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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?
Tennis is one of the most competitive sports there is, and very few events are more challenging than the Davis Cup. Be it in singles or doubles competition, the stakes are too high to allow even the most minor error, and those who stumble have only next year to look forward to. Tengen made a stellar effort to bring the action home on the Genesis, and Davis Cup World Tour remains one of the best tennis titles on the console.
Baseball season’s right around the corner, and what better way to get in the mood than with a review of one of the longest running series from the 8 and 16-bit era? R.B.I. Baseball ’93 followed the same trends as its predecessors, but by then other games, like Sega’s own incredible World Series Baseball, had eclipsed it. It still might be worth checking out for those who are fond of the series or are looking for another baseball game to play.
One of the few video game icons that always finds a way to reinvent himself, Pac-Man has done just about everything but grab a gun and fight terrorists (I think that one’s coming to consoles soon). Namco has always endeavored to bring its hungry yellow mascot to new fans, with the most recent attempt being the simple yet incredible Pac-Man Championship Edition on Xbox Live Arcade. One other incarnation that benefited immensely from a simple gameplay addition was Pac-Mania, which simply altered the gameplay perspective and added a jump button. The result was an arcade hit that was ported to about forty billion systems the galaxy over.
Toaplan gets credit for being one of the pioneers of the Danmaku style of shooter, what we westerners know as the “bullet hell” shmup, and games like Donpachi and Mars Matrix are great examples of this fast paced and ultra twitch style of play. What’s interesting is that it got its roots in a Toaplan game that was eventually ported to the Genesis. Grind Stormer was the first game done by Ikeda Tsunemoto, who eventually went on to work at another shmup haven, Cave. Tengen handled the porting job, and sadly the game suffered in the transition. Flickering graphics hindered what could have been a great game, and our full review has the whole story.