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Coming to America as World Championship Soccer, World Cup Italia ’90 originally saw a release in Europe, where it featured a few differences from its U.S. counterpart. Aside from some realistic player names (and a new title and box art, obviously), it also boasts an official FIFA license, something the American version lacked. Primitive when compared to EA’s efforts, it can still be fun with a friend.
Sega’s seminal ninja series sparked an arcade phenomenon and a franchise that’s lasted several console generations. The Master System was the first of the House of Sonic’s machines to get an installment, and it made Segaphiles very happy indeed. Check out our hands-on of the 8-bit port and see why Musashi is the master of stealth.
Wrestling games are a dime a dozen now, but there was a time when Genesis owners had literally none to play. After teasing us with a blurb for Wrestle War in two of its pack-in posters, Sega decided against releasing the game in America. Maybe the company knew better after all, as we really weren’t missing much. Bland, generic characters and stiff gameplay made it a title to forget, and we could always play Tecmo World Wrestling on the NES. At least that one was good.
Sega’s Eternal Champions is one of the more controversial fighting series out there. Most people tend to either love it or hate it, and the debate only gets stronger as time goes by. The majority during the 16-bit era seems to have been on the side of the game, as Sega made a strong push to promote it and its characters. There was plenty of merchandising, and even some spin-offs, so the franchise was obviously selling. That being said, not everything with the series moniker was quality, as evidenced by the atrocious Game Gear side-scroller Chicago Syndicate, which featured private eye Larcen Tyler. The bland level design is fitting complimented by an awful fighting mechanic, resulting in a game no one ever need play again.
In the arcades, Atari’s T-MEK was a monstrous and intimidating machine. The massive cab fit two players and could be linked to another, making for some awesome four-player matches. The 32X version, however, lost that great multi-player capability in the conversion (along with most of the game’s charm), and if you listened hard enough, you could hear the poor little mushroom panting as it strained under the T-MEK’s engine. I guess it’s true that sometimes, a game is better left in the arcade.