Alien Storm Master System Review

Alien Storm was a Sega arcade game made by Sega's Shinobi Team released in 1990. It was the second game to use the "Sega System 18" arcade hardware. It came out one year after Golden Axe a very well known fantasy based scrolling beat'Em up and has a lot of similarities to it leading to people considering it to be the sci fi equivalent. Alien Storm likes to mix things up a little more than Golden Axe though as not only is it a scrolling Beat'Em Up, it also breaks up the action by occasionally offering up running Shoot'Em Up and Rail Shooting sections.

The arcade game allowed for up to 3 players to take on the role of one of 3 characters, a man, a woman or my personal favourite a robot. One thing I love about the game is that it has a very B-Movie sort of feel to it, and a sense of humour to match.

So you pick your character or characters depending on how many of you are playing and your tasked with the job of destroying the hoards of aliens who are invading the Earth. Many of the aliens are disguised as a variety of everyday street objects; such as telephone booths, oil cans, trash cans, mailboxes, and some of them are even humorously unconvincingly disguised as people. I have to admit that despite having played most of Sega's arcade games back when I was a kid Alien Storm was not one I can remember ever really seeing, as far as I can remember my first experience with Alien Storm was when I got a Japanese import copy of the Mega drive game. So in order to compare the Master System version I had to play a fair amount of the Arcade game via Emulation.

Alien Storm on the Master System tries its best to try and recreate the Arcade experience in the home with far less processing power but in order to do this things had to be substantially cut. Only two out of of the three characters from the arcade are available in this version the Robot and the Guy. The game also has less levels than its arcade counterpart but I will give it serious credit in that it manages to breaks up the Beat'Em Up action by occasionally offering up running Shoot'Em Up and Rail Shooting sections just like its arcade big brother, I honestly thought that at least one of these type of gameplay would be cut so I was very pleasantly surprised that this was not the case.

Obviously the graphics are incredibly basic when compared to their arcade counterpart. For an 8-bit version of this game though with the limitation of this system and the size of the cart they didn't do a bad job at all, the levels look unique, there are detailed, multiple characters, weapons and bosses not only this but everything is well presented. They made very wise decisions when making this game the choice of colours used throughout the game are sensible, everything stands out and there is none of that awful clashing you see in some low powered games. I think the sound in this game is great there are plenty of good quality sound effects but even more importantly Music plays throughout the game providing some very catchy tunes.

The Master system version has Simple yet effective controls one button shoots, another does a forward roll. if you hit the forward roll button then press the fire button you perform a diving attack. Which would be great but annoyingly, the hit detection is a little wonky and on top of this it is sometimes a little too difficult to line up your attacks an enemy will appear to be on the same plane as you yet you'll frequently have to shift a few pixels up or down in order to actually hit them with an attack this makes the game feel far more clumsy than the arcade version. Personally for me at least the parts of this game that are best are the rail shooting Operation Wolf Style sections, I think I would have ramped these up for this version as they are the bit that not only works best but feel the most fun. I would give this game a 5 out of 10 I think it was a valiant but flawed attempt at trying to recreate its arcade big brother which although decent in short doses just doesn't live up to the task.

Looking online a loose cart of the Master System version will cost about £7 which is not the worst price in the world for what it is... If you own Multiple systems then I would recommend that you get Mega Games 3 for the Megadrive a loose cart of this will cost around the same £7 but has the Awesome Megadrive version of Alien Storm on it which I have previously reviewed as well as the bonus of having Super Monaco GP and Super Thunder blade on it.

Sega Master System Hang-On Review

So here is my 4th Master System arcade Conversion review, if you prefer the written medium then my written review is below the video 

H

ang-On was an arcade racing game released by Sega in the arcades in 1985 in which you control a motor bike racing against computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics and uses the Super Scaler arcade system board, The deluxe cabinet version also introduced a motion-controlled arcade cabinet, where the player's body movement on a large motorbike corresponds with the player character's movements on screen. Hang-On started the trend of motion simulator games in the late 1980s, which Sega followed up with Space Harrier, Out Run (1986) and After Burner all of which I have already reviewed. The introduction of these interesting cabinets helped the arcade video game market grow during the late 1980s. Hang-On has been recognized as a well-remembered and influential arcade game. Several sequels were later made for arcades, as well as video game consoles. Every time I jump on a Arcade Machine with a bike I cant help but think of this game, not long ago I was on holiday and I played a few Bike related arcade machines including Super Bikes 3 and Moto GP and for a brief time it transported me back to my youth playing Hang-On.

Yu Suzuki began development of Hang-On after deciding to design a motorcycle racing game as a way to use a torsion bar in an arcade game, however in the end this particular item wasn't actually used in the game cabinet. Market research was conducted and the results suggested that GP 500 racing was popular and so this is what the game was based upon despite the fact Suzuki originally wanted to go with Dirt Biking an idea he would later return to.

Hang-On was very popular it was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1986 in both Japan and the United States. It received an overwhelmingly positive critical reception with people being impressed by its realism, its graphics, and the cabinet, it was just amazing at the time controlling the bike on screen by riding the model bike attached to the arcade machine., Apparently there was some initial controversy in Japan over modesty concerns involving female players with the bike cabinet.

OK So now lets talk about the Master System conversion obviously the graphics have been scaled down to meet the capabilitys of the machine, but it is instantly recognizable as being Hang-On. The music provided on the title screen is really good, but unfortunately it's the only music you'll hear in this game. Once you start playing the game you wont hear any music all you are going to hear is sounds of the motorcycle revving, and your tires screeching, I have never been a fan of this sort of sound choice for games,. Ideally I would like music with engine noises and tire screeches lower in volume just there in the background but if that's not possible due to memory constraints or something id sooner have a basic tune and not bother with engine noises and screeching tires if I cant have both.

So the objective of the game is to avoid the other bikers and race against the clock making sure to hit five checkpoints and then reach the finish line. 60 seconds are available per section, although any remaining time is automatically added to your total time once you pass a checkpoint.

The controls are simple Button 2 is the accelerator, Button 1 is the brakes, the d-pad Up/Down directions are used for changing between the three gears and left and right are used to control your bike. It was a long time since I had played this port and when I first started to play it I was going all over the shop, constantly coming of the bike not making it to any check points and on the verge of turning the air blue. After some practice though the game just seemed to click, basically you have to learn to properly manage your gear changes and I would also add you need to learn to ignore the break, what I found myself doing was letting go of the accelerator and then taping it while going round corners or trying to swerve and then putting my finger back on it when on clear straight road, this kept the sliding to a minimal and made sure I stayed on the road and helped me avoid other bikes. Soon using this method I was hitting checkpoints, over taking bikes and beginning to enjoy the game

I think that Hang-On on the Master System is a good conversion, obviously its not quiet up the standards set by the Arcade Version but I think it is a good representation of what this little machine can handle and it provides something that is in the spirit of its bigger arcade brother, I do think you need to bear with it a little and get through some teething pains to get the most out of the game. I would score this game 7 out of 10.

If you want a cart of it, well when I looked around online you were looking at about the £10 mark, at the experience of giving away what a future project might be I would Recommend you grab Mega Games 1 a multi game cart that includes the Mega Drive game Super Hang On as this can be grabbed for around the £3 mark online and includes not only a version of Hang On but 2 other games for far less than this will cost you.

Sega Master System OutRun Review

Here is my review of OutRun the Sega Master system conversion. If you prefer your reviews to be written then my written review is below the video

Out Run was an arcade driving video game developed and published by Sega it was released into Arcades in Japan in September 1986 with its American and European release following before the end of the year. The game was very well known for many reasons including its graphics, its nonlinear gameplay, an amazing selection of selectable musical tracks and in particular for its amazing hydraulic motion simulator deluxe arcade cabinet which was such a sight to behold when I first saw it in the Arcades as a child. I was born in 1981 so the first time I had seen this I would have been a pretty young kid so the machine seemed like this giant shining beacon of fun.

The game was designed by Yu Suzuki, who apparently visited Europe to gain inspiration for the game's stages This sounds like a pretty expensive step in designing a game, on hearing that you'd think Sega had given Suzuki bags of cash and yet he only had a small team to work on the game and they were only given ten months to develop the game. The game was a huge success though both critically and commercially. In fact it was apparently the highest-grossing arcade game of 1987 worldwide not only that though it was also Sega's most successful arcade cabinet of the entire 1980s. So I bet you can guess what this kind of success leads to right? It led to a whole bunch of ports to lots of video game consoles and home computers. Outrun became one of the best-selling video games at the time selling millions of copies worldwide and spawning a number of sequels.

You read the title when you clicked on this though so you know what I am going to be talking about that's right I am going to be talking about the Sega Master System port.

Even though this game might look a little basic by now days standards you have to try to put yourself in the position people would have been in at the time. In 1987 The Master System released in Europe people often compare it to the NES and see it as Sega's response to this but in truth in England at least very few people had even seen a NES, we were mostly weened on various Micro computers some of which even after taking an age to load couldn't display enough colours to challenge the drawings you had done in school at the age of 5 let alone an arcade machines visuals.

In my humble opinion The Master System port of Outrun really manages to overcome the limitations of its hardware to deliver what at the time would have been an absolutely stunning home video game experience, sure its not the equal of its arcade counterpart but it certainly would have felt pretty close to a kid back in those days.

Outrun is at least on the surface a very simple game, it is a driving game where you are not racing against any individual, sure there are cars on the road which get in the way but there not your opponent the only opponent you have is the clock, you have to beat the clock and make sure that you keep on reaching the next checkpoint before the timer hits zero. This basic premise works almost perfectly on the Master System, the game feels pretty much just like it did in the arcade and that's the most important part of any conversion.

The visuals have received the expected downgrade but it is very clear that a whole lot of effort went into providing the same variety of settings seen in the arcade, the game features the same beach track, the same rolling green fields, the same night time driving. this game looks so much clearer than my previously reviewed game Space Harrier. Obviously its a step down from the arcade but enough detail is provided in both the foreground and the background to create a proper game world that you feel more than happy to travel through.

Sound-wise, the music in OutRun on the Master system is great but there is some difference depending on how your playing if you are playing a European copy of the game you will get what they call PSG sound, if your using Japanese Hardware with a FM chip, or hardware modded to add FM in or using an emulator with FM, then things will sound quiet different, in honesty I like both kinds of sound, the music is good no mater how your playing your Master System copy of Outrun, the only thing I am not majorly keen on is the skidding tire sound, its an annoying sound and to be its too loud in relation to the music.

Overall I would give Outrun on the Master System an 8 out of 10, I think its one of the very best arcade ports on the system its only limitations for me come from being based on an Arcade machine. Arcade ports can be a lot of fun but these games are essentially written from the ground up to munch on coins and provide quick thrills so they don't tend to have what it takes to play for hours and hours again and again in a home setting.

If you want a cart of this game then CEX charge £10 for it when they have a loose cart with the copies I can find elsewhere on line going for a little more.

SNES Review 123: Smash TV

Nine reviews or so ago while reviewing Total Carnage I said the following ''I really wanted an excuse to come out with the gem ''Big Money, Big Prizes'' which you may realise is of course from the game Smash TV, a game I really love, I love it because basically it is based of the Arnie film The Running Man, which is not only a film I adore but is also based loosely of the book The Running Man which was written by Stephen King one of my favourite writers of all time. I don't own Smash TV though''.

Well I guess when I said that I was kind of tempting fate as I recently walked in to a local indy store and they had a Pal cartridge only copy of Smash TV and were asking £12 for it. Now this is going to sound kind of silly but I remember back when I was a kid everyone owned Smash TV and you just couldnt get rid of it, the thing was practically worthless, the kind of worthless were if you tried to trade it in for another game it would only get you about £3 of that game so really you were better off keeping it just incase you ever might just possibly one day want to play it again, so I have no idea how when or why I got rid of my original copy, but knowing me I got a good deal for it. The funny thing is though despite liking this game I havent brought a copy while I have been collecting because I just havent seen it for a low price, even £12 seemed to much for me but I managed to talk them down to £10 so I ended up buying it.

Ok so in both my Total Carange review and the above quote from it I have set the scene as far as this games story goes, so just to quickly recap the story is that your a contestant on a game show where they are trying to kill you and if you can survive and kill the enemies then you get money and you can win toasters and cars and stuff. Smash Tv was originally an arcade game in 1990, which found itself ported to the Megadrive/Genesis, Master System, Game Gear and obviously the Super NES as I am talking about it here. Its also made its way to various classic game compilations and download services. The arcade version was created by Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell for Williams and its a sort of well kind of sequel to the game Robotron: 2084 which was also produced by Jarvis, sequel in spiritual terms that is. The SNES conversion was handled by Beam Software, they did an excellent job of converting the game, basically if you like the arcade game then you will like the SNES game as apart from a few cut corners and a bit of Nintendo style censorship it is very much the same game. Beam Software kind of got brought and sold and moved about and renamed Infogrames Melbourne House, then Atari Melbourne House and finally Krome Studios Melbourne, the trail of them releasing games goes kind of cold around 2007 though with several sources saying the studio finally died in 2010.

In terms of gameplay the game is fairly straightforward, if you have played a twin stick shooter in the past 30 years anything from Robotron to the Geomotry wars games then you will know excactly what you are getting. Yes the SNES doesnt have a second stick but its 4 face buttons are placed in such a way that by pressing either one of them or a combination of two at a time you can shoot at every possible angle. The game is fast fun and responsive and most importantly it has the best quality any arcade style game can have and thats the ability to be easy to pick up while being difficult to master but overall feeling fair. Yes the game is hard and it slams you pretty darn har, there is also no wimping out and picking an easy difficulty here as it is actually pretty darn tough on all of the three difficulty settings available. Also you cant complete the game by playing it on easy mode as when you choose this mode you get a shortened version of the game featuring only the first stage with a few less enemies, so this sucker should have really just been called practice mode.

I played the living heck out of this game as a kid and never managed to finish it. You need to remember that this game was born in the arcades and so it was designed to make money, so really the quicker it could get you killed the more pennies it would grab, the bosses in particular are complete bullet spunges who just when you think you have them beat start shooting even more determined to take you down with them. If you want a challange then you have one here, its also a great co-operative two player game. Speaking of other players while I was playing this game my 15 year old daughter walked in the room, she was soon having a go herself and then I practically had to tear her away from it just so I could actually go to bed, and the very next day she was asking if she could go in my room to play the SNES and try and do better on Smash TV. Another sign of how good this game is would be the fact that I am going to sort out one of my other SNES pads so me and her can play it toghther sometime, which is high praise given the fact that some of these games get tossed into the bottom of a draw after I have reviewed them not to be pulled out again for who knows how long.

Ok so for those who are really into the graphics and sound in games how does Smash TV stack up? Well graphically the game is pretty simple with the main player characters and the regular enemies not being much more advanced than stick men, but the game really does flood the screen with them, and there tiny size just helps to make the large boss characters all the more impressive, but yeah this certainly is not the game to use to show of the SNES's graphical grunt work. I find the music to be very basic but also very catchy, I have caught myself humming it when away from the game which I think always says something good about a piece, its basic but it suits the mood of the game perfectly. Speaking of sound one of the most impressive things about this game sound wise is the digitised voice samples they really help with the games feel and atmosphere , little snippits like hearting the host say “Good Luck! You’ll Need It!” really add to the game.

I find that I cant help but give this game a hearty 8 out of 10, sure its not perfect but it is darn playable, and as far as co-op shooters go it might just be one of the best on the SNES. Its funny though how this game now seems to be a bit of a pain to get ahold of when I can remember people using it as a door stop back in the day and the second hand shelfs and bargain bins being full of it but I guess it just goes to show you never know how hard or easy it will be to grab something tommorow if you dont get it today. If you want a cartridge only copy around about £10 like I spent is proberbly the best you can aim for and it might take a bit of waiting and looking as plenty of people seem to be asking for around £18 to £25 for even loose carts are they actually getting that for it? Who knows but if you want to just play the game then do look on Xbox live arcade and compilation discs you might save yourself a few quid or bang a few extra retro games for you cash in the process, which root youy go though all depends if your more a collector or player either way I recomend that you give this game a bash.