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Game Corner: Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K2 Comments

Released: 14 March 2018
Originally Released: 23 July 1993
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Ninjas were a big deal back in the day, whether they were mutated turtles, rainbow-coloured fighters, or mysterious assassins. Ninjas and videogames went hand in hand, resulting in titles so challenging that they defined a generation of players. Eager to have a piece of that pie, SEGA saw notable success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a difficult but enjoyable arcade title later refined for home consoles. Director Noriyoshi Ohba aimed to make the sequel a technical showcase for the then-new Mega Drive hardware, one purpose-built for home consoles and which became notorious for including unlicensed appearances by pop culture icons. A widely praised release, The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989) is now regarded as a classic of its generation and inspired not just a semi-recurring comic strip in the United Kingdom, but also a third game. Originally scheduled for release in 1992, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master was vastly overhauled when the developers were dissatisfied with the original version, leading to a lot of content being cut and replaced with new mechanics. Though largely seen as being much easier than its predecessor, Shinobi III impressed with its refined gameplay mechanics and visual presentation, with many seeing it as the best of the classic Shinobi titles. This positive reception (and the lack of copyright issues compared to its predecessor) no doubt contributed to Shinobi III having a lucrative lifespan beyond the Mega Drive as the game was included in numerous SEGA collections, converted to 3D, and added to the Nintendo Switch’s online service in 2018, which eased the pain of how expensive an original copy can be.

The Plot:
When Neo Zeed returns under the command of the mysterious Shadow Master, the legendary Shinobi, Joe Musashi, fights to end their sinister bio- and cybernetic research.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master is the last of the Shinobi titles released for the Mega Drive and, like its predecessor, is an action/platformer with a strong emphasis on projectile-based combat. Like in the last game, players take Joe Musashi through multiple levels (or “Rounds”), each with at least three stages, though this time there are only seven Rounds. As before, there are four difficulty settings to choose from, with the harder settings dramatically reducing your total life count, and players can continue their game a handful of times if they exhaust all their lives. Unlike in The Revenge of Shinobi, however, Shinobi III’s control scheme is locked to a preset that maps your jump to A, tosses shuriken with B, and activates your “ninjitsu” magic with Y. You can still set how many shuriken you start with, however, and you can still pull off a somersault by pressing A at the height of your jump. Press B when somersaulting to unleash a shuriken spread to take out multiple enemies or press down on the directional pad to pull off a flying kick. As before, Musashi can assume a “defensive pose” to deflect incoming projectiles, but this is now done manually by holding B and you can even do it while crouching and crouch-walking. Shinobi can also dash by quickly tapping left and right, dramatically speeding up the action, wall jump by…jumping off walls…and cross gaps and hazards or navigate stages while clinging to ceilings, pipes, and such by holding B. Various goodies are found by smashing crates, ranging from health-restoring hearts, rare extra lives and ninjitsu replenishments, to additional shuriken and the ever-annoying time bomb. Musashi is far faster and more versatile this time around, moving at a swifter pace and boasting a few additional tricks to make combat and gameplay smoother. It’s still tricky pulling off his somersault and the wall jump can be finicky, but I found Shinobi III far more forgiving than its predecessor and focusing more on action than platforming.

Musashi is faster and more deadly than ever, to say nothing of a master rider and surfer!

Players can once again collect “Power-Ups” to boost Shinobi’s attacks, adding his deadly sword to his melee attack and block and transforming his shuriken into flaming projectiles. Players also gain points for every enemy defeated and item collected, and the end of Round score tally also adds points depending on if you used your ninjutsu magic or your remaining health. By pausing the game, players select which ninjitsu technique to use with Y, with each functioning exactly like The Revenge of Shinobi: Jutsu of Ikazuchi temporarily protects Shinobi with an electrical shield, Jutsu of Kariu summons flaming pillars to damage all enemies, Jutsu of Fushin enhances your jumping speed and height, and Jutsu of Mijin has Shinobi self-destruct (costing him a life) to destroy enemies. Only one of these can be used per life but you gain additional uses by finding items, though I found less use for them this time around as Shinobi is largely grounded and the game encourages you to wall jump and spider-walk to clear gaps. Musashi gains two additional abilities, the first being a horse and the second some bitchin’ surfin’ skills! Round 2 sees you racing across a marsh-like field on horseback, jumping obstacles and taking out enemies with your shuriken or ninjutsu. Round 4 has you surging across the water, jumping off ramps to collect items and avoid mines while defeating waves of enemies, with both instances functioning like autoscrolling shooter. Round 6 also sees you in freefall down a canyon, forcing you to hop to falling boulders to keep from dropping to your doom, while many stages force you to clamber to higher levels by finding surfaces to cling to (which isn’t always obvious).

Though more forgiving, some new gimmicks and refined mechanics add to the challenge.

Shinobi III is much more challenging, overall, than its predecessor, throwing far more enemies and hazards at you but with the caveat that most stages keep you quite grounded and I found extra lives a touch more plentiful. Bottomless pits are commonplace, of course, and many times platforms will either be temporary or will require time bombs to destroy so you can progress, but insta-kill hazards are limited to crushing spikes rather than lava pits. Sometimes, you must time your wall jumps and spider-walk to avoid electrified walls and ceilings; others, you cling to or run across conveyers to progress. There are instances where you ride platforms either across a zig-zag-like track or directly upwards, with Round 2 featuring a vertical autoscroller that’ll see you crushed or left behind if you don’t pay attention. Round 3 dumps you in a disgusting, bio-organic nest where the sticky ground slows your movement and Round 4 sees you hopping to sinking barrels around an oil rig, leaping to firmer ground before you drown. Round 5 mimics a similar stage from The Revenge of Shinobi in that you can somersault over chain-link fences but, this time, you must also avoid hidden mines that eventually explode under your feet! Toxic goop, electrical sparks, and support beams hanging under Neo Zeed’s fancy blimp all make traversal an issue in their own way. Round 7 takes you inside the blimp, where drones attack as you ride a precarious moving platform, while the final area of this stage features platforming and skill-based challenges so troublesome that no enemies are required! As if tricky jumps weren’t bad enough, Round 6 puts you in a mist-filled pagoda where spikes jut from the ground and another damn door maze awaits! This was much simpler to figure out compared to the one in The Revenge of Shinobi (I simply guessed the route by taking the high ground), though made more challenging since enemies respawn each time you looped around!

Presentation:
Although Shinobi III is visually very similar to its predecessor, there have been a few improvements between the games. Musashi still doesn’t have an idle pose, but his sprite is much bigger, more detailed, and versatile thanks to his expanded move set. He now grabs the hilt of his sword when powered-up, cuts a mean pose when surfing, and blood splatters whenever he or his enemies take damage! While many sound effects are unchanged from The Revenge of Shinobi and enemies still explode in spectacular fashion, the soundtrack is overall inferior to the last game. Obviously, I have more nostalgia for The Revenge of Shinobi so I’m naturally biased towards that game, but Shinobi III really disappointed in its tracks, and in the less visually interesting enemies (especially compared to the beta version). However, larger enemies (such as samurai and various mechs) do appear more often, almost as mini bosses, and you’ll face far greater numbers and waves of enemies, with no visible slowdown or performance issues. I liked that the bombs now had a visual timer, the additional weather effects (such as rain, wind, and parts of the environment reacting to these elements), and the greater depth added to the backgrounds. Stages are far more detailed, lively, and have many more instances of parallax scrolling, making for a technically more impressive title. This is best felt in the expanded introduction (featuring a larger, more impressive, animated interpretation of Musashi), the new map screen, and the detailed artwork that pops up after you clear a Round. The game also features more story text at the start and end, and even end credits this time around (though there’s only one ending in Shinobi III).

The visuals and gameplay are vastly improved over the last game, resulting in a more impressive title.

Things start with a visual bang in Round 1’s dense forest, with grass and leaves rustling in the wind, which leads into a dank, dark cave filled with waterfalls and rippling water. I loved the marsh lands and docks that rush past in Round 2 and 4, respectively, which see clouds, kites, and tanks in the distance. The cyberpunk-like city of Round 2, the industrial factory/oil rig of Round 4, and the cybernetic research area seen in Round 5 were all worlds above the visuals offered in the last game, with foreground elements (mostly trees, pipes, and other machinery) bringing each area alive and never being too intimidating in how cluttered they were. While Round 6 was mostly relegated to a grey canyon, I loved the sense of speed as you fall to certain doom, though the night sky and full Moon are done far better in Round 7, where thick clouds rush past. Rounds 3 and 5 impressed me the most, however. Round 3 takes place in an ominous, high-tech bio-weapon facility where Neo Zeed’s bizarre abominations and brain-like experiments slumber or burst free from captivity. This leads to a revolting sewer where Neo Zeed dispose of their toxic waste and experiments, meaning the surfaces are teeming with sticky, biological sludges and malformed monsters lurk. Round 5 takes the military base from the last game and sets it against a raging inferno and explosive oil drums, then sees you slashing through another high-tech factory, this one with molten metal bubbling in the background and ominous, vaguely familiar mechanical dinosaurs waiting to be activated. The final battle occurs in a bizarre, cyberspace-like environment that really messes with your mind, while additional lighting effects and environmental details add a level of polish to the Shinobi formula that keeps it both traditional and bizarre and better showcases the Mega Drive’s power.

Enemies and Bosses:
Neo Zeed’s forces are once again primarily comprised of ninjas and soldiers, though these are noticeably cybernetically enhanced. Ninjas drop from trees, somersault over you, toss shuriken, and fly about on bat-like wings, as before, and come in different colours to indicate when you’re getting closer to the big bad. Larger samurai guard the tunnels in Round 1, slashing an energy wave and cutting with their large katana, though these are defeated as easily as the regular ninjas. The soldiers still fire machine guns, but now use mortals rather than grenades and there are no Marines bolstering their ranks, though red-clad female assassins still pop up. Ninjas now ride futuristic hoverbikes, pilot mechs, and are joined by odd, blowpipe-firing figures and floating kabuki-style warriors who emit flame bursts. Crawling brains and sludge monsters attack in the depths of Neo Zeed’s laboratory, soldiers wield laser rifles, shields, and boomerang-like projectiles, and mutated bugs, laser turrets, and persistent drones also await your presence. Steam bursts from vents, enemies crawl on ceilings like spiders, and more mini bosses appear during your playthrough. These include the return of the agile and Shadow Dancer (who now rains spears while jumping around), a gauntlet against an army of mutated brains as toxic goop bubbles nearby, large mechs that dash and attack with rapid-fire pulse cannons, and Karura, a lance-carrying bird man who attacks as you plummet in Round 6 and becomes invulnerable when seen as a whirring blur of feathers. You’ll also take on another supercomputer, though this one zaps you with an electrical field and fires explosive shells into the arena. Round 4 ends with a two-phase battle against an intimidating mech boss that begins as little more than a giant cannon in the water and soon takes to the air and requires you to blast away its cannon and shield before attacking its main body.

Some bizarre and gigantic bosses set the stage for the game’s formidable final challenge.

The first boss you face is another giant samurai, one mutated to sport four arms (two holding katana and two wielding a spear). Though you can’t hop to the high ground and this guy can dash, it’s easy enough to jump over him, use your somersault attack, or roast him with Jutsu of Kariu. Shinobi III takes a turn into the bizarre and macabre in Round 3, which sees Musashi targeted by a gigantic, malformed blob of mewling flesh while navigating the sewers and then facing off with the ghastly abomination. It lumbers in from the right or emerges from the disgusting ground, tossing chunks of flesh or swiping with its deformed hand, and noticeably degrades as you deal damage to its drooping eyes. While Shinobi III opts not to tow the line between parody and copyright infringement with its enemies and bosses, the developers couldn’t help but include an appearance from Mechagodzilla in Round 5. This gigantic, impressively detailed sprite emerges from the darkness and plods about in the background, breathing fire and raining debris. After destroying its head, it’ll unleash a barrage of projectiles from its chest, making this a tricky encounter even though touching it doesn’t hurt you. Round 6 ends with a rematch against Neo Zeed’s big boss, a squat, masked, demonic figure who whips his hair. This time, the fight occurs in a dark room full of doors that the masked fiend emerges from, tricking you with a duplicate. Though the fight is noticeably easier, it can be tough picking the right one and he becomes more aggressive, flinging a spread of darts after enough hits. This time, the final battle is against the Shadow Master, which is a two-phase affair fought in a psychedelic environment. The Shadow Master is super-fast and aggressive, leaping about, tossing kunai, teleporting, rushing at you with a sword, and delivering an explosive hit. After enough damage, he powers up and tosses energy projectiles, a flurry of blasts, and a charged shot from his arm.

Additional Features:
While Shinobi III is quite a challenge even on “Easy”, you can make things even more difficult by selecting harder difficulties, thus limiting your lives and continues. While you can accumulate points, there’s still no high score table to put your name on, though the “Options” menu has been expanded to include sound effects and voices. As in The Revenge of Shinobi, you can grant yourself unlimited shuriken with a simple trick but, even better, Shinobi III features an invincibility cheat activated by playing certain songs in the right order. Not that you really need that when playing this version of the game as the Nintendo Switch offers rewind and save state features to cut the challenge off at the knees. Finally, if you’re playing the version included in the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection (Backbone Entertainment, 2009), you get an Achievement for finishing the first stage without a continue and, in the SEGA Mega Drive Classics collection (SEGA/D3T, 2018), you get an Achievement if you beat any level without tossing a shuriken.

The Summary:
I never grew up playing Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, so I don’t have the same level of nostalgia for it as for The Revenge of Shinobi. However, this did everything I’d expect from a sequel: it took what worked in the last game and expanded upon it. The visuals are greatly improved, with Joe Musashi being much faster and tighter to control. His additional moves and abilities were a welcome inclusion, mitigating my difficulties at mastering his somersault and adding an extra layer to the platforming and jumping challenges. I appreciated the added emphasis on fast-paced, hack-and-slash combat and the autoscrolling sections, which nicely broke up the gameplay and served as fun distractions. While the soundtrack was disappointing and I wasn’t blown away by the enemies, the bosses were a big step up from the last game. There are more of them, for starters, and the developers shied away from ripping off pop culture characters for some gruesome, intimidating, and fun affairs that better test your skills as a player. I did find the ninjitsu a bit wasted here, however, and it was a shame Musashi didn’t gain new magic or power-ups to use, but the visual variety offered by the stage design more than made up for it. I appreciated that the game veered more towards the surreal and science-fiction to try and mix things up, and that you were rewarded for playing well in stages. There are few cheap deaths and hazards here, and the game does get very challenging when you’re presented with small platforms, temporary ground, and tricky jumps. I can see this being aggravating on original hardware, but this version of the game makes it a breeze even without the invincibility code. Ultimately, while I would probably still choose to play The Revenge of Shinobi due to my nostalgia for that title, Shinobi III was a worthy follow-up that vastly improved almost every aspect of its sequel, making it equally good in my eyes.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

What did you think to Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master? How do you think it compares to The Revenge of Shinobi and what did you think to Musashi’s new abilities? Were you also disappointed by the soundtrack and the lack of new ninjutsu magic? What did you think to the new bosses and how bizarre some of them were? Did you enjoy the autoscrolling sections and manage to beat the game on original hardware? Which Shinobi game is your favourite? Let me know your thoughts and memories of Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other Shinobi reviews.

Mini Game Corner: Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi (Xbox Series X)

Dr. K1 Comment

Released: 29 May 2018
Originally Released: 1 December 1990
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox One, Xbox Series S

A Brief Background:
Back in the day, for a while there, ninjas were the latest craze, appearing as mutated turtles, rainbow-coloured fighters, or mysterious assassins, especially in videogames, where the challenge of ninja-based titles defined a generation of gamers. SEGA’s bid to get involved in the fad resulted in notable success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a taxing but praised arcade title that was improved for home consoles. While its Mega Drive sequel, The Revenge of Shinobi (SEGA, 1989), was met with widespread praise, Shinobi’s first sequel was actually an arcade release just like the original game. Boasting improved graphics and teaming Joe Musashi with a canine companion, Shadow Dancer (ibid) released the same year as The Revenge of Shinobi and was largely praised, despite some aggravating mechanics. While a port was released for the Master System in some territories, the Mega Drive version was noticeably different, adding additional gameplay gimmicks while also being far more faithful to the arcade title than Shinobi’s previous home conversions. Well received at the time and standing the test of time as another classic title for the 16-bit powerhouse, Shadow Dancer was often included in subsequent collections, including the SEGA Mega Drive Classics collection that added a few quality of life mechanics to the game.

The Review:
I was all ready to do one of my regular lengthy reviews about Joe Musashi/Shinobi’s quest for revenge against the Union Lizard ninjas, only to find that Shadow Dancer adheres a little too closely to its arcade roots and therefore is too short to warrant a longer review. Like in the original arcade title, players run, jump, and toss shuriken though five levels (referred to as “Rounds”, with three stages each (the third being a boss battle). Players won’t need to worry about their health here as Musashi once again keels over and dies if he takes a single hit, though he can bounce and bump off enemies and some hazards so it’s only attacks that kill him. Like in The Revenge of Shinobi, players can set the game’s difficulty level, changing the title screen and increasing the number of enemies while decreasing the player’s continues, and will rescue hostages in each stage. Male hostages add to the player’s score, with a final tally adding additional points once a Round is cleared, while female hostages upgrade Musashi’s attacks and see him fling flaming projectiles and throw flaming kicks rather than using his sword for close-quarters combat. Players can add an additional challenge by disabling the shuriken (a death sentence if I ever saw one) and can pick from four different control types. I chose Type B, which mapped the jump to the A button, shuriken to the X button (with no rapid-fire option available), and Shinobi’s patented ninjutsu magic to the B button. Like in the original Shinobi, players are assigned different ninjutsu for each stage and only get one use per stage, earning a point bonus if they finish without using their magic. Musashi can conjure flaming pillars, whirling tornados, and a meteor storm to destroy all enemies, which is handy when you’re swarmed by ninjas. You’re also playing against a three-minute timer (though I always had plenty of time) and can occasionally collect extra lives by finding Union Lizard tokens.

Cut down repetitive ninjas alongside Shinobi’s near-useless canine companion in this challenging quest.

Though he lacks his somersault and shuriken spread and more versatile ninjutsu magic from The Revenge of Shinobi, Musashi can still duck, avoid projectiles using crates and boxes, and hop to higher ground or over fences by holding up and pressing the jump button. This is useful for evading enemies, finding hostages, and getting around some hazards and obstacles, though some enemies can follow you. The game’s big gimmick is the large white canine who fights alongside you. By holding the attack button, players charge a meter and, when released, Yamato pounces upon nearby enemies, distracting them so Shinobi can attack. If players don’t time the button press correctly, Yamato takes a hit and temporarily reverts to a useless puppy, though this mechanic was nowhere near as useful as it could’ve been. I found Yamato often wouldn’t attack and just yapped away uselessly. It would’ve been nice to see him have a more versatile move set, like giving you a jump boost, activating levers, collecting power-ups, or acting as a health bar of sorts so Shinobi can survive one measly hit! As ever, you must avoid bottomless pits and raging waters, though there are some interesting gimmicks that make Shadow Dancer stand out. Round 1-2 features a fun earthquake that splits the screen, for example, Round 3-2 takes place entirely on a rising elevator, Round 4-2 sees the environment and enemies obscured by sporadic shadows in a neat effect, and Round 5-1 is a multi-room gauntlet against swarms of the game’s toughest enemies. Shadow Dancer is incredibly unforgiving at times thanks to its one-hit-kill mechanic, with enemies circling and bouncing you around or knocking you down pits. However, you can hold the Left Trigger to rewind the game, hold “Home” to create or load a save state, and use the Right Trigger to fast forward the action. As in the original arcade Shinobi, a Bonus Round breaks up the action between Rounds. In this section, you frantically toss shuriken at ninjas as Shinobi dives from a skyscraper, earning additional points to claim a few more extra lives depending on how many you kill off.

Some cheap, weird-ass bosses block your path in this bizarre adventure.

Musashi battles a handful of enemies in his quest for revenge. Mercenaries fire laser pistols, taking cover to avoid your shuriken, while their larger commanders shield themselves and toss their shields at your head or shins. Four different coloured ninja grunts regularly throw punches, stab with knives, or carry spears. The claw-handed Iron Claws leap in and roll about, frog-like Geckos crawl around the environment, and an attack helicopter takes shots as you scale the Statue of Liberty. Colourful, nimble ninja also teleport in, wielding dual katana and somersaulting about, slashing at you and attacking in large groups, deflecting your shots and being tougher to kill depending on their colour (with black being the worst!) Each Round ends in a battle against the big bad Sauros’s “Aides” (though, ironically, the titular Shadow Master isn’t amongst them) not unlike those of the original Shinobi. Each appears in a flash of lightning, has a health bar, is fought in an enclosed arena, and players must fight without Yamato or Musashi’s powered-up attacks. Stomper is a giant, distinctly beetle-like samurai who, like Shinobi’s Ken-Oh, spits fireballs that are tricky to dodge. This is compounded by his massive hit box, the debris he rains down, and how tricky it can be to hit his helmet. Mirage is a nimble dominatrix who leaps off screen and tosses large buzzsaws, which she also uses to shield her vulnerable head. At the end of Round 3, Sauros brings a brick wall to life. This screaming monster randomly spawns across the background and attacks by extending and dropping its hands towards you, which are pretty difficult to avoid. Round 5 sees you battle Blade, a spinning, pentagram-like Catherine Wheel that circles your falling platform and tries to roast you, though you can easily spam your shuriken when it stays still. After battling past Sauros’s gauntlet, you face the main man reptile himself in a pretty anti-climactic confrontation. Sauros simply sits on his throne and spawns black ninjas to distract you, eventually detaching his helmet to rain fireballs into the throne room. This is your chance to attack the glowing orb that is his weak spot but be sure to position yourself between the flames!

A visually impressive but lacklustre and unfairly difficult arcade port.

Shadow Dancer looks pretty good, being about on par with The Revenge of Shinobi and featuring large, well detailed sprites. While Musashi doesn’t show much personality, Yamato helps add some visual variety, which the sprites need as there is only a handful of enemies and they’re constantly recycled. Things get off to a decent start with an impressive bit of sprite animation and story text. Each Round is introduced with a big, but partially obscured map and sees Shinobi leap into action, and players are initially dropped into a desolate, seemingly post-apocalyptic city. The background is in flames, the buildings are wrecked, ninja burst from the windows, fire spews from the sewers, and debris falls from the sky! Round 2 sees you first traversing a partially destroyed bridge and then battling across disused railroad tracks, hopping to a rail cart and over fences, while Round 4 takes place in a desolate cavern that tests your platforming skills. Although Round 5 is a largely unimpressive warehouse, Round 3 sees you scaling the Statue of Liberty, hopping up girders and supports, and taking a lift to the torch, with Lady Liberty and New York City in the background. The music is pretty upbeat and fitting for the action, though there’s nothing as memorable as in The Revenge of Shinobi, and players are treated to a bit of partially animated sprite art and ending text upon completion. This version of the game offers filters to recreate the good old 16-bit days, screen borders, a mirror mode for an additional challenge, and two special challenges. If you complete the first two stages without using your magic, you’ll get an Achievement and if you can beat a stage with Yamato in his puppy form, you’ll either earn another Achievement if that’s the first Challenge you completed or be one step towards another Achievement.

The Summary:  
Wow, I was so disappointed by Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi. I think I must’ve gotten the game confused with the far superior third game in the series as, while the game looks about on par with The Revenge of Shinobi, this is more like a visually improved version of the original, notoriously challenging arcade Shinobi. Joe Musashi lacks all of his improved moves and versatility from Revenge in favour of a cute canine who’s criminally underutilised. I barely used Yamato he was so useless, and it says a lot when your 16-bit, arcade-perfect videogame lacks mechanics that were included in the 8-bit port of Shinobi! Shadow Dancer would offer a decent challenge if not for the archaic and unfair one-hit-kills, which strangely carry over from the arcade version despite them being eliminated in other home console Shinobi games. While the game looks great and it can be fun searching for hostages, it’s pretty barebones, with only five Rounds and extremely limited ninjutsu magic, meaning you’re more likely to rely on your shuriken. Enemies were also painfully recycled, lacking any of the character and personality of those from The Revenge of Shinobi, and the plot is strangely bonkers, focusing on a lizard man with a ninja army? I’m not sure what the titular “secret” of Shinobi was supposed to be or why the game is called Shadow Dancer when that enemy doesn’t even appear, or why SEGA didn’t feel fit to enhance the arcade title to be more in line with the improvements made in The Revenge of Shinobi. If you’re going to play Shadow Dancer, this version is probably the best way since you can exploit the rewind and save state features, but this was a disappointingly hollow experience that didn’t do justice to what the Mega Drive – or the franchise – was capable of.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Did you enjoy Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi? How do you think it compares to the arcade version and other 16-bit Shinobi titles? Were you also disappointed that it included one-hit kills and greatly limited your options? What did you think to Yamato and how useful did you find him? Which of the bosses was your favourite and what do you think the “secret” of Shinobi was? Which Shinobi game is your favourite? Let me know what you think about Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi in the comments, send me some coppers on Ko-Fi, and go read my other Shinobi reviews.

Game Corner: The Revenge of Shinobi (Mega Drive)

Dr. K5 Comments

Released: 2 December 1989
Developer: SEGA
Also Available For: Android, Mega/SEGA-CD, Mega-Tech, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable (PSP), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

The Background:
Back in the 1980s, ninjas were a big deal. Mysterious, agile, swift-footed martial artists tossed shuriken and took movies, comic books, cartoons, and videogames by storm. We had everything from silent assassins working for the US government, mutated turtles, a slew of rainbow-coloured warriors, and games so iconic and so challenging that they defined a generation of players. SEGA saw considerable critical and commercial success with Shinobi (SEGA, 1987), a tough but rewarding arcade title later refined for its home console conversion. For the sequel, director Noriyoshi Ohba wished to showcase the then-new Mega Drive hardware through a more story-driven title, one better suited to the home console market. Thus, Shinobi gained a life bar and was purposely given a steep difficulty curve to encourage player experimentation. To balance things out, Shinobi was given a finite magic system to help in trickier situations, as well as a handy double jump for improved platforming. Of course, the game became notorious for including unlicensed appearances by major pop culture icons, leading to numerous revisions and graphical tweaks to avoid a lawsuit! One of the defining Mega Drive experiences of my childhood, The Revenge of Shinobi has stood the test of time as a classic of its generation, impressing with its visuals and gameplay variety as much as it frustrated with its mechanics and difficulty curve, and even directly inspired a semi-recurring comic strip here in the United Kingdom. The Revenge of Shinobi has had a tumultuous life post-Mega Drive, occasionally omitted from retrogame collections in favour of its sequel, though a remaster did briefly appear on digital stores (alongside some Trophies and quality-of-life features) in 2012.

The Plot:
When the criminal organisation Neo Zeed murders Joe Musashi’s master and kidnaps his bride-to-be, Musashi once again dons his Shinobi garb and sets out to rescue her.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
The Revenge of Shinobi is a sequel to the arcade, ninja-themed run-and-gun (more of a “walk-and-gun”, I suppose) Shinobi and, like its predecessor, is an action platformer that sees players guide Joe Musashi, the titular “Shinobi”, across eight stages (billed as “Rounds”), each with three parts (referred to as “Scenes” in the manual and comprised of two action stages and a battle against the game’s “Power Villains”). The Revenge of Shinobi incorporates a “continue” feature, limiting players to three continues per game, and allows players to choose from four difficulty settings (with the hardest settings limiting how many lives they have) and four control schemes. Personally, I prefer “Type 2”, which maps Musashi’s attack to the A button, jump to the B button, and “ninjitsu” magic to the C button. You can also customise how many shuriken Shinobi starts with, and I’d recommend setting it to the maximum amount as you’ll be chucking a lot of throwing stars in this challenging title. Musashi’s primary attack is to throw ninja stars, which he can do while walking, crouching, or jumping. When enemies get close, Musashi strikes with his Oborozuki blade or a kick, with most enemies literally exploding after just one hit. Musashi has a decent, if clunky jump that players can use to hop over simple obstacles (walls, crates, and junk cars) or onto moving platforms, but he can also perform a somersault to reach higher ground or flip over chain-link fences. Unfortunately, this somersault is extremely finnicky to perform as, rather than simply tapping B twice, players must awkwardly press B at the height of their jump, meaning the somersault is effectively useless in restrictive locations like hallways and interiors. This also means you can’t hop halfway across a gap and then activate the somersault; if you try this, you’ll plummet to your death. It’s worth pulling this move off, though, as you can press A when somersaulting to fire a spread of shuriken, though this quickly depletes your stock. Luckily, players can break wooden crates for more shuriken, health, and even extra lives. However, you must watch out for sneaky (often unfair) timed bombs that can whittle down your health or send you down a bottomless spit thanks to the game’s aggravating knockback.

Power up Musashi’s attacks or utilise his devastating ninja magic to clear out enemies.

Musashi can also collect “Power Packs” to increase the speed and power of his attacks, gaining his sword and changing his shuriken to flaming projectiles. When walking or crouch-walking while powered up, Shinobi holds his kunai before him to reflect projectiles, which is a handy feature. Defeating enemies and clearing stages also adds to your high score, with Musashi’s life bar increasing by two when players reach 100,000 points and earning extra lives whenever they clear a Round or reach first 50,000 and then 100,000 subsequent points. Pausing the game lets you select one of four ninjitsu techniques to use with the C button, with each having different pros and cons. Ikazuchi, the “Art of Thunder”, surrounds Shinobi with an electrical shield to protect him from damage and even seems to hurt enemies, though it fades after too many hits. Kariu, the “Art of the Fire Dragon”, summons great plumes of dragon-like fire to damage all enemies. Fushin, the “Art of Floating”, increases the speed, height, and length of your jumps and somersaults, allowing you to easily cross gaps. Though it lasts until the Scene ends and can be used alongside other ninjitsu, it can be unwieldy. Finally, Mijin, the “Art of Pulverising”, sees Shinobi self-destruct, costing a life but dealing big damage to enemies and bosses. You can use each ninjitsu twice per life and can earn additional uses by finding rare ninjitsu items in crates; if you perform the somersault attack, you may also find hidden items scattered through the environments. Unlike in the original game, there are no quasi-first-person sections in The Revenge of Shinobi and no hostages to rescue. You simply move from right to left, taking out any enemies and crossing deadly gaps, until you reach the exit or defeat a boss. However, you must occasionally step on switches to open doors or clear a path, crouch-walk through hidden passageways, Fushin-leap across gaps, and ride moving platforms or chains to bypass instant-death hazards.

A challenging title made all the more tricky thanks to some clunky controls.

The Revenge of Shinobi starts out quite fair, demanding little from players than to avoid projectiles and hazards, but quickly becomes a challenging title. Players must avoid being skewered by bamboo spikes, crushed by sliding crates, and scorched by bursts of fire. Molten steel, raging waters, and bottomless pits will cost you a life and you must also take care to not be sucked out of Round 3’s air locks. Fushin comes in handy when tackling Round 2’s waterfall, where you hop to dropping logs and high platforms, and your jumping prowess is tested when you hop to and from Round 5’s bridge avoiding speeding red cars. When in Round 3’s military airfield, players must somersault over the chain-link fence to avoid or take out the armed guards stationed there, while Round 5 sees you hopping to moving laser turrets to scale Neo Zeed’s skyscraper headquarters. When navigating the pier Scene in Round 7, you must hop to rubber dinghies, then avoid the massive turrets stationed in a similar Scene in Round 8. Some stages, like Round 2: Scene 2 and Round 6: Scene 1, see you using the rooftops to avoid enemies and pits, while Round 6: Scene 2 sees you ducking and jumping over hazards while plodding across a speeding train. While you’ll encounter enemies popping from hidden doors as early as Round 2: Scene 2, Round 8: Scene 2 presents a frustrating door maze, where you must choose the correct path, battling every enemy faced in previous stages, and thanking the gaming gods that The Revenge of Shinobi doesn’t have a timer and that online guides are a thing! Still, the game’s difficulty can be daunting at times. Musashi and his enemies have quite large hit boxes and Shinobi is a bit clunky to control, especially when jumping. You can’t scroll the screen up or down, making it easy to be blindsided by enemies; though, on the plus side, enemies don’t respawn. Those damn bombs also become a massive headache as you progress, to say nothing of enemies that deflect your shuriken or disguise themselves as nuns!

Presentation:
Although The Revenge of Shinobi was an early title for the SEGA Mega Drive, it’s still very impressive from a visual standpoint. Joe Musashi may not have any idle poses, but he strikes a dramatic pose with each ninjutsu, collapses in defeat when killed, and assumes a more aggressive stance when powered up. While the basic ninja enemies aren’t much to shout about, the samurai are far more detailed and I liked the agility of the Pink Dragon enemies, who fall to their knees after taking a few hits rather than exploding like Shinobi’s other enemies. These explosions are ridiculously fun and I liked how some enemies wield swords or other weapons that deflect your projectiles, forcing you to alternate between high and low attacks. While some stages can be a bit bland or cluttered at times and the game lacks the colourful, visual “pop” of the Mega Drive’s most popular titles, there’s a lot of detail in every area. Round 1: Scene 1 transitions from dusk to night, for example, waters rage in Round 7 and 8 (with the latter also including rain effects and a lighthouse in the background), and there’s some minor examples of parallax scrolling at work. The game’s introductory scene features a large, partially animated sprite of Sonny Chiba Musashi deflecting some shuriken and a still image of him holding his murdered sensei as the game’s plot appears in text. Between each Round, you’re treated to a world map that shows your progression and the game’s sound effects should be readily familiar to anyone who’s played the Streets of Rage trilogy (SEGA/Ancient, 1991 to 1994) since those games copied them, and some graphical elements, wholesale from The Revenge of Shinobi. The game is also a licensee’s nightmare, depending on which version you play, as Musashi encounters enemies clearly inspired by John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) and bosses either inspired by or blatantly ripping off Doctor Robert Bruce Banner/The Hulk, the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Godzilla! It’s surreal encountering these enemies, even if you’re playing a version that recolours or alters their sprites, as they’re decidedly at odds with he game’s more grounded aesthetic.

There’s some decent visual variety and crazy moments, but it can be cluttered at times.

To be fair, though, The Revenge of Shinobi may start out rather mundane and traditional, with Musashi exploring a bamboo forest and guarded pagoda before hopping to the nighttime rooftops, he’s soon storming a well-armed military airfield, awkwardly navigating the claustrophobic interior of a steampunk-like airship, and somersaulting through the neon-drenched skyline of Chinatown. Equally, while his enemies start out as simple ninjas appearing in puffs of smoke or from hidden doorways, he’s soon taking on assassins disguised as nuns and dodging laser blasts from automated turrets. While the game’s soundtrack is practically burned into my memory, particularly the intro music and opening Scene, it is disappointing that The Revenge of Shinobi repeats a few of its tracks, especially considering the variety packed into each Round. This can also be a double-edged sword, to be fair: the train Scene, for example, starts off in a really bland tunnel and then jumps to the extreme with a cluttered and confusing background (though I liked seeing passengers mingling in the carriages). I enjoyed the chaos of the steel mill, however, and the busy bridge (despite how difficult it can be to avoid enemies and cars and not plummet to your death), and especially liked the detail in splashing waters in the pier Scenes. These effects were far more effective than in the waterfall Scene, where it can be difficult spotting enemies and even Musashi’s sprite due to the clashing colours. While the game strangely lacks an end credits sequence, there are two endings depending on how quickly you defeat the final boss and whether or not you rescue Naoko. I also liked that the Power Villains changed colours to visually indicate that you were dealing damage (though sound effects also helped with this), and how they dramatically exploded upon defeat, with some even breaking apart for added effect. While the game performs pretty well, never taxing the Mega Drive’s hardware too much, there can be some instances of slowdown and sprite flicker when a lot of big, moving sprites are present.

Enemies and Bosses:
There are only a handful of enemies in The Revenge of Shinobi, but the game eventually mixes and matches their combinations and offers palette swapped variants who are a bit tougher and more aggressive in their attacks. One of the most common enemies you’ll face are Neo Zeed’s ninjas (or Omote), who appear in a puff of smoke or from behind hidden doors or even flying about on bat-like wings! These guys can jump, somersault over you, and toss shuriken of their own, but explode in one hit. They’re bolstered by samurai (or Kabuto), who deflect your shuriken with their katana and have a long reach, and attack dogs that pounce at you. Neo Zeed’s reach extends to the American military, meaning you’ll often face off with soldiers armed with rifles, tossing grenades, or stationed behind machine guns. These guys can also lie on the ground and come in pairs to fill the screen with machine gun fire and are often accompanied by “Gunners”, the Rambo-esque brutes that carry flamethrowers. Kasumi (who win top price in the Elektra Natchios lookalike competition) fool you by disguising themselves as nuns and then leaping with a flying kick and sai in hand. The game’s Bruce Lee-like martial artists also utilise flying kicks, while the White Phoenix enemies have incredible reach with their spinning, bladed nunchaku. I really liked the Pink Dragon enemies, robed dancers who elegantly spin around, deflecting your shuriken, and take multiple hits to defeat before crumbling to their knees rather than exploding (a detail not mirrored by the Kasumi). These enemies eventually start mingling and you’ll encounter them all in Round 8: Scene 2, which can be especially aggravating as their projectiles and sprites take up screen space and box you in. It’s also worth remembering that the Gunner’s flames and the many bombs you encounter linger onscreen for a few seconds, so you must either take your time or execute a somersault to avoid damage. Hazards like jet flames, pits, molten steel, turrets, and lasers are also present, though you can use some of these to help upwards in some Scenes.

Some totally legal cameos pop up alongside the colourful and bizarre bosses.

Each Round ends with a battle against a “Power Villains”. The first, the Blue Lobster, is a large samurai who shields himself and has fantastic reach with his Masamune-like blade. However, by utilising the arena walls, you can avoid his attack and execute the somersault spread to whittle him down. Next, Shinobi encounters the super agile Shadow Dancer in a kaleidoscopic nightclub. This guy is essentially a supped-up Omote but he’s quite challenging as he can only be damaged when on the ground, fires a shuriken spread, and turns pitch-black near death to make him even harder to spot! Round 3 pits you against a heavily-armoured super computer, protected by ceiling lasers, that can only by damaged by targeting its exposed brain. At the end of Round 4, you battle the “Master Attacker” in the junkyard. This hulking brute tosses cars and debris, has a shoulder charge, and turns out to be a kamikaze robot, but you can again use the high ground and somersault attack (or Kariu) to damage him. Next, you’ll clamber over a massive, missile-carrying vehicle, attacking the red orbs when they pop up and avoiding shots, the blue spark that travels across the ground, and falling to your death. Round 6 sees you ambushed by Spider-Man and Batman (or a spider-like ninja and a menacing vampire) in a two-stage battle. Spidey crawls along the ceiling firing webs and descending on a web line (that also makes him invulnerable), while Batman swoops at you and is surrounded by bats (though these, like Spidey’s webs, can be destroyed). As if that wasn’t bonkers enough, either Godzilla or a fire-breathing Brontosaurus await in Round 7’s final Scene. Either way, you must again use the high ground to attack the beast’s head, watching for its atomic breath and large tail, and hopping from one side to the other to avoid damage. Finally, Shinobi battles “The Boss” for Naoko’s life. This squat, kabuki-like crime lord is mostly stationary but protected by a mane of impenetrable hair that he whips and flings at you. You must stay close, firing at his exposed belly, and utilise Ikazuchi (since all other magic seems ineffective) to outlast his attacks and finish the fight quickly, otherwise Naoko will be crushed!

Additional Features:
As mentioned, there are multiple difficulty settings in The Revenge of Shinobi. So, if you somehow find the game too easy on “Easy”, you can give yourself a harder challenge by limiting how many lives you have. There’s no real benefit to this other than bragging rights, though, as the ending you receive relies solely only how first you defeat The Boss and if you can keep Naoko from being killed. If the game proves too challenging, you can set the shuriken count to 0 in the game’s “Settings” menu and wait a few seconds for the number to change into an infinity symbol, granting you unlimited projectiles. Hidden extra lives can also be farmed in some Scenes, though there’s oddly no high score table to aim for (you must record your score in the manual like some kind of caveman!) If you’re lucky enough to still own the seventh-generation remaster, there are twelve Achievements/Trophies to obtain, with one being awarded for using all ninjutsu attacks, one for beating the game without a continue, and others for oddball tasks like deflecting ten attacks or falling down a waterfall. Other modern re-releases are oddly missing Achievement support but do come with save states and, often, rewind features, which make this challenging title far easier and much more enjoyable to playthrough.

The Summary:
Like many kids back in the day, I’m sure, The Revenge of Shinobi was an essential title in my Mega Drive library. This was probably the most challenging game I owned back then, yet I kept it and often revisited it time and again despite often running into a brick wall around Round 7. Years later, I picked up the remaster for the PlayStation 3 and finally finished the game for the first time, and I’m still a bit regretful that I ended up selling that console and losing that version of the game. Thanks to re-releases, The Revenge of Shinobi is more accessible than ever but there’s something magically nostalgic about revisiting it on original hardware. The game holds up pretty well, especially the soundtrack and some of the sprite work. It can be clunky at times (Joe Musashi is very slow and his jump, particularly his aggravating somersault, are difficult to master) and the environments lack a lot of the detail and variety you’d expect from later Mega Drive titles, but I appreciate that the developers tried to make each Scene stand out in their own way. I still get a thrill hearing that Round 1: Scene 1 beat kick in and laugh every time those blatantly ripped off enemies crop up, and I love how Musashi can hop behind chain-link fences and bolster his attacks with ninjutsu magic. The Power Villains are all large and suitably impressive, testing your jumping skill and forcing you to think about when and how best to use your ninjutsu, while the stage variety always keeps you on your toes. I may not enjoy the bridge, train, or many of the platforming mechanics and that damn door maze might’ve driven me mad, but I’m glad that the game tried to be a bit ambitious and mix things up. It’s a shame that the developers didn’t rejig the first-person-esque sequences for the first game or the hostage rescue mechanics into mini games or gimmicks for some Rounds, and that the screen area is unnecessarily restricted at times, but this is still a classic mega Drive title. It was undoubtably surpassed by its sequels, but there’s a special kind of magic to the Revenge of Shinobi that still gives me the feels to this day and I’m always glad to boot it up again, though I admit this blatant nostalgia is the reason it gets an extra fourth star as the awkward controls, slow pace, and difficulty curve do bog it down.

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Was The Revenge of Shinobi a staple of your Mega Drive library back in the day? How do you think it compares to the first game, and its sequels? Which of Musashi’s ninjutsu attacks was your favourite and did you also struggle with his somersault attack? What did you think to the stage variety and the soundtrack? Which version of the game did you own and what did you think to the crazy bosses? Did you ever defeat The Boss and rescue Naoko? Which of the re-releases is your favourite and would you like to see a Shinobi collection released for modern consoles? Share your memories and opinions on The Revenge of Shinobi down in the comments, go support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other Shinobi reviews.

Game Corner: Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 (Nintendo Switch)

Dr. K3 Comments

Released: 11 June 2024
Originally Released: 23 September 1994
Developer: Konami
Also Available For: Mega Drive, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

The Background:
The success of Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) saw anthropomorphic mascot platformers become a popular trope throughout the nineties, with a superpowered earthworm, an intergalactic adventurer, and a gun-toting jackrabbit making a rocket pack-wearing possum seem normal! The brainchild of Nobuya Nakazato, the man behind many Contra titles (Konami, 1987 to present), Rocket Knight Adventures (Konami, 1993) was one of the most popular and celebrated Mega Drive titles. Despite a port for the Super Nintendo being allegedly cancelled, Rocket Knight Adventures was followed by two sequels the very next year: one exclusive to the Super Nintendo and the other this notoriously expensive Mega Drive-exclusive title. Although not as well-regarded as its predecessor and seen as inferior to its Super Nintendo counterpart, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 was praised for its colourful gameplay and tweaked rocket pack mechanics. Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 inspired a six-part story in Sonic the Comic (1993 to 2002) but the franchise was dead in the water until Climax Studios attempted a revival in 2010, to mixed reviews. However, the game, the other 16-bit Rocket Knight titles, finally received a modern re-release with this Re-Sparked! collection, a widely praised release that came with some fun bonus materials and quality of life features.

The Plot:
When King Gedol’s lizard forces invade the kingdom of Zephyrus and rogue Rocket Knight Axel Gear kidnaps Princess Cherry, Sparkster searches for seven magical swords to oppose the Gedol Empire and best his rival.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Just like the other 16-bit Rocket Knight games, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is a 2D, sidescrolling action platformer. However, unlike the original game and its similarly titled Super Nintendo cousin, there are no run-and-gun elements to Rocket Knight Adventures 2 as Sparkster’s sword has been robbed of its sword beam. This significantly impacts the primary gameplay as you now rely on Sparkster’s bog-standard sword swings, which can fall a little short at times. You attack with Y and jump with B, executing a jump sword swing and clinging to poles using Sparkster’s paws and tail when you jump to them. Unlike in the other games, Sparkster’s rocket pack charges automatically and has different levels of effectiveness depending on how full the meter is. As long as the meter’s at least partially full, you can press A to rocket dash in the direction you’re facing, diagonally to take out turrets, and upwards to get higher. If you press A without a direction, Sparkster spins on the spot to attack enemies and, when the rocket pack is fully charged, Sparkster spirals in a “Screw Attack” (no relation), travels further, and bashes through destructible blocks and walls. While waiting for the meter to charge does take a lot of agency away from the player, it charges pretty quickly and you have far more control over Sparkster off a upwards boost, which greatly aids with reaching platforms. Sparkster can still ricochet off walls to get higher, though this is still underutilised, in my opinion, with Rocket Knight Adventures 2 focusing more on traditional platforming. Players still collect gems for points, though this time there are two types: regular blue ones and red ones that kick-start a slot machine for additional gems, health (now apples and chunks of meat), extra lives, or a rocket pack that instantly sends you flying in a Screw Attack. Naturally, these can all be found in the game’s stages, too, and you receive a score tally after clearing each stage for bonus points.

Sparkster’s sword is nerfed but his rocket pack and mech game are stronger than ever!

Sparkster can also grab the new power-up icon that gifts him a flaming sword to increase your attack power, though you’ll lose this when hit or advance to the next stage and I can’t say I noticed a significant difference, especially as many enemies die in one hit. Rocket Knight Adventures 2 has seven stages and four difficulty settings, with players only seeing the true ending by beating the game’s harder difficulties. Sadly, the shoot-‘em-up stages from the other two games are gone, replaced by three sections where you control Sparkster’s giant mech, the SparkRobo. Two of these are Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robot battles with Axel Gear that are similar to that one boss from the first game, and the other is a sidescrolling autorunner where you blast enemies from the sky using the SparkRobo’s rocket punch (Y, which can also be charged) and jump over bombs tossed by enemies on the ground (also with Y). Sparkster doesn’t ride any minecarts or miniature mechs here and only has to deal with one autoscrolling section, where players dispatch enemies, destroy or jump to crates, and hop between train carriages to avoid a nasty spill. Spikes, flame plumes and lava, and insta-death traps are still present, however, with quicksand swallowing you, moving platforms ridden past spikes, and even a sand twister tossing you about atop a pyramid in Stage 2. This stage has a higher and lower path, which you may wish to switch between for different rewards and dangers, while Stage 5 features many switches to open doors, doors guarded by projectile-firing gargoyles, and conveyer belts. Stage 2’s pyramid gimmick differs from the Super Nintendo version, featuring a race from rolling balls and false doors that loop you back to the outside until you find the correct path. You’ll also cross lava on moving platforms and by clinging to overhead pipes, which gain destructible spiked hazards and even Gedol henchmen by Stage 5. Stage 3 sees Paeli, leader of Gedol’s lizard ninjas, bombard Sparkster and the blocks of the stage from his airship. This destroys the ground and forces you to take high-speed tubes up to the top of the ship to destroy barriers and drop the ship from the sky.

Presentation:
Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is a bit of a mixed bag, visually, something immediately evident from the lacklustre title screen (simply the game title against a moving sky background). This does pan down into the opening cinematic and mech battle against Axel Gear, however, a fight you can skip if you wish, which causes you to miss a collectible and displays an absolutely garish secondary title screen. Unlike in the Super Nintendo game, stage intros are back but they’re far less visually interesting than in the first game, and every sprite has been redesigned to give it a more anime flair. Although I miss the cute, squat Sparkster of Rocket Knight Adventures, he looks pretty good here and is far more animated. He bops about as if itching to get going, his rocket pack is almost constantly aflame, and he stands heroically when left idle. Sparkster also squeals when hit, reacts when piloting the SparkRobo, has more animation frames, and displays more personality than on the Super Nintendo thanks to Rocket Knight Adventures 2 including more pantomime-like, sprite-based cutscenes. These are similar to those of the first game, seeing Sparkster leap into action when Axel Gear kidnaps Princess Cherry and advance between stages, with elements from previous stages (such as Stage 1’s train) appearing in others. Unfortunately, like the Super Nintendo title, Rocket Knight Adventures 2 cannot live up to or surpass the original’s soundtrack. Things are jaunty enough, for sure, but nothing stuck in my head like the main from the first game. Interestingly, Rocket Knight Adventures 2 does replicate the slowdown from the first game, with the frame rate noticeably dipping when Gedol’s forces drive vehicles or too many sprites and explosion effects appear at once.

The visual overhaul is great for Sparkster but not so much for the enemies and environments.

Perhaps most unforgivably, Rocket Knight Adventures 2 appears far blander than the first game and its Super Nintendo counterpart. Stage 1’s forest section is disappointingly subpar compared to the first game, with the ground being a far more basic block of sprites and the background having little to distract you, even when the overgrown ruins creep into play. The train section adds some spice and variety, for sure, but it paled in comparison to the Super Nintendo title. Similarly, while both games include a desert, they’re rendered very differently. Stage 2 has a neat shifting sand and heat shimmer effect in the background, but its pyramid is blockier and more akin to ruins, making it far less visually engaging than SEGA’s competition. Stage 3 took place atop the pyramid’s ruins and in an airship, which was, again, a far cry from the steampunk-style battle craft from the first game, even with its fake doppelgängers of Princess Cherry and larger, blade-like propellers. Stage 4 was like a poor imitation of a similar city stage from Rocket Knight Adventures; sure, the SparkRobo looks cool (if a tad goofy), but the city lacks the detail and appeal of the first game. Things pick up in Stage 5, which takes place outside and inside King Gedol’s heavily fortified castle-cum-weapons factory. The background is a bit busy at times, but I liked all the moving parts, alternate routes, and the danger brought on by the turrets. While the mech battles against Axel Gear are in bland, dark caverns, you battle him in a traditional swordfight against a grandiose background and confront King Gedol in his opulent throne room. If you find all seven “Keys to the Seal” swords, you’re also treated to a great sprite-based cutscene of Sparkster becoming “Gold Sparkster”, a form he retains for the end credits and loses when he returns the combined magical sword in the game’s ending.

Enemies and Bosses:
Instead of fighting pigs or wolves, Sparkster tackles the lizard forces of the Gedol Empire, whose infantry leaves a lot to be desired. Sure, armoured lizard-men spontaneously appear from boulders or even gems, but it takes a long time before they attack with swords. In Stage 1, for example, they might get the drop on you, but they just charge at you while unarmed; they don’t even lose their armour when defeated, making them far less satisfying to kill. By Stage 5, they’re hiding in large, snake-themed turrets and you’ll battle more formidable forces, such as gun-toting lizards (who oddly explode when defeated) and sword-wielding snakes whose body parts can hit you. Gedol’s forces drive steampunk-style vehicles in Stage 1, flailing their buzzsaw-like arms and forcing you to strike and rocket to safety, and pilot chicken-like mech walkers and float on balloons in Stage 4. Their forces are bolstered by some robotic enemies, such as annoying spiked balls that home in on you in Stage 3 and the returning robotic owls who can screw up your jumps. Interestingly, not only are bosses far weaker when playing on the easier difficulties, but you’ll miss some additional screens and mini bosses if you play on “Easy”. Stage 1 sees you battle a disturbing living plant that can only be damaged by rocketing into its face, which it protects with its extendable arms. You’ll also get an assist from some possum helpers when facing an ugly-ass lizard, with the two of you bouncing about an enclosed arena and the boss tossing bombs or rolling into you. A sentient plume of lava awaits in Stage 2, one that spews a flamethrower and controls the lava and forces you to the rail above to rocket into is face. Finally, there’s a large, robotic lizard face that hounds you throughout Stage 5, dropping spiked enemies, summoning lightning walls and lizard minions, and screwing up your traction with a conveyor belt.

Large bosses can cause a headache with their wide-reaching attacks and limiting your attack window.

The first true boss is a variation of the Raccoon Robot enemy from the first game, this time integrated into a train. You must rocket away from its wide-reaching ball arm and avoid its projectiles, quickly striking the weak spot on the front of the train and dashing to safety as the arm flails wildly, which is quite taxing as the arm covers almost the entire screen and the projectiles can catch you off guard. Stage 2 ends with a gigantic, armoured snake whose only weak spot is its torso. You must dodge its claw arm, which it’ll fire out to reel you in and vigorously shake you, then chase it to the background. While hiding back there, it bursts its long, extendable tail, bursting from the ground and swishes it about, though you’ll also have to watch when it leaps across the tomb. King Gedol’s second-in-command, Paeli, is fought on the roof of his airship and seems to be a sorcerer or genie or something. He fires a flaming shot that both hurts and shrinks you, transforms into a genie-like form, then bursts into harmless miniatures that rain down as bombs and apples. One of these miniatures sparkles, so that’s your target; hit him and Paeli runs around in a panic like Captain Fleagle for you to deal real damage to him. Near the end of Stage 5, tall, spindly robots stomp about, spinning their long, stick-like arms, tossing bombs, and firing lasers. They’re easy enough to take down, even with the rails, conveyers, and enemies nearby, but you’ll then fall into a small arena and battle two of them. One fires pellets, lasers, and spins its arms but, upon defeat, is replaced by its green brethren, who leaps to the ceiling dropping bombs and drops to the floor to be finished off.

Match your skills against Axel Gear then power-up to Gold Sparkster to depose King Gedol.

As in the other Rocket Knight titles, your most persistent foe is the rival Rocket Knight Axel Gear, who you fight in a mech battle at the start. Though this is optional, you’ll miss a Key to the Seal sword and learning the SparkRobo’s controls for later on. You must avoid Axel’s punches and hold A to block when he throws a shot or a projectile. Though you don’t get a projectile attack, you can throw uppercuts with B or Y or hold one of these to charge a straight punch. While this battle is much easier than the top-down mech fight from the Super Nintendo game, it’s no less tedious. Axel constantly guards and backs away and there’s a noticeable delay between button presses that can catch you out. While you don’t necessarily have to win this first mech fight, you will have to in Stage 4. However, to get to this rematch you must race through the streets and avoid Axel’s missiles, hitting them back at him to cause him to flee to his mech. Best his mech (with patience and persistence) and you battle Axel in a sword fight. Axel summons lightning walls that you can ricochet off otherwise they’ll hurt you and Axel again sports the same attacks as you, rocketing about, spinning as a flaming dervish, and swinging his sword. He does tend to hover about doing nothing, leaving himself open, and drops the final Key to the Seal upon defeat. With all seven, Gold Sparkster gets a permanent rocket charge and is much faster, which is very useful in the final fight with King Gedol. This is a two-stage affair, with the lizard king blinding you with a flash and charging lightning bolts from above or spawning a meteor shower. You can only attack him during this charge animation and, after enough hits, he transforms into a gigantic form that takes up the entire background! In this phase, King Gedol fires eye lasers that travel across the floor, walls, and ceilings, ricochet about, or randomly fire in all directions. You must dodge these and rocket into the gemstone that appears on his forehead to finally put him down for good.

Additional Features:
Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 has four difficulty settings that fundamentally change the nature of the game, altering the length and challenge of the stages and changing the ending depending on how hard a challenge you set for yourself. You can further adjust the game’s difficulty from the main “Options” menu, changing how many lives and continues you play with. The game also includes a password feature, allowing you to skip to later stages and easily acquire all seven Keys to the Seal. These magical blades are hidden in each stage, sometimes in plain sight and sometimes requiring a bit of exploration to find. You’ll need all seven to play as Gold Sparkster and get the best ending, encouraging a replay or two (though be sure to take out Axel’s mech at the start for the first sword!) This Re-Sparked version also comes with the American and Japanese versions of the game, boasts an awesome anime opening, allows you to apply filters and borders, and negates even the hardest difficulty with a rewind and save state feature. The collection also comes with a boss rush, advertisements and concept art, the box art and manual, and the entire soundtrack for all three games. Those playing the PlayStation 4/5 version can also earn nine Trophies, one for clearing the first five stages, one for beating the game on any difficulty, one for unlocking Gold Sparkster, one for achieving the true ending, and one for beating the boss rush.

The Summary:
I’ve played Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 before thanks to the magic of emulation, but never got past the first stage because, as a big fan of the original and an avid Mega Drive collector, I always wanted to own a physical copy of the game. It took a while, but the Re-Sparked collection finally made that a reality, only to present me with a game that’s visually inferior to its predecessor and Super Nintendo cousin in many ways. While Sparkster looks great and there are some interesting effects in some stages, the environments just seem far blander and far less engaging compared to the other 16-bit titles. Honestly, the game made a bad impression from the start and never really recovered; the rocket gameplay is much improved, but the main enemies lack animation frames and personality. The locations lack the steampunk trappings of the other titles and are far more generic which, coupled with the bizarre downplaying of the rocket pack and ricochet gimmick and removing Sparkster’s sword beam, means Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is just another colourful platformer. It’s fun enough, for sure, and some stages have interesting gimmicks, such as zipping through the airship and piloting the SparkRobo, but where are the flying sections? Where’s the quirky humour? Where’s the memorable music? The bosses were decent enough and I liked that you face more of them on harder difficulties. The one-on-one with Axel Gear is probably the best version of that fight, it’s just a shame you have to sit through another tedious mech battle to get to it. Rocket Knight Adventures 2 is also far too linear at times and felt the easiest of the three 16-bit titles, with King Gedol being the simplest of the final bosses and the hardest part being tracking down those hidden swords. In the end, I enjoyed Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 but nowhere near as much as I wanted to. It fails to live up to its predecessor, lacks the visual punch of the Super Nintendo title, and was a disappointing experience after years of pining for it.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

Do you think I’m being too harsh on Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2? How did you think it compared to the first game and the Super Nintendo sequel? What did you think to the new rocket pack mechanics and the lack of sword beam? Were you disappointed to see the flying sections removed? Did you ever find all the Keys to the Seal and unlock Gold Sparkster? Would you like to see a new entry in the Rocket Knight series? Tell me what you thought to Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2 in the comments, support me on Ko-Fi, and go read my other Rocket Knight reviews.

Mini Game Corner [Sonic Month]: Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (Mega Drive)

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Sonic the Hedgehog was first introduced to gamers worldwide on June 23 1991 and, since then, has become not only SEGA’s most enduring and popular character but also a beloved videogame icon. Thus, in keeping with tradition, I’m dedicating some time to celebrate SEGA’s supersonic mascot.

Released: 23 November 1993
Developer: SEGA Technical Institute
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Game Gear, Master System, Nintendo Switch Online, PC, Nintendo Wii (Virtual Console), PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X

A Brief Background:
At the beginning of the 1990s, SEGA sought to create a videogame mascot iconic enough to knock Super Mario from his perch at the top of the videogame industry, kicking off the “Console Wars” of the era when Sonic the Hedgehog proved a big success. This evolved into mainstream popularity with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992); soon, Sonic was everywhere (including comics and cartoons) and SEGA was quick to capitalise with a slew of spin-off titles. SEGA put everything into crafting a massive third outing for their super-fast mascot, a game so large that it ended up being split into two parts. Realising the highly anticipated title wouldn’t be ready for the 1993 holiday season, SEGA commissioned another Sonic title to fill the void, one developed entirely in the United States. Loosely tying into the popular Sonic the Hedgehog (1993 to 1994) cartoon, Sonic Spinball expanded upon the celebrated pinball-based mechanics seen in the first two games and was hastily put together within a tight deadline. Sonic Spinball was largely well received, with reviews praising the visuals and soundtrack, though many criticised the slowdown and clunky gameplay. Still, Sonic Spinball lived on not just through multiple ports over the years but also a slew of adaptations, with the game providing the basis for not just the cartoons and comics but also a real-world theme park.

The Review:
Sonic Spinball, unlike the mainline games, is a 2D pinball-based action title in which players control Sonic the Hedgehog and bounce around inside Doctor Ivo Robotnik’s ominous Veg-O-Fortress, a volcano-based robot factory. Players can customise the game’s controls to operate different flippers with either A, B, or C or do the smart thing, like me, and map both the left and right bumpers to the A button for convenience. If you’ve played Spring Yard Zone and/or Casino Night Zone from the first two games, or any of those old pinball-based videogames, Sonic Spinball will be mildly familiar to you as you control flippers to send Sonic flying across a vaguely pinball-themed environment, bouncing off bumpers and hitting targets to score points. The difference comes from the awkward incorporation of some Sonic’s more traditional moves. In the rare moments where you’re not bouncing about like a madhog, you can run about and use Sonic’s Spin Dash to blast ahead. Unfortunately, Sonic’s controls are very clunky when he’s on the ground. He feels very heavy, shambling about with none of the grace or speed that you’d expect, the Spin Dash is weak and stunted, and Sonic’s jump is very short and awkward. When you do have to jump over walls, the jump tends to glitch and cause Sonic to fail or judder about on the environment, though thankfully these moments are few and far between. Sonic is also missing all his power-ups – there are no monitors to smash here – and Golden Rings are collected merely for points and to score yourself an “extra ball”. Sonic Spinball is also the only Sonic title that directly ties into SatAM; Sonic’s design heavily evokes the cartoon (though, oddly, Dr. Robotnik’s doesn’t) and his Freedom Fighter pals make cameos in the game’s bonus stages. The link is tenuous at best, however, with the game primarily serving as a pinball-based spin-off whose canonicity can be debated. Finally, unfortunately, Sonic is the only playable character here. Up to four plays can play at any one time, but in a classic turn-based format, which is pretty lame.

Bounce around a pinball nightmare to snag the many Chaos Emeralds.

On paper, Sonic Spinball is a very short game without much happening in it (hence this shorter review). There are only five stages to play through, though each stage is quite large and has multiple paths accessed via teleporters, narrow tubes, or by clearing the way of obstacles. This might mean smashing a door a few times, or pulling switches, or powering up generators. Either way, you’ll be repeating these actions a few times to open new paths or collect one of the many Chaos Emeralds powering the Veg-O-Fortress. Each stage has either three or five Chaos Emeralds to collect and finding them can be a bit of a headache. Not only do you have to factor in alternative paths and these tricky puzzle elements but directing Sonic’s momentum is crucial to obtaining the gems. This is easier said than done as Sonic seems to fly off like he has a mind of his own most of the time, though you can direct his momentum in mid-air. Every stage features instant death hazards at the bottom, though you’re given some leeway in Toxic Caves, and you’ll occasionally be spared by a burst of steam to stay in the fight. Badniks modelled after those seen in SatAM patrol every stage but are mainly used to score points or bounce to higher areas. You’ll be pushed along on jets of steam, ride mine carts, pinball about on balloons and cages, and ride flippers up vertical shafts, often dropping to the first screen and fighting your way back up to reach the boss. Targets, lights, and plugs can all be bounced into or past to score points. The neon billboard overhead constantly updates you on what’s happening, though it’s not always clear if it’s relevant to you getting a Chaos Emerald or not. Lava Powerhouse is easily the most maze-like stage, forcing you to time your steam-boosted attacks on Cluckbirds to enter pressure dial tubes and be blasted further up. The Machine is probably the most dangerous stage, with its grinding gears, collapsible gantries, and being the heart of Dr. Robotnik’s Badnik processing plant. Showdown, meanwhile, is the most open and vertical stage, with you hitting balloons, pulling hooks, blasting about using windsocks, and hopping to bombs to reach Dr. Robotnik’s ship. Once there, there’s a greater risk of plummeting all the way down thanks to the holes and destructible windows, something you want to avoid given how aggravating it is to get Sonic’s lead-filled ass moving in this game.

Rack up a high score and battle Dr. Robotnik’s gigantic mechanical monsters.

Graphically, Sonic Spinball is a mixed bag. The environments look good; every stage is large and detailed and pops with 16-bit goodness. The SatAM-style sprites are serviceable enough but Sonic looks really weird; he’s very squat and out of proportion when not curled into a ball. Things get pretty impressive in the bonus stages, where you see Sonic’s reflection as he controls a real pinball across a giant table, smashing Scratch’s and the Badnik processors to free his furry friends. The game mostly impresses with its music, with memorable tunes punctuating the frustrating and chaotic action. It may lack all the traditional Sonic tunes, but that Toxic Caves theme is an earworm, for sure. Every stage culminates in a boss battle at the very top where your biggest threat is screwing up your momentum and dropping out of the arena. Sonic can’t be hurt or killed by the bosses, but you must aim your shots to deal damage, which gets trickier with each boss. Things start [pretty simple with Scorpius; simply avoid the sewer warp tube and the acidic gloop it spits and flip Sonic into the sweet spot between its tail and its back to clobber it. The Robo-Boiler is a little trickier as you must flip up to a temporary platform on either side and time your jump to avoid the steam vents and smash the Robotnik faces floating inside, though it’s very easy just to fly all over the place. The Veg-O-Machine was another tricky one since it constantly spews Badniks and you must target the tubes on either side to halt their production before finishing it off from the inside. You finally confront Dr. Robontik aboard his ship as he flees the crumbling Veg-O-Fortress. This is the most aggravating fight of the game as Dr. Robotnik is shielded by claw arms and windsocks, which must be deactivated by hitting the button beneath his cockpit. Fail and you could be dropped to the beginning of the stage! However, even when you do deactivate the obstacles, you have only a short window to land hits, making this a tedious final fight. Despite all those Chaos Emeralds, beating the game only earns you a high score for the table and there’s nothing else to come back for. You can use cheat codes to skip ahead or the rewind and save state functions of other ports to make the game easier, however.

The Summary:
There’s always been something about Sonic Spinball. I remember getting my copy as a kid and I have a strange amount of nostalgia for it, despite barely clearing the first stage in my youth. Even now, I’m only able to finish the game through persistence or more modern means and I can’t say I’ve ever enjoyed my time when playing it. It is fun at times, don’t get me wrong. Visually, it’s quite striking and I like little quirks like the alarm and Sonic’s shocked face when he falls, him landing in a little bucket in the Toxic Caves, and the radical nineties slang displayed in the neon bar. It can be fun bouncing around searching for Chaos Emeralds and it’s quite rewarding figuring out how to obtain them and flipping Sonic just right to snag them, and the tie-in to the cartoons is a nice touch (if half-assed) but it’s a very barebones and frustrating experience. There are a lot of bonus stages and a lot of variety in the main stages, but it quickly becomes repetitive as you repeat the same tasks (or variations of them) multiple times to progress. It doesn’t help that Sonic looks and controls like ass; you basically need to be bouncing around all the time or else you’re controlling this sluggish, ungainly hedgehog meandering to the next spring. Sonic’s controls when bouncing aren’t much better; I found it very difficult to properly aim him and his momentum seems to have a mind of its own. It’s also not immediately clear where you need to go and what you need to do to get the Chaos Emeralds, leading to constant falls, warps, and deaths if you’re not careful. The bosses were large and enjoyable, if paradoxically both irritating and simple, and I really dig the music, but there’s just so little to come back to here. I think it might’ve been better to have smaller stages and divide some of the gimmicks between, say, eight distinct areas, with a boss battle after every second one. The pinball mechanics wear out their welcome very quickly thanks to the awful controls and madcap nature of the game, which ruins a lot of the fun and makes Sonic Spinball little more than a visually interesting, quirky little cash grab that fails to engage as powerfully as its mainline cousins.

My Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Did you enjoy Sonic Spinball? Were you a fan of the pinball mechanics or did they aggravate you after a while? What did you think to the visual style and the inclusion of elements from the cartoons? Which of the stages and bosses was your favourite? Do you agree that the controls and replay value are lacklustre? Which Sonic spin-off is your favourite and how are you celebrating SEGA’s mascot this month? Let me know your thoughts on Sonic Spinball in the comments and go check out my other Sonic content.

Game Corner: Jurassic Park / Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition (Xbox Series X)

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Released: 22 November 2023
Originally Released: 10 August 1993 (Jurassic Park), 28 September 1994 (Rampage Edition)
Developer: Carbon Engine
Original Developers BlueSky Software
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S

The Plot:
After sabotage releases the genetically engineered dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park theme park, palaeontologist Doctor Alan Grant and an opportunistic Velociraptor battle to escape the island.

The Background:
In 1993, Michael Crichton’s bestselling cautionary tale about a dinosaur theme park turned into a hazardous environment was adapted into a critical and commercial blockbuster that spearheaded many CGI techniques we still see in Hollywood. Bolstered by an aggressive merchandising campaign, Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993) was accompanied by numerous toys, comics, and multiple videogame adaptations released on different consoles. While Ocean Software developed games for Nintendo’s consoles, SEGA partnered with BlueSky Software for their Mega Drive adaptation, consulting palaeontologist Robert Bakker and museums to bring the dinosaurs to life. The developers used Silicon Graphics computers, stop-motion techniques, and materials used to make the film to create the sprites and environments, as well as pulling elements from Crichton’s novel for additional levels. Jurassic Park sold 250,000 copies in its first week and impressed with its visuals and gameplay. Bolstered by this success, and the strength of the film’s merchandising, SEGA commissioned a revamped version for the following year, one that received mixed reviews for, while it improved many elements, it was also seen as a bit of a rehash. Both games were essentially lost media for decades until they (and five others) were finally re-released on modern consoles to celebrate the movie’s 30th anniversary, alongside modern quality of life features, to largely thankful and positive reviews.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Unlike the games of the same name released for Nintendo’s hardware, the two Jurassic Park adaptations released for the Mega Drive are sidescrolling platformers almost akin to a run-and-gun. Although the Rampage Edition is technically a very different game, to me it’s more of a do-over than a sequel so I’m lumping these two together as many of the features and gameplay are the same in both. Both titles see players picking between three difficulty settings (“Easy”, “Normal”, and “Hard”) and selecting a playable character. Yes, while Nintendo’s games stuck you with Dr. Grant and his surprising arsenal of weapons, SEGA let you play as the unexpectedly athletic palaeologist or a Velociraptor. Both characters explore the same locations, though the ‘raptor has less stages in Jurassic Park and must also contend with park security trying to stop her in both games. The controls for both are the same between versions: Dr. Grant fires his current weapon with A (able to fire upwards and diagonally in both), jumps with B, and switches weapons with X. Unlike in Nintendo’s games, Dr. Grant’s weapons all consume ammunition in Jurassic Park, even his taser shot (which increases in power the longer you hold X). In the Rampage Edition, Dr. Grant has an infinite supply of weak tranquilizer darts, though these permanently put down every regular enemy. Dr. Grant can also sprint to clear gaps, clamber up ledges, climb ladders, ropes, vines, and chains, and monkey his way across overheard wires and handholds (when you can spot them). The ‘raptor is geared more towards melee and fast-paced running and controls a little differently between versions. In both, she bites with X, kicks with her taloned foot with A, leaps high with B, and dashes ahead if you hold up on the directional pad. Pressing down an X in Jurassic Park lets her eat Procompsognathus to regain health (a necessary mechanic as she’ll constantly lose health as you play), down and A launches a flying kick, and up and B sees her leap even higher! In the Rampage Edition, you still eat Compys but this doesn’t seem to restore health, holding X sees the ‘raptor continuously bite, a tail swipe had been added to her melee attack, and she performs a ludicrous spin jump by double pressing B.

Run, jump (and gun) as the strangely athletic Dr. Grant or consume everything in sight as the ‘raptor.

Both games see you start with three lives and incorporate a password system and rudimentary island map before stages to show you where you are on Isla Nubar. While you thankfully don’t need dinosaur eggs in either game, Jurassic Park closely mirrors the Nintendo titles and the movie in its locations and players collect eggs, test tubes, and other items for points in the Rampage Edition. Dr. Grant acquires similar weapons to the Nintendo titles in both games: in Jurassic Park, you mainly fire different coloured tranquilizer darts, but you can also grab gas grenades, flashbangs, concussion grenades, and rockets. It’s worth noting, however, that none of these weapons, even the rockets, kill the dinosaurs; instead, they’re rendered unconscious for a short time. This isn’t the case in the Rampage Edition, where Dr. Grant cuts down dinosaurs with a shotgun, submachine gun, grenades, a flamethrower, and a rocket launcher! Dr. Grant can also ride certain dinosaurs, such as the stampeding Gallimimus to rush through the savannah and the hulking Triceratops, normally a docile creature unless provoked, to crash through walls. The ‘raptor kicks these walls down and also opens doors, just like Dr. Grant, though she gains a special power-up in the Rampage Edition. Consume three lysine crates and the ‘raptor enters a brief “Raptor Rage”, becoming invincible and killing enemies with a touch. Like some of the Nintendo titles, Dr. Grant also uses a motorboat, a mechanic far more enjoyable in the Rampage Edition. In Jurassic Park, you collect fuel cannisters to keep the boat moving (though there’s no gauge showing your fuel level) and must either speed up or slow down to avoid being killed when going over the waterfalls. In the Rampage Edition, there’s no need for fuel and no fear of falling to your death. Similarly, the hypersensitive fall damage handicap has been removed from Dr. Grant in this game and your health is restored with each new stage.

Dr. Grant must fight dinos and gravity to survive, while the ‘raptor can go on an unstoppable tear.

While Jurassic Park is a fairly standard platformer, requiring little more of Dr. Grant than to hop to platforms, subdue dinosaurs, and avoid falling to his death or getting skewered on spikes, things get very troublesome very quickly. You’ll be moving crates to reach higher areas, climbing electrified cables, crawling through vents, and dodging falling boulders. By far the hardest thing about this game is the fall damage, which chips away at Dr. Grant’s health from small drops and even slides, and that Dr. Grant instantly dies if he falls into even shallow water. This is rectified in the Rampage Edition, though you must still avoid electrified water (hopping to crates to avoid being fried) and quickly clamber up ladders to avoid drowning when the cargo ship floods. When in Jurassic Park’s pumping station, players must press up to activate switches and open or close passages and turn valves to shut off steam, while the ‘raptor pounces between tunnels to avoid drowning. Dr. Grant must also attack swimming Brachiosaurus’ to cross gaps in Jurassic Park and watch for crumbling and temporary ground in both games, as well as contend with aggressive Pteranodon’s carrying him to their nest in the Rampage Edition. Stages like this and the Raptor Rapids are technically easier for the Velociraptor but are deceptively difficult in different ways. It’s frustratingly easy to get lost in both stages, which are a maze of foliage and rushing water, respectively. While the checkpoint signs point you in the right direction, it’s not always clear which way you need to go, especially as Dr. Grant doesn’t act as your end goal like in Jurassic Park. Similarly, the Velociraptor has less stages in Jurassic Park and traverses environments a little differently. When in the visitor’s centre, for example, the ‘raptor doesn’t need to enter the ceiling vents until later in the stage. The Rampage Edition allows players to pick which stage they wish to challenge and allows Dr. Grant to fly about on zip wires, while both characters hop to weighted and moving platforms in this version and engage in far faster, more arcade-style gameplay.

Presentation:
Both games have very similar presentation and a few things in common. Like the Nintendo games, neither uses the classic Jurassic Park theme and each stage is accompanied by generic-ass music, with the Rampage Edition leaning more towards rock and Jurassic Park featuring more recognisable dinosaur sounds. Both feature more detailed title screens, with the Rampage Edition adding more animation and background effects, and the Jurassic Park font is used for the menus and pause text. No other characters from the movie appear in either game, not even Lex and Tim Murphy, and both games utilise a combination of text and still or partially animated sprite art to advance the story between stages and relate the ending. Dr. Grant is a relatively detailed and lively sprite in both; he has an idle animation where he looks around anxiously and whips out his gun and he hops and climbs about with more vigour than Sam Neill showed in the film. Like in Nintendo’s games, all that’s left of him is his hat when he’s eaten and you see his skeleton when he’s zapped, which is a nice touch. The Velociraptor is a larger sprite, meaning she’s a much bigger target, and is suitably unwieldy despite how fast she is and the strange amount of platforming she does. She snaps and grooms herself and echoes her rivals in the way she eats her prey. I did like spotting enemy ‘raptor eating carcasses, Compys popping from eggs, and the odd blood splatter throughout the Jurassic Park facilities. Jurassic Park closely replicates locations from the films and follows a similar stage pattern to the Nintendo games, taking players through the park, a river, a volcanic region, and ending up at the visitor’s centre. Unfortunately, Jurassic Park’s graphics are really unsightly a lot of the time and the game performs poorly when there’s a lot onscreen, leading to annoying slowdown and garish visuals as the oddly prerendered backgrounds glare at you.

While Jurassic Park has more recognisable locations, the Rampage Edition looks and plays better.

The Rampage Edition corrects this, featuring far more detailed and lively backgrounds. Sure, we see a volcano erupting in Jurassic Park and some rudimentary smoke effects, but the Rampage Edition has far more depth and detail to its backgrounds. The sprites, which have been slightly redesigned, also stand out a lot better thanks to a black outline, though this effect also made them appear more amateurish to me. Stages are much longer in the Rampage Edition and often feature a maze-like structure, especially for the Velociraptor, and destructible elements, such as walls, pipes, and floors. You don’t get to revisit the visitor’s centre or any of the bunkers in the Rampage Edition, but there is a long stage dedicated to the cargo ship, which features a rudimentary rain and lightning effect on deck and far better water effects than in Jurassic Park. While I preferred the waterfalls and rapids in Jurassic Park, the Rampage Edition impressed with its Aztec-inspired ruins, which see players hopping up blocks and sliding down pyramids, and dense aviary, with its Pteranodon nest and obscuring foliage. While the volcano and odd colour palette applied to Jurassic Park’s rapids were off-putting, the visitor’s centre made up for it. Like in the film, it’s partially under construction and you must head up into the vents to bypass dinosaurs, pass through the incubator room, and end up in the main foyer, with giant banners and dinosaur skeletons on display. Similar bones appear in other stages, such as Triceratops skeletons and even human remains, which was a surprise, and there was an interesting curve effect applied to the pumping station stage. While Jurassic Park features a large Tyrannosaurus rex sprite, it recycles the same animations over and over and, though the T. rex is only seen once in the Rampage Edition, this game performs far better than its predecessor. There’s no slowdown, no sprite flicker, and more enemies and obstacles onscreen at any one time. While this can be chaotic and hazardous for the Velociraptor and cause some of Dr. Grant’s stages to feel endless, the performance upgrade, better visuals, and more action-orientated focus makes it an easier title to pick up and play.

Enemies and Bosses:
Like their Nintendo cousins, these SEGA titles include only a handful of dinosaurs but the majority of them are ripped directly from the movie. This means you’ll be fending off tiny, voracious Compys (gobbling them as the ‘raptor to keep her health up in Jurassic Park), blasting spitting Dilophosaurus’, and tangling with aggressive Velociraptors, who pounce, clamber up ledges, and often attack in packs (in Jurassic Park’s canyon stage, I even saw one “play dead”!) Triceratops also appear, though they’re docile unless provoked; Dr. Grant can even climb over and ride them. These beasts can trample the ‘raptor and whittle her health down in streams but can be killed just like anything else she encounters. While human opposition is unique to the ‘raptor in Jurassic Park (and they wield similar weapons as Dr. Grant, including a taser and grenades), both characters contend with them in the Rampage Edition. Poachers, mercenaries, and park staff dog your progress, tossing grenades, blasting along in their own motorboats, camping out up high, and easily overwhelming even the ravenous Velociraptor when she’s caught between numerous enemies and projectiles. Pteranodons also appear in both games, swooping from the skies and annoyingly carrying Dr. Grant away in the Rampage Edition, and Triceratops will wander about at times, but that’s about it for enemies, unfortunately. There are, of course, other hazards to worry about. The explosive boxes and crates from the 8-bit Nintendo games return to mess up your day and you must be quick to avoid sliding into spikes, drowning in water, or being immolated by boiling lava. While the Velociraptor must worry about bottomless pits, Dr. Grant must be careful not to drop from almost any height as he’ll take damage or die, something made more aggravating by platforms having unreliable hit detection and the graphics not making it clear which platforms are solid or not.

Sadly, both games continue the trend of having only a couple of mediocre bosses.

Like the Nintendo games, both titles are sadly light on bosses. There are technically only four boss battles between the two games, and one of those is pushing it. When playing Jurassic Park as Dr. Grant, the T. rex will crash through or appear as a hazard in a couple of stages. When she does, she’ll bite a chunk off your health or eat you whole if you get too close, so you must carefully navigate around her or stun her with your more powerful shots to slip past, which can be tricky when the environment gets in the way. Sadly, that’s it for the T. rex in the first game as she doesn’t appear in the final stage or as a big boss battle. Instead, Dr. Grant is faced with two invincible Velociraptor at the finale. Instead of wasting your time and ammo trying to kill them, target the pins holding up the dinosaur skeletons to make them collapse on the two dinosaurs, like at the end of the movie. Similarly, the Velociraptor only has one boss in Jurassic Park (though one aggravating guard in the visitor’s centre ceiling vent was a close second) as she faces Dr. Grant in the same area. Players must avoid Dr. Grant’s smoke grenades and taser and attack the boulder on the right, which again causes the dinosaur bones to collapse, scaring Dr. Grant off and allowing the ‘raptor to escape to the mainland. In the Rampage Edition, Dr. Grant doesn’t encounter the T. rex until the final stage; this time, you’re in a motorboat, racing through a flooded cavern. The T. rex chases from the mid-background, snapping her jaws and trying to eat you, so fend her off with your shotgun or other weapons until the stage abruptly ends and Dr. Grant escapes. The Velociraptor battles a lazy red hued palette swap in the cargo hold of the docked ship. This ‘raptor has all the same abilities as you but primarily attacks with its spin jump. While it’s difficult to gauge if you’re doing any damage, just stay back and strike whenever you see an opening, eventually putting the red ‘raptor down and again allowing your ravenous dinosaur to escape to civilisation.

Additional Features:
Though you collect items for points in the Rampage Edition, there is no high score table and nothing to gain from finding all the items in each stage. Both games allow you to alter the difficulty for an added or lesser challenge and toggle the music (and sound effects in the Rampage Edition) but, sadly, there are no two-player options here. This is disappointing as it would’ve been cool to at least feature a one-on-one duel mode to pit Dr. Grant against the Velociraptor. You also don’t get anything for beating the games on their hardest difficulty and there are still no options to play as other characters, something that could’ve at least been addressed in the Rampage Edition since it improved so many other aspects. As you’d expect, the Jurassic Park: Classic Game Collection includes each game’s soundtrack, various borders and filters, and the life-saving rewind and save state features that make both games a breeze. It also includes fourteen total Achievements, with two earned for each of these games. Sadly, the criteria are the same for both: simply beat each game twice, once as Dr. Grant and once as the Velociraptor, and you’ve done it.

The Summary:
I was hesitant about playing these two games. I picked up Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition for my Mega Drive library some time ago but never sat down with it beyond a quick mess about in the aviary, a confusing and cluttered stage that told me I’d need to put more time and effort into the game. Thankfully, playing them is far less intimidating with the quality-of-life features included in the Jurassic Park: Classic Game Collection, easily allowing me to rewind past mistakes and power through tricky sections. Still, the difficulty curve is readily apparent in both games. These are obviously games designed to cash-in on the movie’s popularity and encourage repeated rentals. Unlike the Nintendo games, however, these two are much more user friendly and adopt a far simpler gameplay style. This is further refined in the Rampage Edition, which is a full-on run-and-gun at times and focuses almost entirely on fast-paced, action-orientated, arcade action. I much preferred this pace and found the Rampage Edition the better experience overall, but I think a mash-up of the two would be the perfect compromise as Jurassic Park features far more recognisable locations from the movie. Adding the Velociraptor as a playable character was a fun and interesting way for SEGA’s games to stand out, but I did find her to be clunky and awkward at times. It’s weird how much focus is placed on platforming as the ‘raptor, even in the Rampage Edition, where you’re also blasting through as an untouchable predator. I’m glad I didn’t have to search all around for eggs, but a little more depth would’ve been nice; many stages just seem to randomly end and the lack of boss battles was very disappointing. Still, I liked a lot of the visuals (even if Jurassic Park’s were painfully garish and unsightly at times) and the light puzzle elements. Ultimately, I’d say the Rampage Edition is the better of the two but, really, we needed one game that combined all the best elements of both (and the Nintendo titles) to create the definitive old-school Jurassic Park adaptation.

Jurassic Park Rating:

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Could Be Better

Rampage Edition Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

What did you think to the Jurassic Park videogames released on the Mega Drive? How do you think they compare to each other, and Nintendo’s releases? Which of the two was your favourite and were you glad that they were ported to modern consoles? Did you enjoy playing as the Velociraptor? Were you a fan of the Rampage Edition’s faster pace? What is your favourite Jurassic-inspired videogame? How are you celebrating Dinosaur Day this year? Whatever your thoughts on SEGA’s Jurassic Park videogames, and dinosaurs in general, leave them below, support me on Ko-Fi, and check out my other dinosaur content!

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Earthworm Jim 2 (Mega Drive)

Dr. K1 Comment

January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. Accordingly, I dedicated January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

Released: 15 November 1995
Developer: Shiny Entertainment
Also Available For: Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, PlayStation, SEGA Mega Drive Mini II, SEGA Saturn, Steam, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)

The Background:
Back in the eighties and nineties, anthropomorphic characters were all the rage, with toys, cartoons, and videogame mascots seeking to capitalise on the popularity of the likes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) and Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991). The TMNT were successfully licensed by Playmates Toys, who sought to follow this by basing a franchise of their own around Doug TenNapel’s sketch of an earthworm. Their efforts were met with early success; Earthworm Jim (Shiny Entertainment, 1993) was a big hit that earned widespread praise for its zany action and was accompanied by toys, comic books, and even a sadly short-lived cartoon. For the sequel, the developers expanded upon the original’s gameplay mechanics but, unlike the first, was developed first and foremost for the Mega Drive before being ported elsewhere. As before, the PC port included additional features, though a version for the Atari Jaguar never saw the light of day. Like its predecessor, Earthworm Jim 2 was widely praised, despite its greater difficulty and increased focus on the bizarre. Sadly, Earthworm Jim 2’s mostly positive reception couldn’t keep the franchise from being lost to time after failing to translate this early success into 3D and handheld ventures.

The Plot:
Annelid superhero Jim and his new sidekick Snott head out across the galaxy to rescue Jim’s beloved Princess What’s-Her-Name from a forced marriage to the nefarious Psy-Crow.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Like its predecessor, Earthworm Jim 2 is a 2D, run-and-gun action platformer that sees you reassume control of videogaming’s most bizarre superhero, Earthworm Jim, and blast your way through various bizarre levels. However, while much of the core gameplay remains the same, Earthworm Jim 2 veers away from the purely action-orientated focus of the first game and introduces more puzzle solving elements and gameplay variety. Unlike the previous game, your control scheme is set from the start: A fires your current weapon, B sees Jim’s suit crack his worm self like a whip, and C jumps. If you’re playing other versions of the game (like the SNES port), you can switch weapons with X but that feature isn’t available in this version. You can, however, pick between three difficulty settings (I chose “Easy” this time) and the game also employs a password system, though it’s not as simple as being presented with a series of icons after clearing a stage. Instead, players must search high and low for three flags (an Earth flag, a Jim flag, and a worm flag) to gain the password to skip ahead. You can still pass by continue lights to setup a respawn point, however, and collect extra lives, with the added bonus of also earning extra continues if you find cans of worms. Otherwise, Jim’s health and ammo are replenished by finding Suit Power and various ammo types. Jim’s suit can be fully replenished to 100% with the returning Super Suit Power pick-up, and boosted to 200% with the new chip sandwich power-up; his shot power can also be increased with a new power-up. Finally, Jim can duck (though this isn’t that useful) and climb up ledges, which I always appreciate in a 2D platformer.

Jim’s arsenal and repertoire has been expanded, for better and for worse.

This time around, Earthworm Jim can collects a bunch of different ammo types for his Plasma Blaster. The default rapid-fire setting is still present, as is the Mega Blaster, but you can now grab a homing missile, a worthless bubble gun, a three-way spread, and the screen-clearing Barn Blaster. When you grab a different weapon, your gun automatically switches to it so be wary of wasting your more powerful shots; however, it’s not like there are many bosses to use them against. Jim can whip his worm self to conserve ammo but no longer uses this attack to swing from hooks. In fact, the swinging mechanic is thankfully downplayed and toned down compared to the last game. You can still do it but only when near snot-covered ceilings and sections, and by pressing C when jumping to have Snott latch onto these access points. The mechanic is much smoother and easier to control, and rarely appears. The tricky sections in See Jim Run, Run Jim Run are the exception as you must swing from moving sections, though the swinging is more of an afterthought this time. Similarly, Jim’s helicopter hover is also thankfully gone, replaced by a Snott parachute that’s much easier to perform (press A when jumping). Jim’s pocket rocket returns, but sadly only in one stage and now as a clunky isometric shooter. In The Flyin’ King, you must awkwardly nudge a TNT-carrying hot air balloon across a series of islands floating in the sea to take out Major Mucus in this snot-covered lair. Jim’s rocket has infinite ammo and firework-like turbos give a burst of speed but the screen quickly outpaces the balloon, forcing you to clumsily turn around with C to push it back on track. In the reverse of Buttville, Jim finds himself floating upwards in Inflated Head, deflating his head to avoid explosive lightbulbs and Flagitious the Cat’s attacks and slow down with B, and inflating with C (or using the many helium stations). Jim doesn’t get separated from his body this time, but he does assume the guise of a blind cave salamander to navigate through the intestinal layout of The Villi People. In this form, he can swim about by holding C and fire his regular shot with C, avoiding sticky amoebas, pinball bumpers, and being challenged by a nonsensical quiz and to bash bumpers in the correct sequence.

Quirky innovations are one thing but Earthworm Jim 2 is bogged down by a lack of focus.

Most levels task players with doing more than just running and gunning. The first stage, for example, has you holding down to pick up pigs to weight down weighted platforms and open doors. A similar mechanic appears in Udderly Abducted, where you pick up and heft cows to barns to open gates. This is made more troublesome by some cows being on fire, giving you a few seconds to find a bathtub, the fragile platforms that break under your combined weight, and the indestructible UFOs seeking to abduct the cows. You can fend these off with your whip and use them to carry to cows up tricky sections, as well as blast cows across gabs with a cannon, but this level quickly becomes tedious when you are forced to find multiple cows. In Lorenzen’s Soil, you’re given 90 seconds to blast your way through dirt with an infinite Electro-Gun. You can grab stop clocks to gain more time, raise yourself higher by blasting dirt above you, and douse flaming hazards to progress, which is much easier and more fun than the numerous Puppy Love mini games. These replace Andy Asteroids and see you bouncing puppies to safety using a giant marshmallow. If you miss too many, Peter Puppy transforms and attacks, and you can only clear each of the three rounds by bouncing a bomb to Peter so he can take out Psy-Crow. This bonus stage nets you passwords and such, but quickly outstays its welcome when you’re bouncing multiple puppies at once. ISO 9000 sees you picking up hamster balls to power printing presses to jet across the stage, hitting switches to temporarily shut off boilers, and climbing dangerous filing cabinets to new areas. Level Ate takes place on a giant barbecue and sees you taking cover under sizzling meat to avoid killer saltshakers, alongside the usual worries of spikes and pits. One fun section of Anything But Tangerines sees Jim riding a stairlift and avoiding cantankerous grannies, who’ll rain down and beat him with their umbrellas, and many stages contain lightbulb teleporters that transport him to mini games or an oddball ending, as well as hidden areas behind the foregrounds.

Presentation:
Once again, Earthworm Jim 2 shines as one of the most visually interesting and colourfully cartoonish titles on the Mega Drive, or any system for that matter. Jim’s sprite has been overhauled, appearing slimmer and slightly more akin to his cartoon counterpart. He still has a bevvy of slapstick idle animations but is ready and raring to go this time, constantly jogging on the spot. Jim has more voice clips and reactions this time around, celebrating every time he picks up items and wailing whenever he’s in danger; even his life icon reacts to the game! The music’s also very much of the same ilk as before, occasionally favouring a calypso-like jingle or even shameless borrowing from “Cuban Pete”. Earthworm Jim 2 once again confines the details of its story to the hilarious instruction manual but you do get a brief gist of the plot during the company logos, when Princess What’s-Her-Name is kidnapped by Psy-Crow as Jim is serenading her with an accordion. Though Jim no longer exits levels on his pocket rocket, he does spring away using a weighted seesaw or calls for an intergalactic taxi. In ISO 9000, he has to literally chase down the exit door, which must be tricked into tripping over a giant wardrobe you toss in its way. Levels are still full of oddities to marvel at, though they largely serve a practical purpose this time. Dunking a pig in water seems pointless but using them to open doors isn’t, and cows are now carried and used to open gates rather than randomly being launched into space. While a large pixel art rendition of Jim displays the name of each level, you’re greeted by a bizarre photorealistic image of a cow complimenting your ability after clearing each stage. Completing the game sees Jim reunited with Princess What’s-Her-Name and a scroll of text congratulating your efforts, only for the Princess, Psy-Crow, and Jim to be revealed to be cows in disguise and the text to rewrite each time!

The visuals are more outlandish than ever, and perhaps trying too hard to be weird.

Earthworm Jim 2 features a bunch of new, bizarre environments that up the wackiness to eleven. While things start fairly innocuous in Anything But Tangerines, which boasts waterfalls and a blood-orange sunset, you’re soon blasting through crumbling soil, swimming about inside some giant unknowable creature (that’s apparently swallowed a pinball table and part of a house), and hauling cows across a post-apocalyptic landscape (which includes several half-destroyed monuments in the PlayStation version). Inflated Head stood out as one of the more memorable locations; it’s set against the background of a nightmare amusement park, with rollercoasters and such in the distance. I also enjoyed ISO 9000, which takes place in a giant printing press and sees you jumping to stacks of papers (with newspapers flying as you move) while more scroll in the background. I also really enjoyed Level Ate, with its platforms made of bacon, skewered fried eggs and meatballs, fork hazards, and flaming grills. Earthworm Jim 2 impresses with some prerendered backgrounds in the Puppy Love sections, which add a three-dimensional skew to the game. The Flyin’ King tries to capture this feeling more explicitly by being an isometric shooter, though it’s let down by the clunky controls. The level is impressive, though, with little pirate ships and cannons firing from the sea and islands and the level transforming into a snot-encrusted hellhole at the end. The final stage is a huge alien cathedral full of spinning beams, moving platforms, and bottomless pits. It can be a bit difficult telling which platforms you can walk on and which are part of the background, but I enjoyed the chase against Psy-Crow and seeing the detailed, ominous background loom past as I ran. Quirky humour is everywhere in Earthworm Jim 2, almost to its detriment. Sure, it’s fun seeing electric chairs as hazards, references to Mortal Kombat (Midway, 1992), and the crazy-ass enemy designs but I wonder if the developers were trying too hard to top the zaniness of the original here since gameplay is often bogged down by odd layouts and objectives.

Enemies and Bosses:
Similar to the first game, Earthworm Jim 2 only features a handful of enemies, though most are exclusive to each level they appear. These are also absolutely bonkers, ranging from floating octopi carrying blunderbusses and cantankerous grannies to cow-stealing UFOs and sentient straws looking to skewer you. Bob’s henchcat, Number Four, is said to appear in Anything But Tangerines but I must’ve missed him on my playthrough (though I was attacked by his rolling goldfish ball). Notably durable and aggressive ants and little larvae globs attack in Lorenzen’s Soil; sheep-like creatures float about in The Villi People and will explode, knocking you into bumpers or the health-draining tentacles; and you’ll find your pocket rocket weighed down by sumo wrestlers in The Flyin’ King. Waves of snot also push you back in this stage, while caped penguins fly into you as you’re carrying cows to safety in Udderly Abducted. While Flagitious is your main obstacle in Inflated Head, you must watch for lightbulbs to avoid having your wormy head popped. Lawyers return in ISO 9000, now resembling executioners and driven mad by all their paperwork. The filing cabinets are the worst hazard in this stage, though, as they bound around, immune to your shots, and are the only way to reach higher ground. Level Ate features snails seeking shelter from the evil saltshakers, forks that act as spikes, eggs that crack their yolks onto your head, and grills that’ll burn your feet alongside killer straws, of all things! While no enemies appear in See Jim Run, Run Jim Run, you’ll blast through barriers (both solid and rotating on gears), make tricky jumps, and snot swing from moving overhead access points to beat Psy-Crow to the end.

There’s a distinct and disappointing lack of bosses here, especially challenging ones.

Strangely, Earthworm Jim 2 is surprisingly light on boss battles; many stages end with a bizarre challenge rather than a boss battle, which is disappointing considering how imaginative the first game’s bosses were. You’ll encounter Bob the Killer Goldfish at the end of the first stage and he’s defeated similar to before; simply walk up to his bowl and Jim automatically eats him. The Villi People sees you answering obscure questions and bouncing into bumpers before the stage just abruptly ends, Udderly Abducted asks you to rescue cows, and ISO 9000 has you trip the exit door to leave. Bosses are present, though, they’re just not as interesting as before: I barely realised that Lorenzen’s Soil’s unicycle-riding maggot was a boss, for example. This guy cycles back and forth spitting goop and spawning maggoty minions, but is easily blasted to death with your basic shot. Major Mucus returns, spitting snot from atop a snotty column in the snot-filled finale of The Flyin’ King. As long as you’ve brought the bomb-carrying balloon safely to the end, you can simply explode it to easily take him out. Though Evil the Cat seems to return, it’s actually his cousin, Flagitious, who spits darts and pounces from above in Inflated Head, though you just have to avoid him to reach the level’s end. Level Ate has a boss, an anthropomorphic T-bone steak fought on a giant pepperoni pizza! It hops up and down, dropping a plate on your head and spitting fireballs, leaving him vulnerable to your shots. Psy-Crow has been upgraded from a pest to the main antagonist; not only will he toss Peter’s puppies to their doom in bonus stages, but Jim must race against him in the final stage. While a 2D perspective isn’t the best for a race, this is more of an obstacle course. You can blast Psy-Crow to stun him but your main concern is making jumps and clearing your path, making for a finale so anti-climactic I was convinced a true final boss was looming…but, sadly, not.

Additional Features:
There are a lot more collectibles in Earthworm Jim 2 compared to the first game, but sadly they’re not all that useful. Sure, the flags will grant you a password to skip ahead but they’re quite tricky to track down and there’s no indication of which ones you have or how many are left to find. Similarly, Jim’s new ammo types are great, but I rarely had many opportunities to properly use them. You’re rarely surrounded by enough enemies to justify using the Barn Burner, for example, and it’s not like the game is packed with tough-as-nails bosses for you to use your stronger weapons on. Hidden areas make a return, of course, with lightbulbs teleporting you to a granny avoiding section or a test of strength. Most prominently, you can brave a spiky end in Level Ate to access the hidden Totally Forked stage, a level set in an abattoir and filled with useful power-ups. There’s still no high score table, though you can challenge harder difficulties and input various cheats. These refill your health, grant extra lives, continues, or invincibility, give you access to different guns, and let you skip stages. You can also input a debug mode cheat, like before, and take advantage of save states and rewind features if playing the Nintendo Switch Online version of the SNES port.

The Summary:
I adored Earthworm Jim and have been a huge fan of the character and franchise since I was a kid glued to the hilarious cartoon. I’d long coveted Earthworm Jim 2, a game much more expensive and harder to find than the original, and was eager to finally get into it, expecting more of the same but with the wackiness dialled up to eleven. While this is certainly true, I do wonder if the game is trying too hard to be more bonkers than the original. Things were weird in Earthworm Jim but they’re borderline nonsensical in Earthworm Jim 2, throwing a bunch of bizarre locations and enemies at you that don’t make a lot of sense in this world (I love Level Ate but, c’mon, what’s a giant grill got to do with a space-faring earthworm?) The game looks as fantastic as before, with shadows and details and a cartoonish appeal infused into every animation, making Earthworm Jim just as appealing and zany as ever. Every stage is packed with innovative features that have you solving puzzles in outlandish ways, like carrying cows to barns to using their milk to open gates. However, I wasn’t a huge fan on this focus on puzzle solving. It slowed the pace down considerably and was often a waste of the larger, more intricate stages. Equally, while Jim’s expanded arsenal is welcome, it feels superfluous to give him all these awesome weapons and have little to no enemies to use them on and next to no bosses to blast with them. Gone are the troublesome bosses of the first game, who forced you to think your way around their attacks, replaced by…a door that runs from you, a unicycling maggot, and Evil the Cat’s lesser-than cousin who you don’t even fight. The Puppy Love sections wore me out with their three-round structure, the quirkiness of Jim’s salamander form and inflated head felt wasted, and the isometric shooter felt out of place. I’m all for mixing up the gameplay and trying new things, but it felt like there was too much going on in Earthworm Jim 2. In trying so hard to throw new mechanics and increasingly bonkers scenarios at the player, the game lost some of the charm that made the original so appealing and was much more of a chore to play, despite being notably easier than its predecessor.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

How do you think Earthworm Jim 2 compares to the first game? What did you think to Jim’s tweaked abilities and expanded arsenal? Did you also struggle with the Puppy Love sections? Were you disappointed by the lack of boss battles? Which of the new gameplay mechanics was your most or least favourite? Do you think Earthworm Jim deserves a comeback? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated videogames? Tell me your thoughts on Earthworm Jim 2 in the comments and then check out my other sci-fi content on the site.

Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Earthworm Jim (Mega Drive)

Dr. K3 Comments

January sees the celebration of two notable dates in science-fiction history, with January 2 christened “National Science Fiction Day” to coincide with the birth date of the world renowned sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, and HAL 9000, the sophisticated artificial intelligence of Arthur C. Clarke’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), being created on 12 January. Accordingly, I dedicated January to celebrating sci-fi in all its forms.

Released: October 1994
Developer: Shiny Entertainment
Also Available For: Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Master System, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PC, SEGA CD, Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES); PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (HD remake)

The Background:
During the eighties and nineties, anthropomorphic characters were king. It seemed every cartoon, toy, or company mascot was some kind of humanoid animal, generally fighting otherwordly or intergalactic forces. The most prominent examples from this time were, of course, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), though mascot platformers were prevalent in videogames thanks in no small part to the phenomenal success of Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991). After successfully licensing the TMNT, Playmates made the bold decision to develop a franchise of their own. Impressed by Doug TenNapel’s sketch of an earthworm, they purchased the rights and TenNapel joined programmer David Perry and the rest of the team at Shiny Entertainment, simultaneously programming for both the Mega Drive and the SNES using custom-made tools. Created as a satire of the genre, the developers enjoyed exploring their creativity, free from the restrictions of licensed characters, and the project was expanded upon with a line of action figures, comics books, and a hugely enjoyable cartoon. This was made possible by Earthworm Jim’s critical and commercial success; critics praised the quirky story, fluid animations, and zany action. Sadly, Earthworm Jim’s time in the spotlight wasn’t to last. Though followed by a highly-regarded sequel, even a later high-definition remake couldn’t atone for Jim’s failure to capitalise on his early success in 3D and handheld ventures, leaving him another videogame icon sadly lost to time.

The Plot:
A renegade ship steals an ultra-high tech super suit from the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt. Although intercepted by the Queen’s henchman, Psy-Crow, it lands on unassuming earthworm, Jim, transforming him into an anthropomorphic superhero.

Gameplay and Power-Ups:
Earthworm Jim is a 2D, run-and-gun action platformer in which you assume to role of perhaps the most unlikely and bizarre superhero in all of videogaming, an earthworm given incredible powers by an alien suit. Players guide Jim through various surreal worlds, from a crow-infested junkyard to claustrophobic underwater base, to Hell itself, blasting at everything in their way and pulling off some tricky platforming feats. Earthworm Jim has two attacks: one is to throw his worm body like a whip and the other is to unload with his Plasma Blaster. You can change the button configurations from the main “Options” menu, though I got along fine with the default: A to whip, B to fire, and C to jump. Jim has a good jump and can grab ledges to pull himself up. He can also spin his worm self like a helicopter blade to glide across gaps or down narrow shafts (though I had difficult pulling this off). For longer gaps, Jim can snag his worm self onto various hooks and swing across gaps, a finnicky system, especially when you must perform successful swings or make your way up hooked columns. The hit detection on the hooks is iffy at times and Jim is very cumbersome when swinging, but I found holding up on the directional pad helps. Jim can also cross chains using his hands and head to bypass gaps and spike beds, or whip wheels to open doors and gates. Jim’s default shot is a rapid-fire, ammo-chewing burst that cuts through most enemies. When your ammo runs dry, it’ll slowly refill but you can boost it by grabbing Plasma Power. Just be aware that your ammo isn’t refilled at the start of each stage.

Blast away with Jim’s Plasma Blaster or struggle to master the game’s vehicles and mechanics.

Earthworm Jim can also grab Mega Plasma to fire a massive, concussive blast that’s great or blowing enemies away or whittling down bosses. Unfortunately, there’s no way to save this ammo for boss battles; once you grab the “Plasma!”, it becomes your default until you run out so choose your shots wisely. You replenish Jim’s health, which is measured in percentages, by grabbing Suit Power or a Super Suit Power for a full refill, grab extra lives, and Continue markers to respawn when you inevitably die. While everything in each level is out to hurt you, there are some things that’ll aid you. You must free hamsters in Down the Tubes, pressing A to chomp up Bob the Goldfish’s kitten guards, and also take control of extremely fragile spherical underwater craft to navigate between Bob’s lair. When in this craft, you have thirty seconds of air that you can replenish at air stations (if you’re careful enough) but you must avoid the narrow caves and walls as you boost around with A as the craft can only take so many hits. Jim also possesses his own pocket-sized rocket ship, which he’ll hop onto when finishing a stage. You’ll then race against Psy-Crow in numerous Andy Asteroids bonus levels, dodging asteroids and grabbing shields and accelerators for a burst of speed. You must hold A to accelerate and can collect “Fuel Pods” (though they do nothing) and even bash into Psy-Crow to slow him down. Fail to beat him to the end and you’ll have to battle him, but succeed and you’ll gain nothing except pride. Occasionally, Jim will be separated from his super suit. This first happens in the boss battle against Evil the Cat but also occurs in Level 5. Without his super suit, Jim’s just a regular earthworm and can only hop about, but you can jump into fan blades to be tossed ahead to reunite with your suit before Professor Monkey for a Head ditches it down a pit. Other times, you’ll be running on jewels to reach higher areas or teleport around, or take more traditional teleporters to reach new areas.

Bizarre levels and oddball gameplay mechanics make for a very challenging experience.

Earthworm Jim is quite the challenging experience. You can set the game’s difficulty in the “Options” menu, but even “Practice” gets pretty difficult as you progress further. Most stages are very linear, but you’ll be climbing, jumping, and running about in twisted, winding environments, often falling to lower levels or spike pits when you miss swings. Environmental hazards start quite mundane, such as debris falling down conveyor belts, flame bursts, electrical bolts, and such, but soon you’re facing monsters and bugs that bite you in two or being assaulted by voracious dogs and ghosts. In Down the Tubes, you won’t stand a chance against Bob’s muscular cat bodyguards and must jump to the alcoves above them and hold up until the past by, and ride ravenous hamsters to even the odds. Andy Asteroids stages get faster and more difficult as you progress, with more asteroids to avoid and Psy-Crow blasting ahead and stealing your power-ups, just as the very environment in later stages conspires against you. You’ll be whipping wheels to open gates, hitting levers to release hamsters, smacking switches to reverse escalators, and jumping to Dyson spheres that burst with electrical energy. The difficulty really ramps up in For Pete’s Sake, an escort mission where you must keep Peter Puppy safe from UFOs, tentacles, pits, and meteor strikes by either blasting hazards or whipping him. If he gets attacked, he transforms into a bestial form and shreds your health, setting you back a bit, too. This is a cakewalk compared to Buttville, though, a nightmare realm made almost entirely of spikes and tricky swing challenges. You’ll need to master Jim’s helicopter float just to get past the maddening first section, a narrow shaft full of spikes, to say nothing of avoiding swinging into the jagged spikes lining the floor of the stage.

Presentation:
Earthworm Jim is one of the most impressive games on the Mega Drive. It has a surreal, bonkers cartoon presentation that elevates it above the competition and gives it endless visual appeal. Jim is at the forefront of this, featuring numerous idle animations (from off-key singing, flexing, and blasting himself in the face), sound bites, and slick animation frames that make him a joy to control and watch. He reacts to everything, yelling in pain, swinging his worm self like a lasso, and reacting in horror at times, infusing him with a madcap personality that perfectly matches the insanity offered by the game. Between stages, partially animated pixel art compliments your gameplay and Jim turns into Tex Avery when meeting Princess What’s-Her-Name in the finale, only to be dejected when she’s crushed by an errant cow and consoling himself by swiping her crown! The cow isn’t even that random since players launch it in New Junk City, and weird, quirky humour like this is all over Earthworm Jim. From lawyers making up Evil’s minions in Hell, to the Professor literally having a monkey attached to his head, Earthworm Jim is crammed with visual gags and personality. The soundtrack compliments this, often being subdued or a simply bop, though What the Heck? does impress with a remix of “Night on Bald Mountain” underscoring the action. I did notice some instances where the music cut out, though, especially after pausing the game, though Earthworm Jim otherwise runs as smooth as butter and is a joy to play in terms of how responsive everything is. If you’re looking for story and cutscenes, you won’t find either here. The manual details the narrative alongside a few comic book pictures, but the game itself just starts up with no context and never tries to explain anything that’s happening, which is actually pretty great.

Earthworm Jim is one of the most colourful, cartoonish, and bonkers games on the system.

Earthworm Jim’s stages are absolutely bonkers. You start in New Junk City, a junkyard filled with bouncy tyres, fragmented cliffs, and monstrous dogs just waiting to bite your leg. There’s an impressive art deco effect to the background but it’s nothing compared to What the Heck?, where Evil the Cat hangs out in the distance and you must platform across sinister-looking Hell structures. Down the Tubes makes everything much more claustrophobic, restricting you to the glass tubes and rooms of Bob’s lair, but a water effect over the action and a beautiful rendition of the lair make this a visually memorable location. The simply named “Level 5” is a mad scientist’s dream of conveyers, escalators, 1950s-style machinery, and Dyson spheres. You’ll regularly by separated from your suit here and will briefly be encased in a mesh cage as the Professor toys with you. For Pete’s Sake is a simple barren, alien landscape but the looming planet, weighted platforms, seesaws, and never-ending onslaught of hazards bring it to life, to say nothing of Peter’s looming threat if your aim is a little off. Intestinal Distress is easily the most disgusting level, being made up of gross, mucus-like platforms and tubes, while Buttville is a spike-ladened nightmare hive. A lightning storm looms in the background, insta-kill hazards pop out from holes, and hooks and spikes close in all around you, really upping the threat level. The Andy Asteroids stages are simple chases through high-speed wormholes but those sensitive to flashing lights may struggle at the finish line, which bombards you with a strobe effect. Finally, the Snot a Problem challenges see Jim bouncing down a cliff on a bungee cord, bashing into Major Mucus and avoiding the Mucus Phlegm Brain below. If you’re lucky enough to own the HD version, you’ll be treated to a comic book-style intro sequence that gives a largely wordless account of Jim’s origin. There are also graphical differences between the Mega Drive, Mega-CD, and SNES versions and improved audio quality on the Mega-CD version.

Enemies and Bosses:
Surprisingly, there aren’t that many enemies in Earthworm Jim. The stage layouts and hazards are generally your most persistent enemy, with baddies merely existing as another obstacle to overcome. Defeating them makes your life easier since they won’t dog you when you inevitably miss a jump or a swing. None of them drop health or ammo and there’s no scoring system, so it’s literally a case of killing them to not lose health. New Junk City houses crows and ravenous dogs; crows swoop down and bite your head while the dogs bite your legs, though you’ll also have to watch for falling junk. What the Heck? sees you fighting off dark spirits (essentially a combination of the crows and dogs) and suited-up lawyers who block your shots with their cash-firing briefcases. Bob’s cat minions are completely invulnerable in Down the Tubes, requiring you to avoid or eat them with a hamster, but you’ll also encounter weird gas-spewing spheres that show up later in the game, too. Level 5 sees you attacked by the Professor’s weird science experiments, which explode into maggots when hit or see eyeballs constantly spawning to swarm you and disembodied brains pouncing in your face. Strange helicopter fish spit small fish at you in Intestinal Distress and bugs burst from nests in Buttville, compounding your attempts to safely navigate the spike-filled environment.

Quirky, often disgusting mini bosses have you rethinking your attack strategies.

For Pete’s Sake charges you with temporarily subduing the many tentacles bursting from the ground and finding off UFO attacks and meteor storms. If Peter is hurt or falls, he becomes a bestial creature that attacks you, shrugging off your shots and setting you back. However, your most persistent foe is Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt’s main henchman, Psy-Crow. You’ll race him in the Andy Asteroids stages, barging him to slow him down and snagging power-ups to beat him to the end, but must battle him if you fail. Fortunately, this fight isn’t too hard; simply fire at him to stun him and then whip him until he flees. Some stages see you facing off with mini bosses, too, such as the living trashcan in New Junk City and the snowman waiting in What the Heck? The trashcan is tougher than it looks not just because of its powerful uppercut and it constantly launching debris, but also because it can only really be damaged by the Mega Plasma or from behind. The snowman is much easier, despite warping around by turning into goo and spitting fireballs. Similarly, battling Major Mucus in a bungee fight isn’t too bad; it’s similar to the rope section from Battletoads (Rare, 1991) and sees you barging the living snot ball into walls to whittle away its snot bungee. Still, you have to be careful of his counterattack, spinning top move, and the one-shot Mucus Phlegm Brain. Although you encounter Professor Monkey for a Head, you don’t get to fight him. Instead, you fire at him and chase him around his lab, and he sets his steampunk-style robot chicken on you. This thing is completely immune to your attacks and clucks about spitting egg bombs. You need to whip a target to drop explosives on it, the shoot or whip it while in freefall not unlike the Snot a Problem stage.

While some bosses are innovative or ridiculous, others are unnecessarily difficult.

The first real boss you face is Chuck, the owner of the junkyard, though he’s actually easier to face than his sentient trashcan. Chuck drops anvils and crates and such from an overhead crane; simply avoid these and whip the crates onto the spring beneath him to deal damage. He’ll spit up fish and eventually move back and forth but he’s way easier to defeat if you time your whips properly. Evil the Cat is a touch trickier; he randomly pops up in What the Heck? to toss bombs and cause stalactites to rain down, then somehow separates Jim from his suit. In this phase, you must jump over his flame bursts until he destroys his platform, reuniting you with your suit. In the second phase, Evil attacks from the darkness and you must blast him nine times, avoiding the flame bursts, to finally put him down. Bob the Killer Goldfish is a joke by comparison, potentially because of how difficult Down the Tube’s underwater sections are. Simply walk up to Bob and Jim tips over his bowl, leaving him flailing on the ground. At the end of Intestinal Distress, you’re attacked by Doc Duodenum, a strange, mucus-like being that hops about and spits goo but it’s easily put down with your regular attacks. Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt herself awaits at the end of Buttville, her gigantic egg sac looming overhead not unlike the Xenomorph Queen. Gloop leaks from this and hurts you and you must hop to temporary spinning platforms, avoiding her scepter swipe and taking out the bugs swarming around her. The biggest threat here is the bed of spikes and potentially running out of ammo, but simply fire at her as you spin around and she’ll soon burst like a pimple. Frankly, the weird growth you fight before her is far harder. This…thing…spits goo, which is bad enough, but the ground is constantly moving you towards a spike wall and the ground also has spikes in it. It gets faster as you deal damage, too, and can really burn through your health and lives!

Additional Features:
With no high score table and no collectibles or unlockables, there isn’t much else on offer in Earthworm Jim. You can challenge the game on a harder difficulty, of course, and replay the game to try and reach new areas of each level for additional goodies, but your main reason for going back will be to discover the hidden areas. Not only are there secret areas hidden behind the foregrounds, you can access the secret stage Who Turned Out the Lights?, the Professor’s dark and dingy basement where spotlights briefly illuminate your surroundings and a hungry, unkillable creature stalks from the shadows. Other replay incentives include the cheat codes, inputted from the pause screen, that refill your health, ammo, grant an extra life, and allow you to skip stages. There’s also a debug mode that allows you to freely move the camera around each stage and grants invincibility (though, oddly, some enemies can still hurt you) that also protects you in underwater sections. Those playing the Mega-CD version can also play through an additional level, Big Burty, and battle the blind dinosaur of the same name. This stage (and Who Turned Out the Lights?) was missing from the HD version but was replaced by digital fantasy stages where a keyboard-playing cat ruled supreme. The HD version also included online and offline co-op mode where up to four players navigated all-new levels, in addition to leaderboards and Achievements/Trophies that challenged you to such tasks as collecting stuff, beating single and multiplayer levels, and finishing the game in under fifty minutes. Finally, if playing on Nintendo Switch Online, you can take full advantage of the save state and rewind features to really level the playing field on this challenging game.

The Summary:
I’ve played Earthworm Jim before, mainly on emulators, and have been a big fan of the series since it first came about. I loved the cartoon and have long coveted the action figures, so it was a must buy for my Mega Drive library once I started seriously collecting for the system. However, I’d previously played through the HD version on PlayStation 3, a game I remember beating without cheats. That wasn’t the case here. Earthworm Jim is almost unforgiving in its later stages, throwing spikes and pits and platforming challenges that will have you gripping your controller in frustration. So, yes, the debug mode helped a lot for this playthrough since it meant I didn’t have to worry about my health or oxygen, but it was no help at all with whipping those hooks or navigating the spiked, nigh-impossible nightmare that is Buttville. It also wasn’t much use against the damn trashcan, or that robot chicken, both of which can be a pain in the ass to defeat, especially as the game rarely indicates when your attacks deal damage. Racing against Psy-Crow can also become very difficult; fighting him isn’t so bad but it’s a waste of ammo, something you desperately need when navigating stages and defeating bosses. I do think the game would’ve benefitted from a meter system to measure Jim’s ammo. Like, firing his gun depletes a meter that refills over time, rather than forcing you to wait around for your ammo to slowly replenish. Still, while the game is very difficult at times, a lot of the time it’s simply challenging and you do get better at judging when to whip at hooks and how to navigate past hazards. It helps that Earthworm Jim looks fantastic; it has sprite animation so smooth and slick that it rivals the likes of Aladdin (Virgin Games, 1992) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA Technical Institute, 1992), basically resembling a playable cartoon. It plays really well, offering a quirky, action-packed experience while also making you think outside the box at times, especially when Jim loses his suit. Jim is also a wonderfully realised, bonkers character with so much life and personality and his enemies are equally memorable for their bizarre appearances and attack patterns. It’s not the most accessible game and at times will have you tearing your hair out, but my God is Earthworm Jim an enjoyable experience, if only to look at!

My Rating:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Great Stuff

Are you a fan of Earthworm Jim? How do you think the game holds up against other action platformers? Did you also find the game challenging at times, and struggle with the swinging mechanics? Which of Jim’s outrageous villains was your favourite? Did you ever beat the game on the hardest difficulty? Would you like to see Earthworm Jim make a comeback? What are some of your favourite sci-fi-orientated videogames? Feel free to share your memories of Earthworm Jim in the comments and then check out my other sci-fi content on the site.

Mini Game Corner [Sci-Fanuary]: Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Nintendo Switch)

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January celebrates two notable dates in science-fiction history, “National Science Fiction Day” on January 2 and Arthur C. Clarke’s HAL 9000’s birthday on January 12. Accordingly, I’m dedicating January to celebrating sci-fi with an event I call “Sci-Fanuary”.

Released: 30 June 2022
Originally Released: 21 October 1994
Developer: Minakuchi Engineering
Also Available For: Mega Drive, Mega Drive Mini, and the SEGA Channel

A Brief Background:
Before 1987, Capcom was mostly known for their arcade titles. The 1987 release of Mega Man (or “Rockman” in Japan) changed all of that. Widely regarded as an 8-bit classic, Mega Man was notorious for its difficulty and maintained this reputation across its many sequels and spin-offs. For decades, Mega Man was a Nintendo staple thanks to Capcom outsourcing the franchise to Minakuchi Engineering (and, briefly, Thinking Rabbit) for the Blue Bomber’s Game Boy ventures. Capcom also teamed with Minakuchi Engineering for Mega Man’s one and only Mega Drive appearance, which proved to be a nightmare because, as related by series artist Keiji Inafune, the developers struggled with the debugging procedure. Inafune stepped in to assist and also designed the new Wily Tower bosses for the game, whose North American release was first delayed and then cancelled due to technical issues. The Wily Wars eventually surfaced on the subscription-based SEGA Channel but it would take decades for it to be widely available to gamers. Those lucky enough to play it gave mostly positive reviews that praised the graphical overhaul and additional gameplay mechanics, though the sluggish control scheme and awkward hit detection was noted.

The Review:
I’ve already reviewed the first three Mega Man games (and a whole bunch of others) so it seems superfluous to go into great detail for this 16-bit remake collection. Essentially, The Wily Wars recreates Mega Man’s first three adventures from his Nintendo days in glorious, full-colour, 16-bit graphics. You get three save files to play with, that ability to switch around the game’s simple controls, and a sound and music test and that’s it. You play each game in turn, gaining an “All Clear” screen upon completing them, and each game stays true to their original mechanics. So, for example, you won’t be sliding, charging, or utilising E-Tanks in Mega Man, which is a bit of a shame as it would’ve been nice to see the later features incorporated to add a new challenge. By default, B fires your currently equipped weapon, A sees you jump, and you can pause the action and open the in-game menu with either Y or +. From here, you can select an E-Tank to refill your health when playing Mega Man 2 (Capcom, 1988) or Mega Man 3 (Capcom, 1990) and equip different Special Weapons. As in the original games, each Special Weapon is earned by defeating Robot Masters and each one has a finite amount of energy. Exploring stages and defeating enemies grants you small or large refills for your health and weapon energy; you’ll also find 1-ups, E-Tanks and, in Mega Man, can add to your high score by playing through the game.

The 16-bit visuals make Mega Man pop like never before while retaining the core gameplay.

Naturally, I took on Mega Man first and the graphical overhaul is immediate right from the start. Mega Man looks great as a 16-bit sprite; he still only blinks when left idle but it’s nice to see him resembling his box art for a change. Stages are obviously far more impressive here, with elements like rocky grounds, mechanical platforms, and piping given far more detail. There are some instances where the background scrolls past in a version of parallax scrolling; mountains, clouds, and scenes of destruction can also be seen in the backgrounds. Ice Man and Fire Man get the biggest glow ups in terms of visuals, with their slippery, snowy ground and flash-frozen backgrounds and shimmering heat effect and rushing lava, respectively. You can still freeze fire plumes with the Ice Slasher and grab certain blocks with the Super Arm, and this is still the only way to get the Magnet Beam to navigate Doctor Albert Wily’s fortress. The action is a little zoomed out, giving you more room to manoeuvre; this is especially noticeable in boss arenas, where it’s easier than ever to avoid attacks thanks to the extra screen space. Sprites still have sizable hit boxes and enemies will still respawn over and over, but Mega Man has never looked or performed better, with no slowdown or screen tearing evident in my playthrough. Things are a little bland, though; Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic Team, 1991) this is not and, frankly, the presentation doesn’t seem to match what the superior Mega Drive was capable of in 1994. The music has also been remixed and, similarly, has a decidedly tinny and grainy sound that isn’t up to Nintendo’s 8-bit standards let alone the Mega Drive’s higher sound quality. Still, we get some decent, partially animated sprite and pixel art and all the same Robot Masters and bosses return. As you’d expect, all the same strategies work just as well this time, with the exception of the Yellow Devil; you can no longer exploit the pause function to easily defeat him. Still, they all look very vibrant and dynamic even when you’re decimating them with their main weakness and it’s immensely satisfying seeing Dr. Wily beg for mercy in 16-bit glory.

Mega Man 2‘s stages and final bosses greatly benefit from the graphical upgrade.

The visual upgrade continues in the game’s redesign of Mega Man 2 and is evident right from the start. However, while the game’s iconic title screen has been rendered in the same 16-bit art style, the city in the background does look a bit pixelated. This effect continues in Dr. Wily’s third stage and the Robot Master teleporter room is now a mess of animated panels, but most stages shine from the additional processing power. Bubble Man’s stage, for example, is awash with a very impressive waterfall effect that showcases some transparency effects; Wood Man’s forest has never been denser; you’ll hop behind big fluffy clouds like never before in Air Man’s stage; and Flash Man’s crystal mine is very beautiful with all its gleaming rocks and slippery crystal platforms. Mega Man 2 is further bolstered by big pixel art renditions of Mega Man receiving his upgrades; these are joined by incoming calls from Doctor Thomas Light that grant you the Items you’ll need to cross spike beds and navigate Dr. Wily’s stages. Large enemy sprites are better than ever here; there’s no slowdown when the Lantern Fish and Hot Dogs spawn in, no matter how many Shrinks and flame bursts they fire, and Quick Man’s stage still has its fading light gimmick and insta-death lasers. These are actually easier to avoid this time around; maybe it’s because of my past experience with the game but I relied on the Time Stopper far less this time around. A bit of parallax scrolling and an abundance of blinking lights and environment effects add to the visual appeal of this remake, though I will say that the stage designs could’ve been tweaked as there’s often a lot of empty space that feels wasted. The Robot Masters retain all their weaknesses, though their intros have bene reworked, but it’s the big bosses in Dr. Wily’s castle that benefit the most. Mecha Dragon, Guts Tank, and Dr. Wily’s machines are now fought against detailed backgrounds rather than a plain black void and you have more room to avoid their attacks. Mega Man did seem a touch slipperier in this game, I will admit, and the game seems to be deadlocked into its “Difficult” mode, meaning those damn Sniper Joes take a lot of hits or waiting around to destroy. Still, the visual glow up and the remixed soundtrack make this already great game even better and I loved the personalities of the quirky Robot Masters, which shined through much clearer thanks to the Mega Drive’s greater processing power.

Despite the Mega Drive’s increased power, the system struggles at times in Mega Man 3.

Things are very much the same for Mega Man 3, though Mega Man can now slide by pressing down and A and his weapon select screen has been changed. It now appears at the bottom of the screen, which I found to be a bit clunkier. Otherwise, the same kind of semi-parallax scrolling can be found here, with backgrounds moving with you through windows in Top Man’s stage and layers of pipes and machinery in Spark Man’s stage. Background details in general are much more detailed than in the original games: lava flows and bubbles in Shadow Man’s sewer-like dwelling, Snake Man’s jungle is much denser, and Needle Man’s clear sky reveals a city in the distance. Some stages are cluttered by the additional background details, though: Spark Man’s, for example, is so lively and has so many clashing elements that it was easy to miss pits and hazards. Gemini Man’s crystal cave is a step down from Flash Man’s, though the coral-infested, tadpole-dwelling depths have never looked better. Proto Man’s sprite doesn’t quite match up with the upgrade given to Mega Man, Dr. Light, and the enemy sprites, though, appearing strangely small and simple. The game still handles far better than its 8-bit forefathers, with backgrounds appearing for all boss battles and larger enemies like Bikkys, the Giant Metall, Penpen Makers, and Tama appearing (with limited frames of animation) without any slowdown. However, the game does struggle when you battle Gemini Man as he duplicates himself and sends his Gemini Laser ricocheting about. The action also slows whenever you fire this weapon, which is a shame as The Wily Wars had coped with these issues really well up to this point. As in the previous games, there’s much more room to manoeuvre here, giving you more margin for error in boss battles, though the battle against the tedious Yellow Devil MK-II is just as annoying since you have to wait for him to assemble. He also looks super derpy here, though you can at least get a few more shots in with the Hard Knuckle. You’ll still revisit four previous stages and battle the Robot Masters from Mega Man 2, with the Doc Robot assuming their abilities, and fly over spike beds on Rush Jet. Dr. Wily’s crawling machine is easier to avoid thanks to the extra space, negating its large hit box, and the gigantic Gamma now looks gloriously cartoonish as a huge, detailed background image that smashes up the lower platform with its fists. You’ll also still battle Proto Man and be left clueless regarding his true identity, despite redrawn, sprite-based cutscenes where Dr. Light muses about his true motivations and the shield-carrying anti-hero still watches his brother from afar.

Customise Mega Man to your liking and challenge new stages and bosses in the Wily Tower.

Finishing all three games on the same save file unlocks an additional mode exclusive to The Wily Wars: The “Wily Tower”. This mode remixes bits and pieces from all three games, including enemies, hazards, and stage elements to present Dr. Wily’s latest challenge to his rival. The begin with, you can challenge one of three new “Genesis Unit” Robot Masters before taking on the titular tower itself (which is essentially Dr. Wily’s newest fortress). Before each stage, you get to equip Special Weapons, Items, and Rush abilities from all three games. You can mix and match up to eight Special Weapons and set three Item slots, allowing you to use, say, Rush Jet alongside Item-3. This is a really fun feature and one I honestly wish the developers had applied to the other three games; you’ll need a guide or something to help you pick the right loadout for each stage, though. This is because, while you can get by perfectly fine for the most part, you’ll open up alternative paths using the likes of the Crash Bomb, freeze flame bursts with the Ice Shooter, and of course reach different areas with Rush. The Genesis Units are also weak to specific Special Weapons, so it’s fun to mix and match and see what works. While stages remix elements from all three games in a fun way, there are a lot of Hammer Joes in each stage. Still, it’s fun seeing Snake Man’s stage suddenly emerge from the grassy hills, the layered island and water visuals of Mega Water S’s stage and seeing Jamacys emerge from pipes in Hyper Storm H’s stage. The three Genesis Units are all based on characters from Journey to the West (Cheng’en, 1592): Buster Rod G is modelled after Sun Wukong and attacks with an extendable lance and duplicates; Mega Water S is based on Sha Wujing and boasts a water shield and jet stream; and Hyper Storm H is based Zhu Bajie and sports two health bars! However, Hyper Storm H may look intimidating, and his stage may sport damaging spikes, but he’s the easiest of the three, with Mega Water S being the trickiest since he can force you into insta-death spikes and Buster Rod G being the most frustrating since he can deflect your shots and shield himself at the same time.

The Wily Tower will test your skills, though the final boss is a bit of a pushover.

Clearing these three stages sees you challenge the Wily Tower itself, the only part of this mode you can replay after clearing it. These stages recycle elements from Dr. Wily’s previous fortresses and other stages, as before, with you riding tracks like in Mega Man, battling Hot Dogs and riding Lighting Lord’s clouds like in Mega Man 2, avoiding turbines, hopping to spinning tops, and more. Naturally, Dr. Wily has some defences you must past to reach him. The first, Snakey, is a fire serpent that pops out of lava and breathes fire or leaps over you spitting fireballs. The hardest thing about this fight is not falling in the lava courtesy of the small, springy platform you fight on; if you have the Ice Slasher or Bubble Lead, though, it’s a joke. The Iron Ball is even easier, despite firing the Gemini Laser. This easily avoided sphere bounces about a bit and is only vulnerable when its face is exposed, but it’ll crumble from a few shots of the Thunder Beam. You’ll then battle Buster Rod G again, this time while freefalling on pieces of a destroyed walkway, which is very unique. He’s technically much easier here as he just fires shots at you while hopping to platforms, but he can be tricky to hit unless you have the Air Shooter or Metal Blade on hand. Your final challenge is Dr. Wily’s giant mech, a machine so big that we’re denied a background and you must first destroy its legs to attack its torso. In this first phase, it just stomps about and fires homing missiles, but you can use the rising blocks to blast the sphere at its hip with Crash Bomber, Spark Shot, or Thunder Beam. Its torso assumes a boxer’s stance and tries to smack you with its spiked fists, which you can hop on to pummel its face with Hard Knuckles while also freely chipping away with Metal Blades. Once destroyed, Dr. Wily resorts to his UFO once more, dropping time bombs that are easily avoided. Though he stays out of reach at the top of the screen, you can finish him off with the Thunder Beam to complete this mode. It’s a shame there’s no boss rush and you still can’t play as Proto Man, but I enjoyed the “Wily Tower” as an additional mode so much that I honestly would’ve liked to see its mechanics applied to the other games, at least after defeating this bonus mode, just to mix up the classics.

The Summary:
Mega Man: The Wily Wars is an interesting conundrum. On the surface, it sounds great! The first three Mega Man titles on one cartridge, with save files, a bonus game mode, and all brought to life by 16-bit visuals? Sign me up, right? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, really. Graphically, yes, the games obviously look and run better than they did on the Nintendo Entertainment System. There’s no slowdown until you encounter the Gemini Laser, sprites and stages are far more detailed, and the layering and visual glow-up given to these 8-bit titles is immediate and eye-catching. Yet, I can’t help but feel like they fall short of what the Mega Drive was truly capable of. They remind me more of the James Pond games (Millennium Interactive, 1990 to 1993) which, while colourful and fun in their own right, aren’t exactly comparable, graphically, the Sonic games or Rocket Knight Adventures (Konami, 1993), which released a year prior to The Wily Wars. The action is a bit too zoomed out (a strange complaint given how frustrating Mega Man’s portable adventures were), reducing the detail in the sprites and arguably making the games easier by giving you more room to jump about. They’re still challenging titles, don’t get me wrong, but I think the developers missed a trick by not trying to do more than just improve the visuals. They copied the games so faithfully that they even included Mega Man’s useless score system, which is just baffling. I think it would’ve been better to look at the improvements the series had made by this point and apply them to all three games, sprucing up the interface and mechanics. Capcom would later do something like this with Mega Man Powered Up (2006), but it’s baffling to mee that Mega Man was up to his sixth game by this point and none of his then-modern mechanics (a charged shot, Rush’s other capabilities, and such) were included here. The Wily Wars’ main appealing factors are its visuals and its rarity; it’s a curio few got to play and thus worth a look, if only to challenge your skills in the enjoyable Wily Tower mode. However, I think I preferred playing the 8-bit versions, flaws and all, just because they had a charm and heart to them that was somewhat lacking here simply because The Wily Wars could’ve been so much more and it played things far too safe.

My Rating:

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Pretty Good

You didn’t own Mega Man: The Wily Wars back in the day so I won’t ask. But, when did you first play it? What did you think to the graphical overhaul given to the first three games? Were you disappointed that Mega Man didn’t sport more of his later abilities? Did you ever complete the Wily Tower? Would you have liked to see its mechanics applied to the other games? Which Mega Man game is your favourite? How are you celebrating sci-fi this month? Whatever you think about Mega Man, comment below and then check out my other Mega Man reviews!

Mini Game Corner [00-Heaven]: James Bond 007: The Duel (Mega Drive)

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To celebrate the release of Dr. No (Young, 1962), the first of the James Bond movies (Various, 1962 to present), October 5th is known as “Global James Bond Day”. This year, I’m spending every Saturday commemorating cinema’s longest-running franchise, and one of the most recognised and popular movie icons.

Released: December 1992
Developer: The Kremlin
Also Available For: Game Gear and Master System

A Brief Background:
Although videogame tie-ins have a reputation for being rushed, bugged, and unfulfilling titles, James Bond/007 seems to have fared quite well in videogame endeavours. Obviously, everyone knows about the best-selling GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997), but Bond’s headlined videogame titles since 1983. He’s featured in racers and adventure games, but is most notable for this third- and first-person escapades. In 1987, Timothy Dalton took over the famous role, starring in two reasonably successful, if polarising, Bond movies. Although Dalton signed a three-picture deal, legal issues stunted his return and he was ultimately replaced in the role, though his likeness was used for this videogame, the first Bond game to feature an original storyline. Developers the Kremlin and publisher Domark actually had previous experience adapting Bond’s adventures, but James Bond 007: The Duel attracted mixed reviews that criticised its short length, repetitive gameplay, and sharp difficulty curve.

My Review:
James Bond 007: The Duel is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun with mild platforming elements. Naturally, players assume the role of the famous super spy and are tasked with journeying across five levels in the battle against Professor Gravemar, a maniacal terrorist who not only threatens the world with his satellites but has built a cloning machine to resurrect Bond’s greatest enemies as his personal guard. After an absolutely awful pixel art rendition of Timothy Dalton, garish title screen, and mildly impressive MIDI recreation of the iconic Bond theme, players can customise their controls, pick from three difficulty levels (“Normal”, “Hard”, and “Manic”), or play the game’s tunes in the sound test. By default, A sees Bond jump (with 007 frequently performing an impressive and wholly uncharacteristic somersault), B sees him shoot his signature Walther PPK, and C tosses any grenades he acquires from Q Cases hidden in each level. Bond’s combat and traversal options are a bit limited; he can climb ladders, shoot diagonally up and down and whilst on ladders or when jumping or crouching (though he can’t shoot straight up or down). Furthermore, he flies backwards comically when shot, takes fall damage and will even die if he falls from a great enough height, and has frames of animation when ducking or picking up ammo and items that leaves him wide open to attack.

Bond’s mission to rescue hostages on a garish ship was too tough for me to beat.

Each mission is preceded by a map screen of the professor’s private, heavily guarded island. After flying in on the Thunderball (Young, 1965) jetpack, Bond must navigate a large ship rescuing hostages. On “Normal”, Bond starts with four lives and must rescue three hostages (all scantily clad babes); he has limited ammo, reloading his gun when he runs out, and his health is measured in hit points. Players can replenish Bond’s health by rescuing hostages, and every goon they gun down and mission they complete will earn them points to increase their standing on the high score table. Unfortunately, there’s no indication of where the hostages are, so you’ll need to search high and low, hopping from platforms and lifeboats and avoiding falls, being shot to death, or being crushed by a falling submersible. Thankfully, there’s no time limit and any hostages you’ve rescued will stay rescued if you lose a life. Unfortunately, while you have unlimited continues and hidden checkpoints in each level, you’ll have to replay the stage from the start if you use a continue. Bond can hide in doorways to avoid enemies and bullets by pressing up and, though his sprite isn’t very detailed and lacks idle animations, Bond does switch his gun between his hands when you turn from left to right. Enemies appear to respawn as you play and, once you rescue all the hostages, you’ll need to find a bomb and then frantically search for the exit against a tight one-minute timer. Sadly, I wasn’t able to achieve this; although I found an optimal route to rescue the hostages and defuse the bomb, I would either slip and fall to my death or be throttled and tossed to my doom by the brutish Jaws before I could even find the exit.

Later levels see Bond braving deadly hazards and battling his most famous foes.

James Bond 007: The Duel has a strange presentation. It’s very bright and colourful, with a jaunty soundtrack, and the backgrounds remind me of James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod (Vectordean, Intellectual Software, Consultants Limited, 1991), which is a strange fit for Bond. The background scrolls as you move but is otherwise completely static; it also shifts up and down as you hold those directions, which can be quite disorientating. You need be careful not to fall into the water as, while you can grab ladders to climb out, the current will take you towards a frenzy of sharks. I gave the game a good shot, but it can be very unforgiving; if you’re shot, Bond is so slow to get up and often aims diagonally downwards rather than crouching, meaning it’s easy to get stun-locked in a continuous cycle of being shot at until you’re killed. With no passwords or cheat codes to mitigate the difficulty, and the level forcing you to restart from scratch when your lives are exhausted, I was neither able to defeat or bypass Jaws in this playthrough. Looking ahead, it seems more competent players can beat the game in about twenty minutes and Bond will traverse vines, dodge spike pits, battle Baron Samedi (who tosses bones at you) and encounter a massive futuristic tank in the jungle, avoid being roasted alive by lava and fireballs and encounter Mayday (who launches at you with flying kicks) and a claw-machine in a volcano, and gun down scientists, dodge flame bursts and take down Oddjob (who tosses his hat a painfully short distance) and a flame-shooting mech in the shuttle base. The game’s final level is dedicated to a boss battle against Jaws. Yes, rather than take on the mad Professor Gravemar, Bond faced Jaws once more, with the brute now piloting a mech that spits grenades and sports a scorpion-like tail. Defeating Jaws earns you another terrible piece of sprite art and a brief credits sequence, with no story text being included in the game at any point.

I know that James Bond 007: The Duel was only a mediocre title, at best, but I suddenly felt the urge to add it to my Mega Drive library and give it a go. I was hoping it would be a tough, but generally enjoyable platform shooter than I could maybe breeze through using a cheeky infinite health code or abusing the infinite continues, but it sadly didn’t go that way. This is a game that requires a great deal of patience and persistence from the player; I have no doubt that I probably could do better with a little more time, but the lack of passwords means you basically have to complete it in one sitting, which isn’t an appealing prospect. Although the game looks good, it has a very confused presentation; the large pixel art is dreadful, the locations are garish and cartoonish, but Bond and his enemies look pretty good despite their lack of detail. I liked seeing Bond’s enemies pop back up and little Easter Eggs like the jetpack and the map screen changing as you progress, but the gameplay is very clunky and repetitive. Every level requires the same functions from you (rescue hostages, disarm bomb, reach exit, battle bosses) with no variety beyond a greater emphasis on vertical exportation. Perhaps with a little more to do, some additional weapons, and some useful codes, James Bond 007: The Duel could’ve impressed me more but as is, it’s a little too punishing for me to sink my teeth into right now. But perhaps you’ve beaten it. Perhaps you enjoy it as a hidden gem for the Mega Drive. Perhaps you had no difficulty blasting through it and besting Bond’s resurrected baddies. Perhaps you think I should try harder or give the 8-bit version a try. Perhaps you prefer a different Bond game. Whatever you think, drop a comment below.