All 16-Bit

Review #4703 Zoom! Genesis 1990 Sega Puzzle Puzzle › Overhead F 53 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay It's a mix of Qix, Dig Dig, and Q*Bert. Guide your orange guy over lines to fully sleeping every time on the screen. Unfortunately the controls are laggy and imprecise so he doesn't go where you want him to go. The perspective is highly skewed so it's very difficult to get the tiles at the back of the screen. Enemies swarm toward you and you can't stop moving so it's a cat and mouse game of perpetually avoiding them. It's fun for a while. Not an awesome game by any stretch but fun for a quick game like so many of those 80s single screen action puzzle games 2 / 5 Level Design Difficult...

Review #4704 Zoop 4 directional Magical Drop Genesis 1995 Viacom Puzzle Puzzle › Blocks F 55 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Better than I was expecting. Kind of a mix between Magical Drop and Klax. Shoot your cursor to eliminate same colored blocks and change to the next color in the stack. Easy and fun initially but quickly ramps up in difficulty and speed. Way too fast imho. 2 / 5 Level Design Just endless and level play 1 / 5 Theme Pure puzzle game. No presentation whatsoever 1 / 5 Art Style Nothing to look at. Booooring to look at 1 / 5 Audio Sounds are pulled from Jeopardy games! Music is so...

Review #4702 Zool Candy Land Ninja - the Amiga game Genesis 1993 GameTek Action Action › Platform F 59 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Controls are way more spastic and floaty than the SNES version. Much harder to control. Kind of a gun game since main attack is a projectile. Can also bop enemies. Insanely fast movement. Much faster than the SNES version which itself is very fast. Camera keeps you centered in the screen as opposed to the SNES version which gives you 25% draw distance! Wall grab to scale walls. Powerups include a shadow ala Ninja Gaiden II which doubles your firepower. Unfortunately he snaps to your position when you stop instead of staying where you were like in NG2. 3 / 5 Level Design ...

Review #4701 Zombies Ate My Neighbors Maniac Mansion meets Resident Evil Genesis 1993 Konami Action Action › Gun D 73 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Unique weapons but too many to keep straight in your head esp when some are nearly useless Cycle through weapons is impossible while enemies are attacking Infinitely spawning bad guys Really, really, really wish it was twin-stick No knockback + swarming enemies means a lot of deathlocks Inclusion of a permanent radar on the side, along with health bars and ammo counts, makes the Genesis release the best to play through. 3 / 5 Level Design Typical collect everything and the exit will open design pattern Labyrinthine levels Some fun elements like hedges you can chainsa...

Review #4700 Zero Wing The OG meme Genesis 1989 Williams Shooter Shooter › Horizontal F 55 / 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 break which lets you grab an event directly in front of you an...

Review #4699 Zero Tolerance Aliens Colonial Marines...in Earth orbit Genesis 1994 Accolade Shooter Shooter › FPS G 42 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Tiny view screen. Faceball 2000 might have a larger viewport Momentum issues when moving. Takes a second to get started and even longer to stop. Combat in an open area is frustrating. On screen map with enemy dots works well Enemies for before they're in sight so they always score cheap shots. Plays fast, tho not at the Doom level. Generous hit detection 2 / 5 Level Design Clear all enemies from each level. No secrets. Just kill all the bad guys Lots of large rooms with wide open spaces. 4 / 5 Theme It's Aliens. A colony/spac...

Review #4694 X-Men 2: Clone Wars The best 16-bit Marvel game Genesis 1995 Sega Action Action › Hack n Slash D 78 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Lovely movement. Very fast paced and responsive. There are 6 different playable characters but unfortunately they all play about the same. They've got an attack, an upward attack, a jumping attack, and a special ability that you don't want to use because it uses up your health. So yeah, massive missed opportunity to differentiate the characters. A couple of them have a double jump but not all so it's pretty much pointless to use Cyclops. The only real downsides to the gameplay are the rather annoying camera which gives you about 80% draw distance but only moves when you start moving that direction. So...

Review #4698 Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel Yup. Aero the Acro-bat was successful enough to get a spinoff Genesis 1994 Sunsoft Action Action › Platform D 70 / 100 Good Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Fast movement, but only 40% draw distance which makes for lot of cheap hits. You wind up moving slowly as a result. Jump, throw/punch, and a pointless dive. Also L and R makes you somersault continuously which is fun but not very useful. Double jump(!) but the second jump causes you to spin an move forward in an arch so it's hard to get the placement just right. Also the timing matters - the height of your second jump depends on how much upward motion you currently have. If you use it at the top of your jump you'll get a small boost, if you're falling from the...

Review #4697 Zany Golf Play Kirby's Dream Course instead Genesis 1990 Electronic Arts Sports Sports › Golf X 13 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 0 / 5 Gameplay Really weird controls. You have to press A over the ball, which is tiny, drag away and release A. So it plays moe like Side Pocket than PGA Tour Golf. Problem abound, such as the awful speed. The game performs at about 2 FPS, making it more or less unplayable. I don't know what this game was ported from but EA sucked at ports to the Genesis back in 1990. I love the idea, but the execution is horrible. 2 / 5 Level Design Points for originality. Mini golf is fun and I don't understand why more mini golf video games haven't been made. ...

Review #4695 X-Perts Genesis 1996 Deep Water Action Action › Punch n Kick X 23 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay The gameplay is a bit like Batman Forever or Mortal Kombat. You lumber around slowly without the ability to run or jump. There's a tiny depth like in a beat-em-up, but enemies can hit you and you can hit enemies on any plane so long as you're horizontally next to them. So I'm not sure what the point of the depth is. As you might expect, you can punch and kick. You can also take out a machine gun by pressing the punch and kick buttons together, but you can't move while shooting. The whole experience feels like you're driving a tank.. 0 / 5 Level Design Incoherent design. No ide...

Review #4696 Ys III: Wanderers from Ys Side scrolling Lagoon Genesis 1991 Renovation Adventure Adventure › Platform H 37 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Horrible hit detection Enemies with no collision Weapon with almost no reach Insane difficulty - grind to win gameplay. Zero skill required or rewarded. I found a spot where an enemy could be manipulated to respawn and I ordered up a book too grind for me for 30 minutes and then I walked through the game. 2 / 5 Level Design Linear story is easy to follow. Just go to the next area, beat a boss, and grab a statue. Repeat. Levels are short and boring 3 / 5 Theme Standard hero story. There aren't anime cut scenes at the very star...

Review #4691 WWF Super WrestleMania The one with Hulk Hogan Genesis 1992 Flying Edge Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 35 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Pretty good...for a wrestling game. Controls are slow and eat a lot of inputs but they're at least understandable. Face buttons for kick and punch buttons. A doesn't seem to do anything though. I was expecting it to be a run button like in the SNES version but it doesn't work. I couldn't figure out how to run. When opponent is on the ground punch becomes kick, kick becomes piledrive, and A still doesn't nothing. You have to press B+C to pin. Really finicky about where to stand when trying to pin or tag a partner. Extremely repetitive gameplay - kick when the opponent is far a...

Review #4692 WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game Mortal Kombat: The Wrestling Game Genesis 1995 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling X 21 / 100 You've been warned Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Plays more like a 1v1 fighting game than wrestling which I guess is a good thing. Only problem is I can't figure out any special moves so my opponent destroys me. Must win best 2 of 3 like a 1v1 fighter. Controls like a Mortal Kombat game with long animations and horrible hit detection. 1 / 5 Level Design No modes to choose from. Just a Punch Out style series of bouts to play thru. 2 / 5 Theme Only 6 wrestlers to choose from? Looks and sounds like an arcade game...if you like that sort of thing....

Review #4693 X-Men Not to be confused with "trans women" Genesis 1993 Sega Action Action › Hack n Slash E 64 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 4 / 5 Gameplay Nice movement, if a bit simple. Nice high jump. Punch, jump kick, and use your mutant ability which spends a meter which slowly recharges. 2 / 5 Level Design Typical Western mazes. Wander aimlessly in a huge area that all looks samey. Lots of blind jumps and cheap enemy placement. Ho hum 4 / 5 Theme 90s X-Men. The only problem is that you can't play as any of the ladies. What gives? 4 / 5 Art Style Really nice sprites. They match the cartoon/comic books of the time. Mind you, they a...

Review #4690 WWF Royal Rumble Hey, how come this version has Hulk Hogan? Genesis 1993 Flying Edge Fighting Fighting › Wrestling F 50 / 100 Not Bad, but Flawed Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Same as previous WWF game. Like, the exact same controls, but with greatly improved hit detection and increased speed. Only notable addition is a grappling meter that shows who is winning. Interesting but mostly pointless. Can't decide which button to mash. Seems to be random each time. Boring, repetitive gameplay, but at least it performs well. 2 / 5 Level Design Same modes as before plus a Battle Royale where six wrestlers jump in at once. Same ring as always. 2 / 5 Theme The SNES version didn't h...

Review #4689 WWF Raw 2X speed, 1/2 animation Genesis 1994 Acclaim Fighting Fighting › Wrestling H 27 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 1 / 5 Gameplay Take everything about the previous 2 WWF games, speed it up by 2x, remove half the frames of animation, and make it impossible to win a grappling session. It plays fast but is impossibly difficult to control, much less win a match. 2 / 5 Level Design Same as always. Has a few more modes which throw more wrestlers into the ring which makes the games sins all the more apparent. The too-fast gameplay becomes unwieldy once there are two, three, or seven other guys flying around the ring. 1 / 5 Theme Still no Hulk. And blech, it's pro wrestling. ...

Review #4687 World Series Baseball '98 Roster update Genesis 1997 Sega Sports Sports › Baseball G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay 3 / 5 Level Design 2 / 5 Theme 2 / 5 Art Style 1 / 5 Audio More Genesis reviews Browse all reviews

Review #4688 World Trophy Soccer The sim-est soccer sim Genesis 1992 Virgin Sports Sports › Soccer H 36 / 100 Horrible Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay Slow simulation. Incredibly laggy controls. It takes more than 1 second after pressing a button before you pass or shoot. In fact it feel like your inputs are eaten frequently. It's easy enough to dribble down the field, so movement feels nice. 1 / 5 Level Design Same modes, but no difficulty levels or options to disable fouls or offside. You get what you get. 1 / 5 Theme Soccer 3 / 5 Art Style Tiny sprites. Let's you see most of the field. Everything moves well. 2 / 5 Audio...

Review #4683 World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Mickey for the kiddies Genesis 1992 Sega Action Action › Platform E 63 / 100 Your mileage may vary Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 3 / 5 Gameplay Slow movement. You can run by holding A but it's ever so slightly faster and it's rarely needed. Attack has a long reach but it's a really long animation. It stuns enemies who have i-frames until they wake back up. This often leads to unexpected hits if you walk through a stunned enemy. So, instead you have to attack and then wait to see if it's actually dead. Controls are responsive, but again fairly slow. No new abilities are ever gained. It's just straight platforming and simple combat. Incredibly easy. This is one of the easiest games on th...

Review #4686 World Series Baseball '96 Roster update, minus the home run trot Genesis 1996 Sega Sports Sports › Baseball G 43 / 100 Bad Screenshot used for review/reference purposes. 2 / 5 Gameplay 3 / 5 Level Design 2 / 5 Theme 2 / 5 Art Style 1 / 5 Audio More Genesis reviews Browse all reviews