PyroPlayers Magazine - PPM Reviews

Namco - For SEGA-CD

StarBlade

3-D Shooter | CD

Release: October 1994

Technosoft and Namco's StarBlade is now available for the Sega-CD. This title is an excellent port of the titular arcade cab from '91, complete with eye-popping polygonal graphics and a first-person cockpit perspective. The story here is of no importance, simply look out for deadly foes and fire at them before they blast you! No need to worry about steering your ship. Your job is to man the blaster cannons. Aim with the directional buttons and fire, fire, fire! Choice sounds on this disc: CD-quality explosions, radio chatter, etc. StarBlade is a ton of fun for an afternoon, but there is little depth to merit a purchase instead of a rental. Impressive, for '91 anyway.

GameTek - For SEGA-CD

Brutal: Paws

Fighter | CD

Release: September 1994

Bruce Lee is crossed with the Looney Tunes in GameTek's Brutal: Paws of Fury. Now, this is another fighting game (Wait, hold the groans!), but with several variations to spice things up. From Prince Leon, a royal Kenyan lion, to Foxy Roxy, a vixen with an attitude, the fighters featured in Brutal are all carton animals! Don't let that fact alone rustle your fur, each martial artist brings his or her own storyline and unique animated cutscenes to the forefront. The added fun of learning special moves as you play through the tournament is a swell piece of originality, too. That said, our team found disappointingly poor play control all around.

EA - For SEGA-CD

Power Monger

Strategy | CD

Release: March 1994

Prepare to embark on a mission for global conquest! Like its predecessors on Genesis and PC, the new iteration of Power Monger grants the player with god-like power to leave an imprint on the Medieval world. This disc is a point-and-click with a collection of commands and choices. Trade goods, meet with the locals, and either befriend or enrage villagers. PM exhibits a poor graphical interface with miniscule, fuzzy sprite rendering, as well as no true intro video to welcome newcomers. Experienced strategy simulation fanatics will find joy in PM's complex world-building, but newbies should look elsewhere.

WD - For SEGA-CD

Vay

Role-Playing | CD

Release: July 1994

Vay deserves a place in the homes of all SEGA-CD owners for one major reason. Its battle system? Not quite. In fact, the fighting is a bit dull and dated - almost 8-Bit. Enemy encounters occur far too frequently, and the text-based inventory interface is a chore. The visuals are fair, but nothing special. What does make Vay worth your time is its spectacular translation by Working Designs, who rewrote this story from the ground-up. The humorous script is rife with satiric pop-culture references, and the voice acted plot bits are engaging as heck. Not Lunar levels whatsoever, but this role-player is a grand time.

Absolute- For SEGA-CD

Revengers

Fighter-RPG | CD

Release: July 1994

Aside from its hilarious name, Revengers of Vengeance deserves some notoriety. Fighting game plotlines are too often relegated to the background or forgotten entirely. These devs believed in experimenting with this concept, opting to pack a fighter into an RPG-like narrative. Players will choose one of ten characters in the "Quest to Defeat Venom," then after viewing a customized animated sequence for your hero, you will quest for EXP and Gold to raise your stats. Too bad the core fighting scenes are clumsy and slow as molasses. A marvelous and innovative idea, but not the greatest execution.

Arena - For SEGA-CD

Mortal Kombat

Fighting | CD

Release: April 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

Action-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

Interactive | CD

Release: March 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: March 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-Shooter | CD

Release: March 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: December 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: November 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 | CD

Release: January 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: November 1993

For those who found themselves feeling left out in the cold by other Genesis helicopter simulation games like Jungle Strike and desire something a bit more realistic, AH-3 ThunderStrike may be the game you've been searching for. The player takes direct control of a heli pilot tasked with blowing up as many bad guys as you can (the game explains why, but who cares?). Choose from ten scenarios and fire at will! CoreDesign's heavy metal soundtrack and voice work is exhilarating due to the CD quality audio, so much so that you'd swear you were watching an episode of Airwolf.

SEGA - For SEGA-CD

Sonic CD

Action-Platformer | CD

Release: November 1993

The Hedgehog finally makes it out on CD! Our spunky, spiny mascot for all things Sega makes his CD debut with Sonic CD due out just before Thanksgiving here in the USA. Everything you love from this hero's first two outings are here in spades: Ring-collecting in a varied assortment of stages (70+!) complete with springs, loop-de-loops, and corkscrews aplenty. The CD audio tracks are fantastic and a huge step-up from the chip music on the carts, though some critics doubt whether the jump to Sega-CD has introduced much else new to the series. Regardless, a stellar game if you've enjoyed Sonic 2 or any similar, prickly offerings.

GmeArts - For SEGA-CD

Silpheed

Shooter | CD

Release: November 1993

It's a long time comin', but Sega's long-awaited answer to the spaceflight shooting featured in Star Fox has made it to store shelves. Far off in the 31st Century, the Galaxy Union and the Colony Fleet come under surprise attack by space-dwelling terrorists. Only the Silpheed squad can take them on. If nothing else, Silpheed is a technical wonder, using advanced 3-D polygonal graphics to imitate realistic sci-fi. Digitized voices and cutscenes make the journey feel evermore lifelike, with a hint of Star Wars for good measure, but the core gameplay revives more memories of Galaxian than anything resembling Star Fox.

Sony - For SEGA-CD

Dracula

Action-Platformer | CD

Release: November 1993

A mysterious, caped creature has risen from the dark depths to wreak havoc on your Sega-CD! Is it Batman? No, it's Count Dracula straight from the 1992 mega-hit film. Despite having been hyped up for about a year on some other mags, Bram Stoker's film-to-game does not blow us away by any measure. On aesthetics alone, sure. The pseudo 3-D rendered backgrounds, full-motion video cutscenes, and digitized character models are a pleasant sight. Yet the essence of the gameplay is merely a supped-up (and slowed down) conversion of Kung Fu, an NES game from nearly a decade ago. We'd say pass.

Tengen - For SEGA-CD

Robo Aleste

Shooter | CD

Release: August 1993

From the developers of MUSHA on the Genesis comes Robo Aleste, a gorgeous vertical shooter that feels straight out of the arcade. Backgrounds scroll lightning fast from the very start, giving the player a solid idea of how this game will play. You control a mechanized, steam-powered robot in feudal Japan and your mission is to enact revenge on the notorious Kurogane for destroying your home village. Story aside, the gameplay is challenging as all heck, but easily the most fun we've had yet on the Sega CD. Sporting a rockin' soundtrack and voice acted cutscenes, Robo Aleste gets our highest marks.

Virgin - For SEGA-CD

The Terminator

Action-Platformer | CD

Release: June 1993

"I'll Be Back." No kidding! Terminator by Virgin is a side-scrolling, platforming adventure game set in the apocalyptic world of 1984. You take on the role of Kyle Reese, the ever-determined father of John Connor, on the road to defeating the dreaded Infiltrator-model Terminator. This one's a toughie: Just one life, no extra chances and no continues. Fortunately, Kyle is equipped with suitable weaponry and abilities to take down every threat which comes your way. The heavy-metal music fits the theming perfectly and gosh are we thrilled to enjoy it on a disc instead of a wimpy cartridge. Digitized cut scenes aplenty too!

Capcom - For SEGA-CD

Final Fight CD

Brawler | CD

Release: May 1993

Final Fight CD for Sega's CD add-on console is, and without exaggeration, the best version of the acclaimed fighter you can buy and take home. Play as all three heroes in 2-player action in a title that excellently ports the arcade smash hit. This is a simply a no-brainer purchase if you have a Sega CD. Devs, please keep converting those arcade games to CD - It's what put the Genesis on the map! Keep this up and it'll blow away the SNES-CD even before that gets released.

JVC - For Sega CD

Wolfchild

Action-Platformer | CD

Release: March 1993

Wolfchild was a heck of a great time when it first released on the Sega Genesis last year. Thanks to the additional power of the Sega CD, the wolfman returns with CD-quality sound and cutscenes. Use your Altered Beast-like powers and smash through Dr. Morrow's minions. This one is certainly a buy in our book, we say JVC hit a home run.

Sony - For SEGA-CD

Make My Video

Interactive | CD

Release: October 1992

Ever watch MTV and think to yourself, "Hey! I could direct a music video!" ? Sony brings to the Sega CD three titles that allow you to do just that. Coming in INXS, Kriss Kross, and Marky Mark flavors, this software offers hundreds of video clips for you to arrange and distort as you please. Mixing gives us 'Good Vibrations!'

Sony - For SEGA-CD

Sewer Shark

FMV-Shooter | CD

Release: December 1992

In the not-so-distant future, the Earth has fallen to a tumultuous condition and its sewers have become home to all sorts of dastardly critters. In Sewer Shark, you are introduced to the story with a full-action prologue, and shortly after placed in the cockpit of a shooting machine! The controls are tricky, but the roller-coaster ride is fun!

SEGA - For SEGA-CD

Sherlock Holmes

Puzzle-Adventure | CD

Release: December 1992

If you pick up a SEGA CD, you'll be greeted with a pre-packaged disc containing this delightful title from SEGA. Play as Sherlock Holmes as you meticulously track down some clues and solve curious mysteries before you wind up a victim yourself! Full-motion animation graces this neat title, so it feels like a movie! Lookout for the sequel!

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