. However, if you'd
prefer to put yourself on more even ground with the enemy
forces and call in a couple of friends just to be on the safe
side, you'll want to fire up MERCS instead. I didn't
notice much of a difference between this direct port of the
arcade game and the supposedly diluted Genesis version, but
it's a whole lot more impressive than Commando... your
troopers (up to three if you've got a multi-tap) are given
much more powerful weapons that can tear through houses,
tanks, and even entire cliff walls, and unlike Commando, which
demanded pinpoint precision when throwing grenades, your
emergency weapon is pretty much fire and forget... just tap a
button and everything in the middle of the screen is instantly
charred by a brightly colored explosion. Pat complained
that all this, plus the life bar that lets you survive
everything from grenade blasts to tank shells, sucks all the
challenge out of MERCS, but I don't mind. I've always
had a spot in my heart for games intended to delight the
senses rather than test the player's skills, and MERCS is
definitely one of those games.
Finally, there's Gun.Smoke, an
unintentionally silly Commando spin-off set in the old
west. Surprisingly, the sheriff in the game is much
better armed than his World War II counterpart, firing streams
of bullets from his pair of six guns (and apparently reloading
them at light speed). The tradeoff is that the gunman
has no grenades (seeing as they haven't been invented yet),
and he has a nasty habit of aiming his weapons in every
direction but where the enemies actually are. OK, OK...
that's a slight exaggeration. Still, if someone sneaks
behind you there isn't much you can do about it other than
dance around him or, if there are dozens of bullets headed
your way, just take a knife in the back. If you're
really lucky, you might find a horse icon hidden in one of the
barrels along the way, bringing out a bullet-resistant steed
which cushions you from a handful of these cheap hits.
While it's hard to complain about that, it doesn't really look
like you're riding a horse when you pick up this icon...
rather, it just looks like the sheriff's ass has grown three
times its normal size. If that's not weird enough,
picking up lit sticks of dynamite gives you points rather than
blowing your arm off. Maybe the sheriff is defusing them
by stuffing them up his gigantic butt... I don't
know.
Getting off that topic (as quickly as
possible), the emulation of all three games is close to
perfect... it's certainly a lot better than what MAME could do
on a computer with the Saturn's clock speed. The games
on Midway's two greatest hits collections seemed just a bit
closer to the arcade versions, but that's probably because
Midway had less complex games to emulate, and used more
accurate resolutions for each of them. Capcom
Generations Volume 4 lets you try three different screen sizes
for each of the games on the disc, and none of them are quite
on target. One puts the screen on the left and a status
window on the right, and although Capcom tried to make up for
this by putting the selected game's cabinet artwork in the
status bar along with your score and number of lives, it still
takes away from the game's arcade feel, and the cabinet art
was shrunken so much that most of the smaller details are
either gone or too fuzzy to see... Capcom should have let you
view larger scans in a museum of some sort instead of trying
to smash them into the games themselves. The second
option stretches out the screen, making the characters larger
and keeping the score and lives where they belong, but then
you have to put up with slightly distorted artwork, which can
get really aggravating if you're playing the superdetailed
MERCS. Finally, the truly discriminating arcade nut can
turn his television on its side, play the games with their
intended resolution and aspect ratio for five minutes, then
shriek in horror as his TV shorts out, catches the curtains on
fire, and burns down his house. I can't blame Capcom for
adding this feature- after all, most other console emulators
have it, too- but anyone anal enough to actually consider
using it probably already own the arcade games (don't laugh...
I can think of at least two GRB staffers that do have their
own arcade machines. I'll make it three if I ever find
one at an auction).
The only people who would
really want this collection are the few but proud gamers who
would give the shirt off their backs to Capcom, and replace it
with a Resident Evil 2 jacket just to make them happy.
There isn't enough here to keep the average Jess- I mean Joe!-
from playing Commando, MERCS, and Gun.Smoke on their computers
without paying a cent for the opportunity. However, if
you remember playing these games regularly at your local
arcade and feel that you deserve some kind of reward for your
best scores, Capcom Generations Volume 4 is as close to a
badge of honor as you're going to get.
DEAD OR ALIVE
This ambitious conversion of
the boob- tacular Tecmo coin-op makes even Virtua Fighter 2
look slow and clunky, with gorgeous high resolution graphics,
entrancing animation, and incredible light source shaded
polygons. If that's not enough to get you drooling,
special technology was included to give the female characters
a little added, er, spring to their step. Specifically,
the ladies' breasts seem to have a life of their own, bouncing
right along with the movements of the fighters. Of course,
this isn't as realistic as it sounds, since each of these
three femme fatales would need triple D cup bras, that is, if
they ever bothered to wear them... but I digress. These
outstanding visuals help disguise the fact that this is
basically your ordinary, average 3D brawler, with the button
layout of Virtua Fighter (albeit with the guard button
replaced by a trickier hold key, which allows you to grab your
opponent's outstretched fist or foot and use it against him)
and a small playfield which penalizes anyone who steps outside
its boundaries. This isn't my cup of tea, but anyone who
still enjoys these games will be quite satisfied with Dead or
Alive.
DEZAEMON 2
Dezaemon 2 isn't so much a shooter as it
is a shooter creating utility. While there are three
titles included- Biometal Gust, Ramsie, and a wretched
pseudo-polygonal Xevious wannabee that I wouldn't wish on a
Conneticut senator- they're strictly Super NES quality
efforts, and are only there to demonstrate what Deza2 can do
in the right hands. The number of options and features
in this title are staggering, rivalling and in some cases
surpassing similar utilities for home computers. Ever
want to take advantage of the Mode 7 features that blew you
away when you first bought your Super NES? That power is
at your fingertips... you can scale and rotate enemies to your
heart's content, or give the backgrounds those wavy "no more
LSD for me, thanks" effects that we all remember from
ThunderForce III. If you prefer, you can sharpen your
musical skills with a Mario Paint-like program which allows
you to drop instruments on up to four staffs. With a
little practice and some experimentation, you can have drums,
a piano, and two guitars playing your masterpiece in perfect
harmony. This customization does have its limits,
however. For instance, you're stuck with a pretty
unimaginative power-up system, and there's really not much you
can do to change it. Also, you can't mix and match
vertically and horizontally scrolling rounds, so if you want
your own Saturn version of Life Force, you'll have to buy it
just like everyone else. Finally, you won't be able to
save your creations at all without a hefty save cartridge...
Deza2's game saves gobble up thousands of bytes of RAM, and
you can't transfer them to the 4-in-1 cart you probably used
to boot the game in the first place. Still, Dezaemon 2
offers what no other shooter can- unlimited play life- and may
even teach you a thing or two about game design.
DRACULA X:
NOCTURNE IN THE
MOONLIGHT
This close conversion of the popular
Playstation title Castlevania: Symphony of the Night suffers
from just one big problem... the beautiful transparencies from
the original have been replaced with ghastly meshes that make
some characters (particularly the phantom gas clouds in the
haunted library) looked as though they've been crocheted
rather than drawn. This would be entirely forgivable if
the Saturn couldn't handle these effects, but the otherwise
mediocre Street Fighter: The Movie proves that their absence
in Dracula X stems from a rushed translation, not system
limitations as one would first suspect. Other than this
fault and a little extra slowdown, Drac compares quite
favorably to its Playstation counterpart, with two new stages
and less dopey voice overs (although it's still a bit
offsetting to hear Dracula speak in fluent Japanese...). If
you haven't had prior experience with Symphony of the Night,
you're in for a real treat... Dracula X drops the familiar
Castlevania gameplay, graphics, and (incredible!) sound into
an enormous, fully explorable environment, creating an
entirely new adventure that will hold you in its spell for
weeks.
DRAGONBALL Z: SHIN
BUTODEN
Dragon Ball
Z: Shin Butoden is the closest thing there is to the ultimate
Dragon Ball Z fighting game. It begins with a long intro movie
with features of all the game’s characters, offers several
different 1-Player modes (Traditional arcade, Tournament, and
Mr. Satan Gambling), and has a massive player selection.
Unfortunately, the changes made to the battle platform from
previous Butoden titles were for the worse, and the
often-fickle play control doesn’t help matters, either.
Nevertheless, Shin Butoden is a decent fighter, and would have
been a much better translation project that the ill-fated
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout from a few years ago.
Shin Butoden’s best feature is, without
question, the unbelievable character selection. You can choose
from over 20 different characters, each with their own unique
fighting styles and signature attacks. Nearly every major hero
and villain is playable, from Goku and Majin Buu all the way
down to Mr. Satan and Kamesenin. While some previous games
have suffered from having a million-bazillion characters
(cough [Mortal Kombat] cough), SB shines because of it. Fans
will easily be able to find their favorite character within
the ranks of the DBZ crew, and proceed to kick everyone else’s
ass.
As far as eye candy goes. Shin Butoden is
well done. The sprites and pre-fight portraits look like
they’ve come straight from the cartoon, and the backgrounds,
while nothing fancy, are all recognizable areas to even the
most casual DBZ fan. But only the truly dedicated can really
appreciate the ear candy: all the fighters come fully equipped
with their original voices, and the background music is
comprised of jazzy, remixed tunes from the series.
My biggest problem with SB is the play
control. Now, I’ve been throwing Hadoukens for a good 8-9
years now, and when I have to do the motion three times to get
a move to work, something’s wrong. Even though you can access
a list of your moves at any time, and know exactly what to do,
it can still take several attempts to get a move to work. And
when you have to perform a motion the three times to pull one
move off, it gets real old real fast.
The truly unique aspect of Shin Butoden is
the actual fighting platform. Most levels are more than one
screen in length, and when the two combatants distance
themselves, the screen splits, and you keep track of your
opponent’s distance via the small scale window at the top of
the screen. If you get tired of fighting from afar, certain
attacks will knock your foe into the background, rotating the
perspective and making the stage one screen long. It’s
basically like fighting in a big box and switching from the
long side to the short.
Speaking of fighting from afar, this
ability is one of Shin Butoden’s most interesting aspects, in
that in can either make for a challenging, strategical match,
or the most cheap-o-rific fights you’ll ever have. Your blast
attacks are powered by your "ki" meter, which you can charge
up at any point in the match at the cost of leaving yourself
open to attack. Once you have a decent amount of ki, you can
perform various blast attacks, with the bigger blasts costing
more ki and doing more damage. Sounds reasonable, in theory.
In theory, communism works. There are two main problems with
the blasting attacks: The powered up blasts do ridiculous
amounts of damage, so even one can decide the outcome of a
match. Two in a row will result in instant death for all but
the strongest characters. Also, when you do one of the larger
blasts, your target is given a moment to counterattack, during
which he can perform a motion to knock away your blast or
counter it with one of his own. If he counters, you have no
chance to retaliate and you get fried. This is probably the
worst aspect of SB; in every other DBZ fighter, a countered
blasts results in a frantic, button-mashing war between the
two characters, with the faster player scoring the hit. So,
what this translates into is that if your opponent is good at
countering blasts, you’ll end up with a freshly roasted
carcass where your character used to be. This is where the
perspective-changing attacks come in, since the
blast-counterblast system doesn’t come into play during up
close fighting.
Overall, Shin Butoden is an OK game, but
it couldn’t achieve its goal: to be the ultimate in Dragon
Ball Z fighters. Import copies are extremely rare, and the few
that are available can get very expensive. If you’re a
dedicated DBZ fan and have money to burn, by all means get
this game. But if you’re anything less than obsessed with the
show, you’re probably going to end up with an empty wallet and
a lot of disappointment (Homer Simpson, from some episode I
don’t know the title to).
DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
COLLECTION
Putting the mindless martial arts meyhem
of Capcom classics like Final Fight together with the infinite
complexity of Dungeons and Dragons is like trying to divide
something by zero... it just doesn't compute. Dungeons
and Dragons Collection tries to force these two great tastes
that don't taste great together to work as a hybrid, but the
end result is a pair of beat 'em ups with a tacked on
license. You get characters from the D+D universe, magic
spells, and heavy plot outlining (useless when it's all in
Japanese), but the rest of the game is as follows: Hack,
hack, slash. Slash. Arrgh. Pick up silver
piece. Slash, slash, hack. Jump. Hack.
Arrgh. There's nothing wrong with this kind of
gameplay when it's in the right context, but slapping a
Dungeons and Dragons license on it seems like a sick
joke. Besides, Guardian Heroes does everything these
warmed over Knights of the Round clones do, and it won't put
you to sleep after fifteen minutes.
ELEVATOR ACTION 2 RETURNS
So, uh, wouldn't that make it Elevator Action
3? Despite the confusing name, this is a pretty
straightforward shooter, more similar to the Namco sleeper
Rolling Thunder than its namesake. Sure, there are still
elevators, but many of the rounds scroll horizontally as well
as vertically, and your character can duck into green and red
doors to temporarily avoid the hail of gunfire outside.
The enemies are more varied too, ranging from pistol wielding
crack zombies to mysterious thugs in radiation suits...
fortunately, they're no match for your own weaponry, and can
even be set ablaze with exploding fuel canisters or crushed
with the always handy elevators (leaving a bloody smear on the
floor, provided the violence setting is turned on). The
graphics are a bit underwhelming in comparison to Metal
Slug's, and the control (particularly jumping) isn't as
precise as it should have been, but Rolling Thunder fans
who've been waiting in vain for a sequel to the Genesis games
will be quite happy with this. Also included on the disc
is the original Elevator Action, which despite being nearly
arcade perfect still kind of bites.
FATAL FURY
REAL BOUT
SPECIAL
First, the good news: Real Bout
Special is easily the best looking fighting game available for
the Neo-Geo, a pretty amazing accomplishment when you consider
just how many games it had to compete against for the
title. The characters are large, wonderfully animated,
and loaded with personality, and the playfields are cleverly
designed, allowing the player to kick their opponents through
everything from gnarled old trees to entire houses. So
what's the bad news? The good news is the bad
news. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so let me
try to explain. Real Bout Special's graphics are a
liability, because you feel somehow obligated to ignore its
lesser qualities and play it despite its poorly conceived-
hell, miscarried is more like it!- play mechanics and control
scheme. Get this... there's only ONE punch and ONE
kick. That's actually a downgrade from Fatal Fury 2,
which had double that amount but was released over a half
decade ago! To add to the, ahem, "fun", we have a button
that's rather vaguely defined as a strong attack. You're
never sure exactly what this will do, and you aren't given the
chance to find out in the middle of a close fight. Worse
yet, some special attacks can only be performed with this
button, raising the confusion factor through the roof!
Finally, the dual plane perspective which was a nice
innovation in Fatal Fury 2 is just obnoxious here... it makes
trying to perform (the operative word here is "trying") the
ludicrously complicated super moves even more pointless, since
the opponent can simply slide around your screen-filling
fireballs and twenty hit autocombos. Despite all this,
you'll keep coming back, desperately trying to find some
redeeming value in this mess just because the game LOOKS
great. It's a shame, really... if SNK had spent as much
time with the window as it had the window dressing, this would
have been an instant classic.
FIGHTER'S HISTORY
DYNAMITE
Fighter's History was so corny, cliche'd,
and unintentionally funny that it should have come with MST3K
stickers to put on the bottom of your television set.
The fact that Data East made Karnov (the grotesquely obese
Russian circus freak from the lackluster NES game of the same
name) the last boss of this debacle, and seemed PROUD of the
fact, should just about say it all. Countless snide reviews
and even a lawsuit by Capcom didn't deter Data East from
releasing a home version of Fighter's History, then a slightly
upgraded sequel, then a home version of that. This new
release, Fighter's History Dynamite, isn't even close to the
bottom of the (burning) barrel of shitty Saturn fighting
games, but I can't imagine why anyone would want to pay a
heavy importing fee for it. Take every character from
the original Street Fighter II, Dan-icize them with
ineffective, ridiculous attacks and a host of dumb victory
poses, and that's Dynamite in a nutshell. Even the announcer
is a moron, screaming "Marstorius... WIIIIIINS!!!" at
the end of each confrontation. All of this is good for a
few laughs, but the joke's on you if you actually buy this
bomb.
GRADIUS DELUXE
COLLECTION
Ah, Gradius... the game that defined the
modern day shooter. Unlike other game companies, Konami
wasn't satisfied with locking its customers into single screen
dogfights with hostile intergalactic bugs. Instead, they
gave players an entire galaxy to explore, with a variety of
distinctly different worlds and a vicious boss lying in wait
at the end of each planet. Oddly, the game that brought
shooters into the 21st century was largely ignored by arcade
goers, and didn't become popular until Konami released Gradius
for the NES in 1987.
A decade later, Konami brought Gradius and
its sequel, Gradius II Gofer, back home, this time with arcade
quality graphics and a slick full-motion video
introduction. Is this enough to catch the attention of
gamers who've forgotten about the series and shooters in
general? Probably not, but anyone who spent endless
hours struggling against the Bacterion empire on the NES will
be pleasantly surprised by the Saturn version's beefed up
sights and sounds. They're still not what you'd call
state of the art, but the artwork is a lot sharper than in
previous Gradius conversions, and the music has a nice digital
ring to it... you may even catch yourself listening to all 99
seconds of the tune in the warm-up screen.
The only real letdown for Gradius fans is
that a version of Gradius III (hey, it would have been great
without all that icky slowdown!) wasn't included, and that
Gradius II Gofer was. EGM went bananas over the game
when it was released for the Famicom ten years ago, but I just
don't see the appeal in this cheese-laden sequel. The
graphics and sound are all right, and you get your choice of
four different ships with a side order of frontal or full
shields (sour cream is 25 cents extra), but Gofer just isn't
much fun... even the announcer seems to be painfully aware of
how dull it is. If you're looking for an update to the
Gradius saga, you'll be much happier with Gradius Gaiden for
the Playstation, but if you loved the first game and are dying
for another crack at those filthy Bacterions, this collection
will more than satisfy your nostalgic cravings.
GRANDIA
I've been a fan of the Japanese
programming team Game Arts since I first laid eyes on their
premiere release, the dazzling shooter Thexder. Later,
Alisia Dragoon improved on the themes first introduced in
Thexder and made owning a Genesis bearable in a year of
depressing Flying Edge releases. Game Arts floundered a
bit with the Lunar series, but have more than restored their
good name with Grandia, a charming role playing adventure in
the grand tradition of Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana.
Rather than borrowing heavily from any one
theme, Game Arts played it smart with Grandia and took
inspiration from a wide variety of games, then rounded things
out with their own ideas. For instance, the melding of
well-drawn sprites and beautiful polygonal environments
hearkens back to Dark Savior, but Grandia's graphics engine is
much more advanced, so there's even more background detail
without all the slowdown. Similarly, Grandia's battle
system combines features from Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana,
and Final Fantasy Tactics, yet the hybrid seems refreshingly
original. Of course, any role playing game that doesn't
steal 99% of its ideas from Final Fantasy seems like a miracle
of innovation these days.
It's obvious that Game Arts learned a lot
from dabbling with the Lunar series. Grandia is fun,
inventive, and brilliantly executed, all qualities which were
sorely lacking in Lunar and its sequels. As was
mentioned earlier, Grandia's graphics are fantastic... the
towns are so packed with detail you'll feel like you've
stepped inside them with your party. And in addition to
being wonderfully drawn, the characters themselves are complex
and instantly identifiable. You'll feel for Justin and
his band of adventurers even if you don't understand a word
they're saying... some of the plot twists will just break your
heart. It's for this reason that I'm GLAD Grandia was
never released in the United States... Working Designs would
have taken the game's emotional storyline and turned it into
one very long, very tiresome joke.
I couldn't recommend Grandia to just
anyone... it takes a special breed of RPG fan to pay
over fifty dollars for a game that's almost entirely in
Japanese. However, if you're one of the folks who
ordered Seiken Densetsu 3 or Final Fantasy V from an importer,
you can't afford to miss Grandia. Next to Panzer Dragoon
Saga, it is THE best game of its kind on the Saturn.
KEIO YUUGEKITAI
Despite its reputation as the undisputed
king of 2D games, the Saturn has never had a side-scrolling
action platform title that you could truly call a
classic. Games like Rayman and Astal certainly looked
nice, but they lacked the charm and complexity that kept
players so faithful to the Super Mario Bros. series. As
you'd have to expect from the sequel to the wacky Sega CD
shooter Keio Flying Squadron, Keio Yuugekitai definitely has
the personality that other Saturn side-scrollers were missing.
The full-motion video introduction alone is a riot... when the
diabolical raccoon Dr. Pon threatens Rami's family, her
GRANDFATHER springs into action and dons her famous bunny
outfit! Things just get weirder from there, as Rami
faces off against everything from head-poppin' priests to
jet-propelled pagodas. Even the game's lead programmer
gets a crack at our kinkily dressed heroine, hidden behind a
series of increasingly bizarre masks. All this is
brought to you in glorious Nihon-o-vision(tm), so you know the
graphics and sound are top notch. The undersea level in
particular is gorgeous... the dreamy wave effects and soothing
music are so mesmerizing you'll be glad you never have to
worry about coming up for air. There's just one thing
missing... technique. Rami doesn't have many options
when fighting Dr. Pon and his legions, and without a weapon,
the bunny-eared bimbo is easy pickins. There's a keen
art gallery that opens up little by little as you earn points,
but even that's not enough to keep the average player
interested for long, especially when you consider that they'll
tear through the game in a day or two.
KING OF FIGHTERS '97
The King of Fighters '97 was the first
import fighting game for the Saturn that I really, truly
loved. OK, so it wasn't the first Japanese release I picked up
for the system, but Waku Waku 7 didn't satisfy me the way a
good, deep tourney fighter should, and the only games I had
that fell into this category (Street Fighter Alpha 2 and
NightWarriors) were starting to bore me. Since I didn't
particularly care for X-Men vs. Street Fighter, the obvious
choice was to pick up King of Fighters '97... after all, I
enjoyed the game on the Neo-Geo, and I figured that the Saturn
version had to be pretty close to the original. I was
delighted beyond belief to discover that the Saturn conversion
actually outperformed its predecessor in some respects, with
plenty of new options and a greatly improved CD
soundtrack. Best of all, everything that made the arcade
game so much fun- namely, the enormous cast of characters and
superb control- hadn't been changed a bit! Back then, an
SNK fan like myself couldn't ask for more. In fact, a
little less loading time between rounds would have been
nice...
These days, King of Fighters '97 seems a
bit, well, crusty in comparison to other 2D fighters. There's
already been two updates on the Neo-Geo (sadly, neither found
their way to the Saturn), and the three on three team feature
once unique to King of Fighters is now an option in the
superior Street Fighter Alpha 3. Still, if you've got a
yen for a fighting game with that distinctive SNK flavor, this
is the best one you'll find on the Saturn.
LAYER SECTION II
The polygonal treatment has done wonders
for this sequel to Galactic Attack visually... skyscrapers in
the city tower over your ship, and the effect of parallax in
some stages is just unreal. Still, no matter how nice you make
it look, Layer Section II is still the same, ho-hum Xevious
descendant that its predecessor was. No amount of next
generation (pun intended, you arrogant freaks) gimmicks
can hide that fact. Power ups do next to nothing for
your ship's already limited firepower, and this coupled with
its extreme vulnerability and limited continues makes the game
insanely frustrating. The laser targeting system is
fairly innovative and does add depth to this otherwise
simplistic shooter, but it becomes seriously distracting when
the screen fills with airborne enemies- and bullets. As
pretty as it is, Layer Section II is nothing more than space
debris in the face of Konami's far superior Gradius games.
MARVEL SUPER HEROES
VS. STREET
FIGHTER
I'll be blunt... this game's gotten a
royal screw job by reviewers, particularly certain fan-eds who
really should know better. They've misrepresented Marvel
Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, griping about its small cast
of characters and similarities to X-Men vs. Street Fighter
while glossing over or completely ignoring the fact that it's
easily one of the three best fighting games ever released for
the Saturn. Well, let's address their complaints, shall
we? Yes, MvSF is a minor step up from Capcom's first
tag-team fighter, but they took everything (and I do mean
everything) that was annoying about XvSF and either
removed, modified, or improved it. The gameplay is tons
better, with a more reasonable difficulty, new super moves for
every character, and more interaction with your partner.
Capcom even added some zing to the graphics... instead of the
generic sunbursts you'd get from flooring an opponent with a
super attack, the playfield is engulfed by multi-colored warp
streaks, solar eclipses, and vibrant planetscapes. As
for the limited selection of heroes, I'll just point out that
Marvel vs. Street Fighter has more superfriends and
superfoes to choose from than in the original game, and that
Storm was taken out of the action and locked into a stasis
tube where she belongs. I do agree with the whiners just
a bit... half of the game's stars are, um, very Ryu-esque, and
Capcom could have loaded a few more fighters into the
proverbial van before taking off. Still, anyone who
didn't buy Marvel vs. Street Fighter because of the endless
criticism heaped upon it (by folks who interestingly enough
had no problem with Super Mega Mighty Ultra Street Fighter 2'
Turbo With A Light Dusting of Powdered Sugar) was cheated out
of a whole lot of fun.
METAL SLUG
This game was a big surprise from SNK... after
all, their last side-scrolling shooter for the Neo-Geo,
Cyberlip, didn't exactly rake in the quarters (anyone
unfortunate enough to have played it won't have too much
trouble figuring out why). Luckily for us, SNK was only
momentarily discouraged by this first failure, and took
another stab at the genre a few years later, carefully
avoiding the mistakes they'd made with Cyberlip.
"Blasting aliens in the distant future? Nah, been there,
done that, screwed it up. Let's go back to our Ikari
Warriors roots instead and plop the player in the middle of a
battlefield straight out of World War II. A handful of
weapons to choose from? Hmm... that's not a bad start,
but how about we throw in a few more firearms along with a
heavily armed tank? Let's give the player prisoners to
rescue and a huge stockpile of weapons to collect while we're
at it."
All this brainstorming led to the creation
of Metal Slug, the best run 'n gun shooter released for the
Neo-Geo (or anything else!) in a long, long time. It's
also a blast on the Saturn... although there's a lot of
slowdown and some animation seems to be missing, the endless
swarm of enemy troops and the variety of guns you can use to
turn them into scarlet confetti are both there. There's plenty
of that Metal Slug detail, too, so take some time to admire
the scenery when you're not being overwhelmed by
soldiers. You'll find teddy bears just begging to be
hugged (with secret weapon plans hidden inside them!), cranky
old men, medals of honor, cats who somehow manage to stay
asleep despite the fact that everything is blowing up around
them, perishable food, love letters, stinky piles of crap...
and those are just the items you can collect for points!
And unlike your average side-scrolling shooter, the enemies
won't just run from one end of the screen to the other...
they'll toss grenades, sneak or even run away from you, cut
down nets full of supplies in an attempt to squash you, and
hop out of streams with missiles strapped to their
backs. Of course, that's when you break out your
favorite weapon and roast, blow up, or even turn the incoming
troops into a fine red mist. Who needs complicated
fatalities when you can get your recommended daily allowance
of violence with a touch of a button?
Look, if you've got a Saturn, it's fair to
assume that you bought it for the fighting games. It's
also safe to assume that, without playing something that
appeals to your brainlessly violent side every once in a
while, all that zen martial arts crap will get boring
eventually. Metal Slug is that something, and without it
in your collection, you'll never come to fully appreciate your
Saturn.
PARADIOUS DA!
DELUXE
COLLECTION
This really isn't much different than the
other games in the Gradius series, but there's one thing that
sets it apart: it's bright, colorful, and hilariously
weird. Just look at the selection of characters... there
are flying penguins, Playboy bunnies straddling rockets
(sounds like Dr. Strangelove meets a grade B porno movie,
doesn't it?), and even a pink octopus with a pair of underwear
on his head. They're out looking for a treasure chest
hidden somewhere in deep space, but all they usually find are
mewing pirate ships, hampster chefs, chubby panda ballarinas,
and gigantic battle cruisers piloted by pastel-colored Easter
Island heads. They all want to kill our heroes, because
this is a shooter, and that's what they're there for, but
luckily, the Paradious team is armed with loudspeakers, tiny
walking bombs, and condom shields (they're not just for safe
sex anymore!).
People have taken shots at Paradious'
warped sense of humor, claiming the games aren't much of a
satire of anything despite the title. That is true in
the case of plain old Paradious, but the sequel takes some
shots at Japanese culture in addition to serving up plenty of
surreal backgrounds. Take, for instance, the rush hour
stage, where you're zipping through a congested tunnel in the
middle of a city, weaving around frantic salarymen and
schoolchildren (who happen to be chickens). About half
way through, you're warned about falling rocks. Then a
deer crossing sign pops up, and whitetails start raining down
on you like hail with antlers! There's another round
that pays tribute to classic video games like Galaga and Space
Invaders, concluding with a battle against a giant Gradius
power-up which sprays you with weapon upgrades instead of
bullets (if only every boss did this!). Blast it enough
times and it spirals off into the distance like a untied
balloon, finally flattening itself against a planet in the
background.
Despite all this weirdness, Parodius is
very similar to the game that inspired it, Gradius, with a
pinch of Twinbee/Stinger thrown in for a spicy kick.
Every time you collect a crystal (which are free inside
specially marked enemies!), a different, more powerful weapon
is highlighted in the menu bar at the bottom of the
screen. Once the upgrade you want is selected, just
press a button and it's yours. In Paradious, however,
you can let the computer manage your power-ups for you... you
won't always get exactly what you want, but you'll never have
to worry about choosing the dreaded "Oh My God!" by mistake
either. Sometimes enemies will cough up a bell instead
of a crystal, which awards you either points or a temporary
ability depending on its color.
The power up system is a bit of a pain,
especially if you're playing alone... if you choose to handle
the crystals yourself, dying sends you back to a checkpoint,
and there's always the danger of picking the "Oh My God!"
power down as well. Letting the computer worry about
upgrades makes the game easier, but then you don't have direct
control over the weapons you get, and you can't ferret away
bell attacks for later use. I was also surprised (and a
little annoyed) to discover that the Super NES version of
Paradious Da! actually has more characters than the Saturn
game, including Kid Dracula and Goemon. I'm still not
sure why they were omitted- does Nintendo have exclusive
rights to the Legend of the Mystical Ninja characters or
something?- but there are still plenty of other wild gunmen to
choose from, so anyone who's never played the Super NES games
won't miss them a bit.
All of the Gradius games for the Saturn
are great, but if you have to choose just one of them (and you
probably will, because Japanese Saturn games are getting tough
to find), you'll be most satisfied with Paradious Da!
It's got more variety than Gradius, better bosses than Life
Force, and, uh, more dancing penguins than Twinbee.
POCKET FIGHTER
REVIEW BY JOSH LESNICK
What's to debate? Pocket Fighter is
simply THE most adorable game Capcom has ever released.
But the extreme cuteness and hilarity of the game can be
misleading. To be quite blunt, THIS GAME IS FUCKING
TOUGH!!!
Ahem. Let's just say that the play
mechanics aren't nearly as endearing as the graphics.
It's better than Virtua Fighter Kids by a long shot, I'll give
it that, but man, I just cannot get used to this game!
And it doesn't help that the difficulty of the first round is
turned up higher than it should be! Capcom just decided
to go with a completely different engine for this game, a
really quirky one. In particular, it's the blocking that
can throw you off... sometimes blocking doesn't work,
and sometimes it works too well. It's just weird.
Enough about the gameplay... let's just
talk about the graphics, since they're the only thing I really
like about the game. The characters are all
super-deformed versions of characters from Street Fighter
Alpha 2, Morrigan, Felicia, and Lei-Lei from Vampire Savior,
Ibuki from Street Fighter 3, and Tessa from Red Earth (I liked
Devilot better!!!). Each character has moves similar to
their full-sized alter egos, only in a "cute-ified" (for the
girls) or "silly-fied" (for the guys) form. Sakura uses
an umbrella while doing her dragon punch. Ibuki does a
quick change into Rolento's outfit before throwing her
shuriken- or tanuki statue, depending on how powered up you
are. Then there are the combos, which you can perorm by
pressing the punch and kick buttons in certain
combinations. You can get Sakura to don a bunny outfit,
Felicia to do a Mega Man impression, Chun Li to pass a love
letter to her opponent, or Dan to do a terrible Elvis
impersonation. These combos are fun to look at, but hard
to pull off!! Unless you're the computer, of course.
^^; Finally, there's the super moves. Each
character can do their normal super moves, plus some extra
silly ones. My favorite is Morrigan's, where she beats
up her opponent with Lillith's help, but Dan's is quite
awe-inspiring. His super taunt does damage now!
It's really not that great a game, but
it's still a good idea to try it, play against a friend, look
for all the special moves and combos, then turn it back in. ^^
RACE DRIVIN'
Imagine, if you dare, a racing
game so wretched, it takes a back seat to the lackluster
Daytona USA. A game so antiquated, it makes Virtua
Racing Deluxe look like the work of a Cray
supercomputer. A game so horrendously slow, it would
make a Super NES roll its proverbial eyes. That game
exists, ladies and gentlemen, and it's waiting for your
Saturn. Don't let it be the victim of its sluggish
control... its heinous, flat-shaded, 32X-quality polygons...
its downright laughable physics. This game is waiting to
lock you into a car that explodes at the slightest contact
with anything and everything on the road ("It's a
pebble! We're DOOMED!!!"). It will do everything
possible to make you throw your Saturn into a trash compactor
and yourself out the nearest four story window. This
hell on wheels has a name, and it is Race Drivin'. You
may find it for an impossibly low price at your local import
store, but that's all part of its devious plan. You must
resist, or your sanity will pay a heavy price. You have
been warned.
SALAMANDER
DELUXE
COLLECTION
REVIEW BY BYRON J. LISAMEN
One of the best shooting games on the NES
gets redone on the Saturn three times, and I'm pretty happy
with the way things turned out. Well, Life Force and
Sal'mander aren't as good as they were on the NES, which kinda
surprised me. They're lots more colorful, but the rounds
aren't the same, and there's this dumb computer voice that
says stuff every time you pick up guns for your ship.
And Life Force is even worse 'cuz the art was changed to make
you think you're shooting germs in a guy's body or something,
but they didn't change it enough, so it just looks
silly. Life Force is pretty much the same as Sal'mander,
really, 'cept you've got this bar on the bottom of the screen
that fills up when you get these green gem things. I
don't like this 'cuz you hafta fill up the bar so far and
press a button to get bombs and guns and stuff, and it's hard
enough to keep from dyin' without doing all that!
Life Force 2 is the only game I play on
the disc, and if you ever saw it you'd know why. I don't
know what the inside of an alien looks like, but it's gotta be
somethin' like this... huge teeth pop out of nowhere, giant
tapeworms swim after you, and weird leech things spit squirmy
little bugs all over the place. Gross... but cool!
Too bad all the rounds aren't like this... there are some
space fights, too, and those are kinda boring. The only
other things I didn't like is that the game's a little too
hard for a kid like me, and whenever you die, your ship slows
way down so it's hard to dodge shots 'n stuff. Other
than that, if you liked Life Force on the NES, you're gonna
like this even more... just as long as you don't play the
first two games.
SAMURAI SHODOWN 3:
BLADES OF
BLOOD
Sigh... Here's yet another scrap of paper
to slip into the already bulging "Why was this made?" file. I
just have to wonder why SNK spent so much time perfecting a
Saturn conversion of this monumentally disappointing arcade
game... couldn't they have put their efforts to better use
with a translation of a vintage Neo-Geo release like Fatal
Fury Special, or Samurai Shodown 2, or for that matter, just
about anything else? OK, OK... I'll admit that, when
judged solely on its own merits, Samurai Shodown 3 is a more
than adequate fighting game. The moving Japanese
soundtrack and sharp backgrounds give Blades of Blood a
convincing feudal ambience which would probably impress
newcomers to the series. However, anyone who's played
the other Samurai Shodown games will get a constant, nagging
feeling that something's missing here. Like most of
their favorite characters. And intuitive control.
And unique new twists to the game engine. And... well,
make that a whole lot of things.
SAMURAI SHODOWN 4:
AMAKUSA'S
REVENGE
Ah... now this is more like it! I
was sorely disappointed with Samurai Shodown 3, but this
wonderful sequel takes all the crummy ideas in that game and
makes them work, then adds just enough new features to make it
seem as though Blades of Blood never existed. Two of the
classic swordsmen (and one swordswoman, the French fencer
Charlotte) from the original Samurai Shodown have returned,
and everyone else has been given new moves to keep things, as
the game puts it, fair and square. The new assortment of
attacks are surprisingly well rounded... you get everything
from chain combos to more reliable character-specific
fatalities to suicides which allow you to forfeit the current
round in exchange for a full rage gauge. You can even
sacrifice that for the chance to land a single deadly blow
which does incredible damage. It's a big risk, but if the
match isn't going your way, it could just save your life (or
leave you in an even worse situation than before!).
Samurai Shodown 4 nicely makes up for the
disasterous Blades of Blood, but even with all its new
features, it isn't quite up to the standards of the best game
in the series, Samurai Shodown 2. For starters, the
Saturn translation isn't as accurate a translation as most of
SNK's ports to the system... there's missing animation in the
character select screen, and a whole lot of slowdown in fights
between the larger swordsmen or fighters with animals at their
side. Also, Amakusa's Revenge just seems, well, jumpier
than the first two games. The dramatic pause following
successful hits has been shortened, lessening their impact,
and the gameplay in general seems to demand fast action, not
patience, from the player. Samurai Shodown used to be
all about finding and exploiting your opponent's mistakes...
now, the game's very essence has been diluted because of the
boost in speed.
Despite this, Amakusa's Revenge is still
better than the handful of Samurai Shodown clones on the
Saturn (Golden Axe: The Duel, Dark Legend). It's also
worth noting that it takes the recent 3D installment of the
SamSho series on the Playstation and whips it, whips it good.
SHINOKEN (AKA RAGNAGARD)
We're gonna try something a
little different for this review. Since I can't even
THINK of this game without spewing expletives like some sort
of uncouth volcano, we're going to look at things from the
programmers' perspectives. You know, in the interest of
fairness (and if you believe that, I've got a bridge
and a copy of this game to sell you...).
(We find Team Saurus walking through the
door of the office of the monkey who's apparently running
things over at SNK)
Programmer #1: "You rang?"
SNK
CEO: "Yes. This project is important... so
important, we needed our best men to work on it. But
since they're currently busy with King of Fighters '96, we
decided to hire you guys instead."
Programmer #2:
"Ah... desperation. It's the only thing that keeps
outside developers like us in business! Well, that and
plenty of sake."
SNK CEO: "Anyways, we need you to
create a fighting game for us-"
Programmer #1: "Big
surprise!"
SNK CEO: "AHEM... as I was saying, this
one's going to be a bit of a departure for SNK. We need the
graphics for this game rendered, so we can cash in on the
success of that flashy Nintendo game that was released a while
back."
Programmer #3: "Ren...dered?"
Programmer
#1: "Isn't that how they turn horses into glue or
something?"
Programmer #2: "No, no, you morons!
It's that computer drawn stuff they used to make that hit
movie. Y'know, Tron!"
SNK CEO: "Hoo
boy... well, at least you've got SOME idea of what we
need from you. Now get to work and bring us an alpha of the
game in about a month."
Programmer #1: "Alpha?
HA! We'll have the game FINISHED in about a month!"
<Later, at the Saurus home office,
which used to be some guy's tool shed>
Programmer #2: "OK, let's get
started. Did you get everything we
needed?"
Programmer #1: "Let's see... shareware
rendering tools, check."
Programmer #3: "What's
this? It says here that some features are disabled after
thirty days if you don't send money to the
designer."
Programmer #1: "Eh, how useful could
texture mapping be, anyways? Now what else... The
library's last copy of C Programming For Dummies,
check."
Programmer #2: "This is too
complicated! Why didn't you get C For The Brain Dead
like I asked you to?"
Programmer #1: "For the last
time, it was already loaned out to some guys from T*HQ!
Now shut your hole and read the damned book!"
Programmer
#2: "printf? Guys, did they release a printer for
the Neo-Geo? And how come it can only print out the
letter 'f'?"
Programmer #1: "Finally, a copy of a
game with computer rendering in it. You know, as a point
of reference."
Programmer #3: "Hey, X-Perts!
That sounds like fun!"
Programmer #2: "Well,
everything's here. Let's get crackin'..."
<A month passes. Team Saurus
returns to SNK headquarters with a 98% finished EPROM in
tow>
SNK CEO: "You IDIOTS!!! This
is the worst Neo-Geo fighting game since...
since..."
Programmer #1: "Samurai Shodown
3?"
Programmer #2: "Aggressors of Dark
Kombat?"
Programmer #3: "Legend of Success
Joe?"
SNK CEO: "EVER!!! It's the worst Neo-Geo
fighting game EVER! I mean, what the hell happened to
the gameplay? Did you even bother to put any
IN?!"
Programmer #2: "Well, we were kinda busy making
all those rendered graphics..."
Programmer #1:
"Actually, you should consider yourself lucky. SOMEBODY
left our rendering software in sixteen color mode. It's
a good thing I caught that early on and put it in 128
color mode where it belongs!"
Programmer #3: "Heh,
heh. Sorry 'bout that!"
SNK CEO: "You people
are giving me a headache. I'll pay you for your 'work'
if you just promise to leave my office and never come
back."
<door slams>
SNK CEO: "I'm going to
get fired for this if I don't think of something, and
fast... Wait, I've got it! I'll give the game two
names! That way, when some kid plays it and tells his
friends how awful Ragnagard is, they'll find a Neo-Geo and
play Shinoken instead, never suspecting that it's the same
crappy game! I'm a genius!"
SILHOUETTE MIRAGE
Treasure has really been on a roll since
making this and Mischief Makers... a roll downhill, that
is. Now don't get me wrong- Mischief Makers was a pretty
good side-scrolling action title, especially considering that
its only real competition on the N64 was the disappointing
Yoshi's Story. However, when you stripped away Makers'
terrific graphics, it became apparent that it was no better
than Treasure's last Genesis platformer Dynamite Headdy.
I had high hopes for Silhouette Mirage... judging from the
screenshots, it looked as though my favorite Genesis game
designers were returning to their roots with an intense
shooter along the lines of their masterwork, Gunstar
Heroes. I've never been more wrong about anything in my
entire life. Silhouette Mirage is just another side-scrolling
platformer, and a real dog, at that. The graphics are
plain, the level design is pathetic (you run from left to
right for so long that you half expect to see Goombas and
coins by the time you reach the third round), and the play
mechanics are hands down the most ill-conceived I've ever seen
in a Treasure game. Your character, apparently a
fashion-conflicted member of the Powerpuff Girls, has to turn
to the left to kill red enemies and to the right to kill blue
ones. Yes, it's innovative, but it just isn't much
fun... half the time you encounter Angels and Devils you'll be
forced to battle them from one side of the screen. Most
perplexingly of all, you can perform holds and throws, but
these do no damage at all to your enemies. Don't listen
to the hype, or the glowing reviews, or anything else you've
heard about this sorry excuse for a Treasure release... its
only redeeming aspect is the impressive animated clip just
before the title screen.
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3
Here's one for the history books!
For the first time ever, the Saturn version of a Capcom
fighting game isn't that far removed from its Playstation
cousin. At first glance, you might not even be able to
tell them apart, but there are three features in the Saturn
translation that, while not immediately noticable, make it the
superior game. First, there's the control... if it's not
100% precise with a newer Saturn joypad, it's 99% with a
decimal point and a trail of nines long enough to stretch
around the world three times. An experienced player will
be able to string together brilliant combos and match the
computer hit for hit because the controller response is so
keenly accurate. Second, for the first time since the
original Street Fighter Alpha, two players can work together
against a common foe instead of each other, and unlike the
Playstation game, you're not stuck with one of the fighter's
celebrity stunt doubles. Finally, we have the animation.
You won't see a big difference between the two games at first,
but look closely before and after each match and you'll find
dozens of hilarious introductions and win poses that were
clipped out of the Playstation release. It's just more
fun to play as Karin when her trusty butler rushes out to give
her a milkshake or tries to revive her fallen opponent after
every victory.
The two games match up evenly in every
other respect, though. Console exclusive features like
the King of Fighters-esque three-on-three group battle,
check. Superb hand-painted backgrounds, check.
Driving techno music, check. Obnoxious announcer and
tickertape messages, check. The return of Guile and the
new challengers from Super Street Fighter II, double
check. Whether you buy the Playstation or Saturn version
of Alpha 3, you'll get everything you could possibly want from
a Street Fighter release... yet somehow, the Saturn offers
even more. Think of it as your reward for staying
faithful to the system long after everyone else was lured away
by Sony's big breasted explorers and obnoxious bandicoots.
SUPERADVENTURE MEGA MAN
Superadventure Mega Man isn't really a game more than
a movie. This fact can be more or less forgiven however
as it was designed that way. The anime is drawn with the
traditional look and is of good quality, considering it makes
up 90% of the time you'll be playing. In fact the
developers apparently thought it was too good to miss, as one
of the game's biggest flaws is that you cannot skip (the
sometimes long) animated sequences. Also there is a bug
in the Saturn version which will cause the game to hang if you
pick up a certain item at a specific point.
The anime mode doesn't possess any
terribly difficult puzzles; think of a "Choose Your Own
Adventure" game where most of the choices are "Go left" or
"Jump the river." In fact it's incredibly hard to lose
the game by making choices. Most of the challenge and
risk comes in defeating enemies in the first-person shooter
mode, which uses sprite graphics and can look somewhat
flat. Perhaps the biggest thing missing from this
section is nice flashy weapon graphics. For some reason
when I fire my Rockbuster I expect to see a big burst of
plasma rocket into the playing area. No such luck.
Other than this, the shooter mode plays and controls decently,
with a medium difficulty. If you have any skill with
such games at all you should find yourself able to beat all
three discs on your first or second try.
VAMPIRE SAVIOR
Yes, this rating is a bit harsh,
especially since the Saturn conversion of the latest
Darkstalkers game is 110% arcade perfect (the extra ten
percent is for the additional characters who were strangely
left out of the Vampire Savior coin-op). But when Capcom
took everything I loved about the series and threw it into the
garbage, I feel strongly compelled to do some trashing
back. Let's start from the top, shall we? The new
music is terrible, and ruins the atmosphere of the game...
when I'm fighting against Frankenstein, I want to hear the
haunting moans of a pipe organ, not some technomoronic remix
that repeats itself 43 times in the middle of the track.
The new backgrounds are equally reviling. It doesn't
take a mad scientist to figure out that the inside of a
pharoah's tomb is much more exciting than a desert wasteland,
yet Capcom managed to screw this one up, too. Wouldn't it have
saved you money if you just touched up the original artwork
that's become a trademark of the Darkstalkers series,
guys? Just a thought. Finally, in one last
devastating blow, even the gameplay has been altered (and
worsened)... battles take place in a Killer Instinct format,
giving the player no time to rest between rounds, and old
favorites like Bishamon are too awkward to use now that their
fighting styles have changed. The only real advantage Vampire
Savior has over its predecessor is lightning fast access
time... that aside, I can't imagine why anyone who already
owns NightWarriors would want this.
WAKU WAKU 7
A lanky rabbit girl in form-fitting spandex pants
faces off against a mysterious dark elf with a glowing
sword. It sounds like a scene from a bad anime' feature,
but is in reality a round from Sunsoft's Waku Waku 7.
This spinoff of the little-seen Galaxy Fight drops its
science-fiction pretenses and instead pits Japanese cartoon
cliche's against each other in an epic battle for possession
of seven glowing orbs. The holder of the orbs gets to
make a wish, but not before accidentally freeing a gigantic
beast (you then, of course, become fourty feet tall and tangle
it up with him Godzilla-style in the city streets).
You'd think a game this heavily inspired by Japanese cartoons
would pay more attention to its animation and characters than
its gameplay, but all three are handled quite well... you're
given a nice variety of attacks, including special kicks which
literally pin opponents against the sides of the screen and
the super powerful, unblockable HaraHaras (which, in an
amusing sidenote, take forever to charge and warn the opponent
of your intentions with a full-screen message!). So
what's the catch? As the name suggests, there are only
seven characters; nine if you count the freakishly weird final
boss and Bonus Kun, a fireball chucking martial artist who's
quite literally a punching bag (insert your own Dan Hibiki
reference here). This makes it a pass for anyone with
limited funds, but fans of Japanese culture with prior Street
Fighter II experience will definately want to consider picking
this up.
WORLD HEROES
PERFECT
OK, so "perfect" is stretching things a
bit, but this final edition of the world's most shameless
Street Fighter II clone is a whole lot of fun.
You won't notice any major differences from World Heroes 2 and
Jet at first, but play on and you'll discover a number of
subtle improvements, such as a standardized six-button control
scheme, air blocking, less cheap projectile parries (the
fireballs now deflect off opponents instead of returning to
the person who threw them), and a special ability for each
character, ranging from attack counters to projectile catches
(!). The best feature of all is the HERO meter, which
allows you to amplify certain special moves, not to mention
the downright bizarre desperation attacks (you'll rub your
eyes in disbelief when you see Rasputin drag his opponent into
a rose garden for some hot Russian love!). You can't
really compare World Heroes Perfect to the Street Fighter
Alpha series, but the speedy load times and gorgeous pastel
graphics make this every bit Super Street Fighter II Turbo's
equal.
X-MEN VS.
STREET
FIGHTER
Easily the most popular Saturn import, and
possibly the most popular import of all time, X-Men vs. Street
Fighter really proved what the system could do with a little
help from a four meg friend. It's still a wonderful
demonstration of the Saturn's abilities, but as a game, it
leaves something to be desired. You know, things like a
larger cast of characters, more play depth, and sharper
backgrounds. Even without them, X-Men vs. Street Fighter
is one heck of an adrenaline rush, with a perfectly executed
tag team feature that adds even more tension to the lightning
fast battles... do you tag out and risk putting your partner
in the path of a devastating super combo, or stay in and let
him recover every last drop of energy while the opponent chips
away at yours? It's a tough decision, but one I'd rather
be making in the improved Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street
Fighter.
