After more than 5 months – nearly half a year! – I am finally back with a new series of mini-reviews. Next console up? The inimitable Sega Saturn.
I never had a Sega Saturn growing up and, as far as I can recall, never knew anyone who had one. Even my friend, Steven, who would end up getting both an SNES and a Genesis as well as a PS1, N64 and Dreamcast skipped right over the Saturn. In fact, I believe Steven had gotten a 32X or a Sega CD – maybe both! I suspect in hindsight it probably just a marketing issue – I doubt he knew about it before it was gone.
But that makes it a special sort of treat to go “back” to these games I never played or even heard about when they were new. I haven’t yet been able to test these out multiplayer, but I’m hoping to do another full review soon.
Vatlva
A 6-player vehicle combat game that was only released in Japan. Really, really fun in multiplayer and even pretty fun in story mode. It eschews the 3D third-person perspective that was most prevalent in the genre for a strictly top-down 2D affair. There are a few control styles, but I prefer the second one. The face buttons let you do a melee attack, a shield, weaker bullet attack, a stronger missile attack, and two rear-facing attacks that differ based on who you’re playing. I can’t think of very many games that do this – Car Battler Joe on GBA is similar and was made by the same people, but is almost strictly geared for the single-player experience. I think Shipwreckers! on PS1 has a similar multiplayer setup, but I haven’t tried it yet (though I’m eager to if it is anything like this one).
Guardian Heroes
Another 6-player game, though this arena mode is mostly a sideshow, I think. The main gameplay mode is a beat ’em up that is restricted to 2-player cooperative. Instead of being a free-roaming belt-scroller, like most beat ’em ups of the time, Guardian Heroes lets you jump between 3 different ‘rows’ along the horizontal plane, a system which was utilizes in some Neo Geo games. The reason for this is that it allows players to use a Street Fighter style fighting input system to pull off special moves. In truth, I find this a little fiddly but combined with the RPG-style level-up system and branching paths, it does add up to a unique experience that is worth playing a few times with a friend.
Three Dirty Dwarves
A 3-player console beat ’em up is a bit of a rarity and this one plays a little differently than the usual Final Fight clone. Instead of having a health bar, each of the three titular dwarves gets knocked out after a single hit. However, a single whack from a friend can bring them back to life, which balances this out significantly. Each dwarf has a melee attack and a ranged attack in addition to a jump button, but they play pretty differently because each is equipped with different weapons. The aesthetic for this one is a little odd, something between Ralph Bakshi, Boogerman and The Head, which also sort of describes the story. This one definitely feels like a game that – technical issues aside – could have fit right into the early 90’s Sonic ‘tude era Genesis line-up. I like that, personally, but YMMV.