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The Mega Drive has a ton of shooters that never saw release outside of Japan. Unfortunately, for every gem like Battle Mania 2 there is a dud like XDR: X-Dazedly-Ray. If you ever needed a game to cure insomnia, Unipacc has filled your prescription to the letter. Read our full review for more details, and trust us. It’s more fun than the actual game itself.
Aicom and Sammy scored a big hit with Viewpoint, an isometric shooter that was big on visuals and hard as nails. Sammy decided that there weren’t enough versions of the game around, so it decided to release the game for several consoles, including our very own Genesis. Sega fans should take note that this is perhaps as close as they’ll ever get to a real Zaxxon sequel. And no, Motherbase 2000 on 32X doesn’t count.
It seems that only a handful of the seemingly endless stream of Space Invaders sequels and variations that have surfaced since 1978 actually try anything new, and the release of Space Invaders ’91 (Space Invaders ’90 in Japan) was a lukewarm effort at injecting some new life into the classic gameplay. It didn’t add much, but what’s there is actually fun for a while.
When the 32X had finally laid down to die, it managed to breathe its last in Europe, in the form of the technologically impressive DarXide. Forced to change the name of its wonder cart for trademark reasons, Frontier Developments somehow managed to squeeze power out of the defunct mushroom like no other company could. The fruit of the company’s labor now goes for a small fortune on auction sites, and the high price definitely begs the question: is it worth the money? For the answer, my friend, you’ll have to read our full review!
The Genesis is widely known for its shooter library, and among the many titles available is a relatively unknown arcade port of Task Force Harrier Ex. Toned down a bit but still retaining the essential gameplay and feel of the coin-op original, the Genesis version is a competent little game that far too few people know about.