"Joe Miller and a team of guys designed [32X] here and it was turned over to the R & D staff of Sega of Japan for the finishing touches. This is the reverse of the way hardware normally gets developed."
- Tom Kalinske, EGM December 1994
Sony Imagesoft CD-ROM Perhaps unexpectedly, one of the best Mickey Mouse games of the 16-Bit era came not from Sega or Capcom, but Sony Imagesoft. Featuring smooth animation and (on Sega CD) an orchestral soundtrack, Mickey Mania was well received by the gaming press, but ultimately got a bit lost in the shuffle amidst higher-profile platformers like Earthworm Jim and Sonic & Knuckles. "From the makers of Puggsy, Mickey Mania is not only Disney game of the year, but could battle Aladdin for the best Disney game ever! If you like the mouse, you MUST have this game!" "Although the 16-color Sega palette keeps it from lookin as good as the SNES version, the CD-based soundtrack boasts a 26-piece orchestra that more than makes up for it." |
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Rocket Science CD-ROM Apparently a lot of money was spent on this FMV adventure. Unfortunately, it was a FMV adventure, which rather limited its potential appeal no matter how large its budget might have been... "ANOTHER ONE?! No! This isn't fair. Who actually thinks we like FMV games? What "demographics" show this??" "All [Rocket Science] ... has managed to do is to prove just how little $3 million worth of Ned Beatty on digitized footage adds to a game." |
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Sega CD-ROM Sega of America slapped together the Sega CD version of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in record time, and sadly it shows. Still, they managed to strike while the iron was hot, I suppose... |
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Mindscape 16 megabits If there was anything the Genesis library needed in 1994, it was another football game. Congrats to Mindscape for so swiftly filling this void... |
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Electronic Arts 16 megabits There was a new Madden game in 1994, and EA claimed that it was better than the previous year's version. Film at 11. |
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Konami CD-ROM Games that could make use of Konami's Justifier gun peripheral were few and far between, so Lethal Enforcers II would no doubt have been a welcome release for fans of the target shooting genre. "This Justifier-compatible title takes the plot of the first game and drops it in the Old West. Basically, it's more aim-the-gun-and-shoot, with a two-player option that comes very close to the arcade version." |
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Accolade 16 megabits Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ballz is a pseudo 3-D fighting game featuring characters made out of... er, balls. I suppose the whole ball thing was chosen to allow for simulated changes of perspective in the game, but it all looks a bit weird to me... "Ballz is a very playable fighter that strays from the norm enough to make it worth owning. Six button control and move execution similar to MK add to its appeal." "Ballz has a unique perspective on the fighting field (like Virtua Fighters), but I found some of the moves difficult to pull off at times." |
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Sunsoft 16 megabits Aero The Acro-Bat 2 received much critical acclaim when it was released, but I have to admit that by this point I had pretty much lost interest in platform games (at least temporarily) so I'm afraid I've never played it. The screenshots look nice and vibrant, though... "Aero 2 is one of the year's best platformers, no doubt about it. The graphics, play-mechanics, and level design, are top notch. The music however, is not as spectacular and is the only flaw in the game." "I never really got into the first one, and I might go back and check it out a bit more. I liked Aero a bit more the second time around. The diving technique started to grow on me and the levels were fun to play." |
