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I spent a couple hours with Ranger X and it never clicked with me. I guess I should give it another try though.

Yea Ranger X is difficult to get into but it's definitely a great game. It's totally nuts and never really feels cheap. Also, after getting a hang on the controls, a person really looks like a bad mother filling up the screen with mayhem. I recommend giving it a second shot.

Gunstar Green wrote:I think a lot of people try Ranger X for a few minutes, don't grasp the controls right away and move on to something else. Which is a shame because for me it's one of the best action games on the system really.

Souds familiar. I guess I need to give Ranger X another try sometime soon.

Another thing to remember in Ranger X is that your sub weapons (and the healing things) are solar powered. The second level can be off putting because it's not clear that you need to find spots where you can blow holes in the cave ceiling to let light in. This mechanic isn't made very clear since the first level is completely in the sunlight.

Hey, I have Ranger X! I only played it once... sounds like I need to give it a shot.

Pretty great. I took another shot at Streets of Rage, with Adam this time, and while it felt like I was taking a lot more damage with him, from his relatively slow speed, I seemed to do better overall. Maybe because his strength was just getting me out of situations more quickly. Anyway, I actually got to the door at the end of the hallway in Round 8, which is the farthest I've ever gotten before. Those twins, though. Oh my god I hate them so much. It's not likely I would have beaten the dude on the other side of that door, but it doesn't really matter, because I can't deal with the twins efficiently enough. Also, that friggin' fire breathing fatso is a menace. I did not remember him showing up in Round 6 before, and it's only been a couple weeks since I was last playing. Is it possible that he doesn't appear again under certain conditions? Anyway, while I do quite like SoR, I feel like it's mostly a game of manipulating a bunch of AI, and I don't know as I feel like that really equates much to skill, or fun, as I see it. I think it's a great game, it's just that my resolve to actually beat it is waning rapidly.

I also, for whatever reason, really felt like playing S3&K. So I did--well, the Sonic 3 part, anyway. I never actually owned Sonic 3, or Sonic & Knuckles for the Genesis, as a kid. I would only rent them (more often Sonic & Knuckles, because, while I really liked Sonic 3, I was one of those kids who had no clue how to get past the barrel in Carnival Night). So, I didn't end up "beating" S3&K until I got Sonic Jam on the Saturn, which I played in Easy mode, because it skipped the Act 2 of Carnival Night. It was a supremely neutered experience, but I enjoyed it as a kid, regardless. Quite a number of years ago, around the anniversary of the US release of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, I did a bit of a marathon, on an emulator, through 1 to 3&K, getting all the emeralds, and heavily abusing save states to do so. Since then, I've acquired original Genesis cartridges of Sonic 3, and Sonic & Knuckles, but they've been pretty neglected. So, I'm playing with the goal of actually, legitimately, collecting all the emeralds, and managed to accomplish that in the first half. I'm worried about the master emeralds, though. I've always been a lot better at Blue Sphere than any of the other special stages, but I'm still not that good at them. I know that beating the game essentially unlocks a stage select, but I don't know if that allows for the possibility of going back to find giant rings that weren't entered already, and still potentially unlocking the Doomsday Zone. I feel like the answer is probably, "no," though. Anyway, Sonic 3 was great fun. Yeah, there were a number of times where the edge or middle of a ramp dropped my momentum like a stone, or just caused funky things to happen, like being shoved into the wall under a ramp in Launch Base Zone, but it usually makes me chuckle for some reason. I find it difficult to not have fun playing Sonic 3. It's my ideal platforming experience in terms of enemy interaction, and level constructions. There's so many interesting, and quirky things happening in every stage that just make me really excited to play through, and see. Also, Hydrocity is seriously one of the greatest levels in the whole of video games, and I was a little taken aback by how amazing the backgrounds are in Marble Garden.

I also played a bit of Fire Shark, which is always such an awesome game. I set the difficulty to normal, because it defaults to easy, for some crazy reason. I'm not sure which difficulty most closely corresponds to the default arcade difficulty (if any), though. I was doing really well until stage 4, I think, where I just got bombarded with a bunch of green-weapon tokens floating around the screen, accidentally touched one, and got completely hosed by losing the fire weapon. I don't recall if I made it to stage 5 on that credit, but I have to assume that I didn't. The Genesis version gives ten continues, and I decided to just use them up, but only ended up getting to the end of stage 7, of 10. It's funny that most people seeing, or playing Fire Shark, would probably immediately assume that it's a rip-off of Raiden. Truly, the similarities are pretty striking, and for some reason I hadn't really picked up on it before. Toaplan don't play that game, though: Fire Shark was actually released a year earlier than Raiden. Anyway, if I can manage to get past the game's mega boss that is the weapon switch icons, I can potentially beat the game without much trouble. Maybe even 1cc it. So I'll probably give it a few more goes. It's great fun, regardless, though.

While typing this up, I've been listening to the OST from the Mega Drive version of Sorcerian, because I've been really feeling like firing that game up. It's pretty great, and holds up pretty well against the PC-88 version's soundtrack. It's too bad that all the scenario's in the Mega Drive version are original to it, and it doesn't seem to have the Romancia themes. I really like their arrangements in the PC-88 version.

Gave my two Genesis to my older brother (one was his from childhood anyway). He has kids now his age when he got it so they were all very excited. He only wanted three games for it - Sonic 1, Road Rash 2, and Truxton. Needless to say, he got quite a bit more games than that. The kids loved playing Sonic 2 where one is tails, and General Chaos was oddly well received.

Sadly the kids did not understand Dune...they might need a few years on that one.

How are you going to play the Genesis now, fast? Nice to hear those kids got a kick out of Sonic 2. That was the first game I ever owned.


I beat another path in Contra Hard Corps this evening, with mah boi Browny. I really had to knock some rust off my game, though. It took me three attempts to finally finish the path I was working on, and I was on my very last life of that third attempt when I managed to kill the--ULTIMATE SUPER-BEING! I had done some attempts at that a couple months ago, too. I was getting stone-walled by his second form, and was having those same troubles again, when I made it there again on the second of the three runs at it that I just did. His first form is so simple, it almost feels like a setup for the second phase, which admittedly isn't really all that difficult once one sees the pattern, and figures out how to deal with the right head. It's pretty simple to dodge, just not too easy to see how, initially. I ended up having to take out the last form with the rapid peashooter, but that form of the boss was just way more imposing than it was difficult. I probably could have set up shop in the corner, and been completely safe, but I didn't really feel like testing it at that time.

The first path I cleared three months ago, where I was fighting stuff on top of a rocket, felt way more crazy and hectic, so I have to say I prefer that path. I like the stages in the second half of that path a bit more, too.

I kept two Genesis controllers for emulation purposes. If I ever get the desire to own one again I will buy a Genesis 3.

@pierrot
I recall, after you beat Sonic 3 (or S3&K), you can go to any stage and all big rings are reset. I specifically remember going to the 1st big ring in the 1st level over and over to get all the emeralds after beating and getting the normal/bad ending. I Did this with Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails all separately. Cheapens the experience a bit maybe, but it was the only way I could do it.

Oh yeah, and I loved Contra Hard Corps almost as much as I sucked at it.
Any person that can get through that can do Streets of Rage, I think. The 2 girls require back attacks to defeat with any effectiveness. Also, I always continued on the 2nd controllers when life's/continues were about up for player one. It's a means to an end anyways.