SEGA Game Reviews
Review Altered Beast (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
Welcome to your doom!
There’s no two ways about it: Altered Beast is a terrible game. Even here, in a perfect conversion of the arcade original, it’s so horrendously stodgy and repetitive that it makes you wonder quite why anyone holds it in the slightest bit of regard. For those lucky few amongst you yet to engage in a little beast altering,...
Review Virtua Tennis 2009 (Wii)
The new world number one
The first question you might ask when playing Virtua Tennis 2009 is “why has it taken so long to make a great tennis game on Wii?”. Ever since we saw the first videos all those years ago it seemed the console was destined to become better than the real thing when it comes to sports, yet it’s taken years for anyone to...
Let's not...
When Prope revealed Let's Tap to the world everyone though it would be yet another gimmicky Wii motion-based mini-game collection -- which it was, although a pretty good one. After that turned out surprisingly well, expectations of Let's Catch were a bit mixed: playing catch on your Wii sounds a bit goofy, but could it be a hidden gem...
Review Space Harrier (Virtual Console / Virtual Console Arcade)
An interesting slice of gaming history for fans of early 3D games.
Space Harrier is notable for being one of the first arcade games to use a motorised cabinet in its sit-down version, and in the realms of sprite-based third-person 3D shooters it's certainly at the more advanced end of the scale. It was highly popular back when it was released in the...
Review Fantasy Zone II (Virtual Console / Master System)
Does Opa-Opa's second adventure feature the same unique charm of the original?
The original Fantasy Zone release kicked off a series of shooters that's still quite popular to this day. When the game was released on the Sega Master System, it immediately became one of the more beloved titles for the console so it was pretty much a given that a sequel...
Review Galaxy Force II (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
Galaxy Force II is another classic Sega arcade shooter that hasn't aged very well.
Galaxy Force II debuted as a Sega arcade release, using the same type of sprite scaling seen in Sega's other arcade title Space Harrier, and basically mimicked 3-D scrolling without the use of actual polygon graphics. While Sega's Saturn console would later get a...
Review Secret Command (Virtual Console / Master System)
Secret Command takes you back to an era when run 'n gun titles ruled arcades.
With overhead run 'n gun titles like Ikari Warriors and Commando snatching up large numbers of tokens in arcades, it comes as no real surprise that Sega would have to create one of their own for their Sega Master System. The game was originally released under the name...
His interests include drinking, women, cigarettes and cigars - but not necessarily in that order.
Ever since we saw the first batch of screenshots for MadWorld we've been intrigued by its overwhelming style. Clearly influenced by the dark ink of graphic novels such as Frank Miller's Sin City, MadWorld is presented in supremely pretty ultra...
Review Sonic and the Black Knight (Wii)
Hardly the stuff of legend.
Describing Sonic’s early career to young gamers is like discussing dinosaurs, it’s been so long since he was the golden boy of video games whose cheeky blue mug was a bringer of joy in the early Nineties. Since then each new game is touted as a “return to form”, with the Wii’s Sonic and the Secret Rings being...
Review Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars (SMS)
Help Alex Kidd in a race against time
Before Sonic came along and propelled them into the big time, the world identified a big eared lad by the name of Alex Kidd as Sega’s answer to Mario. Alex Kidd in Miracle World was a worthy alternative to Super Mario Bros in the mid 80s and when bundled with the Sega Master System in Europe it helped shift...
Review Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair (MD)
The once quiet town of Xenobia is under attack by fierce, gruesome monsters and no one can stop them!
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair might seem incredibly familiar to Virtual Console addicts because the game has technically already been released on Nintendo’s download service – in the guise of Monster Lair on the TG-16! The complexities of the...
Review House of the Dead: OVERKILL (Wii)
Overkill; the capacity to obliterate a target with more weapons than are required.
Last year the Wii was graced with arguably two of the greatest light gun games of all time thanks to House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. For fans of the series, like myself, it was fantastic to replay some truly classic arcade games as the Wii simulated the old...
Review Wolf of the Battlefield: MERCS (MD)
Join a group of professional mercenaries to undergo secret missions, battling through enemy lines to go where no ordinary soldier would dare to go.
Once upon a time, back before Capcom officially started supporting the Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega acquired licence to reprogram various arcade classics produced by the developer. Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts,...
Play as Sonic or Tails
For those gamers in 1993 who were still unfortunate enough to not have not upgraded to the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis this third 8-bit Sonic adventure might hold some memories. It is unlikely that many will remember this Master System swansong however. That nasty piece of work, Dr. Robotnik is up to no good again and has...
SEGA couldn't keep him on the leash any longer...
Better late than never - this review - not Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Team offered us the latest Sonic adventure just before Christmas, we'd like to tell you we've been so busy playing it since then that we're only just getting round to the review, but that's not true. So let's get on with it. Sonic...
Review Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Wii Virtual Console / Master System)
Ale or mead?
Sega’s follow-up to the legendary Wonder Boy on the Master System took our hero Tom-Tom out of his former prehistoric setting into a medieval fantasy world. This game started out life as an arcade machine and also got ports to home computers and the Japanese PC Engine (TG-16) under the name of Bikkuriman World. Wonder Boy II really...
Review MUSHA (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
We've got much love for MUSHA!
Mention the name Compile to any serious shooter fanatic and you’re likely to be faced with a barrage of nostalgic ranting. The now defunct company was responsible for some of the finest blasters the video game industry has seen, including Super Aleste (also known as Space Megaforce), Gunhed and Zanac. Surprisingly,...
Talent borrows, genius steals. The developers of Dinosaur King have IQs in the thousands.
Over the years we’ve seen many companies try to beat the success of Pokemon, each with their own set of cuddly and heavily market researched monsters. Of course, nobody can beat Nintendo at their own game, but that hasn’t stopped Sega trying with Dinosaur...
Review Enduro Racer (Virtual Console / Master System)
Enduro Racer takes you on an intense set of adrenaline-designed courses
Enduro Racer started out life as an arcade machine by Sega; it was a normal racing game like its better known stable mates Hang-On and Out Run. The idea was to ride your dirt bike through the rocky roads pulling wheelies over jumps. It was quite a popular game at the time and...
A work of art, or a real mess?
With the DS’s touch screen and wireless communications, it’s a wonder there’s no Pictionary game available. Lucky for us, here comes Sega to plug the gap with PictoImage, their take on the classic draw-it-guess-it game. The single player mode consists of 300 pictures drawn by people of all ages, from 4 upwards,...
Review Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Virtual Console / Master System)
Sonic is back for a second 8-bit outing
In 1992 if you weren’t lucky enough to have upgraded to a Sega Mega Drive / Genesis system and still had a humble Master System you might have picked this up. Interestingly the Master System version was released slightly earlier than its 16-bit counterpart so no one can accuse this of being a soulless...
Review Forgotten Worlds (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
You will never forget this one!
Forgotten Worlds was an interesting shoot-em-up arcade game back in the days. Not only was it developed by Capcom, it featured 2 player simultaneous play and a innovative control system were you rotated a second joystick on a 360 degree axis to determine what direction you wanted to fire in. On the shiny new CPS-1...
Review Phantasy Star IV (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
In the year AW 2284, planet Motavia is once again plagued by strange biocreatures.
After two successful Phantasy Star releases, Sega decided to change things up a bit for their third release in the series Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom. The game featured more of a medieval look to it instead of the science fiction theme that had been such an...
Review Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS)
Is Sonic’s first foray into the unknown land of RPG actually any good?
Let’s face it; Sonic has been a bit of a dick lately hasn’t he? You can mark the start of Sonic’s dive into mediocrity from a point in the late 90’s when someone at SEGA decided it would be “cool” to give him a “rad attitude”. From that moment onwards we’ve...
Amigo and Linda crack out the maracas, it's time to Samba!
It's a fact that summer is now over, it's getting colder outside and the clocks are going back. However SEGA want to change all that, releasing Samba de Amigo we can cling onto that summer atmosphere allowing us all to samba all winter long. Samba de Amigo is an incredibly sunny, happy, up...
Review Space Harrier (Virtual Console / Master System)
Blow your mind in a fantasy zone
When Sega released the Master System back in the ‘80s the company was facing an uphill struggle against Nintendo’s NES. The NES had the software support and thanks to Nintendo’s nefarious practice of making developers agree to keep their titles exclusive, it left Sega with little in the way of third party...
Review Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
It’s a dark and stormy night in the kingdom of Granseal when a thief steals two jewels from the Tower of the Ancients.
The original Shining Force was a massive success for Sega, granting the Genesis/Megadrive with a strategy RPG to rival Nintendo’s popular Fire Emblem franchise. A sequel of some description was inevitable and when it arrived the...
Review Sonic the Hedgehog (Virtual Console / Master System)
Sonic's back in 8-bit style.
Following the undoubted success of Sonic The Hedgehog on the Mega Drive it seems only fitting that a version of the game was created for the Sega’s 8-bit wonder, the Master System which still had strong support in Europe at the time. This game was also something of a swan song to North American gamers who had took a...
Review The Incredible Hulk (Wii)
He's big, he's green and he's made us angry!
Bruce Banner is back in his second major blockbuster, The Incredible Hulk, the movie of which the video game is designed to follow. Hollywood very rarely has a mega blockbuster movie without a tie-in video game, this time the difficult challenge was left with Edge of Reality to try and break the mould and...
Review Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Virtual Console / Master System)
In Miracle World you'll have to contend with the evil Janken the Great, who will send his henchmen and monsters at you to thwart your progress.
Following the incredible success of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros series, Sega decided that it too needed a platform game with an identifiable mascot. The result was Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which...
