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Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, recently re-released on DVD, made a big impact on cinema back when it debuted, becoming the first animated film to win a Golden Globe award. As many a Disney franchise made the jump to the Genesis, it was a no-brainer that both the Beast and Belle would soon find themselves in 16-bit land. Each character got a its own game courtesy of Sunsoft, and today we take a look Roar of the Beast. Is this an action platformer worth playing?
The Genesis is home to lots of comic book games. There are plenty of Marvel titles and even a few DC. Also, there are some titles based on independently published comics, like The Tick, Dinosaurs for Hire, and Chakan: The Forever Man. Rubbing elbows with such company is Sega’s Ex-Mutants, based on the Eternity/Amazing/Pied Piper/Malibu series. An action/platformer with little to distinguish itself, it’s still worth spending some time with, provided that said time isn’t important at all and involves little cost.
The original Jurassic Park set the movie world on fire with its dramatic tale of living dinosaurs and science gone wrong. The game was hyped just as much, though reactions were (and still are) mixed. Of course, the inevitable sequel came, and Sega released a Genesis version soon after. Actually the third Jurassic Park game on the console, The Lost World was the final original domestic release for Sega’s 16-bit wonder until Majesco ported Frogger a year later. Our poor Genesis was indeed inherited by reptiles and amphibians!
In the arcades, Atari’s T-MEK was a monstrous and intimidating machine. The massive cab fit two players and could be linked to another, making for some awesome four-player matches. The 32X version, however, lost that great multi-player capability in the conversion (along with most of the game’s charm), and if you listened hard enough, you could hear the poor little mushroom panting as it strained under the T-MEK’s engine. I guess it’s true that sometimes, a game is better left in the arcade.
Wolfteam released so many games for the Genesis that it’s a miracle it found time to do anything else. Game after game made its way to our little console, and while some are better than others, most are worth checking out in some way or another. Take Final Zone, for example. With its complex gameplay and isometric view, it probably turned off a lot of gamers, but look deeper and there’s a decent game to be found.