Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude!

[Melf]

Sega's Greendog the Beached Surfer Dude! seems to have a love/hate relationship with Sega gamers. After some serious playtime, we seem to lean towards the "love" crowd, but not by much. Read our full review (http://www.sega-16.com/2006/07/greendog-the-beached-surfer-dude/) for our thoughts on this controversial title.

[j_factor]

I've seen this game completely trashed, and I've seen it praised to high heaven. I'm glad this review takes a more moderate approach, although I disagree that Greendog had "gorgeous" visuals.

[Alianger]

As a kid I used to think this game was ugly, slow, and barely playable.. Well, I still do. There's been a lot of mediocre games here lately.. :P

That underwater level still looks poor compared to Toejam & Earl 2, or even Alex Kidd! There's just something about Greendog's visuals that makes it look dull.. it reminds me of X-men.

[Benjamin]

I've seen this game completely trashed, and I've seen it praised to high heaven. I'm glad this review takes a more moderate approach, although I disagree that Greendog had "gorgeous" visuals.

The aquarium level is among the best looking levels the Genesis has ever seen.

Isn't Greendog based on the comic? I recall a Sega Visions article on both it and Chakan talking about how Sega took some comic properties it thought would turn into games well and interviewed the creators.

[Joe Redifer]

There's just something about Greendog's visuals that makes it look dull.. it reminds me of X-men.
That's because the graphics are completely dithered and grainy. US-made games loved to have graphics like this to show off the limitations of the artists (Eternal Champions, anyone?). They didn't want their games to look good like stuff from Japan, so they made theirs look different so people would know to avoid them on sight.

[David J.]

This game has that Sega of America touch that all of their games have. I guess Sega was really trying to differentate their games by country, no?

[j_factor]

Other American-made Sega games like Kid Chameleon and Comix Zone are damn fine games.

[Joe Redifer]

Comix Zone has a similar dithered look. Kid Chameleon was worked on by many Japanese artists, including a few from Sonic Team I think. Music still sucks, though.

[CRV]

Kid Chameleon was worked on by many Japanese artists, including a few from Sonic Team I think. Music still sucks, though.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/kid-chameleon/credits

I only see one Japanese person, Yasushi Yamaguchi (aka Judy Totoya).

[Joe Redifer]

I swear I saw more when I beat the game. Anyway, Kid Chameleon doesn't exactly look exceptional in any way, regardless.

[ary incorparated]

Man i hate this game my bro likes it,the game bores me,yes the music sucks.

[TwistedReality]

I agree that this game has good visuals, and the controls are easy. I find Greendog to be a dorky hero, but in a lovable way. (Though I still wonder as to why he has no face) :D The music is cool, too. I've only gotten to the boss of level two so far, but it's enough experience for me to say that this is a fairly good title.

[vintagegamecrazy]

I just played this game again, been a while many years more like it, and I don't get what Ken saw with this game. It's about as boring and dull as it gets for me. A great bit pass!

[jerry coeurl]

I tried to play this earlier but I just got so bored! I had to stop playing on level 2. It's too boring and repetitive to really catch my interest.

[jerry coeurl]

You know what, I take some of that back. It's not great, but it's fun. Average western game but I dig the style and setting so that makes up a bit for the lack of precision in the control department. I also love the Intro song... really Irie! :D

8RQhYL0qNI8

So it's like a 7/10 for me, I guess. I would like to get myself a copy if I could find it for cheap.

[KimbleJustice]

There are neat things about this game - the underwater level looks lovely, the first level Pitfall tribute's a nice touch, music's quite different...but it's just so damn slow. I get what they were going for and I guess they achieved it, but it falters as a platform game because of it - there's slow-paced platformers and then there's Greendog. Also, having to go to the ruins for the second part of most of the levels hurt the game - you get some nice areas, and then you have to go through a dark, thoroughly uninteresting looking stage that just always feels the same. So, half of nearly every stage is bad...I guess I fall on the "hate" side, as it would probably only be a 3 or 4/10 for me.

Also, the fact that the main character seems to have no face at all always perturbs me.

[Mr Nuts]

I remember playing this quite late during the Megadrive era and being pleasantly surprised,there are a lot of things i like about the game like the light difficulty curve which means the game is easy to get into and the gameplay speed is not snails pace but not stupid like zool either so it feels just right.I still reckon it has some of the best visuals i have seen on the system with good use of detail and color.

[goldenband]

I'm pretty much in total agreement with this review!