Sega CD Reviews A-E

This sophisticated first-person RPG is aimed towards patient, strategy-minded gamers. The remarkably deep gameplay is surprisingly faithful to the D&D board game. A wide range of characters are available to populate your four-person party, and you have total control of each character's inventory, down to what's in each hand. Besides fighting and exploration, you can rest, gain experience, pray for spells, scribe scrolls, turn undead, eat, pick locks, and even adjust the marching order. The attention to detail can be overwhelming at times, but hardcore D&D players will appreciate that. You begin your quest in the subterranean bowels of a city. The screen displays a first person view of the dungeon on the left, the characters on the right, and directional controls and miscellaneous information across the bottom. The dungeons consist mainly of narrow hallways, and they are populated with a nice variety of creatures including spiders, zombies, skeletons, golems, hellhounds, and the multi-eyed, globular Beholder. The graphics are about average, but the audio really stands out. Along with crystal clear sound effects, there's a thumping techno soundtrack that provides a shot of energy to the proceedings. The user interface takes some getting used to. You have to move a cursor arrow around the screen, selecting objects and action buttons. It takes some time to learn how to perform critical actions like attack, cast spells, or rearrange your party. It's extremely important to order your characters correctly, since only the front two characters can fight hand-to-hand. Unfortunately, you can't pause during battles (which are in real time), so you better know what you're doing before start trouble. The first time I charged into battle I accidentally rearranged the party's inventory several times while my characters were methodically slaughtered! I hate it when that happens. But after a rough start, the game gradually grew on me and I became somewhat proficient at it. The first few puzzles and monsters are relatively easy to build up your confidence. There's just one flaw that I couldn't seem to get over, and that's confusing dungeon design. It's bad enough that all the hallways look the same, but then they introduce the concept of "fake" walls and portals that send you to God-knows-where. Throw in a map that's basically just two dots on a huge grid and confusion is the result. That's too bad, because otherwise Eye of the Beholder is a fun, immersive experience that really does play like D&D. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

Android Assault is basically just your standard side-scrolling 2D shooter. There isn't anything here that couldn't have been duplicated on a regular Genesis, with the exception of the music, which isn't so hot anyway. Heck, the soft jazz of the first stage is more suitable for a PGA Golf game! You'd think that at least the voices would be clear, but inexplicably, they sound terribly fuzzy! And what's up with the title screen? It says "Bari-Arm" instead of Android Assault. It looks like Sega changed the name without even bothering to fix the title screen. The graphics are just average, even with the multi-layered backgrounds. The scenery is mainly space ships or caves - nothing exceptional to catch your eye. In most stages you can scroll the screen up and down a little bit. Unfortunately, the scenery tends to repeat, as do the sub-bosses that reside in them. Most of your foes are weird, misshapen hunks of metal not unlike those in Lightning Force, and their slow missiles aren't hard to dodge as long as you avoid the crossfire. One thing Android Assault does have going for it is the weapons. There are four to choose from, and each alters the way you play the game. The orange "thunder cracker" gives you a wide spray, the green "burning wave" is powerful but straight, the blue "satellite bombs" deliver 360 degrees of destruction, and the red "chase cannon" shoots guided missiles. Each can be powered up several levels, and you'd be wise to stick with the same weapon once you build it up. Your ship looks pretty generic at first, but it turns into a flying mech warrior when your weapon is completely powered up. It looks cool, but your larger size makes you a bigger target. When you take a hit, you lose a level of weapon power instead of a life, which I think is a good idea. One key technique is the ability to "charge" your weapons. When you're not firing, a meter at the top of the screen displays a charge level, and the longer you wait, the more devastating the blast you can unleash. This is crucial to beating the bosses, who otherwise take forever to defeat. Overall I'd say Android Assault is worth playing, even if it was a poor choice for a launch title. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

If you're a fan of the Batman Returns film this Sega CD game is quite spectacular. It's two games in one, combining the rock-solid platforming action of Batman Returns (Genesis, 1992) with some amazing new driving stages. Cinematic cut-scenes employ a lot of slick rotation and scaling for dramatic effect. The intro is remarkably dark, depicting a beauty queen plunging off a building to her death as Batman circles from above. You can play the driving and platform stages separately, but you'll want both for the full experience. The game opens with six driving stages. Viewing the action from behind your Batmobile, the road smoothly undulates as enemy vehicles scale in from the distance. The gothic, industrial scenery is terrific, offering a "winter wonderland" vibe ideal for a snowy night. Despite the awkward controls it's fun to fire hockey pucks and guided missiles at motorcycles, cars, and trucks. The destruction is satisfying to behold, with motorcycles going up in flames before exploding. That nearly-indestructible firetruck boss however is way over the top. Lighting it up with missiles isn't enough - you have to knock clowns off of its ladders while avoiding its massive flamethrower. In my experience you'll want to ram the ladders before falling back to avoid the flames. As if these stages weren't hard enough, they are also timed, so even when I do survive there's usually only a few seconds to spare. The platforming portions of the game look and play identical to the Genesis, except the audio has been completely redone. The sound effects are noticeably cleaner and the surreal background music is arguably better. The question is, why didn't they use the award-winning score from the actual film? Isn't that what movie licenses are for? It's fun to grapple between building ledges while pummeling the [expletive] out of those pesky clowns. It may not be the smoothest or sharpest platformer, but the action is varied and the gritty graphics add to the dark atmosphere. Batman Returns packs a lot of replay value into an epic adventure no other system can claim. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

First developed in 1994, Battle Frenzy went unreleased until Older Games recently picked up the rights. It's an interesting title, but to fully appreciate it you have to understand its historical context. The breakthrough PC hit Doom spawned all sorts of first-person shooters in the early 1990's. The Sega Genesis wasn't capable of a decent first-person shooter, but the Sega CD had the potential thanks to its built-in rotation and scaling capabilities. Battle Frenzy reveals the limitations of the Sega CD system, but it's still a remarkable game. The object is to destroy all the reactors in a space ship infested with aliens and robots. Scattered throughout its rooms are keys, weapons, mines, and exploding barrels. You'll encounter intimidating alien robots that look like a cross between terminators and demons from hell. I love how they growl as you approach, and they also disintegrate nicely when you pump lead into them. The levels are completely flat and relatively short, and an on-screen auto-map makes it easy to determine your position (impressive). The main faults with Battle Frenzy are its abysmal frame-rate and touchy controls, which actually go hand-in-hand. There's no strafing (ugh!), and it's far too easy to get caught up on corners while navigating narrow corridors. Aiming is problematic, but fortunately your weapons are so powerful that simply spraying usually does the job. The control issue is magnified however when you blow up the reactor at the end of each stage, because then you must race back to the starting point before a countdown expires. For reasons beyond my comprehension, control becomes nearly unmanageable at this point - and just when you need it most! Other issues include the presence of annoying mines and the fact that doors don't look much different than walls. On the bright side, there's a two-player split-screen mode that's surprisingly good! Although it's labeled "Versus" on the menu, it's more cooperative since you can't shoot your partner. I was pleasantly surprised to see the split-screen mode run faster than the normal one, making it an exception to the rule. Another positive aspect is the music, which effectively alternates between high-energy techno and dark, menacing tones. Sega CD fans and classic game collectors will probably find Battle Frenzy to be an interesting relic, but I doubt casual gamers will appreciate it. © Copyright 2004 The Video Game Critic.

If you own a Sega CD you really owe it to yourself to track down a copy of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Instead of a glorified version of the Genesis game, this actually does a good job of showing off the CD technology. The stages feature three dimensional scenery that actually rotates as you walk through it. It's the most amazing effect I've seen on the system, elevating an otherwise mediocre title to noteworthy status. The game conveys atmosphere, and the spine-tingling sounds and orchestrated soundtrack make the action feel epic in scale. It's a shame the gameplay is so disappointing. Playing as a digitized Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) you creep through forests, graveyards, and castles while unleashing your martial arts fury on bats, squirrels, and spiders. These creatures wouldn't be a problem if they didn't converge from all directions (gah!). And who are these guys who keep clunking me over the head with a chalice? The jumping controls are lacking, and I have no idea how to get past those bear traps without sustaining damage. Eventually you encounter vomiting zombies and winged demons, but they look cartoonish next to the digitized sceney. The control scheme is confusing and there's some lag to your punches and kicks. When you're trying to fight a monster while getting pelted by tiny creatures, it feels overwhelming. And it's just plain dumb when you "punch" ethereal ghosts and it makes a ker-pow sound. In one stage you walk through a library with books flying all over the place, and since you can't run, it's a nightmare. Fortunately you get five lives along with three continues. Sandwiching the stages are full-screen cut-scenes from the film, but they look horribly grainy, have no dialogue, and cannot be skipped. That said, the game is challenging and worth pulling out around Halloween. Despites its flaws I still consider Bram Stoker's Dracula a showcase title for the Sega CD. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

You know, even if the game isn't very good, it's always a thrill to play a new game for a classic system. Formerly a shelved 1994 Sony project, Bug Blasters is no prize, but you have to appreciate Good Deal Games for at least allowing this one to see the light of day. As the story begins, LA has been overrun by giant bugs, and a band of Ghostbusters-wannabes called the Exterminators are out to save the city. Not only do these guys look and act like the Ghostbusters, but even their theme song sounds the same! You have to wonder if Sony held back on this for fear of copyright infringement. The acting is as bad as you would expect, and the dialogue can be hard to stomach at times. But Bug Blasters does have a few things going for it. The video is grainy but full screen (!), and there is virtually no load time. Bug Blasters uses the same type of "aim and shoot" gameplay as Tomcat Alley, but with less success. There are often dozens of bugs flying around the screen, but the collision detection is weak and shooting one requires as much luck as skill. I did notice that you can tap the shoot button quickly to increase your chances of a hit. Also like Tomcat Alley, it's the pyrotechnics that really steal the show. After shooting each bug, you get to see a nice clip of the thing blowing up. Secondary weapons like flares and grenades are available, but you probably won't need them. The gameplay is pretty simplistic, although at times you'll want to be careful not to shoot another member of your team. One thing that really bothered me was that no matter how many bugs you kill, the number of insects flying around the screen is always the same. At least there are some large "claymation" bosses to add some variety. Bug Blasters is not a great game, but collectors should certainly take notice. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

I've become quite the skeptic when it comes to old, previously unreleased games being resuscitated years later. My first question usually is, "what's wrong with it?" If you're looking for a top-of-the-line fighter like Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat, Burning Fists is probably not for you. However, if you're a 2D fighter nut who with an appreciation for the old school, this may be worth checking out. Burning Fists is anything but original. Except for a few novel attacks (like elbow drops and rolling kicks), it simply recycles ideas from other, better 2D fighters. It plays fairly well however, and at the very least offers an exceptional soundtrack and a few interesting stages. Most of the fighters are blatant Street Fighter rip-offs, with look-alikes for Ryu, Chun-Li, Guile, Balrog, and Blanka. Blanka's clone not only hails from South America, but even has the same green skin (c'mon now!). The single original character is an armored warrior from Kenya who loves to shake his long wiggly stick. The eight stage backdrops are a mixed bag, but Chile is undeniably beautiful with its looming pyramids and purple sunset. The Daytona USA stage looks dull, but the sound of race cars whizzing by is pretty amazing. Burning Fist's graphics are about on par with Eternal Champions, and a notch or two below Street Fighter 2. The animation is smooth enough, but a lot of the moves look "unnatural" at best. The collision detection is erratic at times, and the vocal effects are redundant. You can't adjust the best-out-of-five match configuration, and the CPU opponent isn't very sharp. The highlight of the game is its killer soundtrack. All of the songs are well produced, and a few are simply outstanding. I also need to mention a few technical landmines you'll want to be aware of. Do not press the Start button during a fight, or you may find yourself trapped in the pause mode from hell. In addition, the game froze when I tried to play it on my 32X-equpped front-loading Sega CD system. Despite its uneven quality however, I still enjoyed Burning Fists. It's easy to play, and takes you back to a time when 2D fighters were king. © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.

Good Deal Games (GDG) has been a valuable proponent of retro-gaming for years, resurrecting several unreleased titles for classic consoles like the Sega CD or Philips CDi. Since no good deed goes unpunished, I summarily trashed GDG's first two titles, Bug Blasters and Star Strike for the Sega CD. I feel pretty bad about that, so it's a relief that I can give Good Deal's latest game, Citizen X, a passing grade. While the documentation admits this is an "unfinished" game, if not for a few subtle details you'd never know. Citizen X is mainly a standard side-scroller with full motion video (FMV) clips interspersed with the action. The small clips (50% of the screen in size) effectively establish the storyline and introduce new villains, but have no real bearing on the gameplay. The acting is bad and the script is worse, but that's all part of the fun. Playing as a dorky-looking guy in red tennis shoes, you collect items and use them to subdue terrorists that have made the sewers into their headquarters. The bad guys range from bald musclemen to martial arts experts to demented clowns. Your fighting abilities are limited to a simple punch, but simply running past these thugs is usually your best bet. The graphics are grainy and look like they were drawn with a crayon, and the repetitive sewer screens would be intolerable if not for the useful map. Let's face it: the idea of running around sewer mazes is not very enticing to most gamers who survived the 90's. At least some of the animations are interesting, like the muscleman fighting (or is he eating?) a sewer rat, or the maniac clown performing pantomime. The sound effects are somewhat muffled, but the cheesy music really grew on me. The controls are decent, but it's hard to use the dynamite without blowing yourself up. Only two minor things reveal Citizen X to be unfinished. At one point, a villain cannot enter a room, but you can see him flickering on the edge of the screen. Also, in some of the FMV there are short scenes missing (indicated by "scene missing" text). But neither of these will detract from your enjoyment of the game. There's nothing outstanding here, but the gameplay is unexplainably addictive. Citizen X is typical of the early-90s video games that tried to incorporate cheesy FMV with standard platform action, and Sega CD fans will love it. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.

Most of its stages are cut-and-pasted from the Genesis cartridge, but CD-quality music, film clips, and a "radical" 3D snowboarding stage elevates this Sega CD edition above the rest. Cliffhanger kicks off with some extremely grainy film clips that only consume about half of the screen. The video might look rough but it's a step up from comic-book panels of the other versions (on second thought, maybe not). There's about 20 minutes of movie footage in the entire game. Cliffhanger is a side-scrolling beat-em-up with platform-jumping and wall-climbing challenges sprinkled in. You play a mountain climber named Gabe who must defeat the evil Qualen and his army of henchmen on snowy mountain peaks. I find it amusing how the environments were so rocky in the movie yet are perfectly flat in this game. The fighting action is faster and more responsive than the SNES version, which is good. The stages are lifted directly from the Genesis with the exception of a new snowboarding avalanche sequence. This impressive stage uses scaling sprites to deliver pseudo-3D thrills - not unlike the driving scenes in Batman Returns (Sega CD, 1992). As you steer Gabe on a snowboard down a narrow path strewn with trees and rocks, a relentless avalanche encroaches from behind. Hearing the roar of rushing snow is unsettling, and when the snow starts building around your ankles, it's downright alarming. Unfortunately, this stage is so insanely long you practically need to memorize the entire course to survive. A checkpoint would have been nice. It's frustrating to breeze through the fights only to piss away all your lives on that single stage. Cliffhanger's audio is a definite improvement over the Genesis version. The groans and grunts sound clear and the orchestrated soundtrack reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. My friend Eric remarked that he actually prefers the synthesized Genesis music because it "makes him feel like he's playing a video game." That's an interesting point of view. Overall Cliffhanger on the Sega CD is a pretty neat adaptation of the film, offering a richer, more immersive experience than the other versions. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.

An artifact of a strange time, Corpse Killer is a full-motion video (FMV) shooter with light-gun support. The video area consumes roughly half of the screen and the quality is marginal. The opening scene establishes the first-person perspective as you parachute onto a zombie-infested tropical island and get stuck in a tree. You know you're in for a low budget affair when the first zombie has gobs of gray makeup on his face but nothing on his hands. You immediately team up with a Rastafarian named Winston and a blonde reporter named Julie. Winston is a cool cat but Julie was clearly not hired for her acting ability. Her lines incorporate awkward sexual innuendos like "Cool tool - I bet you know how to... turn it on." As you cruise around the island (via grainy cut scenes) your goal is to rescue fellow soldiers captured by a diabolical scientist. I enjoyed the tropical scenery coupled with the dark voodoo imagery. The bongo drums set the mood as you venture into areas like a graveyard, a swamp, and a beach covered with shipwrecks. The shooting action however leaves much to be desired. As a camera slowly pans the scenery, digitized zombies float toward you. They look like poorly-paid extras, and when shot they shout "doh!" like Homer Simpson. The game supports the Menacer light gun, but the accuracy is horrible. You're better off dragging a crosshair around the screen with a normal controller. At least then you can unleash a rapid-fire torrent of bullets. Corpse Killer is shallow but I discovered some subtle strategy. You'll want to focus on the monsters on the right side of the screen, as the leftmost ones tend to scroll off before they can reach you. By shooting the flashing "shadow figures" you can wipe out everything on the screen. The video intermissions are the highlight of the game, and Vincent Shiavelli deserves an Oscar for his mad-voodoo-scientist role. The scenes are fun to watch once or twice, but after that you'll be happy to skip them. A "data pod" screen allows you to save your progress and watch additional video clips. A map lets you select missions, but there's not much variety. Corpse Killer is not a good game by any stretch of the imagination, but if you're fascinated by FMV games, this is an interesting relic. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

You'd expect a CD game based on a vampire-infested 1899 London to be pretty exciting, but Dracula Unleashed is basically a slow, plodding mystery. It's played by moving a cursor around the screen and clicking on objects or icons. The idea is to collect various items and take them to the right places at the specific times, causing the storyline to unfold in the form of live-action video sequences. Unfortunately, if you miss a key event, your game will end abruptly. Fortunately you can save at any time. While Dracula Unleashed sometimes provides clues to keep you on track, the gameplay tends to be more "trial and error" than true detective work. The story isn't very suspenseful or compelling, and there's virtually no payoff until you get three-quarters through the game. The visuals consist of grainy video clips and well-drawn illustrations. I'd have to admit that the acting is respectable for a CD game, and the characters are likeable enough. I didn't recognize any actors in the cast. The downtown scenery is convincing except for the graveyard which looks like some dirt in front of a stone wall - lame! If they would have used an actual, decrepit old graveyard, it would have raised the game's grade at least by one letter. Some of the special effects, such as the floating bodies, are very well done, but the flashing eyes look terribly fake. Dracula looks a lot like Dracula from the 1992 film, but you only see him near the end of the game. There's some gore, but the Sega CD's trademark pixelation prevents it from being particularly explicit. The sound effects are terrific, especially when you ride in the carriage, and the music is well orchestrated and creepy. The user interface could be more streamlined, but it's acceptable once you learn a few shortcuts. Dracula Unleashed is a good-looking game, but only patient gamers will be able to deal with its slow pace. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

This game opens with about five or six intro screens that will make you wish CD technology had never been invented. Once it finally begins ESPN National Hockey Night looks just like the Genesis version, only with gratuitous video clips. Having Bill Clement introduce the match-ups via extra-grainy full-motion video (FMV) is actually a step down from his digitized Genesis appearance. On the ice the action is slightly better than the Genesis. Perhaps it's my imagination, but I feel like the controls are tighter and my teammates more aggressive. Passing and checking are still problematic but I enjoy the player animations and uptempo pace. One aspect that far surpasses the Genesis is the audio. You wouldn't think realistic crowd noise would be a big deal, but it sounds amazing! If you crank up the stereo it really envelops you. Likewise the sound of the puck click-clacking off the boards is great. It's a shame the audio briefly cuts out before each face-off. Another interesting CD-related feature is how the game will abruptly stop in its tracks - as if it crashed or something. Nope, it's just loading a video clip of an actual hockey play meant to highlight a devastating check or spectacular glove save. It's not very convincing though, especially since the teams in the video are different from the ones playing! Did they think we wouldn't notice? Well, considering how grainy the footage is, maybe they were right. There's some novelty value there, but it gets old having to wait ten seconds for a three-second clip to load. Oh well, at least you can adjust the frequency. You'd think the FMV technology might be used for elaborate intermission reports, but no such luck. There are some missed opportunities here, but I think ESPN Hockey Night still manages to edge out the Genesis version, if just barely. © Copyright 2015 The Video Game Critic.

With tighter gameplay, cleaner graphics, and a full suite of modes, Challenge From the Dark Side is a substantial step up from the Genesis version of Eternal Champions. The obligatory video intro depicts how each of the game's fighters originally met their demise. As one of my friends remarked, "this has more back-story than the Bible!" Once you begin fighting the differences are immediately noticeable. The graphics are much sharper, the animation is more fluid, and the hits sound crisp. The revamped soundtrack is stronger, with one song that actually sounds like New Order. The nine-man roster is joined by four new fighters including Ramses the pharaoh, Raven the Voodoo priestess, Dawson the cowboy, and a female pirate named Riptide. The backgrounds are less grainy and more colorful. Interesting backdrops include a ship on stormy seas, a high-speed mine-cart ride, and a skull-shaped cave in the jungle. The overhauled audio boasts clear voices and sound effects. For the solo player there's a lot more depth, although that character selection screen looks pretty sorry. Three skill levels are available and you can participate in a wide range of tournament variations. If Eternal Champions has a weakness, it's the fact that it's still Eternal Champions, saddled with the same flawed engine. Expect fishy collision detection and difficult-to-perform special moves that deal minimal damage. Matches run too long and there are too many annoying "disappear" moves. Sometimes you'll accidentally perform a taunt, leaving yourself open to attack. The defensive-minded CPU turns every contest into a war of attrition. Eternal Champions is known for its fatalities and this is one area where the game truly shines. There are literally dozens of gory death animations, and they are a joy to behold! The only thing more satisfying than beating the crap out of a friend is watching him get devoured by a great white shark afterward! Eternal Champions isn't a top-tier fighter, but I feel like it reached its potential on the Sega CD. © Copyright 2015 The Video Game Critic.