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There has been an off-and-on argument on our forums over the past few months over whether or not first-person shooters were viable on the Genesis. However you may feel about FPS games on 16-bit, you have to admit that games like Cyber-Cop (Corporation outside the U.S.) didn’t do much to endear people to the genre. Complex controls and brutal difficulty killed what was an excellent FPS/RPG hybrid on computers.
To celebrate the publishing of our 700th review, we’ve chosen a shooter that’s aptly named. Toaplan’s Hellfire was released by the shortly-lived Seismic, and it’s pretty darn hard. Though it may not be visually stunning compared to other games in the genre, it’s a great game that offers solid gameplay and a rockin’ soundtrack to compliment its difficulty level.
SNK’s games have been ported widely, with the Genesis getting its fair share via Takara. Along with such hits as Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting, the original Neo Geo fighting series, Fatal Fury, brawled its way onto 16-bit platforms. During the journey to Sega’s black box a few things were lost, and the first title in the series came away as a gimped port compared to rivals Street Fighter II SCE and Mortal Kombat. Is it still worth playing?
Sometimes, you find a game that seemed to completely escape you, and when you finally play it, it’s great. Sunsoft’s Shi Kin Joh is a perfect example of this. A cool Japanese maze game, it was actually compatible with the short-lived Mega Modem in Japan. Things like this make me that much angrier when I think of all the cool stuff we missed out on.
Guiding mindless little creatures around a level so that they don’t blindly fall to their death seems to have caught on, as evidenced by the success of Lemmings. There have been several other entries in this style of games, and Gametek’s The Humans has players taking the fate of the human race in their hands. Are we worth saving? You’ll have to read our full review and decide for yourself!