When The Warp Pipe began, we had the intention of bringing you a reasonably large feature each week, followed by a couple of recurring bits generally intended to educate and entertain. There was at one stage intended to be an injection of humour, but my self-deprecating antics can't compete with the likes of LOLcats, Faildogs, Ctrl-Alt-Del and whatever else is at the bottom of the Internet comedy barrel. Somewhere along the line, the main features started getting a little too big, so the smaller sections essentially got the short end of the stick. This week, we'll run through a few of the bits that would have appeared if I knew how to stick to a word limit.

We'll look at one of Sonic the Hedgehog's cartoon appearances, the budget-priced historical experience of Medieval II: Total War, the Japanese-only Dragon Ball Z RPG Legend of the Super Saiyan and a Megadrive game that's bound to give you nightmares.

Crossing Over

Sonic and Sally in the middle of a domestic

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise was in its prime in 1993, and Sega needed a way to make more money off their popular mascot. The obvious path, having been laid out by rival Nintendo, was to produce an animated series starring the speedy rodent. Sega, not being one to do things by halves, decided to make not one, but two Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons. We'll focus on the more serious Sonic the Hedgehog series this time around, and examine the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series at another time.

Sonic the Hedgehog was set on the planet Mobius, where the evil doctor had conquered the city Mobotropolis, outsting the ruler Maximillian Acorn and locking him in the Void, and turning the majority of the city's population into robot slaves. Using his airship, the Destroyer, Robotnik transformed the city into Robotropolis, a massive industrial zone, filled with factories and mining complexes with polluted the atmosphere. Those that escaped the transformation escaped into the Great Forest, founding a village called Knothole to hide from Robotnik. A group called the Freedom Fighters operates from the small village; their aim is to disrupt Robotnik's plans, and eventually overthrow the tyrannical dictator. Sonic serves as the leader of the Freedom Fighters, and is joined by a cast of other furry friends such as Tails, Princess Sally (the king's daughter), Bunny (a cyborg rabbit) and Rotor (a walrus mechanic).

This incarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog was much darker than the humour focused Adventures of... series, and bore much higher production values and animation quality. The best example of the difference between the series is the character of Dr. Robotnik; in this series, he is an evil dictator, while in the other show, he was a bumbling nitwit who constantly had his inventions turn on him or blow up in his face. Many of the characters from the show also appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics. Jaleel White (better known as Steve Urkel from Family Matters) voiced Sonic on both shows, while Jim Cummings (Winnie the Pooh) starred as Robotnik. Other voices were provided by animation mainstays such as Charlie Adler, Rob Paulsen, Christine Cavanaugh and Tim Curry.

Despite Internet opinion indicating that this was the preferred Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon, the series was not a success. ABC cancelled the series after two seasons, with 26 episodes aired (while Adventures of... ran for 65, the usual number for first run syndication animation). Personally (and crude animation aside), I felt the Adventures of... series better captured the spirit of Sonic the Hedgehog at the time, and that this more serious series created the gateway that lead to horrendous Sonic stories, which reached their apex with the woeful Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Stories for future seasons had already been laid out, and a game based on the series was prototyped, but the series' cancellation put a stop to any future plans. The complete series is now available on DVD for those who want to check it out.

Budget Gaming Highlights

Unfortunately Medieval II lacks snooty French guards played by John Cleese

Thanks in part to the recent midyear price slashes, a lot of quality games have worked their way down into the bargain bins. The PC always seems to get the best of the price cuts; high quality games like Company of Heroes, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Supreme Commander can now be had for as little as a quarter of the original asking price. The pick for this month's trip to the bargain bin, however, is The Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War.

Medieval II: Total War takes place in the Middle Ages, spanning the years from 1080 to 1530. 17 different cultures (only five are initially playable, though) are vying for world domination; basically, players have to pick one and guide them through the periods from the start of the Middle Age, through up until the Renaissance and the founding of the New World. The game's single player campaigns let you select one of the cultures and manage their settlements and military, among other social and economic facilities. Religion is also a major factor in the game, and the one your faction chooses to follow will greatly affect the way you play the game. Members of the ruling family have their own personality traits and abilities, and can be assigned to rule cities, lead armies and so on.

One of the highlights of the Total War series has been the battle system, and Medieval II continues the series fine tradition of delivering battles on an epic scale. With hundreds, if not thousands of troops under your command, you can lay waste to opposing armies in direct battles or capture and hold their cities in siege missions. Medieval II expands on Rome's highly detailed battle engine by introducing a new system of modelling troops, whereby the game effectively ensures that each soldier is different from the ones around him by giving him different equipment or emblems. On the downside, even after several very large patches, the game remains very resource intensive and glitchy.

Medieval II: Total War can be picked up for $24.95, while the Kingdoms expansion (which adds four new campaigns) can be found for a further $19.95.

Big in Japan

Piccolo and Radditz go head to head

Prior to the anime explosion of the late 90s/early 00s, many games found themselves trapped within the confines of Japan. For the 8 and 16-bit generations, Japan received hundreds of games that were not released in the West. Many of these games were deemed too obscure for us, involved licenses which were completely unknown, or didn't jive with the clean and wholesome policies of the Western arms of the console manufacturers. This part of the column will look at a few of the higher quality experiences that remain trapped in Japan.

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball remains one of the most popular anime and manga series, not just in Japan, but worldwide. Prior to the success of the license outside of Japan, many games were produced for the NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PSX and Saturn featuring characters from the game. One of the lesser known Dragon Ball Z games is the traditional RPG Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya-jin Densetsu, or Legend of the Super Saiyans for the Super Nintendo.

Legend of the Super Saiyans covers the period from the introduction of Radditz and the Saiyans through to the battle against Freeza on Namek. That period of the series' focus on each fighter's respective power level makes it easy to implement an RPG structure, as every battle you participate in earns you experience, and your power level increases with each level up. Given that you control the series' weaker characters for the majority of the game (Krillin and Gohan), levelling up is a necessary evil.

The most interesting bit about the game is the battle system. It functions like a regular RPG system, with the choice of basic attacks, ki attacks or using items from the menu, but the strength of your attacks is determined by a random set of cards which appear on screen. The kanji and Dragon Ball on the card determine the strength of the attack, your chance for an extra attack, and the enemy's chance for a counter attack. There are also random factors which will do extra damage, such as slamming your opponent through the environment.

As far as I know, Legend of the Super Saiyans was not as successful as the fighting games based on the series, so a sequel was never produced. Nobody has really attempted to do any more RPGs based on the series, but I think it'd be pretty cool to see one that covers the entire manga, rather than this select portion.

You Played It, You Can't Unplay It

Shaq Fu would have stopped Kobe's diva-like antics

Basketball was at the height of its popularity in the middle of the 90s. Everybody was playing and watching the sport, collecting the cards and playing basketball video games. The marketability of players was increasing, with All-Star players quickly being snapped up to represent popular brands. Some stars were arguably over-exposed, but none more-so than Shaquille O'Neal, who fronted some really lousy products. While Kazaam, the motion picture masterpiece where Shaq plays a genie trapped in a boom box, is his most infamous piece of work, few of us can forget Shaq Fu for the Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and Amiga.

While on a visit to Tokyo for a charity match, Shaq stops by a martial arts dojo where he is asked by an elderly man to travel to an alternate dimension to save Nezu, a young lad who has been kidnapped by the evil mummy Sett-Ra. Once in the strange other-world, the All-Star centre is forced to compete in a martial arts tournament. Essentially, using the awesomeness of Shaq Fu, you have to crush everyone in your way and save the young boy.

Shaq Fu is developed by Delphine Software, known for the rather good Flashback. It's difficult to know where it all went wrong for them, particularly given the team's technical prowess and experience, along with the game's rather lush rotoscoped animation. One could suggest that the project was troubled, and Shaq was shoehorned in to make it marketable, and it was rushed to market. The awful collision detection and lack of move lists would indicate that this may be true. Without any idea of the game's move sets, you've got to wing it, and the game's other opponents' abilities make a mockery of Shaq's martial arts abilities; he would have stood a better chance in a free throw contest.

Look at some videos for a few giggles, and then quickly move on your way.

Next Week

I'm off to Queensland for a short break, but we'll have another round of the Warp Pipe's missing sub-features to keep you entertained.