Tag: Genesis

Retro Monday: Turbo Out Run

First off, I’ll let you know that I am bad at racing games, ask those who’s seen me on a Retro Monday where I’ve had a racing game, or the folk I’ve played Driveclub and Mario Kart with.

Anyway, Turbo Out Run is the Sequel to Out Run, it was originally an arcade game where you had a steering wheel and a big booth to sit in. I have played the Mega Drive conversion, which obviously doesn’t have the same feel as sitting down and taking the wheel. I will say that the game is still really enjoyable, if – at least for me – a little difficult. I only managed to get to the 3rd stage and nearly to the 4th, but it was hard going. You need to know when to speed up, slow down, use your turbo boost at the right times, and using the turbo for me was tricky. Most of the time I’d use it, I’d come to corners which were difficult to take. I assume that finishing a race without using turbo must be hard if not impossible to do and using it optimally is no easy feat.

The game is your typical arcade racer, and follows the Out Run style, where you get in your Ferrari and drive to the checkpoints as fast as you can, the visuals are nice, though not as nice as their Arcade counterpart which has a lot more on screen also, and the soundtrack is pretty great. All in all, you’ve got a neat and tidy arcade racer that’s probably a bit underrated compared to it’s older brother.

Verdict: Recommend.

 

Retro Monday: Zool

Where do I begin? Well, let’s try with the visuals. Visually the game is actually pretty decent with some interesting sweets used on the first few stages.

Now we come to the gameplay, the most important thing for a game is to have interesting or generally just good gameplay, Zool fails in that respect, it controls are naff, the game seems to be very faced paced, but kind of unable to keep up with itself, everything about the gameplay screams C rate trash.

I don’t really have anything positive to say about the game other than it made me want a Chupa Chubs lolly.

It’s actually quite hard to say much about the game negatively or positively as it’s just nothing of interest to note, due to the game being so mediocre.

Verdict: Avoid

Retro Monday: Haunting

haunting-starring-polterguy-ue

Another week of retro goodness with Retro Monday. This week I was given the game Haunting: Starring Polterguy to play, by Hyperion from the forums. I’ve have never heard of this game, let alone played it.

Haunting is a game for the Sega Mega Drive, it came out in 1993. Having never played this I had no idea what to expect going in, turns out I didn’t have to worry if the game was bad, as it turns out it really is good. Firstly I’ll get the negatives out of the way. The controls are somewhat loose for a start, and sometimes when collecting green Ecto it seems like you have to be really precise as touching it doesn’t work, you have to go on it in a specific spot and the dungeon/underground levels aren’t as good as the main part of the game.

That’s my negatives. On the positive side of things we have a game that oozes charm and fun. You as Polterguy have a family that you haunt, you follow them from house to house scaring them silly. You literally have to jump in and out of objects for the family members to then get scared by. The different animations are great and it was  always fun to try and get them scared in different ways. Even the way in which the family reacts is amazing, sometimes – for example – Mimi Sardini ( the little girl) will have her hair stick up on ends and where she gets really frightened she literally wets herself, or with Vito Sardini (the Father) he jumps in the air screeching, or opens his mouth to extortionate proportions or even just flat out passes out with a big thud.

The aim of the game is simple enough, scare 4 people so much that they all leave the house, collect Ecto that drops from the Scaries to keep scaring longer without going to the dungeon and have loads of fun doing it. With one thing being clear EA, yes EA, used to make really unique and fun games.

Verdict: Highly Recommend

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgWutWmadPs[/embedyt]