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The early days of the Genesis were marked by big name licenses attached to… not so big games. Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, and Pat Riley Basketball were just a few of the titles that were pushed based on their endorsements, rather than their features and gameplay. Pat Riley was particularly offensive in this regard, sporting – no pun intended – dull gameplay and some wacky physics.
When you think “racing game,” you tend to think of blinding speed and screeching tires. Few people, if any, would think of loop-de-loops and… cows? Yes, the latter can only bring one racer to mind – that of Atari’s Hard Drivin’, which received a Genesis port by Tengen. Was the game too much for the stock console to handle, or was the old black box capable of reproducing a true driving simulator?
Before a certain hedgehog took the world by storm, Sega was still relying on its arcade ports. Gamers weren’t taken by the advertising as well as the company would have liked, but the quality of the games was there. Like e Golden Axe, Sega produced a home version of Super Monaco GP that improved on the original with added modes and features. The World Championship mode is enough to keep players occupied for weeks, and there’s some solid arcade racing in there to boot!
One of the first space shooters to grace the Genesis (and certainly one of the first third party shooters) was Electronic Arts’ Battle Squadron. As challenging as it was hard, the game offered up some great two-player simultaneous action, and many consider it a favorite to this day.
Shooter fans love Techno Soft. Fewer companies have produced more quality games in the genre than it has, and the Genesis was especially blessed by its talents. Everyone knows of the Thunder Force series, of course, but there’s also another vertical shooter that unfortunately doesn’t get as much love. Well, we’re here to change that with a full review of Techno Soft’s other classic, Elemental Master.