2020/7/29: Sega CD: Prince of Persia, Wild Woody

[VideoGameCritic]

Here are two games that probably shouldn't have been on the Sega CD.

The new Prince of Persia review is a lot more thoughtful and raises the grade from F to D-.

Wild Woody is new. Thoughts?

[goldenband]

Love seeing new Sega CD reviews!

I remember trying to play Wild Woody and just sort of giving up without feeling like I'd even really grasped the gameplay. It seemed like a particularly poor example of a certain kind of platformer from the era.

I noticed some of the innuendos in the game (including its name, most obviously), but it sounds like it went quite a bit further than I'd realized, even without the secret nudity bit!

[BanjoPickles]

Prince of Persia CD was the second port of the game I ever played, after the SNES port. I was so amazed at how much of a step down the Sega CD game was from the SNES. It was like comparing the Game Boy port to the PC original.

Konami’s Prince of Persia was a stunningly good looking game with an amazing soundtrack and fluid animation/gameplay. The Sega CD port had none of those things.

[VicViper]

"Pulling yourself up ledges is no problem, but climbing back down is another story. You know you're in trouble when a move requires you to press A & C at the same time!"

Waitwhat?

You have one button to hang on a ledge, and one button to jump beforehand, but you don't need to hold both when you're hanging.
If you mean to go down ledges, you just need to turn around and press down on the D-Pad, and then press the button to hang (if you really need to hang). At worst, it's press hang and then down on the D-Pad, but nothing that involves two face buttons at the same time, let alone A & C.

I also recommend to kick up the battle speed a notch in the menu, the default one is slow even for the PC version, which might mean why it wasn't responsive for you in swordfights.

In any case, I doubt even the SNES or PC version would reach C for you.

EDIT: Although... You gave the Turbografx CD version a C?
That I don't understand however, because it's the exact same developers and the same game as the Sega CD port, except with different graphics, more dodgy controls, worse platform detection when jumping, and worse hit detection during sword fights. It's pretty much an alpha of the Sega CD version.

Prince of Persia CD was the second port of the game I ever played, after the SNES port. I was so amazed at how much of a step down the Sega CD game was from the SNES. It was like comparing the Game Boy port to the PC original.

Konami’s Prince of Persia was a stunningly good looking game with an amazing soundtrack and fluid animation/gameplay. The Sega CD port had none of those things.

At its core, the Sega CD port has the very same gameplay as the SNES game or the PC version, technically the Sega CD port is more fluid because even at the highest speed setting it doesn't slow down, while the SNES game has some spots where it really struggles hard (like battling another guard on a conveyor belt has the game's speed getting halved)..

When you take out the level design because it's really different on SNES compared to every other version, the two of them in gameplay are extremely close to each other. I agree the Sega CD version is graphically underwhelming, but that's pretty much it, and I'll take that sacrifice if that allows a toggable game speed.

[Buttermancan]

"Pulling yourself up ledges is no problem, but climbing back down is another story. You know you're in trouble when a move requires you to press A & C at the same time!"

Waitwhat?

You have one button to hang on a ledge, and one button to jump beforehand, but you don't need to hold both when you're hanging.
If you mean to go down ledges, you just need to turn around and press down on the D-Pad, and then press the button to hang (if you really need to hang). At worst, it's press hang and then down on the D-Pad, but nothing that involves two face buttons at the same time, let alone A & C.

I also recommend to kick up the battle speed a notch in the menu, the default one is slow even for the PC version, which might mean why it wasn't responsive for you in swordfights.

In any case, I doubt even the SNES or PC version would reach C for you.

EDIT: Although... You gave the Turbografx CD version a C?
That I don't understand however, because it's the exact same developers and the same game as the Sega CD port, except with different graphics, more dodgy controls, worse platform detection when jumping, and worse hit detection during sword fights. It's pretty much an alpha of the Sega CD version.

Prince of Persia CD was the second port of the game I ever played, after the SNES port. I was so amazed at how much of a step down the Sega CD game was from the SNES. It was like comparing the Game Boy port to the PC original.

Konami’s Prince of Persia was a stunningly good looking game with an amazing soundtrack and fluid animation/gameplay. The Sega CD port had none of those things.

At its core, the Sega CD port has the very same gameplay as the SNES game or the PC version, technically the Sega CD port is more fluid because even at the highest speed setting it doesn't slow down, while the SNES game has some spots where it really struggles hard (like battling another guard on a conveyor belt has the game's speed getting halved)..

When you take out the level design because it's really different on SNES compared to every other version, the two of them in gameplay are extremely close to each other. I agree the Sega CD version is graphically underwhelming, but that's pretty much it, and I'll take that sacrifice if that allows a toggable game speed.

And I thought I was a Prince of Persia fan The only versions I have played are the Amiga, Pc and Sega Megadrive ports. I'd love to try the Snes version. The animation in the Sega CD version doesn't seem as good, the graphics are gaudy and the music isn't as good ( though fits the Persian theme well).

I too was a bit confused the controls having to hold down two buttons at the same time.

[Atariboy]

I wouldn't hold it against it that it's so different from the SNES game, since the SNES game is almost more a re-imagining than a port.

The Sega CD version of Prince of Persia is just great, as is the similar TG16/PC Engine Super CD version. I love the Japanese "branch" of Prince of Persia 1 ports, which also included versions for various interesting computers unfamiliar to most of us westerners like the X68000, the PC-98, and the FM Towns.

There are essentially four branches of Persia of Persia 1. The original western computer versions of the 8-bit era, the Japanese computer and console ports such as the Sega CD version, the SNES game, and the final American computer ports for the Mac and MS-DOS like was included with the Sands of Time as a bonus game ~15 years ago.

[velcrozombie]

Fun fact about the soundtrack for Wild Woody - it was done by virtuoso guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, who was the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses from 2006-2014 (including playing on Chinese Democracy), played guitar in Art of Anarchy (which had vocals by both Scott Weiland and Scott Stapp) and is the current vocalist/guitarist for Asia, among other accomplishments. Thal reportedly had a month to write and record all the music for the game - he played all the instruments except drums and also sings on the soundtrack.

There's an episode of Broken Pixels featuring Wild Woody, which is how I first heard of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwUMV6ZHuhk