Altered Beast (Sega Mega Drive / Genesis), Dec. 2013

Returning to the Sega Mega Drive in time for Christmas, we have decided to play Altered Beast in December. Altered Beast started off as an arcade game, but as so many other arcade classics from that time, it was soon ported to Sega's machines. While not quite as good as its arcade counterpart, the Mega Drive version is still a pretty good beat-em-up.

For more details on Altered Beast visit the WikiPedia page. Fun fact: the designer on Altered Beast, Makoto Uchida, also designed Golden Axe (in fact we spotted at least one enemy design that is used in both games).

Check out this small recording of Altered Beast played on a real Sega Mega Drive.

And if you are interested in comparing it to the arcade version, I have made this small video where both versions are played side-by-side.

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll (NES), Nov. 2013

Leaving the Sega Mega Drive for a bit, this month's game is an NES title called "Snake Rattle 'n' Roll". This game was in fact ported to the Mega Drive, but everyone seems to agree that the definitive version is on the NES, so that was the one we decided to go with.

As usual you can read up on the game by visiting the WikiPedia page.

And, also as usual, I have made a small video of some gameplay. Feast your eyes (and ears!) on the first three levels of Snake Rattle 'n' Roll played on an original NES.

Golden Axe (Sega Mega Drive / Genesis), Oct. 2013

The game of the month for October 2013 is an arcade conversion of the classic arcade game Golden Axe. We will be looking at the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis port of the game.

To read more about Golden Axe (and to check out the awesome boxart!) please visit the WikiPedia page here.

As I usually do for these club playthroughs, I have made a small video of Golden Axe gameplay.

Flashback (Sega Mega Drive / Genesis) - Sep. 2013

The game of the month for this first run of the RGC is Flashback from Delphine Software. The Sega Mega Drive / Genesis version was chosen because this was the initial target when developing the game, and because the game's designer Paul Cuisset says that this is the best version of the game. For an in-depth description of Flashback please check out the WikiPedia page here.

Here a small video I recorded on one of the later levels. Notice the exquisite aminations of the main character that was obtained using the rotoscoping technique. This game was one of the first games to do this so successfully.