SegaWorld Part 4.5

Okay, well, I haven't actually got any new information for you readers regarding the wondrous SegaWorld unfortunately. However, I did dig these up;
First, the weird SegaWorld Sonic pom /banner thing. Apparently there were several different designs, but I only have this one myself. It proudly rests, stuck to my CD rack.
This is the glorious badge I was trying to get from the broken badge machine dispensing thing. Well, I got given it by staff along with the pom above as a friendly bonus.
And this is a pin I didn't know I had. I don't actually remember getting it, but I will make sure not to lose it now. Something about it's nice and stylish, even though it's just a little SegaWorld logo. I couldn't find the SegaWorld pen I used to have, but it wasn't all that fantastic. It was just a clicky white pen with the above Sonic / SegaWorld logo. So there you go, those a few of the pointless items I've acquired in my Sega fandom.

Sega Fanart showcase: Puyo Puyo

Searching throughout deviantArt for great fan art of Sega games, here are some particularly nice one I found. I'm gonna make this a weekly thing, starting this week with the theme being...Puyo Puyo, that long running puzzle blob series I love so much (and have just brought a Gashapon figure of it's lead character Arle just this morning). I'm mainly counting the classic series, because as much as I enjoyed Puyo Puyo Fever I preferred the old cast of characters =)


Puyo Puyo SUN by ~pu

More after the jump..





Arle Nadja From Puyo Puyo by ~Goldsickle

Arle by ~umber

These last three are mine...eh heh, I do like drawing me some Arle =D

Arleeencounter by ~GagaMan

Puyo Puyo Arle by ~GagaMan

Arle and Bub by ~GagaMan

And what the hell, here's bunch of mosaic art made out of Puyos! (You'll have to click into these to see what each one is)

Puyo Sonic by ~SPaZzTH

Arle: The Puyo Princess by ~ilascott

Puyo STK by ~ilascott

Puyo Art by ~ilascott

Decap Attack

(two heads aren't always better than one - drawing courtesy of me)

In the interest of variation, I’m going to not focus this entry on Sonic stuff. Wild, I know. SEGA had many other glorious moments, some of which are often overlooked. One of my personal favourites would have to be Decap Attack, originally an annoyingly tricky Mega Drive platformer. Apparently an “update” of a Master System game called Psycho Fox, Decap Attack involved you running around as a zombie / mummy hybrid thing by the name of Chuck D. Head, in an attempt to stop Max D. Cap from doing evil things. Or something, I didn’t really pay all that much attention to the plot.

(I never understood the presence of the monkey on this cover)

More after the jump..

I’m going to come right out and say it - Chuck D. Head is single-handedly one of the greatest character designs in existence. Okay, zombies are clichéd, yes yes. But this was 1991, so it was fine to be vaguely unoriginal (plus it wasn’t that unoriginal then, anyway). Now, most humanoid creations generally have a torso, attached to limbs and a neck which will normally have a head resting on it. But not our Chuck, oh no. Not one for conventional looks, Chuck doesn’t have a traditional head-on-neck system. Instead, he has a head implanted in the middle of his torso thanks to his creator, Dr Frank N. Stein. When Chuck wants to attack something, you know what he does? He violently pushes his head out of his chest and in to the face of some unsuspecting victim. Yes, he’s that bad ass. But further to that, Chuck also has a friend, aptly named Head – a skull who sits on his neck-lacking shoulders, only to be thrown at enemies to add to the pain. You see, you just don’t get character designs like that nowadays – characters that just make absolutely no sense whatsoever and yet are somehow still appealing.

So okay, we established Chuck’s a freak. Fair-dos. What about the game itself? It’s decent but hard – or at least, I found it hard, being an inept child. You’re quite the weak character and if you play carelessly, you’ll die very quickly. However, the game is filled with hilariously hellish environments and crazy enemies. One of the very early bosses for instance, is a bulky tribesman who charges at you and then violently throws his helmet. Then there’s the big toad. Who attacks you. I… I never really got that, it was strange. Of course, at one point you’ll also fight Max D. Cap, who’s effectively Satan. Probably couldn’t call him that in the game though – parents would get angry. I don’t see why though, I mean, you’re fighting against Satan. Surely, that’s a good thing? But anyway! The game is fun. That’s all you need to know.

(Look at the Dr's face there and tell me that isn't awesome)

What’s so great about Decap Attack is what became of it when the guys at Sonic the Comic got a hold of it. Nigel Kitching wrote and drew most of a Decap Attack series for the comic, the only non-Sonic comic in StC that actually lasted a long few years. In the context of StC, Decap Attack was completely random. You had Chuck and Head, you had Professor Frank N. Stein and you had his grimey assistant, Igor. There wasn’t really a proper continuing plot to the comics – I think there were a few mentions of Max D. Cap, like when the characters go to hell, but other than that, the game’s plot was largely ignored (what a travesty… in opposite world). The strip was the really the ‘comic relief’ of StC, with a very manic sense of humour. It focussed on the daily life of the four characters, with Igor always trying to kill Chuck, Dr Frank N. Stein creating weird things and Chuck and Head getting caught up in all the mess. Just the randomness of the characters and their situations is what made the comic great. Like when Chuck wins a trip to visit the slurpy-cheese (now in Barbecued Gibbon flavour, apparently) factory (in a very Charlie and the Chocolate Factory way), only to discover that the workers are rebelling and the factory is in disarray. Or when Dr Stein’s parents come to visit, and it’s revealed that in all reality, Stein comes from Cardiff and puts on the German accent. That, and his mum has the ability to bring back the dead in the same way he does. It was just a weird comic that didn’t make a lot of sense, but it was always fun to read. Nigel Kitching and co. did a great job with what little source material they had to work from. Even the artistic style was pretty off the wall, with lots of over exaggerated and zany expressions. It's really a shame there isn't some more detailed information about the comic anywhere on the internet, but ah well.

Again, I find myself rambling but basically, if you ever have the opportunity to check out the Decap Attack strips in StC, do it. They may seem weird and nonsensical at first, but they’ll grow on you like some kind of disgusting yet comedic fungus. Oh, and check out the game. But the comic’s better.

Fear the frog, folks.

SegaWorld Part 4

Clearly SegaWorld was something extremely important to Sega fans. And by Sega fans, I mean Sonic freaks like Gagaman and myself. As such, I feel it’s only appropriate for me to write about this glorious place in my first entry for this blog.

(This is from my second visit, complete with my brother and his friend. I'm the hilarious one in yellow)

I actually lived in London whilst SegaWorld was up and running, which meant I got to visit it a good handful of times, which was great for me. However, I’m pretty sure these trips were about 7-9 years ago, so a lot of the details are hazy, but whatever – I can remember a few things.

I think what made this place so great for me was the absolutely ridiculous amount of Sonic imagery. The walls were plastered with the hedgehog’s face, statues adorned the various sections of the ‘theme park’ – even the bins had Sonic’s mug grinning at you. Then there was the fact that on my first visit there, I ran into Sonic Championship. Ohhh I wasted a lot of money on that game and I never managed to beat Espio whilst I was there. Stupid chameleon. Actually, now that I think about it, I remember also on my first visit I found a small corner which had monitors showing all the weird Sonic videos from Sonic Jam (this was before Sonic Jam had been released, mind you, so I decided to sit there and watch them) and an out-of-use Sega Sonic Arcade game (it wasn’t until my next visit that I got to play that – and for the record, the game is awesome and needs some kind of home release). Of course, there were lots of other great arcade games to play, but I’m not going to lie… I really remember very few of them.

(I don't want to visit Litter Zone)

What I do remember is the rides. As well as the under-the-sea virtual shooting game and the haunted house ride that Gaga described, I remember this one “scary” ride. Basically, you walked through a hall way which in some way was creepy (sorry the details are so vague, but all I remember is a dark hall – clearly I’m losing it at my old age) until you sat in these seats that were on a track (like a roller coaster only much slower and without the ‘coaster’ bit – basically moving seats). All through it, it was supposed to be that a maddened gorilla lived in this area and was stalking and chasing you. The seats would rock, there were maddened beast sounds and you could feel drips of saliva fall on you. Now, I was 8 or 9 at the time, so this ride actually scared the hell out of me. But hey, children are easy to frighten. Good times!

(Seriously. He was everywhere.)

I remember there was also an area that focussed on getting tickets for prizes and stuff. I was quite poor at getting tickets, so I didn’t win any prizes through conventional means. Instead, I had put money in a capsule machine that dispensed Sonic badges and nothing came out. So I got the attention of some staff people and not only did they give me the badge I so rightly deserved, but they gave me one of the token prizes as well – a small blue pom thing with Sonic’s face on it and a SegaWorld banner attached. It was awesome. I then found a photo booth machine that instead of giving you a traditional photo, gave you an ink stamp, complete with a small Sonic icon bordering the photo. That was a fun day. Somewhere along the way, I also got a SegaWorld pen. I don’t remember how.

At this point, I’m struggling to write something that wouldn’t just repeat exactly what Gaga said. However, the basic message is; SegaWorld was fantastic in every way. There were VR-rides, there was Sonic, there were video games and various other ways to enjoy yourself. SegaWorld is definitely one of my fondest memories.

(From my first visit - best photo ever)

One thing that has become incredibly apparent in writing this is I arguably liked Sonic a bit too much when I was a kid. Naaah.

Oh, it also seems that StC were hell bent on advertising SegaWorld, as I've found another article about the place different to Gaga's. It's below for viewing


P.S. Should I be sickened that I actually willingly listened to the Supersonic single whilst writing this article? Actually, don't answer that.

Pirate TV: Best Sega Europe Ad-campaign ever.

A La Kat Food? Ecco Washing Powder? The Cyber Razor Cut? What the bloody hell am I talking about?

(Click for a news snippet out of...where else? Sonic the Comic. Issue 2, to be precise.)

More after the jump..



While Sega in America decided to go with the "Let's take the piss out of Nintendo and harp on about American Football simulators", in 1993 Sega Europe gave us 'Pirate TV', an ape-shit mad ad campaign starring Steve O'Donnell, AKA Spudgun from Bottom. It's slogan was far better than the yanks "Welcome to the next level", and you will have already seen it on the back of that SuperSonic record I posted yesterday...

TO BE THIS GOOD TAKES AGES, TO BE THIS GOOD TAKES SEGA.

(Bad Ass.)

The first ad for the Mega Drive is the one I remember most, mainly because I had it on a promotion video that was given away with a magazine of some sort. All you need to know is that according to this ad, the only way you could keep up with the POWER and the KICK ARSERY of the Mega Drive was to go and have an operation called "the Cyber Razor Cut (tm)", which appears to be something that involves becoming half human, half terminator. Here, I'll just let you watch it (Thanks to some Youtuber named prestolovesvarla for saving me having to hunt this down again!)

Sadly, what can't be found on the net anywhere from my hunting, is the short fake ad's they started slipping into ad breaks to confuse the feck out of you, like Ecco Washing Powder. Think that sound stupid? You haven't seen anything yet. Someone else by the name of FatAgnes has just brought back a flood of nostalgia (both good and bad) with this recording of the Mega CD ad they did. The commercial crams as much as it possibly can into one minute. Sewer Shark? Check.Night Trap? Check. Road Avenger? Check. Sonic CD? Erm...

And here's some stuff I don't remember so well: the mega CD came bundled with seven games? I presume they mean all those games on that Sega Classics collection everyone had for it. Also: HOLY SHIT, it cost £269.99? On it's own, without the Mega Drive? No wonder it bloody flopped. Still, I think this was the first time we saw that brilliant CGI skull head mascot, although I could be wrong.

In fact...wow, while I'm writing this article I keep finding more and more of these commercials, which I haven't seen since they aired. RabidracoonUK has this one for Golden Axe, which see's the return of the Cyber Razor Cut guy and his ninja kid sidekick? Yeah, I have no idea, but at least this one doesn't give me a head ache. You can also see how much a Mega Drive and a Master System II cost at the time: £130 and £60. Wow, that makes the Mega CD look like even more of a rip off considering how many good games were made for it, which I could probably count on one hand.

Now here's a commercial from the Pirate TV line for the Game Gear, in a completely different setting from the rest. The RRP for the bulky lump of plastic love that lasted ten minutes if you were lucky was £99.

Embarrassed and ashamed enough? Tough, there's one more video left, and it only gets worse from here. Somehow this whole Pirate TV thing managed to sneak it's way into a music video to the extremely camp pop duo 'Right Said Fred'. You might of seem them recently in an ad for Daz that is so bad I never want to see it again, but will another 700 times because the TV hates me. Anyway, the video seems to be a plug for Sonic 3, judging how clips of it pop up here and there, with O'Donnell and that skull head making cameos, and they're all running around the Hydrocity zone, apparently. Still, it's worth it just to hear that blond tart squawk "He's just a flippin' 'edgehog, Okaaaaay?". Ok, maybe not. I'd actually be inclined to say that even SuperSonic below isn't as bad as this song!

Thought it was over? NO! This Pirate TV thing even extended to Sonic the Comic, where they did a seven part story that, to be honest, is ruddy psycho. Written and illustrated by Stephen Bliss, It stars the skull head and the now christened Fezhead, who suck a bunch of lazy sods into their TV and make throw them into video game spoof like Street Fighter and er...that's all I can remember right now, but it did have fluffy animals that transformed into bubble bath containers, and Poodle Noodle! I want me some Poodle Noodle, with it's essence of haddock. Actually, no, but who wouldn't want snot in a can with a SEGA logo on it? I'm sold. Maybe I'll scan the whole thing in at some point.

After all this? Sega commercials died up and the one's that were left were boring. I remember seeing one or two Saturn ones, and the odd crappy Dreamcast ad that didn't show a second of game footage, but otherwise that's about as far as Sega on the TV went from there on in the UK, so as sad as it may be to admit but Pirate TV was the best British ad campaign Sega Europe ever did, and was actually pretty successful. Plus, they're still better than the egotistical American ads. I mean, why rename the Mega Drive the "Genesis" anyway? Twats.

The British Sonic Single that couldn't.

I remember there being, back about 1992, two Nintendo related singles that were somehow doing pretty well in the charts (they were in the top 10 for a week or two), one was some odd Tetris remix, and the other was a tune from Super Mario Land on the Game Boy with rapping all over it (ugh). I presume someone at Sega demanded that they jumped onto the band wagon, and not long later a Sonic single popped up out of no where.

The track uses music and samples from the first Mega Drive game, which is nice, but is ruined by some shite lyrical work and naff 90's beats. Unlike the Nintendo tracks this single didn't fare too well, only reaching the No.33 spot. When you hear it you'll pretty much see why. It did somehow manage to stay in the top 40 for six weeks, though. I only know this because when I came across the single at a car boot sale some years after it's release (I didn't even know of it when it came out in 1992) I looked it up in a Record Guide book my dad had. Somehow I managed to find both the CD and Record versions of it, which are still sitting in the loft amongst all the Sonic the Comics and other Sonic junk. Here's a close up of the back, for those who may want to know who made it (yes, both of you). The writer is unknown, apparently. Probably a sign that the guy who did write it isn't too proud of the fact. Now I know you all really want to hear this, so here's a download of it! I did warn you though!

Edit: Found a youtube video of it.

Sonic the Comic Online!

If you're British and grew up on Sonic, there's a good chance you remember Sonic the Comic. Published by Fleetway, the comic was running for 224 issues between 1993 and 2002 every fortnight. It eventually died out when the company publishing the comic decided to reprint old stories, believing that the audience it once had grew up and left. The comic had a big part in Sonic's popularity in the UK in the early 90's and featured many great stories based on the games, as well as stories based on other Sega games like Streets of rage, Decap Attack, Golden Axe, Wonder Boy, Ecco and more. The comic also doubled as a sort of Sega mini-magazine for kids, with news, reviews, cheats and the weekly sales charts for Sega's many consoles.

More after the jump..

I personally still have my collection sitting in the loft that is about 96% complete (just some reprint issues missing), and there used to be a huge website with downloads of every single issue, but it appears to have vanished, which has deeply saddened me. For now, the most I can find online about Sonic the Comic is at the website Sonic HQ, and some downloads of what could be considered the key stories at Knuckles Chaotix.info, which is something. I intend to write up some articles about this comic soon, as to be honest there isn't enough about it online, especially compared to how much there is about the American Sonic comics by Archie.

But who would of thunk it? A collection of fans decided to continue the comic from where it left off. If you haven't seen the fan created Sonic the Comic online yet, you're missing out. The issues aren't released as frequently as the original (because they don't get paid to do this), and the artists change with every new story, but they've done a fine job at contuinuing from where the comic was left off. The comic even has a new Megadroid who appears to take the shape of a Gamecube, of all things! It's been running for four years now, and currently has 23 issues under it's belt. The latest issue has a great interview with one of the original comic's main artists, Richard Elson. Anyone who read STC knows that Elson was there for the entire comic's lifespan, and had a lot of input in not just the artwork, but a lot of the original characters, and along side writer Nigel Kitching gave the comic it's best stories. Featured are some pieces of concept art from the interview:

Richard Elson, currently working on strips for 2000AD, was one of my favorite comic artists as a kid and inspired me to draw more myself. I would draw my own little Sonic comics, with his artwork as a reference. I would love to meet this guy, shake his hand, pat him on the back and order him a drink. He rocks.

Why Sega and Nintendo should collaborate more.

Wow, if there is one thing Sega knows how to do well still, it's making exciting trailers that really pump you up for their upcoming games. Just recently we had a new trailer for NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams and just yesterday the second trailer for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which can be seen above.

If you've found this blog you were probably around for the "16-Bit War" between Sega's Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo, and knowing what the relationship between two companies at the time was, finds this new Wii and DS title to be the most unexpected team up in video game history. Back in the early 90's Nintendo and Sega were seen as bitter rivals, who would constantly slag each other off in their respective commercials, "Sega does what Nintendon't" being the most familiar of these.

As a kid I was on the Sega side and my best mate was on the Nintendo side, but we didn't fight over who was best, we used it as an opportunity to play both systems without having to own them both. I would pop over to his house to play Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island and Donkey Kong Country, and he would visit mine to play Sonic 3, Streets of Rage and Golden Axe. This way we got to see the best of both.

I still remember reading magazines like Sega Power and Mean Machines Sega and getting to the fan art section in which you would be greeted to artwork of Sonic brutally killing Mario in sometimes rather inventive fashion, and this wasn't just going on amongst the "violent loving" Sega fans, as flicking through a Nintendo magazine would bring up the complete reverse. I don't have any of these magazines anymore, but you can probably use your imagination.

Once Sega were out of the console business, they started to insert their fingers into all sorts of pies in an aim to become the world's number one video game publisher. For a short while, Sonic was to be exclusive to Nintendo systems, starting with Sonic Advance on the Game Boy Advance and ports of the Dreamcast Adventure titles on the Gamecube. This soon ended when Sega saw that it would make more sense to sell Sonic on everything, but just seeing Sonic on a Nintendo console was something we could have never guessed would happen back in the 16-bit days, let alone Sonic and Mario starring in a game together like we have now.

Sega's first collaboration with Nintendo was the Gamecube and Arcade title F-Zero AX/GX. This was a match made in heaven: Nintendo passed on their long running F-Zero racing series, which debuted as a launch title for the SNES,
to Sega's Amusement Vision, who were known for Daytona USA of all things. Sega are known by many as the kings of arcade style racing games, and here they were working on a classic Nintendo franchise. Developed with the same engine as Super Monkey Ball (a stroke of genius if ever there was one), the game turned out be like a futuristic Daytona, with instantly additive gameplay and a sprinkle of Sega arcade magic. Simply put, the results were wonderful.

This is why I believe Sega and Nintendo need to collaborate with each other more. The two studios have their own ways of running things and their own disciplines, and I think when they work together something magic happens. It's just like when Warner Brothers and Disney decided to team up on the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and got Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse on the screen at the same time. It just worked so well, and I think the two could learn a lot from each other.

For example: It's no secret that Sega has been struggling to find the right direction to take the Sonic series in recent years. Mario & Sonic is being developed by Sega, but supervised by Shigeru Miyamoto, who you should all know is the creative mind behind Mario, amongst many other Nintendo characters. Even Nintendo's own Mario sports series doesn't normally get Miyamoto's attention (they are mostly developed by outside developers), which means he clearly wants this game to as good as it deserves to be. Miyamoto is known to only let games he works on out of the door once they are as good as they can possibly be, as seen with all the delays that went into Zelda: Twilight Princess. Where I think Sega has been going wrong is by sticking so closey to their originally planned release dates. With another year of development, Sonic the Hedgehog on the 360 and Playstation 3 could of been much, much better game, but what we go was rushed mess full of half baked ideas and sloppy programming.


The newly formed Nintendo Tokyo EAD development studio started their production line with the Gamecube bongo based game Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Maybe it's just me, but this game really felt like a Sega game.maybe it was the simple yet deep control and combo set up, and arcade style game play. Currently this team is working on Super Mario Galaxy, and personally, I think these guys would do a mighty fine job developing a Sonic game. Just imagine the kind of imaginative gameplay these guys could bring to the Sonic series, while also going back to the series' roots which, to be honest, seem to have been forgotten in some of the recent Sonic games. The Nintendo mentality of not putting a game out until it's really ready could really benefit Sega's projects.

At the same time, Nintendo have been struggling to get the Starfox franchise back into gear. Starfox Adventures ended up as a bad move, and the Namco developed Starfox games of recent did nothing to bring the series back to the glory days of the SNES and N64 titles. This is where I think Sega could help. They could get the guys that developed After Burner Climax on this and give us a engaging, exciting Starfox game that we haven't had in a long time, with that Sega arcade magic sprinkled on.

So come on Sega and Nintendo. You've shown you can work together well...let's see more of it!

Educational Outrun and False Advertising

Memorable Moments in Sega Gaming 1

Now while I said this blog would mainly be about the non-gaming side of Sega, I think I can make some exceptions. Mainly, the kind of memorable moments in Sega games that are the reason I love Sega games in the first place. here's the first of many of these I plan to write up.

#1 Saturn Bomberman - Footie Level

Fact: Saturn Bomberman is THE multi-player game of all time, and the best of the franchise to date. Not only do you get countless different characters to pick, all sorts of options and full stats at the end of each match telling you who blew up who, you also get some totally unique stages to fight on. One of these is of a Football theme, with a goals on either side. Once most of the blocks have been cleared and everyone is running around like Looney’s kicking bombs at each other, there’s a clever trick I discovered. You can actually kick the bombs into the goal’s, and when you do, a high-pitched voice shouts “GOOOOAL!” as fire engulfs two lines of the whole stage, the one’s net to the very middle line. Anything that walks through these lines as the flames fly across the screen are doomed, and of course, if you don’t move out of those lines when you kick the bomb, you’ll be doomed too. Still, this proves to be a very useful tool in taking out other players when there’s no where for them to get trapped. Lure them to the center, kick a bomb into a goal, and leg it. This game is still a multi-player favorite in my house, and whenever I start up a Series of matches on it, most of them are on this level. Fun~


More after the jump.

#2 Sonic Adventure 2 - Sonic Dies in Dark Side Story?

Well, not really, but if you play through this game from the Dark story side, it sure looks that way in one cut scene. Tails spits out “How’d you know the Emerald is fake?”, totally blowing their cover, the moron. Anyway, Eggman gives a farewell as Sonic is shot out into space in this little capsule, and you see it explode. As Amy started crying, I was shouting at the screen “OH SHIIIIIIT” then laughed my arse off. I killed Sonic! This Hero/Dark side story mode stuff was a brilliant idea! Then, as I went through the Hero mode, and go to the same scene, it was shown from Sonics view, as he somehow Chaos Control’s himself out of the capsule with a fake emerald just before it explodes. Oh well, it was funny while it lasted.

#3 Fighters Megamix - Fighting as the Daytona Hornet

There was a lot of hidden characters in Megamix. These ranged from the chick from Virtua Cop to that Rentahero guy with the battery power and the Sonic characters. The one that stood out to me the most, however, was that Hornet car from Daytona. What’s a car doing in a fighting game, I thought. My first guess was that it’d be the driver, but nothing prepared me for what came up when I tried him out. It was quite literally the Hornet car standing up on it’s back wheels. You punched with the front wheels, and kicked with the back wheels. It even has a throw in which it grabs the opponent and spins one of it’s front wheels over their face! Genius! Even stranger is when you use the armor strip move, the top shell rips off and suddenly the car plays just like Ura Bahn, another hidden character in the game, and one of the most powerful too, actually making the Hornet one of the best characters to play as in the whole game.

(Best screenshot of the exact area of the game I could find was from the PS2 remake. Bah.)

#4 Virtua Cop 2 - Shooting Car’s wheels Off

For the Saturn, VC2 is a real classy light-gun game. It gave you alternate routes, a boss that chucks a van at you and, most importantly, loads of things to shoot at. But not just bad guys, but loads of objects that do cool things when you shot them. Smash up windows, make chandeliers fall bit by bit, and even blow up watermelons. The most memorable by far, however, is in the 2nd half of the first level when you hop into your cop car and start chasing a group of vehicles. You could just shoot the bad guys and be done with it, but it’s just so much more fun shooting at the wheels. Rather a few rounds the car starts to wobble about, until finally the wheel pops off and the car goes flying in the air in an almost slow motion fashion, just like all those cop films you’ve ever seen. Also, if you take out cars with hostages in them this way, they don’t get killed. Oh yeah, and when you knock bad guys of their motorbikes, if your quick enough you can rip their bikes to pieces too. Haw.

#5 Ecco - That part at End of Level 1

Ecco is one of he most tranquil games you‘ll find on the old Mega Drive. Or is really a deceiving little bastard that fools you into thinking it‘s tranquil? I swear when I first played this game I wasn‘t expecting what happens at the end of the first level. “How high in the sky can you fly?” says one of the passing Dolphins. Yeah, ok, so I jumped out of the water a bunch of times and nothing much happened. As I found myself at a dead end with a jewel thingy blocking up a passageway, I jumped up out of the water there and suddenly: BUUWOWOWOWOWOWOW. The most horrific sound you could possibly image blasts out of the Mega Drive as the screen flashes in a mad foray of colours and all the sea creatures start spinning about in the air like a tornado. About 4 seconds later, everything went to normal and Ecco fell back into the sea, which was now more or less lifeless. Very freaky, but most certainly memorable.

Sega Super Play Trading Cards

I totally forgot I had these, and just found them in the loft yesterday. Released in 1992, this is a series of trading cards based around Mega Drive games, with 120 in the total set. I remember these being packed in little silver foil packets with a huge Sega logo and a little Sonic on, and managing after countless amount of packets to complete the whole lot. The cards are a little worse for wear with dented corners, but otherwise they see to be fine. More after the jump..



There was three types of card in the series:

The Game cards were the bulk of the set, with a total of 77. Each featured the box art of a Mega Drive game along with some stats on the front, and a screen shot, tip, and mini review on the back. There's also a check list of what games appeared on the Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear (although there's no 8-bit exclusive games featured in the set at all). These are split up into game genres.

The Game Play cards feature a screenshot on either side, as well as some background story and some tips and cheats. There's about 30 of these cards.

There's only 9 Character cards in the set. These obviously go into profiles of certain characters from popular Sega titles. Details include what games they have featured in at the time, first appearance, and their "deadliest enemy". Ecco's is stated as 'Unknown'. I'd say it was those bastard Jellyfish, myself. There's also a screen shot, tip and some more into at the back, as well as one of those console checklist things.

This set may of been better if they had waited another year or so to make them, as it misses out some truely classic Mega Drive titles (Gunstar Heroes anyone?), but overwise quite a funky piece of Sega related crap. At least it isn't completely focused on Sonic, anyway.