MetalKingShield

It's absurd how imagery of topless females has gradually become classified as very explicit - it wasn't even considered nudity when I was young. And the most forbidden part is the nipple, which is what men have too. I just don't understand it.

If this comes to the UK and it's an accurate way of playing Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder, I'll be tempted. If they can find a way to include Spider-Man: The Video Game, I'll definitely get it. However, the 16:9 screen is potentially a huge issue. It's important that the 4:3 games display in the correct ratio. Many Data East arcade games were a completely square 1:1, for example, and don't look right in 4:3.

I'm very tempted, but it does seem a bit pricey. Probably a bit too much above impulse buy. Still very appealing, though, for people like me who always wanted their own arcade.

Regarding Altered Beast, I'm more a fan of it than not. In the '80s I used to cycle to a local shop just to play it. There weren't too many side-scrolling 2D action games with graphics like that, plus it had things like collecting orbs and becoming more powerful with animal transformations. As others have said, the Mega Drive port was a good way to launch the console, and I feel the game's reputation (both arcade original and port) began to lessen as other Mega Drive games surpassed it. Maybe it hasn't aged all that well, like other coin-ops, but it definitely has its place on something representing what '80s arcades felt like.

The best thing about this machine, in my opinion, is that it has both Golden Axe coin-ops on it. As it's capable of System 32, how about including Arabian Fight? I've never even played that one but am curious about it. And it'd be great if the licence was granted for Spider-Man: The Arcade Game - one of the most enjoyable beat-'em-ups ever. Capcom managed to secure some licensed games for their arcade stick, so you never know.

Excellent. I've wanted to try a Shiren game for a while now. Although I heard of Shiren the Wanderer when it was released, I wasn't into roguelikes at the time. Hopefully this is more like Alchemic Dungeons DX - ie. slower-paced, strategic and accessible-but-complex - than the faster-paced, action-based roguelikes that seem to be most popular these days.

Nice Bill & Ted reference.

Best toys ever, even better than Lego. How I loved building Zoidzilla, Ultrasaurus and others.

Animal Crossing, bits of Shantae and the Seven Sirens and bits of Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.

It's amazing how they managed to make it feel authentically Streets of Rage, but also as modern as you could possibly get. Shinobi would be good, as it's certainly one of the games truly associated with Sega in the '80s, but there's nothing I'd like more than to see Tyris Flare riding dragons and fighting ogres in a new Golden Axe.

Shantae and Animal Crossing.

It's a good Metroidvania (in fact, it's much more like that genre than the series has ever been) and the control system is a genuine evolution for the series. Tonally, I'm not so keen. The series has gone very self-referential and has become too cutesy for my liking, as though they have decided it's better business to make it more innocent and they no longer have the same vision or passion to make it like the 2nd and 3rd games. Maybe I'm wrong but that's just my personal take.

Animal Crossing and Kotodama.

2/10. Guess I don't like Nintendo that much!

I got it for 79p and am enjoying it. Yeah, mild titillation is a part of it, but what's wrong with that? There's also an intriguing mystery story in the style that only the Japanese can do (similar atmosphere to Phoenix Wright, as a very rough comparison) and I'm pretty hooked on the puzzle element.

I could never work out how risqué this is. It had a provisional PEGI 16 (which is still visible in the review image), but it's actually a PEGI 12. Plus, the review had a lot of contradictions. I get the feeling they toned it down, but who knows?

If it's true, it could be a sort of streaming/cloud gaming service. Not sure if that's viable, but it's what springs to mind.

Come to think of it, a remake of Landstalker would be fantastic. I just remember it being really great escapism with a magical feel, and LIzardCube's art style would fit right in with it.

I would personally love Golden Axe, Wonder Boy in Monster World and... not sure about a third, but I could potentially see them updating OutRun.

7/10 thanks to Clyde, Wreck-It Ralph and the Donkey Kong cabinet. Really loved playing arcade games in the '80s too.

I'm not bored with it, but I think the pace is a little bit too slow since Nintendo added Redd and Leif. Actually, I don't mind either of them, but there are so many visitors now there's too much chance of it being one you don't particularly want to see. Kicks and Label could go in the existing clothes shop, as a suggestion. C.J. and Flick are the best, in my opinion, and I'm not able to see them and request a model as much as I did before the last update.

Enjoyed that, thanks! Don't normally get 10/10, but did with this one. Had to think hardest about the first question.

Personally, I'd love to see LizardCube's take on Golden Axe. Tyris Flare, Ax Battler, all the dragons and ogres...

I remember finding Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder at a seaside arcade in 1992. I was with two friends, so we played it 3-player. We loved it at the time, although I don't know how much of that was because of the brilliant graphics and new ride-ons. I found it again in subsequent years and possibly do prefer the slower, more deliberate gameplay of the original, but it's certainly a good game.

My opinion on why it never got ported was because this was 1992 and no home console could run it. 32-bit coin-ops were incredibly advanced compared to the Mega Drive and SNES (Spider-Man: The Arcade Game never got ported either). By the time the Saturn was released in 1994, things had moved on and become more polygon focused. Of course, that doesn't mean it couldn't have been ported - many of us wanted it - but as I say, things moved quickly in the '90s and most of Sega's System 32 catalogue just became forgotten at that point, unfortunately.

From what I've played so far, it really is very good indeed. Much better than I expected.

Did the likes of Electra, Abadede and Raven not make it at all, or just those particular designs? They look too good not to use.

Thanks very much for this guide! Very useful indeed.

I think there's a big difference between a game that simply takes a long time to make and a game that keeps changing direction throughout development. With Animal Crossing, the direction was obviously clear from the start and it just took a while. I also think it's important to plan a game for a particular console and release it whilst the console is still doing well, rather than end up with a Twilight Princess type situation where it ends up getting ported to the next system and that influences the game.

Actually, I love New Horizons, I really do, but it feels surprisingly incomplete as it stands. There are a few things I expected to see, such as classic furniture sets, that I haven't even seen a hint of yet. Hopefully it'll become available in the future, but more and more I suspect the current version of the game is less complete than previous ones. Awesome piece of software though.

Just really want Golden Axe, Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder and Spider-Man: The Arcade Game (I can dream...)

Double Dragon is my favourite of the bunch. There's something about the coin-op's graphics and sound that can't be replicated by the home versions, and playing it takes me back to those arcades and sports centres of the '80s.

For me the best ones on Switch are Capcom Classics (mainly for Final Fight), Fight 'n' Rage and Arcade Archives Double Dragon. Hopefully Sega will add both arcade Golden Axe games as part of Sega Ages.

I've always believed any kind of extreme content in the media almost certainly coarsens society. Not just violence but any kind of content that is more extreme than a normal person would do in real life. I'm in no way saying video games cause real-world violence, but I instinctively feel the way the violence in them has become so much more extreme over the last two decades cannot be a good thing.

Since the turn of the millennium, with increasing globalism and ever-greater reach of the world wide web, it's as though individual countries have stopped even trying to have their own standards or actually think through what they allow. Again, I'm not just talking about violence here, but anything you can access on the web. Bizarrely, we are getting much more censorship of a certain kind, when companies listen to pressure groups who resent non-extreme things like nudity or bikinis in mainstream media, but in terms of extreme content you don't see countries even trying to set out legal standards for "products" (as such) like I believe they would have done in the 1990s, for example.

At the end of the day, Smash Bros is a pretty non-controversial game series and it's understandable they don't want anything in it that would cause CERO to give them a higher rating.

However, I do think it's a shame that female figures are so much more political than they used to be. If someone walked into an arcade in 1994 and saw Mai in King of Fighters, sure she might raise in eyebrow or two (and a smile), but I do not believe many people would have thought she was unsuitable for children. In the same way, Chin Li's muscular legs were part of her appeal, and many of the male characters were topless. From a visual design point of view, certain things just suit the sexes differently.

Now we still have topless men, but increasingly female characters can't show any thigh. I don't know if CERO has become stricter recently, but female characters in RPGs don't have so many proper bikinis (ie. that would show the thigh).

I do believe this is because in today's culture, it's extremely politically incorrect to have anything that would arouse or please heterosexual males, whereas the double standard is that it's fine to have things that would arouse women.

Bottom line is that it's not Nintendo's fault, but it's a shame the way modern society has gone.

I've long thought the best approach when it comes to matters like this is to have a range of options before you start the game, and the player can then choose how much nudity, swearing, violence etc that they are prepared to see. Otherwise, it does feel as though those more puritanical than you are forcing their values on you, or you are being forced to accept globalised ideals, perhaps.

It can even be on the tamest setting by default, as long as there's a way for the player to see what they want (within the parameters of the artist's vision, of course). No one gets offended by being offered a choice.

Was just thinking of this one the other day as I watched the athletics.

What a great article. For me, the arcade Final Fight has always been that one step better, but Streets of Rage 2 does come very close.

Can you actually play the Japanese Bare Knuckle III on the European Sega Mega Drive Collection?

@mlj11 - I second the desire for Golden Axe! I can just imagine Ax Battler and Tyris Flare right now, actually, riding smoothly-animated dragons and fighting armoured knights.

Dragon Quest Builders 2, but I'm very disappointed by the loading times and poor performance of the Switch version. It feels so slow and sluggish, it's actually putting me off playing it.

I actually hope they put the suggestiveness back in. These aren't fanservice games - they're genuinely good games that happen to be a bit saucy at times. Half-Genie Hero was too shy about what the series used to be about. It didn't even have the beautiful genie statues.

@Patendo - Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse are the best. The story really flows on from the former to the latter too.

Maybe I'm being dim, but I'm genuinely confused by this. The review describes the puzzle game like this: "The way Kotodama has you find the truth is by playing a match-the-colours puzzle minigame, "peeling layers, like the lies falling away". And by layers, they of course mean clothes. All of them." and then says: "If for some reason you wish to subject yourself to this ordeal on more than one occasion, defeating them rewards you with a different set of underwear to relieve them of next time. Yay."

All of that makes it sound like there's nudity, and yet a later bit says: "Not that you're in any danger of seeing anyone's bare chest in any case; your "reward" for tolerating this sorry excuse for a minigame is the sort of image that reveals nothing more than some bare shoulders and exposed clavicle, like a Victorian gentleman's sauciest illustrated postcard."

If there's nudity in the puzzle game, why does it become prudish for the other bit? The European eShop also currently has it as a PEGI 12 (unlike the image accompanying this review, which shows a PEGI 16) and no description of Nudity. Did we get a censored version? Not that I'm going to buy it, I'm just interested in the technicality.

@Aven - Yes, indeed, the PS2 game. It was an amazing experience.

Would love an HD port of Dragon Quest VIII.

@Panopticon - Yeah, I'd love a remake of Wonder Boy in Monster World. The original's on the Mega Drive Mini though, so there will be a good chance to play it again soon.

The trouble is, we have been able to buy many of these on 3DS, and have had our fill of them for now. About the only Mega Drive game I would want on Switch is Streets of Rage 2, and I'd also buy the Japanese Bare Knuckle 3 (because I've never played it). That's not because I dislike the Mega Drive - I used to love it - but we've just had enough for now.

Personally, I think Sega Ages would be best used as a way to supply gamers with rarer, more desired arcade games. Virtua Racing is exciting, and I hope we get more Model 1, 2 and 3 (is there any doubt Daytona would be well received?) I'd also love more System 16 and System 32 - the arcade Golden Axe hasn't been released since the Wii, and I've never been able to buy its sequel or the excellent Spider-Man (I understand the licence would be difficult for that one).

Basically, it's great that Sega is establishing its back catalogue on Switch, especially if we're going to be able to use them on Nintendo's next console too, but I just think a lot of us are waiting for more exciting games.

Hopefully it'll be good pinball, although I must say it's not quite what I expected. I thought the characters were going to be "the table" (in effect), but this just seems to have a fairly small character model in the middle of the screen. Still, as I say, could be good.

Whilst I don't think it's worth buying games just for titillation, I think the female figures in these games are particularly beautiful. And as much as I'd probably get bored, there's definitely a lot of artistry here. Overall, I think fanservice is best as a little bonus in games that you actually want for the gameplay, but still, it's a bit of a shame it's not being released officially in Europe.

@Heavyarms55 - It makes me laugh how Thor takes his top off in all his own films (totally necessary to the story, I'm sure), whereas if a female character showed even half as much, there are people who would be up in arms.

This is actually most gripping rogue-like I've ever played. Extremely frustrating and just as addictive. Took me about a year to even complete it with one character. One thing I'd really like to do, and I hope is in the Switch version, is to permanently collect entire armour sets (Dragon, Samurai etc). I always managed to make a few parts on each playthrough, but it was luck-based and I really wanted full sets.

Wow, I love it. Something like this was just what the market needed. I'm seriously tempted to get a couple of these for £35 each.

It seems a shame not to release it as a download (from the official Euro/US shops), considering how easy technology makes that nowadays. I'm not sure how any backlash could harm Koei Tecmo, considering how the other "erotic" content on the eShop seems to have gone largely unnoticed.

That said, they are not imagining the political climate in the West these days. SJWs have had success by targeting companies not directly involved, ie. "We'll boycott your product if you keep advertising in certain publications". I just don't see how they could get at Koei Tecmo, that's all.

More generally, I just don't understand all this fuss. Every year my local leisure centre hosts the Dreamboys. There are also Butlers in the Buff, and almost every 12-rated film features a gratuitous shirtless male moment, with no equivalent topless female/bikini scene. It seems to me women appreciating the male form is considered harmless, yet men appreciating female figures is "sexist" and "objectification". I don't think women in general have this double standard, but there are those who seem to want to make women more valuable or "forbidden", to some extent.

As @Retupmocnin alluded to, it's really just a muscle, but more and more is becoming classed as sexual (and therefore "bad") nowadays. It's all part of the current puritanism.