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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.
Sega’s OutRun series has been tearing up the roads for almost three decades. Though gamers received a true sequel only a few years ago with the incredible OutRun 2, there were many titles released in the series during the interval. One arcade sequel that was brought home to Europe and Japan was Turbo OutRun, and while it is faithful to its source material in spirit, the actual execution leaves much to be desired.
Early Genesis adopters found many different genres covered by the growing library, including space shooters. Toaplan’s Truxton was one of the earliest examples on the console, and it offered intense action with awesome visuals and engaging gameplay. Even after two decades, the game is still a blast to play, and it remains one of the favorites among shooter fans.
The thing I remember most about Mario Lemieux Hockey is that it came with a real hockey puck. The oversized box protruding from the store shelf is an image that I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, that might be about the only thing this game has that makes it stand out, and Sega more or less only succeeded in simply filling a hole in the Genesis library by releasing it. Like many of the early sports titles on the console, it wasn’t anything to write home about – except for that cool hockey puck.
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!