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If you were a Genesis-owning wrestling fan during the first two years or so of the console’s life, you most likely spent a lot of time in a bad mood. First, after being teased for months with Sega’s Wrestle War, you were quietly let down when the game never came stateside. Then, the only game even resembling a wrestling title was Renovation’s Beast Wrestler, which was in no way a substitute. Yeah, it’s that bad.
Genre: Fighting Developer: Kaneko Publisher: Sage’s Creation Players: 1-2 Released: 1991 Most of you that have been around here for a while have probably read a majority of my reviews, seen the low scores I’ve given to most of them, and you must be thinking that I’m some sort of crazy masochist that just has to play bad games and […]
Rise of the Robots will forever be known as a blueprint for poor game design pressed to silicon, and aspiring game designers need look no further when studying the perils of graphics over gameplay. A button-mashing nightmare that had no technique or fighting style at all, the entire experience was an exercise in frustration and usually left the player both exasperated and boiling with rage. The ironic part of all this? Rise of the Robots was ported to a zillion consoles and actually received a sequel. Note to Acclaim and Mirage Technologies: creating a second turd as an act of contrition for the first does not make things right; it makes a pile of turds.
The thought of upgradable robots battling to the death should have been a recipe for pure win. In reality, Heavy Nova was a slow, plodding game that took some serious patience to love. Unfortunately, most gamers haven’t been that devoted, and Heavy Nova is sort of overlooked today.
Not to be outdone by rival Capcom, SNK released a bazillion fighting series on every platform short of the pocket calculator (though I’m sure it’s probably out there). Among they plethora of brawling goodness unleashed up on button mashers everywhere was the Art of Fighting series, known for its massive sprites and nausea-inducing zoom effect. The game was eventually reprogrammed by Sega and released on the Genesis, and the sprites and zoom were only two things missing that had made the coin-op so popular.