Yeah I was the other way around - had a speccy, C64, and Amiga, but completely missed out on the early consoles except when I was round at a mates who had one.
A Return to the Era of Incline - Old Games Revisited
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Yeah I was the other way around - had a speccy, C64, and Amiga, but completely missed out on the early consoles except when I was round at a mates who had one.
Falksi
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If your name's Tim and you used to live on Dev Drive then aup mate! lol
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JFarrell71
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I had that in the c64 and I remember sinking a lot of hours into it. I was never any good at these games though! I never played the master system version.
That's the version I played also, the C64 version. I had a few of these, including at least one Summer Games and Winter games.
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EA Hockey was, and still is, awesome. It was mind blowing being able to play on the same side as your mate, and some of the interplay which you could work up was brilliant.
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Falksi
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Crusader of Centy (a.k.a. Soleil) - Megadrive
I remember seeing this game doing the rounds back in t'day, but never once being remotely interested in it. It was released just as I was switching my focus from games to fanny as puberty hit full bore, so that might have been one of the reasons why it just didn't grab me.
It's got a lot of Zelda-esq qualities to it, but it's also far more linear & more gameplay orientated than puzzle orientated. I love the ideas behind the story. After playing around an hour I really connected with the game, and couldn't wait to see through the adventure. Graphics are nice, controls well enough, and the foundations for what should be a great game are there.
Sadly, it's execution lets it down. The two main issues being the area designs & slightly obscure "quests". The areas you explore feel empty & lacking, whereas Zelda was Super-Mario esq with a whole host of neat little things hiding away everywhere, this attempts that but doesn't pull it off half as well. When you play Zelda you push/pull/search everything knowing the world is absolutely riddled with mysteries & secrets waiting to be discovered. This doesn't manage to convey or do that half as well. And yes you are told what your next objective is, but often in a round-about way which still leaves a fair bit open to interpretation. It can result in wandering round for hours with no real purpose. Hours in a world which doesn't have anything of note to discover in the process.
I'd say check it out because it may have enough for some to really enjoy, but in the end it fell a bit short for me.
:3/5:
I remember seeing this game doing the rounds back in t'day, but never once being remotely interested in it. It was released just as I was switching my focus from games to fanny as puberty hit full bore, so that might have been one of the reasons why it just didn't grab me.
It's got a lot of Zelda-esq qualities to it, but it's also far more linear & more gameplay orientated than puzzle orientated. I love the ideas behind the story. After playing around an hour I really connected with the game, and couldn't wait to see through the adventure. Graphics are nice, controls well enough, and the foundations for what should be a great game are there.
Sadly, it's execution lets it down. The two main issues being the area designs & slightly obscure "quests". The areas you explore feel empty & lacking, whereas Zelda was Super-Mario esq with a whole host of neat little things hiding away everywhere, this attempts that but doesn't pull it off half as well. When you play Zelda you push/pull/search everything knowing the world is absolutely riddled with mysteries & secrets waiting to be discovered. This doesn't manage to convey or do that half as well. And yes you are told what your next objective is, but often in a round-about way which still leaves a fair bit open to interpretation. It can result in wandering round for hours with no real purpose. Hours in a world which doesn't have anything of note to discover in the process.
I'd say check it out because it may have enough for some to really enjoy, but in the end it fell a bit short for me.
:3/5:
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There was an NES port of Defender of the Crown that was pretty good. I sunk a ton of hours into that when I was a kid. I also remember playing California Games on the NES as well as another skate/surf game called T&C Surf Designs.
Falksi
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Are you a bit of a NES buff?
I never touched the system due to being a SEGA fanboy at the time. Be great to see some NES reviews on here if you fancy it?
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I owned both systems, but the NES was far more popular over here. In fact, I can't recall any of my friends having a SMS, but everyone had an NES.
I really liked my SMS though. I remember games like Outrun and Space Harrier being pretty decent ports on that system. Of course it also had Phantasy Star which was the best console RPG of that era.
I remember been amazed by the speccy version of Space Harrier because they'd managed to code in a fast moving tiled floor - something the c64 version hadn't managed. Doesn't compare to the NES version though I imagine
Falksi
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I remember been amazed by the speccy version of Space Harrier because they'd managed to code in a fast moving tiled floor - something the c64 version hadn't managed. Doesn't compare to the NES version though I imagine
Ha, yeah, things like that looked stunning didn't they?
Never played any of the computer ports though. I had the Master System version and was kinda happy with that for a while. Will likely review that & Space Harrier 2 at some point.
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Falksi
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Brawl Brother (Rival Turf 2) - SNES
^ It's M Bison. Again. Yawn.
Ugggh. I remember seeing this kicking about, but was well put off by it's wank cover. And what is it with the M Bison obsession of that era? You could find clones of him everywhere, in this game for one.
Is it serviceable? yes. From an era where there's a fuck load of Beat Em Ups to play is it worth your time? No. Simply put it hasn't got the charm, satisfaction, or excitement to warrant it. It's a bit like going to work. You do it, some of you may enjoy it, but ultimately it's pretty empty and Sat night is what you're really looking forward to.
It doesn't play that great either tbh. There's a lot of time with some of the characters where the action feels behind your button inputs.
Not woeful, but not worth playing much either.
:2/5:
^ It's M Bison. Again. Yawn.
Ugggh. I remember seeing this kicking about, but was well put off by it's wank cover. And what is it with the M Bison obsession of that era? You could find clones of him everywhere, in this game for one.
Is it serviceable? yes. From an era where there's a fuck load of Beat Em Ups to play is it worth your time? No. Simply put it hasn't got the charm, satisfaction, or excitement to warrant it. It's a bit like going to work. You do it, some of you may enjoy it, but ultimately it's pretty empty and Sat night is what you're really looking forward to.
It doesn't play that great either tbh. There's a lot of time with some of the characters where the action feels behind your button inputs.
Not woeful, but not worth playing much either.
:2/5:
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Sword of Sodan - Amiga
I fired up Antstream and decided to pick something random from the list… and ended up with Sword of Sodan! I'm fairly sure I played it back in the day and enjoyed it, but I don't remember it particularly. Let's have a look…
Blimey! What great graphics it has for an Amiga game from 1988. Chunky, huge sprites with lots of detail and colour. It looks awesome. You can also choose a male or female character at the start, which is nice. They seemed to play the same to me but it's good to have a choice. And there's some nice digitised speech, although the guy sounds surprisingly bored for someone narrating a swords and sorcery epic where people don't like to wear much clothing.
You then start the game and set about swinging your sword at the giant enemy sprites and walking slowly from the left to the right.
Good lord. The actual gameplay bit is crap. You swing your sword a bit and duck occasionally. There's lots of grunting. The enemies bunch up and poke back with spears. Sometimes they hit you. It takes lots of hits to kill anyone. It's really, really dull.
It's not even well designed. On the very first level, if you back your enemies up far enough to the right they all disappear into a doorway and you can't see any of them anymore. You know they're still there because of all the grunting but you can't see them.
Level two is like level one, except with spikes coming out if the floor. Because everyone loves that. They damage you, but annoyingly they don't seem to hurt anyone else, so you don't even have the satisfaction of using the enemies traps against them.
Apparently if you play long enough you get to a monster you can ride on. I didn't get that far. This is a bad game. But hey, it looks good, right? So that's a 2 I think; but I can't recommend it unfortunately.
2/5
I fired up Antstream and decided to pick something random from the list… and ended up with Sword of Sodan! I'm fairly sure I played it back in the day and enjoyed it, but I don't remember it particularly. Let's have a look…
Blimey! What great graphics it has for an Amiga game from 1988. Chunky, huge sprites with lots of detail and colour. It looks awesome. You can also choose a male or female character at the start, which is nice. They seemed to play the same to me but it's good to have a choice. And there's some nice digitised speech, although the guy sounds surprisingly bored for someone narrating a swords and sorcery epic where people don't like to wear much clothing.
You then start the game and set about swinging your sword at the giant enemy sprites and walking slowly from the left to the right.
Good lord. The actual gameplay bit is crap. You swing your sword a bit and duck occasionally. There's lots of grunting. The enemies bunch up and poke back with spears. Sometimes they hit you. It takes lots of hits to kill anyone. It's really, really dull.
It's not even well designed. On the very first level, if you back your enemies up far enough to the right they all disappear into a doorway and you can't see any of them anymore. You know they're still there because of all the grunting but you can't see them.
Level two is like level one, except with spikes coming out if the floor. Because everyone loves that. They damage you, but annoyingly they don't seem to hurt anyone else, so you don't even have the satisfaction of using the enemies traps against them.
Apparently if you play long enough you get to a monster you can ride on. I didn't get that far. This is a bad game. But hey, it looks good, right? So that's a 2 I think; but I can't recommend it unfortunately.
2/5
Falksi
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Sword of Sodan - Amiga
I fired up Antstream and decided to pick something random from the list… and ended up with Sword of Sodan! I'm fairly sure I played it back in the day and enjoyed it, but I don't remember it particularly. Let's have a look…
Blimey! What great graphics it has for an Amiga game from 1988. Chunky, huge sprites with lots of detail and colour. It looks awesome. You can also choose a male or female character at the start, which is nice. They seemed to play the same to me but it's good to have a choice. And there's some nice digitised speech, although the guy sounds surprisingly bored for someone narrating a swords and sorcery epic where people don't like to wear much clothing.
You then start the game and set about swinging your sword at the giant enemy sprites and walking slowly from the left to the right.
Good lord. The actual gameplay bit is crap. You swing your sword a bit and duck occasionally. There's lots of grunting. The enemies bunch up and poke back with spears. Sometimes they hit you. It takes lots of hits to kill anyone. It's really, really dull.
It's not even well designed. On the very first level, if you back your enemies up far enough to the right they all disappear into a doorway and you can't see any of them anymore. You know they're still there because of all the grunting but you can't see them.
Level two is like level one, except with spikes coming out if the floor. Because everyone loves that. They damage you, but annoyingly they don't seem to hurt anyone else, so you don't even have the satisfaction of using the enemies traps against them.
Apparently if you play long enough you get to a monster you can ride on. I didn't get that far. This is a bad game. But hey, it looks good, right? So that's a 2 I think; but I can't recommend it unfortunately.
2/5
Nice review
I remember seeing this for the Megadrive and going through a similar thought process regards the sprites & graphics. Thankfully, Mean Machines reviewed it before I had chance to purchase it, and levelled a lot of the same criticisms at it which you have, so I avoided it.I think I'm gonna have to play it now, just to see how bad it is :lol:
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Cool! Be interesting to hear if the Megadrive version is any better.
Or the Apple Mac version, which was released years later in 1993… by our old friends Bethesda Softworks, apparently…!
Or the Apple Mac version, which was released years later in 1993… by our old friends Bethesda Softworks, apparently…!
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JFarrell71
SasqWatch
I was absolutely fascinated by Defender of the Crown, and Cinemaware games in general, when I was a kid. King of Chicago and Rocket Ranger are two others I distinctly remember.
Yeah Cinemaware had a great run of form for a while. My favourite was It Came From The Desert - haven't played it in years but still have vivid memories.