Sunsoft and the Sega Genesis

One of the biggest downfalls of Sega's master system was the lack of third-party support in the United States, while the platform had many great games, it was demonstrated by the use of Nintendo software by Dell and its numerous developers and publishers. of software, all locked up. to exclusivity contracts that meant Sega didn't get anything of the sort, luckily for Sega during the early days of Genesis things changed and they finally started to see much needed support from Japanese developers who previously barely touched their systems in this episode . I'll be taking a look at one of their earliest and most prolific fans, Sunsoft, and the more than two dozen games they would release.

Sunsoft developed or published games covering shooters, platformers, beat-em-ups, fighting games, and even an adventure. I play some of the programs are among my favorite games for the system. I hope you enjoy Sunsoft and Sega Genesis in July 1990. Sunsoft internally developed and published Batman for the Mega Drive in Japan. It's a side-scrolling action platformer that I just had to pick up. control of the Caped Crusader and loosely followed Tim Burton's film for its artistic devices, set designs, and boss encounters. Game weapons. The Dark Knight with punches and kicks, as well as batarangs for long-range attacks. Batman also has the ability to shoot a grappling hook upwards to climb onto higher platforms, these side scrolling stages have been augmented with vehicle based stages and you can also use the Batmobile and the batwing to spin on this and they both have normal attacks and special ones so that you can use perhaps the most surprising element of this.

It's the fact that it's only 4 megabits in size, often when a 16 bit game was that small you'd get pretty anemic sound and visuals. I mean, there were 8-bit games that were bigger, but Batman here is still a marvel in both audio and visuals, the characters and vehicles animate well, the environments have great detail, and my goodness, the music is incredible. Sunsoft wrote their own custom sound driver for this game and if I had worked at Sega back then, I would have had my lawyers go and the sound engineers went straight to some software offices and got a license to use that driver and almost all the games I produce from then on.

Rarely will you hear FM delivered at this level so fluidly and with so much variety, one of the main complaints against The Genesis Sound was the fact that it often didn't sound like real instruments, but what we have in this game completely negates that the FM synthesizer didn't need to sound like real trumpets and trumpets because it had its own unique sound. tone that when properly exploited was nothing less than the killer Batman languished in limbo for a year before appearing on Genesis and in the United States thanks to Nintendo's exclusivity contracts, it didn't matter because Batman was an incredible experience and absolutely essential.

In January 1992, under license from Sega, Sunsoft released the magnificent Super Fantasy Zone. This was a unique entry to the series and not a remake or port, but it reflects all the things that made the original game so fun. to buy upgrades and you're in for some pretty tough boss battles, it's a gorgeous and great-sounding game, which is further proof that some in-house software guys knew how to get the most out of Sega's hardware. Sunsoft not only managed to create a game close to the original 16 arcade system, they surpassed it in every way. A European release was released the following year, but never had a physical release in the United States.

Sunsoft stopped licensing Lemmings and released it in Japan and North America in November 1992. Lemmings is a strategy puzzle game that has you trying to save as many little green guys as possible. Each stage provides you with a series of platforms to navigate to a predetermined exit. Some platforms are closed and you need to dig to get out. Some walls need to be scaled and some paths need to be blocked, there are many different skills and actions that you can imbue into the lemmings and you will need each one of them as the game progresses, these little guys will follow each other to their doom, otherwise , visuals and sound come in handy in a great game you can play with the whole family In November 1992 Sunsoft published Batman Revenge of the Joker, an action platformer that would mark their first foray into getting an outside studio to fully develop one of their Genesis games. handled by rinker studios and man, was it a sharp and depressing decline in quality from the last Batman game?

The only praise I can give this game is that it's colorful and has a lot of parallax effects, but other than that it sounds poor and has some serious effects. Gameplay Issues Batman's attacks are varied but weak and every damn enemy in the game takes too much damage to dispatch, there's never a break in the attack from things that can hurt you and the game just isn't strong enough to deal with that before. it becomes pure frustration this game is an unbalanced mess of ideas that makes some sauce Ridge '''l Genesis effort doesn't do it justice at all it was released in North America in December 1992

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published Superman in North America for the Genesis this was another game developed by an external studio, but fortunately fears a little better than revenge.

The Joker is a side-scrolling action game that has bright, colorful graphics and sounds pretty good, plus the gameplay here takes it away from greatness, however, Superman is fast. and sensitive but lacks the attack range to be effective its standard hit is short its special attack is not much better and to attack above you you must use your jump which leaves you completely defenseless from below to the sides you can run and use a jump kick, but the angles are terrible for dealing with fast enemies, this makes you an ineffective Man of Steel, even once you accept these limited moves and start succeeding, it never feels as fun as it should, it's not terrible , but it certainly should be. has been much better Sunsoft released a Blaster Master - in June 1993, much to the delight of fans of the original NES game, a studio called Software Creations did the honors and I was very excited to play it, it's a great looking game from the start .

The details on both the stages and the enemies are as good as the old Genesis and the animation nails it too. You get some different gameplay perspectives. Here first are the side-scrolling areas where you jump over explosive enemies as you explore the interior. These areas are gateways where you can dismount from your vehicle and explore on foot. There are also some raised areas you need to deal with. Everything sounds as it should, but there are some problems with enemy placement and attacks that make it incredibly cheap to play. Attacks come from all angles and even off-screen, hell, you even have respawning enemies sitting at the top of the stairs waiting for you.

This cheapness permeates every facet of the experience and only those with more patience than me will be able to tolerate it. Sunsoft went outside right once again and teamed up with Iguana Entertainment to release Arrow the Acrobat, an action platformer starring a bat with Sonic that was a runaway success that every company coveted. This was the son of salsa. A temptation to take advantage of the pet fashion. It follows the expected pattern associated with these. Releases in the 16-bit era take an animal that is built like a human and performs some jumping attacks and in this case the ability to throw stars that you collect puts you in a colorful environment and bingo on a platformer. 16-bit pets, while the arrow here will not.

It wins any contest for its presentation, it's good enough to not be called ugly, and the gameplay is solid enough to be considered fun at times. My main problem is the stage design which is incredibly abstract and often little more than narrow pillars that you have to navigate up is fine but Arrow is not a sonic killer it was never released in Japan you won't hear me say this often, but days before christmas is a mega drive game that i had never played before this video, it was released exclusively in australia in 1994. and was developed by fun calm for

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, you are santa claus himself trying to rescue your elves and regain your presence so there can really be a Christmas, but the evil timekeeper wants to stop you.

This is another action platformer and I expected the worst. Did you know? Although it wasn't as bad as I thought, it's not a pretty game, but its animation is decent and the sound doesn't make you want to cover your ears. The gameplay is basically little more than simple. hitting enemies and collecting gifts, but considering this was aimed squarely at kids, it's pretty easy to pick up and play due to the low rolls, this game is very expensive and often sells for hundreds of dollars. Bubble and Squeak Complete from 1994 is another game I haven't played. before appearing in a single episode, it was originally an Amiga game, but Sunsoft obtained the rights to make a Mega Drive version and released it in North America and Europe.

This is a puzzle platformer game where you play as an earthling boy trying to help your alien. Buddy Squeak, the gameplay is mainly escort type, each stage presents obstacles that you must overcome and you have the option of allowing Squeak to follow you or have him stand still while you find the way forward. The visuals are solid and feature colorful and excellent stages. animation this is another game that was much better than i feared and certainly not the throwaway title i had always assumed in may 1994 some salt and iguana entertainment teamed up again for the pirates of dark waters based on the cartoon of the same name you can choose between three warriors in your search for swords and lost treasures instead of a port of the beat'em up that saw Super Nintendo, this is actually an action platform game with some light adventure elements, the stages are huge and extensive and require you to find them. the exit instead of just walking straight all the time the images are well detailed although they seem dark and the tone and color for much of the game the music however is pure ear torture they had done well with Arrow the Acrobat but here it is alone her Typical throwaway gem music that makes you wonder if they tried.

In August 1994, success developed the exclusive Japanese panorama Cotton with its publication Sunsoft. This takes the classic horizontal shooter and turns it into a Space Harrier style game on the screen. It now scrolls mostly forward, giving it a great 3D feel at times, as the Megadrive had no dedicated hardware for sprite scaling, this engine is completely software controlled, incredibly impressive screen, the music is just as great and you'll want to turn that up. volume a little. A bit as you play, the game is a great combination of speed control, magic use, and screen placement to survive its numerous enemies and puzzle-like scenario hazards.

You didn't need an expensive add-on for the old Mega Drive to achieve impressive scale. you just needed some talented Sunsoft programmers, an iguana was added again with zero, Kamikaze the squirrel, an arrow spin-off, the acrobat who stars as one of his enemies from the beginning, let me say I enjoyed this much more than the arrow, It has far superior graphics. and it's more colorful and loaded with cool backgrounds and zero plays better - it has a lot more moves like throwing stars, nunchaku, sand, very fast and flying attacks, the music here is a little better than Pirates of Darkwater, but again, it's very weak, just no.

There's no real beat to enjoy and instead it's just electronic beeps and beeps thrown together. Otherwise, this is pretty good for January 1995. Sunsoft and Iguana Entertainment keep the mascot platforms rolling with the arrow and Acrobat part - this is a far superior game to the first effort, the stages are larger and open, gameplay is smoother and more fun, and visuals get a big boost thanks to brighter colors and more detailed backgrounds. There are a lot more pieces to this to make the levels more fun to play for you too. They're always being shaken by something and there are numerous hidden areas to look for.

The sound is even tolerable here. Blizzard Entertainment and Sunsoft teamed up in January 1995 to release The Death and Return of Superman, a side-scrolling beat'em up starring some different men of steel I wanted to love this game so much. I enjoyed the original comic where the end of the world faded away like Superman and thought this would capture that intensity in digital form. It couldn't have been further from the truth, but it left me wondering why. supermanHe is taking damage from things like chainsaws, motorcycles, and street thugs. When I wasn't thinking deeply about these mysteries, I began to notice that I was fighting the same two enemies for long periods of time.

I mean, there's always repetition in these types of games. but literally the same two guys keep showing up for an entire scenario. Superman also has a complete lack of interesting moves and an absolute disgrace since games like Combined Tribes had been available for five years at this point. This one is superficial and lacks assets to speak of. since its introduction and is single-player only and is just a forgettable experience in September 1995 Sunsoft develops Scooby-Doo Mystery to acclaim upon publishing it. It takes the form of a point-and-click adventure game, something you didn't see. On consoles, very often at that point you have two options of mysteries to try to solve and the game revolves around searching for clues to find each responsible party, you move around and explore areas that have fixed camera angles and then you can collect items , talk to people and check out different parts of the room the animation is great the art is pretty faithful to the cartoon and the story is interesting the lack of support for the mouth means that playing with a pad can be cumbersome but i still thinking this is a decent game the last game sunsoft was involved in the

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was released in early 1995 Justice League Task Force was a collaboration between Blizzards Sunsoft and Acclaim, a 2D fighter very similar to Street Fighter 2.

I really don't like this game, the gameplay is very unbalanced and the moves that each hero possesses are almost completely useless because each fight quickly turns into melee punches and kicks and massive projectile delivery, it plays too fast and the gameplay is not strong enough to support it , which creates the feeling that you have little control over your character. I didn't care about the images. Its characters are great, but it sounds absolute. I mean, did Western developers have ears back then or how did they put out games that sound like that? Why didn't Sunsoft employ its custom sound drivers that had served its first games so well in the In the end we were left with a little depth to mess around with garbage sound, don't waste your time.

Sunsoft also had a handful of other titles that I wanted to quickly review. They were responsible for publishing the flashback adventure classic in Japan for Megadrive, which we handled with gold. Elsewhere in the world, Son Salt was also part of the trio of companies that made the two Beauty and the Beast games for Genesis, one being an action game and the other having you explore and play mini-games. They also released two games for the mega modem in 1990, both featuring network multiplayer, the first was of course a mahjong game with simple graphics, while the second was a full-featured baseball game, the mega modem did not have widespread support and never left Japan.

The last software I want. To cover it as a puzzle game that forces you to match tiles to get the player to the exit, it is simple but addictive and actually not a bad game at all. When I finish playing all these games, I can't help but notice the big difference. As for software quality, between the things Sunsoft did in-house and the things they outsourced to Western developers, their early products looked better, played better, and certainly sounded better. Batman had been one of their first games on the platform, but there were games that came out five years later.

Later, that simply didn't live up to its excellence, the success of the Genesis and Mega Drive brands in the US and Europe spawned a ton of new development studios trying to create games. I think the simple truth is that there was no replacement for experience. and Japanese teams had established themselves in synth giants 68000 and FM thanks to their years in the arcade, it took years for most American and European developers to match that skill and production quality. I think this is partly a big reason why the platform has such a terrible reputation for sound, once the Japanese developer moved away the new blood coming in was so green trying to get the Yamaha FM chip to sing, The end result was a bunch of games that didn't sound as good as the games that had been released. released years before I signed alors Dex, thanks everyone for watching and I'll see you next time.