All 16-Bit

Review #12506 F1 Circus CD MD CD 1992 Nihon Bussan Racing Racing › Simulation H 33 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Hey, a simulation game where I can stay on the track! What a novelty. In-cockpit only and more arcadey than most simulation racing games. 1 / 5 Level Design 2 / 5 Theme 3 / 5 Art Style The best in-cockpit viewport I could imagine. The top 20% of the screen is your rear view mirror, simple stats are just below, and the map is on the left. The game isn't visually impressive, but everything looks the way you'd want it to. 0 / 5 Audio The WORST sound in a racing game ever. The drone of the engine is a...

Review #12138 Wonder Dog Bad dog. No biscuit. Sega CD 1992 JVC Action Action › Platform G 44 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls are wasted by oneof the worst means of attack ever in a platformer. You're a dog. A Wonder Dog, but your only means of attack is throwing a star attack that bounces around so randomly that it's impossible to guarantee you'll hit the enemy right in front of you. You can't bop or punch/kick enemies and of course they swarm at you, so you're left mashing A and hoping for the best. I said the controls are responsive, but this is also nerfed by the "hold B to run" mechanic which turns you into a mix between Sonic and an ice skater. Frustrating 2 / 5 Level De...

Review #12114 Sol-Feace The rare case where an F is better than a D Sega CD 1992 Sega Shooter Shooter › Horizontal C 83 / 100 Very Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Responsive controls. Strange mechanic where two options on top and bottom of your ship will fan out (aka angled up/down) if you move forward and the reverse if you move forward. This only happens when not shooting which allows you to adjust your shots ever so slightly. It's novel but doesn't have a huge impact on the gameplay since the angle can only be adjusted perhaps 30%. Regardless, the gameplay here is fast and frenetic! Some segments are almost bullet hell quality while other times it's about ship placement and memorization. So it's a good blend of Gradius and R-Type. Movement...

Review #12106 Sewer Shark Shoot the tubes Dogmeat!! Sega CD 1992 Sony Imagesoft Shooter Shooter › Gallery X 16 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay I had to find the manual online to figure out how to pilot the craft. There's a directional indicator which flashes, and you have to hold B and press the d-pad in that direction. Unintuitive, but ok. My wingman constantly yells at me for going the wrong way! The tiny screen makes it somewhat easy to move the reticle to a target, although they're even not on screen long enough to hit them. 1 / 5 Level Design One death and it's game over. I couldn't finish a level as it seemed to never end. Plus, there seems to be no benefit for shooting them. Y...

Review #12107 Shadow of the Beast II Caveman Rygar Sega CD 1992 Psygnosis Action Action › Hack n Slash X 24 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Significantly better than the first game, but still not even close to good. You've got way more hit points but you're still a damaged sponge with enemies pouring out constantly. They move so fast and your attack is so slow that they're unavoidable. Actually your attack is much better. It's basically the weapon from Rygar. You can pick up a couple other weapons but they're single use so they're useless. I finally gave up and use the game genie to gain invincibility so I could see more than a couple screens. The jump and turn animations are still way too long and your jumps ...

Review #12108 Sherlock Holmes - Consulting Detective Elementary, my dear Watson (but only if you're Sherlock Holmes) Sega CD 1992 Sega Adventure Adventure › Point n Click F 54 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay As far as these point and click games go, this is about as good as it gets. The UI is intuitive (except for the newspaper) and the cursor moves slowly at first, which allows for precise movement, and gradually speeds up to allow for long movements. A perfect solution for the lack of a mouse. Minimal loading times, for the time. 1 / 5 Level Design As much as I enjoy the setting and the gameplay in this title, the cases are so obtuse that you'd have to be a savant or using a walkthrough to figure...

Review #12100 Rise of the Dragon Don't call me Blade Runner Sega CD 1992 Sega Adventure Adventure › Point n Click E 64 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Simple controls, for the most part. There are some not obvious actions to take but I'll address those in the level design category. C interacts and A opens inventory while B cancels or closes things. It's not always obvious what can be it interacted with so most screens require a careful sweep of the viewable area. Thankfully the cursor changes to indicate interactivity. Thank you 3 / 5 Level Design Time passes as you play so you need to promptly move to the next area to gather evidence. This is a detective story, after all. Dialogue often app...

Review #12101 Road Avenger The best FMV game, by far Sega CD 1992 Renovation FMV FMV › N/a D 71 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay The final form of interactive movie...uh...interactivity. It's a series of QTEs, but you can straight up hold down on the button or direction without mashing or getting the timing just right (ala Dragon's Lair). Also, the game gives you enough time for even an old man like me to react in time. At least on Normal difficulty. Button presses come quickly and are intuitive for the most part. You can focus on the movie and know what you're supposed to do. 4 / 5 Level Design The levels themselves are pretty crazy, in a good way, with a steady stream of memorable moments and set pieces. As...

Review #12092 Prince of Persia PoP goes this weasel Sega CD 1992 Sega Adventure Adventure › Platform H 39 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay All versions of PoP have laggy inputs, but this is ridiculous. Ths is by far the least playable of the 16-bit versions of this title. Press far, far sooner than you think you should and hope that the game does it. 3 / 5 Level Design The levels seem designed to highlight rather than minimize the game's warts. Climbing and descending platforms and jumps are ridiculously tough in this game but the levels seemed designed to make these two things even more difficult. There's also a 2 hour timer. I guess it gives some urgency but I find it distracting. I'm already playing y...

Review #12085 Night Trap Joe Lieberman's arch nemesis Sega CD 1992 Sega FMV FMV › N/a H 34 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay It took me a while to figure out how to play this game, but once I did I was off to the races. Basically, you pick a camera with A, activate a trap with B (but only when the meter is red), and use C to change an "access code" which cycles at a reliable point. The clock continuously flows, so "playing" this title requires you to memorize or otherwise follow the script. As with most of these FMV titles, its interactivity is contrived and superficial. There's no skill, only wrote memorization. Like that Geography 101 class I took in college. The predictability of the controls make this title more playable ...

Review #12071 Make My Video - Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch Not feeling the vibrations Sega CD 1992 Sega FMV FMV › N/a X 2 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay 0 / 5 Level Design 0 / 5 Theme 0 / 5 Art Style 1 / 5 Audio More Sega CD reviews Browse all reviews

Review #12070 Make My Video - Kris Kross I finally found a zero Sega CD 1992 Sega FMV FMV › N/a X 0 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay No, just no. See notes on the INXS title. 0 / 5 Level Design 0 / 5 Theme 0 / 5 Art Style 0 / 5 Audio This music should never be heard. By anyone. More Sega CD reviews Browse all reviews

Review #12069 Make My Video - INXS Baby, Don't Cry Sega CD 1992 Sega FMV FMV › N/a X 2 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Editing a music video is far and away the dumbest concept for a piece of interactive media of all time. Listen to a song, splice together a video, watch your entire video, and then receive a grade with no explanation for how they're grading you. That's it. I wish I could give this a negative score. 0 / 5 Level Design You've got a three songs to choose from and three sets of random videos to pick for your editing by pressing A, B, or C. 0 / 5 Theme A couple of girls at a pool hall are being hit on by a couple of stoners. The girls wi...

Review #12062 Links - The Challenge of Golf The slowest version of the slowest game Sega CD 1992 Virgin Sports Sports › Golf X 23 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Another one of these PC ports, with a mouse cursor being moved around the screen to set direction, club, spin, and power. Your direction is set using arrows to choose something like 4L or 1R. After choosing thie value you must click a "Rotate" button which then takes about 10 seconds to refresh the screen. It's SO SLOW. In fact everything in this game is painfully slow. This is the anti-arcade golf game. Onec you figure out the Swing mechanic, the gameplay isn't a total trainwreck, but it's miles away from being fun. And putting is an absolutely awful exp...

Review #12021 Cobra Command Sewer Shark meets Dragon's Lair Sega CD 1992 Sega FMV FMV › N/a X 18 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Plays like Sewer Shark or Cadillacs & Dinosaurs - just move your reticle and fire on enemies when they become active. Every few seconds you also have to hold in a specified direction, similar to the old Dragon's Lair laserdisc arcade game. This combination of aiming and holding the d-pad are inconguent as your reticle is pulled to one extreme side of the screen. Not that it matters much, since the movement of the reticle is so imprecise. You can fire missiles or fire your vulcan gun, but both have the same result. At the end of the day, this is barely interactive. Just watch a YouTube playthrough,...

Review #12018 Chuck Rock Joe & Mac: The Twilight Years Sega CD 1992 Sony Imagesoft Action Action › Platform G 46 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Another lazy Sega Genesis to CD port. No meaningful improvements. Primary attack is to thrust your pelvis at enemies and hit them with your belly. It's as satisfying as it sounds. Uggh Can't bop Very short jump makes it hard to avoid enemies Controls are responsive but moves are so limiting that progress depends less on skill than on memorization and timing to attack enemies before they can launch an unavoidable attack 3 / 5 Level Design Nice platforming sequences but that's pretty much all the levels have going for them. Just rinse and repeat with the same p...

Review #12008 Batman Returns Driving only. Trust me. Sega CD 1992 Sega Racing Racing › Arcade F 58 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay First things first, this is two games rolled into one. The first is a platformer that gives Batman Forever a run for its money as the worst Batman licensed product of ever made. The less said about it, the better. Second is a combat driving game that must be seen to be believed. Thankfully, the options menu let's you choose between All Stages, Only Platform, or Only Driving. So let's talk about the driving game, shall we? Controls are what you'd expect, except for one glaring problem - your batarang machine gun is a semi-automatic so you can't simply hold down on A. B is gas and C is missiles ...

Review #12003 After Burner III Now you can see forward, and behind Sega CD 1992 Sega Shooter Shooter › Corridor G 48 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Same old After Burner gameplay, with a couple of wrinkles. The first is the inclusion of a cockpit view, which is a literal gamechanger. It can be toggled back to the annoying behind view if you prefer (I don't). I wish this could be toggled mid-game, but whatever. The second change is an infrequent "chase" mode where either an enemy plane or a missile is on your tail. You have an afterburner and an air brake to lose your tail. Overall I enjoyed this game more than the previous games in the series because I can see better. It's a fast game but isn't deep or engaging long-term. It's...

Review #11128 Zero Wing All your base are not belong to us PCE CD 1992 Naxat Soft Shooter Shooter › Horizontal F 57 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Three weapons which are upgradeable and always awarded in the same sequence. Red, blue then green. Red is a normal shot. Shot blue is laser and green is seeker. You always have two options, one above and the other beneath your ship and they're huge so they take a lot of hits which makes the game pretty easy. You can also upgrade your speed a couple of times. You lose everything when you die and restart the level R-Type style. I'm fact the entire game is a slow deliberate crawl in the tradition of the much better R-Type. The only gimmick is a tractor beam which lets you grab an enemy dir...

Review #11121 Valis Better than the Genesis version PCE CD 1992 Telenet Japan Action Action › Hack n Slash E 61 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Significantly better than the Genesis version. The draw distance is increased to about 50% and the movement is slightly faster. Hit detection is s much better! This is the most substantial gameplay improvement. There's also a new movement mechanic where you can crouch and slide, but this is only useful during some boss fights. It's not a super compelling experience, but I enjoyed my time with it more than the other version. 3 / 5 Level Design Minimal platforming. Just go to the right and kill enemies as they appear on screen. There's a little more t...