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Sega did a great job porting Data East’s arcade shooter, and Darwin 4081 is sure to offer a decidedly different take on space shooters for those who think they’ve seen it all. This Japan-only import sports some solid gameplay and an interesting weapons system, and while it’s not the best shmup around, it’s one that’s worth checking out.
Contrary to what many people think, Thunderbolt II is not a bootleg. It comes from the same unlicensed background as titles such as Beggar Prince and games released by Tengen and Accolade. It also only came out in Taiwan, which makes it extremely rare. But is it good? Read on and find out!
The Battle Mania games featured beautiful visuals, rock-solid gameplay, and some really great humor. The first game made it across the pond under the Trouble Shooter moniker, but its much-improved sequel was left behind. Is it worth the $150 asking price?
Renovation was quite a prolific publisher during the Genesis era, and it almost single-handedly kept the space shooter (shmup) genre alive for a long time. Among its selection of quality releases was a port of the Sega CD shmup Sol-Feace, itself a conversion of the Sharp X68000 original. Despite the name change to Sol-Deace and not having the bells and whistles of the CD version, the cart rendition is more than capable of standing on its own. Read the full review for more details.
If there’s a bright side to having to review all these full-motion video games for the Sega CD, it’s that we’ve gone through the majority of them. A few still linger around the fringes of our consoles, like hungry puppies trying to force their way close to thier mother’s belly to nurse. One particularly determined puppy is Rocket Science’s space rail shooter Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine. Typical for the genre, the gameplay falls far short of the cut scene production values, and gamers have yet another means to cure their insomnia.