"The official line is that the [SNES CD] system will be simultaneously introduced in the United States, Canada, and Japan in January 1993. The initial production run will be 300,000 units per month, and the target price range is $200."
- The Whizz, GamePro July 1992
Sega 8 megabits After what seemed like an eternity, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 finally arrived on Tuesday November 24, 1992. "Sonic 2sday", as it was called, marked the first time Sega had made a media event out of one of their games' release dates, a technique which has become commonplace in today's market. Sonic 2 alters the first game's formula in several interesting ways. The most immediately noticeable change is the inclusion of Tails, Sonic's fox-like "little buddy" who follows him through each stage and helps dispatch some of Robotnik's evil creations. In addition to Sonic's new partner, Sonic 2 also adds a bit more variety to the proceedings by having only two stages of play per zone (as opposed to three in the original game), with each zone bringing forth a dazzling array of new graphics. And the graphics are dazzling indeed. Sega really outdid themselves with Sonic 2's visuals, from the twisting corkscrew loops early in the game to the "3D" special stages wherein Sonic and Tails race down a luge-like track in pursuit of the much coveted Chaos Emeralds. There is even a split screen two player mode which makes use of a software trick that allows the Genesis system to double its vertical resolution and display two complete game screens at once! There are some who feel that Sonic 2 isn't as challenging as the first game, but I've always thought that the added speed and variety more than make up for any of the game's shortcomings. I do get the feeling, however, that development of Sonic 2 must have been a bit rushed to make it out for the November 24th release date. The game suffers from periodic glitches which can cause it to freeze up, for example, and the "Hidden Palace Zone" was dropped out of the game entirely at the last minute for reasons unknown. Nevertheless, Sonic 2 could have spelt doom for Sega if it had failed in any way to live up to the reputation of its forerunner, but thankfully it turned out to be every bit as good as the series deserved and a much needed shot in the arm for the Genesis library. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 won Video Games & Computer Entertainment's "Video Game of the Year" award in their "Best Games of 1992" feature. "Behind all of the hype, hoopla and holograms, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is still a stunning game - quite possibly the finest Genesis cartridge ever released." "No Genesis would be complete without Sonic 2! ... Highly intense backgrounds, awesome tunes, and wild levels are everything I have come to expect from a worthy sequel for Sonic!" |
||
Sega 12 megabits Sega's latest football title gets bigger and better than before, but still plays second fiddle to EA's Madden series. "It looks like Sega has finally created a spectacular football game. If anything the voice is worth the price of admission. The announcer really can talk and his voice is superb. No garbled speech here and his vocabulary is quite extensive." |
||
Atlus 4 megabits Atlus decided to enter the increasingly crowded Genesis soccer-simulation market with Tecmo World Cup. Er... it looks nice and green! "Tecmo World Cup? From Atlus? Talk about things that make you go "hmmm"! I haven't a clue as to why Atlus couldn't have changed the name to Atlus World Cup, but I'm even more clueless as to why it licensed such a subpar game in the first place. (Can you tell this is going to be a negative review?)" |
||
Virgin 8 megabits The third Genesis boxing title came from Virgin, the people who brought you Global Gladiators. I don't know much about this game, but I suppose the Muhammad Ali license was a bit of a coup for Virgin... |
||
Razorsoft 8 megabits The latest in Razorsoft's line of "violent" Genesis games, Jerry Glanville's Pigskin Footbrawl apparently featured football "with an attitude... a bad attitude." In a way, it's unfortunate that the ESRB didn't exist back in 1992, because then Razorsoft wouldn't have had to spend so much time trying to get across just how violent their games were to prospective customers... "What this game has to do with real football (and why Jerry Glanville would endorse it) are beyond me." |
||
US Gold 8 megabits Licensed from the movie of the same name, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade appears to have been a rather run-of-the-mill scrolling platform game. The jury is still out on whether or not it had "attitude..." |
||
Kaneko 4 megabits The early nineties fighting game craze continues with Kaneko's Deadly Moves. As you can see at right, it's difficult to glean much information about the game from its print ad... |
||
Treco 8 megabits This fantasy RPG from Treco actually looks kind of cool in the screenshots, but as I have never played it I can't comment on how good the actual game is. The print ad features an impressive looking griffin, though, so the game can't be all bad... |
