PyroPlayers Magazine - PPM Reviews

Arena - For SEGA-CD

Mortal Kombat

Fighting | CD

Release: Apr 1994

That's right! Mortal Kombat has officially been released on SEGA-CD consoles. When starting this disc up, players will be greeted by a jaw-dropping two-minute trailer set to the addicting as heck techno theme song. Alright! Jump right on in and... uh oh. A loading screen. MK CD-edition, despite its inclusion of blood from the get-go and slight visual improvements, is not quite the leap forward we at PPM hoped for. It boasts of digitized sound yet retains the chunky cart music. Hearing "Flawless Victory!" is quite good, but not when sitting through lengthy load time for each fight. Pass.

Core - For SEGA-CD

Soul Star

3-D Shooter | CD

Release: May 1994

Soul Star is pure awesome. As the game's narrator explains in the neat opening cutscene, "Face your most ancient enemy in the battle for the soul of a star." Woah. Sounds intense! Next thing you know, you're in the driver's seat of a futuristic spacecraft blasting apart baddies in the depths of space. Soul Star is a 3-D scrolling shooter in the vein of Star Fox minus the polygons (I'll take detailed sprites over bland polygons any day. -Jet). Kudos to the sound design team as well for adding an excellent soundtrack to the mix. Mediocre play control is the only downside, here, in an otherwise fantastic game.

Core - For SEGA-CD

Battlecorps

Act-Simulation | CD

Release: May 1994

Core Design has graced our SEGA CDs with not one, but two killer titles! Battlecorps is a first-person mech simulator, and like Soul Star uses sprite scaling instead of polygonal graphics. The basic premise behind Battlecorps is very Terminator-like: Fight off an uncontrollable robotic security system and save the world. BAM, the Bipedal Attack Machine, can roam around the planetary surface as it pleases, shooting at anything and everything in its path. Once more, the sound engineers deserve praise for adding great blast effects and background sounds. Thumbs-up.

GameArts - For SEGA-CD

Rise of the Dragon

Adventure | CD

Release: Mar 1994

You've heard of interactive movies on the SEGA CD. How about an interactive comic book? Rise of the Dragon from GameArts is exactly that. Private Eye Blade Hunter must work to his wit's end to track down the expel a legendary dragon from the city of Los Angeles, circa 2053. This point-and-click adventure game is an action-filled detective, and one filled to the brim with mature themes and violent overtones. For college-aged players and above, Rise may be right up your alley, especially due to the wonderful CD-quality score. We must ask where that SEGA mouse is, already! A major oversight.

JVC - For SEGA-CD

Rebel Assault

FMV-Action | CD

Release: Mar 1994

Rebel Assault is a Star Wars story developed by JVC and LucasArts for release on SEGA CD. This disc comes straight from the same-named PC title, though it was not immune to a plethora of downgrades. Regardless of our appreciation for Star Wars, the fact of the matter is this disc is impossible to play through. The graphics in Rebel Assault are nearly unrecognizable to the titular film, and the controls made us hurl! It's not easy to enjoy a preliminary run through Tatooine gunning down drones when it's crash, after crash, after crash. Skip it and play some Super Star Wars instead!

SEGA - For SEGA-CD

Tomcat Alley

FMV-Action | CD

Release: Mar 1994

The fate of the world is in your hands! You have been chosen by the US Air Force to pilot an F14-Tomcat on a secret mission to stop a shipment of dangerous chemicals. Tomcat Alley puts you in the cockpit and, for all intents and purposes, in Maverick's shoes on 1986's Top Gun. Aim the cursor and pinpoint foes to blast them out of the sky: An accomplishment accompanied with some seriously cool cinematics. We can appreciate Tomcat's ambitiousness, but like all FMV-styled games you either love it or you don't. For those of you who fancy movie-like games, this SEGA-CD title is sure to get your adrenaline pumping!

Dynamix - For SEGA-CD

Stellar-Fire

Action-Shooter | CD

Release: Dec 1993

Stellar-Fire is a first-person shooter brought to you by Dynamix. If you've played an ariel combat simulator, or any game remotely like 1980's BattleZone, you will understand the gist. Dynamix developed this as a futuristic spaceship-like shooter with some basic use of polygonal graphics for the sparse enemies. Two big plusses are the catchy soundtrack played via CD-quality sound and the sense of speed achieved in the player vehicle. Other than that, Stellar-Fire can feel awful repetitive. Static, lifeless backgrounds and a severely limited weapon cache remind you Sega-CD just isn't 32-Bit.

Konami - For SEGA-CD

Lethal Enforcers

Light Gun | CD

Release: Nov 1993

See life through the eyes of an officer in the Chicago P.D. as a major crime group seeks to take power in the city in this faithful recreation of the arcade shooter. Lethal Enforcer from Konami pulls the graphics and gameplay right from the arcade cabinet, and thanks to the included "Konami Justifier" light gun, this version will surely save you tons of quarters. Shoot your way through the criminal gangsters with a variety of handguns and automatic weaponry, making sure to avoid striking down the innocents! If gallery-style shooting is up your alley, you'll have an absolute blast.

WD - For SEGA-CD

Lunar

Role-Playing Game | CD

Release: Jan 1994

The RPG masterminds over at Working Designs have released an all-new adventure on the Sega CD entitled Lunar: The Silver Star. This is WD's very first Sega CD title after years of developing exclusively for Turbo. Lunar is a massive game, spanning entire continents and beyond in a journey to become a Dragonmaster. With over 4MB of text alone (superbly translated for English-speaking players), animations, digitized voices, and a fleshed-out soundtrack, this one is a surefire gem. Think Final Fantasy II levels of hot, but turned up to 11 thanks to the power of CD.

CoreDes - For SEGA-CD

ThunderStrike

Helicopter Sim | CD

Release: Nov 1993