Side by Side: Devil's Crush/Dragon's Fury (TG-16 vs. Genesis)

[Melf]

Pinball is always fun, especially when monsters and quasi-satanic visuals are involved! There were some major differences between the Turbo Grafx-16 release of Devil's Crush and Dragon's Fury on the Genesis though, and we gave 'em both some major playtime to see which was the better game. Check out the latest installment (http://www.sega-16.com/Side%20By%20Side-%20Devils%20Crush.htm) of Side by Side and see which you should get.

[Joe Redifer]

What a fantastic article! Sega-16's internet value increased 500-fold with the addition of this! I never knew all of those differences between the two versions of that game. Thankfully we had an amazing author to point them out. Yeah!

[Drixxel]

Great article, Joe. Thumbs up.
If I were to have only one game with which to play for the rest of time, I think it would have to be Devil's Crush. Your comparison was very sound, but I just can't give as much lovin' to Dragon's Fury as Devil's Crush, no matter how hard I try. It's the slightly altered ball physics more than anything else.. they're still better than just about any pinball game out there, but the ball behaves as if its unpleasantly denser than in Devil's Crush, if that makes any sense. Those revamped bonus rounds sure do tantalize the eyes, though.

[Joe Redifer]

I really didn't notice any difference in the ball physics. But Dragon's Fury can NEVER be the original game, just like Resident Evil 4 for the PS2 doesn't get celebrated as much as the Gamecube version... better, worse or equal. That's what happens when you're a Johnny-come-latey.

[Drixxel]

What do you think of Jaki Crush, Joe? I personally quite enjoy it, but that middle section of the table almost feels like wasted space.. there could be something way cooler there than that "flipper dexterity test" to make it up to the top. Still, the many transformations of the demonic entity are extremely cool, and the theme of mythical Japan is great. It'd have been nice if the table were littered with more details, but overall, another great job by Naxat. I've given some thought to tracking down a copy of it, but I hear there are some compatibility issues with this cart.

[Joe Redifer]

I own Jaki Crush. It is great, definitely better than Alien Crush. I agree about the middle part with the misaligned flippers. Great music and all, but not quite up to Devil's Crush standards in any area. My cart works on both of my Super Nintendos. My friend's cart works on both but has weird, distorted colors on the other (newer) SNES.

[CRV]

It'd have been nice if the table were littered with more details, but overall, another great job by Naxat.

*cough*Compile*cough*

[Joe Redifer]

Wow. My copy of Jaki Crush says Naxat all over it.

[Flash1087]

Oddly enough, I had never played Dragon's Fury, but loved Devil's Crush as a kid. Another great article, by the way.

[CRV]

Wow. My copy of Jaki Crush says Naxat all over it.

Naxat published it, but Compile developed it. Let's give credit where credit's due.

[Drixxel]

Naxat published it, but Compile developed it. Let's give credit where credit's due.

..are you sure about that? There's no mention of Compile during the Jaki Crush startup.

[Joe Redifer]

Maybe Naxat isn't giving credit where credit is due. :)

I just checked the box & manual and there is no mention of Compile anywhere, nor is there in the game that I can see. The game goes to great lengths to mention it as "Naxat Pinball" so I'm fairly confident that Naxat did the game.

[CRV]

Maybe Naxat isn't giving credit where credit is due. :)

I just checked the box & manual and there is no mention of Compile anywhere, nor is there in the game that I can see. The game goes to great lengths to mention it as "Naxat Pinball" so I'm fairly confident that Naxat did the game.

http://web.archive.org/web/19961101062056/www.compile.co.jp/game/history/other/index.html

1990/07/20 デビル・クラッシュ PC-E 6,300 (株)ナグザット 3M

All Naxat did was publish games and contract them out to developers. I don't think they developed any games themselves.

[Joe Redifer]

I wonder why they never give credit to other developers?

[CRV]

I wonder why they never give credit to other developers?

It would seem that the publishers wanted to take full credit, but I don't know.

[Fang]

Good article. Dragon's Fury has to be the best pinball on the genny and I will agree with the assesment that it is better than Devil's Crush.

[Mendicant]

It would seem that the publishers wanted to take full credit, but I don't know.
The publishers might also have been afraid of other publishers hiring "their" developers.

[CRV]

The publishers might also have been afraid of other publishers hiring "their" developers.

Oddly enough, I hadn't thought of that, but you're probably right.

[Joe Redifer]

But then how did it ever leak out that Compile did the work?

[CRV]

But then how did it ever leak out that Compile did the work?

Compile put it on their official site (see previous link) and finally, someone found it digging through the Internet Archive.

[Joe Redifer]

RED makes Devil's Crush, right? Who makes Alien Crush?

[j_factor]

Alien Crush says it was made by Hudson. Which, IIRC, at that point in time, means it may have been done by RED.

[CRV]

I'm not sure Hudson or RED "made" either game. There's games like "Dungeon Explorer" with multiple companies attached and I don't understand their involvement.

Hudson and RED were likely in charge of the games and/or were the planners (and even may have been involved in character design or something). If you look here (http://review-site.net/developer/re.html#レッドカンパニー), you'll find RED planned a lot of games.

[Joe Redifer]

On the Genesis Dragon's Fury title screen, credit is given to both Naxat and RED, but not Hudson.