The Warp Pipe - 19/04/09
By Matt Keller - Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:00am
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This week, The Warp Pipe will dig up and examine a few of these forgotten games.
Golden Axe, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man and Donkey Kong. All of these names are known to gamers worldwide, and have had many successful releases. Not every entry in these franchises is widely remembered. A few of them were left stranded in the arcades, some were the victims of poor timing, while others were simply released on systems that nobody cared about. Whatever the reason, the following games have seemingly been forgotten about by their publishers and the gaming audience.Big Names, Forgotten Games
) I’m sure one could make a good joke about ladies shoes here | Sega’s Golden Axe is often a poster child for the golden age of arcade beat ‘em ups and co-operative play. It direct sequel is less well-known due to the fact it was never released on a home console, but it is a great deal better than its older brother, and perhaps the best arcade beat ‘em up Sega ever produced. The Revenge of Death Adder was based on the Sega System 32 board, which gave it all sorts of neat visual treats, more enemies on screen, four player support and greater gameplay depth. Death Adder somehow manages to return from the dead and starts causing trouble, and four new heroes rise to stop him – Sternblade (your average barbarian type), Dora (a centaur), Little Trix (a speedy young chap with a pitchfork, and Goah (a giant accompanied by Gilius Thunderhead). It’s still pretty much a straight-up brawler, but multiple paths, co-operative attacks and a new magic system give it an extra hint of depth. Nobody is really certain as to why Revenge of Death Adder and other popular System 32 titles never got home ports. They could have been too old/not pretty enough in Sega’s eyes by the time the Saturn launched, but that didn’t stop them re-releasing a bunch of other arcade titles in the Sega Ages collection. Perhaps this one is a candidate for an Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network/Virtual Console Arcade release. |
In 1994, Rare and Nintendo blew everyone away with Donkey Kong Country, which used sprites based on pre-rendered 3D models for some then-amazing visuals. Sega attempted the same trick on the Eternal Champions spinoff X-Perts with terrible results, but few people know that they also published a Sonic the Hedgehog title with pre-rendered sprites. Sonic Blast was the final commercial title released for the Game Gear, hitting shelves in late 1996, and coincidentally the final commercial title for the Sega Master System’s Brazilian rebirth in late 1997. It’s pretty much your classic straightforward Sonic game – beat up Dr. Robotnik, pinch his Chaos Emeralds and save the day – but it’s got fancier graphics. It’s one of the best looking 8-bit games out there, but the low resolution of the Game Gear does mean that the Sonic sprite takes up a good chunk of the screen, and its frame rate isn’t particularly kind. While not a successful or popular game by any means, Sonic Blast hasn’t been totally forgotten, making appearances as an extra in Sonic Adventure DX and Sonic Mega Collection Plus. I’d say it’s safe to assume we’ll see it on the Master System section of the Virtual Console one day too. | ) Seems like an awful lot of effort for such a low resolution |
) At least hooligans wouldn’t be an issue | With over 120 Mega Man games under their belt, one could probably forgive Capcom for forgetting about the existence of a few of their spinoffs. Mega Man Soccer hit in 1994, before Mario branched out beyond karting, and provides a reasonable game of football with a Mega Man edge. Mega Man Soccer is aligned with the classic series, so your favourite robot masters from the first four games make appearances as players. Eight players are on each team, and robot masters can be selected to fill the four different positional slots. The game has a reasonably amount of arcade-style depth, with four basic skill categories (running, kicking, tackling, and defence) for each character, many different shot types and a character-specific special ability. There’s a fairly lengthy single player mode where players start out with a team of Mega Man bots, and must defeat the best that Dr. Wily has to offer – when you defeat a robot master, they can be added to your team to make the ultimate squad. Capcom rarely acknowledges the existence of Mega Man Soccer, even omitting it from the extras section of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which featured the obscure racing game Rockman Battle & Chase, and the two arcade fighting games. There’s always a chance of a Virtual Console release, but it looks unlikely. |
While everyone was busy drooling over the luscious Donkey Kong Country, Nintendo snuck out a new version of the arcade classic Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. I realise we’ve spoken about this one before, but it’s so damn good that it warrants another mention. Donkey Kong ’94 starts out as sort of an advanced version of the original arcade game, with exact recreations of the original levels, albeit with more detailed/advanced graphics and a much more physically capable Mario. Just when you think DK is defeated at the end of the fourth level and are about to run away with Pauline, the filthy ape gets up, pinches your favourite lass and the real game begins. It’s much the same as the regular Donkey Kong game, but you’ve got to contend with extra puzzle-like elements like locked doors and time release mechanisms. While Donkey Kong ’94 sold over a million copies, it doesn’t seem to fill Nintendo with pride. A direct sequel, Donkey Kong Plus was planned to use the GBA-GCN connection facility to allow players to create and share their own levels, but significant delays and poor reception to other GBA-GCN projects caused the final product, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, to be substantially different. The second Mario vs. Donkey Kong abandons this play style for a more Lemmings-esque affair. | ) The tie gives DK a more professional look, no? |
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