Beat-’em-ups are quite common on the Genesis, and there are those that are truly memorable, such as Streets of Rage 2 and Final Fight CD on the Sega CD. However, for every light there is a darkness; for every ying a yang; for every Streets of Rage, there is a Growl. While Taito’s brawler might not seem so bad in isolation, compared to other releases in the genre – specifically those released before it – the game is substandard. Another victim in Taito’s line of neutered ports, Growl is a title only worthy of playing out of momentary curiosity.
Genesis Reviews
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Quest
Roar of the Beast was the first of our two-part review of Sunsoft’s Beauty and the Beast games for the Genesis, and we finish things off today with a full review of the other release, Belle’s Quest. An odd pair of platformers, the two play like a single Sunsoft title that was divided in half. We know how the first one is in terms of quality, but is the second part any better? Apparently not…
Madden NFL ’95
The NFL season is winding down, and the playoff picture is becoming clearer with each passing week (go Pats!). That being said, professional sports can be rough, so why not make your own destiny? There’s no better way to do so than with video games! Electronic Arts’ Madden series has been the benchmark for football for two decades, and in no place was its evolution more notable than on the Genesis. The ’95 installment made major strides in bringing a true football simulation to Sega’s console, but it fumbled in a few areas.
Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan (Water Margin)
Long after the 16-bit era has ended, gamers in the west are finally beginning to enjoy these titles through emulation and the efforts of companies such as Super Fighter Team. One beat-’em-up that conjures forth images of Capcom’s Knights of the Round is Never Ending Soft’s Shui Hu Feng Yun Zhuan (known to many outside Taiwan as Water Margin: Beneath the Clouds) is a two-player experience that most definitely should have been localized.
TechnoCop
The Genesis is no stranger to controversy, especially where violent content is concerned. The current ratings system employed by the gaming industry is in very large part thanks to the initiative Sega took to identify the content of games released on its hardware. Titles like Night Trap and Mortal Kombat made huge waves in the press, but a few other equally violent games were almost completely ignored. One of those, TechnoCop, was probably given the cold shoulder due to one simple fact: it’s not very good. When you wrap dull gameplay in bad graphics and audio, the resulting package isn’t worthy of much notice.