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Nemoide
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Nemoide Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:46 pm

Alright, I started The Lion King for Sega Genesis and less than 24 hours later, I've beaten it!
I had the Game Gear version as a kid, so I'm mostly familiar with that. It's *mostly* the same game with stripped down graphics/sound, which gave me a bit of an advantage while playing since I remembered certain bits and ALSO made me really impressed at how much snazzier the 16-bit version is! Thankfully the biggest difference is that you can't actually get to the end the Game Gear version on Easy difficulty but you CAN on the Genesis version!
There are a lot of folks online who seem to think this game is way too hard (maybe the SNES version is worse?), but on Easy, I thought it was pretty manageable. It still has plenty of frustrating bits: my least favorite include the part of Hakuna Matata where you have to jump on logs to go up a waterfall and the final battle with Scar which all but requires you to have a six-button controller *and* know what you're supposed to do. I got a 1up from one but I don't quite get what the point of the bonus stages is and those seem way too hard. And I'm pretty sure I missed the overwhelming majority of power-ups over the game.
But overall, this is a really good game! The graphics are gorgeous, the music and sound effects are some of the best on the system, and the controls are very responsive. My favorite thing about playing it and the sign that the difficulty is good is that once you figure out how to get past a part that gives you trouble, you develop the skill to get past it easily after that. The first few stages gave me some trouble at first but then they become a breeze. When you continue and have to restart a level at the beginning, it's never that bad to get up to where you once were.
I'm confident that if I wanted to beat the game on Normal, I could. Although for now, I'm happy to have beaten it on Easy!

As far as affordable Sega Genesis games go, this one is definitely worth playing if you like the movie! It lives up to its reputation as being a 16-bit classic.
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by prfsnl_gmr Mon Jul 19, 2021 8:15 pm

Nice work! I’ve never had much success with those 16-but cinematic platform era; so, I’m impressed!
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Nemoide
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Nemoide Tue Jul 20, 2021 8:23 pm

And while I have my Genesis hooked up I've got another one down: NHL All-Star Hockey '95

I picked this up from a yard sale last year for $3 because I was a little curious about Sega Sports line of games, even though my knowledge of hockey is minimal. I have to say, at that price, it's a pretty entertaining little time waster. I just played an exhibition game and matched up the strongest team against the weakest; I'm not really too interested in committing to a full season. But I think there's some value in giving cheap sports games a try. They're such a different experience from non-sport games; I think I'll play some more and get a better idea of how the game is actually played. I appreciate the battery back-up, so if I wanted to play a full season, I could chip away at it with sessions lasting just minutes a day.
I feel like my experience wasn't terribly deep; I was largely just randomly trying to shoot/pass the puck towards the goal, but it's a good enough experience considering how absolutely dirt-cheap the game is. It's definitely not any sort of masterpiece, but it's fast and fun, pretty decent overall. Supposedly EA's NHL series is much better, but I don't really have any frame of reference!
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Note
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Note Tue Jul 20, 2021 9:38 pm

Nice job on beating The Lion King, Nemoide! I heard that game can be difficult at times, so it's pretty impressive you finished it so quickly. I haven't played it much myself, but if I came across it I might pick it up.

Also, I'm glad that you dug up a sports title for this month. I really enjoyed NHL '94 and '95 on both the Genesis and SNES back when released, but I haven't played many other hockey games. Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey on the N64 is another I played a lot, which has a fast paced arcade style similar to NBA Jam or NFL Blitz, and is also a lot of fun.

It reminds me I wanted to play Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 for the SNES, which is one of my favorite games on the system, actually. I should be able to play that in the next few days.

Last night I played Sonic 2, which I hadn't played in quite a long while. This was the pack in game that came with my model 2 Genesis, so I played this game a ton when I was a kid. I got pretty far in the game, making it all the way to the Wing Fortress Zone, but I wasn't able to beat the boss of this level on my playthrough, so I fell short of finishing it. I was hoping to beat the game last night, so I was pretty frustrated with myself. However, I'll try again later in the week or next.

I also played a bit of Altered Beast, which somehow I didn't own, but recently found a copy in good condition. I made it to about the third level where you can transform into the bear character. From the early Genesis titles, this was always a favorite of mine, probably because I was introduced to it when I was really young, and the graphics were pretty impressive for its day. Looking back on it, I really appreciate the dark atmosphere in this game. I'd love to play this co-op again with a friend. Also, the voice acting is pretty hilarious -- I love repeating some of the lines. Lol.
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Nemoide
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Nemoide Mon Jul 26, 2021 1:13 pm

I had a little extra time this weekend and so I played through Arcade mode of Sega Bass Fishing! Arcade mode is very short & simple and allows for continues, although this is obviously the kind of game one would want to replay many times to get better. There's also an Original mode that's more about playing several fishing tournaments, giving you a longer, deeper experience. I started that but only played through one tournament and got 20th place; I'll definitely keep playing more!

This is definitely a great game worthy of Sega's lineage! I'm inclined to put it up there with Crazy Taxi as being a fantastic game to just sit down and play for a few minutes or an extended session, whichever you're in the mood for. I'd like to get the fishing controller, but it's a very solid experience just using the normal Dreamcast controller. And since this is still one of the more affordable DC games, this one is pretty essential for anyone who's still interested in the console. Oh, and it's VGA compatible, which I appreciate immensely.
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Note Fri Jul 30, 2021 3:51 pm

Nemoide wrote:I had a little extra time this weekend and so I played through Arcade mode of Sega Bass Fishing! Arcade mode is very short & simple and allows for continues, although this is obviously the kind of game one would want to replay many times to get better. There's also an Original mode that's more about playing several fishing tournaments, giving you a longer, deeper experience. I started that but only played through one tournament and got 20th place; I'll definitely keep playing more!

This is definitely a great game worthy of Sega's lineage! I'm inclined to put it up there with Crazy Taxi as being a fantastic game to just sit down and play for a few minutes or an extended session, whichever you're in the mood for. I'd like to get the fishing controller, but it's a very solid experience just using the normal Dreamcast controller. And since this is still one of the more affordable DC games, this one is pretty essential for anyone who's still interested in the console. Oh, and it's VGA compatible, which I appreciate immensely.


Appreciate the review of Sega Bass Fishing! I remember playing the demo a bit but I haven't tried it since then. I'll definitely be on the lookout for it when I'm out checking for games. Comparing it to Crazy Taxi is pretty high praise, but I always felt like Sega excelled with arcade games. Just curious, did you play with the regular Dreamcast controller or did you use the fishing rod controller? The fishing controller seems awesome, and is something I'd like to get too.
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Nemoide
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Re: Together Retro July 2021 - Alms for the Poor

by Nemoide Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:05 pm

I used the standard Dreamcast controller but would really like the fishing controller. It's just too fun a wacky gimmick to pass up! Definitely not an accessory for those of us on limited budgets though.
But there's a part of me that suspects that the standard controller will actually provide better accuracy. I know with Samba De Amigo, using the maracas controllers is *fun* but becomes impossible on the hardest difficulty. Since the fishing controller also requires reading movement, I wonder if it does the same thing. I'll find out some day!
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