Earlier this year, SEGA announced a successor initiative of sorts under the (oft used) moniker, SEGA AGES. With M2 again at the helm, a plethora of first party classics were promised for the Switch. First out of the gate are Sonic the Hedgehog (yes, again) and the classic Mega Drive shmup, Thunder Force IV.

One for the AGES

For whatever reason the game was retitled Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar in the US, but those of you reading this from across the pond will be happy to learn that both it and the international release are available here. It’s worth also noting that although this AGES outing is based on the original Mega Drive version and not the 1996 Saturn Port, it does include the previously Saturn-exclusive Styx mode, which we’ll go into later.

The all new AGES interface is pretty slick, with large, colourful icons (presumably for visibility in handheld mode) and artwork, in addition to a great little animated intro sequence. There’s even a cool “SE-GA” like jingle on the title screen that’s sure to tug on the old heart strings when you’re not perusing bet365 betting.

As is par for the course nowadays with retro reissues, there are a ton of visual customization options, including the obligatory CRT filters. Sometimes these effects can be somewhat overbearing, but the AGES preset Vintage Mode actually looks pretty good, with just the right amount of blur and curvature applied to the image to evoke childhood memories of classic gaming via cathode ray.

Styx and Stones

Thunder Force IV follows the shmup genre’s broad strokes, while at that same time successfully forging an identity all of its own.

Unlike many horizontal shooters, in Thunder Force IV, the play area can also be scrolled vertically within a limited range on most stages. This serves to at least create the impression of freedom, even if in truth, you’re just as anchored to the inevitable rightward crawl as ever.

As you’d expect, weapon power-ups come in many shapes and sizes, but unusually, you’re free to cycle through any you’ve collected at will rather than being stuck with the last one you acquired. There’s also a rear fire mode, which is handy given that a great many enemies will try and flank you.

Moreover, it’s possible to control your ship’s speed, charging your engines to anything from 1 to 100% by holding down the Y button. We have two misgivings with this: first of all, in such a fast paced shooter, we don’t really understand why you’d ever want your ship at anything below 100% manoeuvrability at all times. Secondly, while you can adjust engine power by as little as a single percent at a time, we’re pretty sceptical that affording players such pinpoint precision was ever really all that necessary.

Given Thunder Force IV’s gameplay quirks, it’s no bad thing that there’s a digital manual specific to this AGES release to consult at your leisure. Interestingly, it actually opens in the Switch’s onboard web browser, which to be fair, doesn’t prove as cumbersome as it might sound. Most importantly, the manual is sharp and legible in both handheld and docked modes.

Now onto Styx Mode. As we mentioned earlier, this was previously exclusive to the Saturn version of Thunder Force IV, released as part of Thunder Force Gold Pack II. In Styx mode you take control of the eponymous ship from Thunder Force III, sporting a different array of weapons in addition to a dodge move of sorts. Interestingly, (minor spoiler alert) Styx also makes a cameo appearance in stage 5 to fight alongside your usual craft, Rynex. Styx mode is a nice addition and could prove attractive to Thunder Force IV veterans that never got around to picking the game up on the Saturn.

AGED to Perfection?

The shooting in Thunder Force IV is just as fun now as it ever was, but difficulty may prove a sticking point for the uninitiated. In short, it’s a pretty challenging game, even when tackled in the patronisingly titled Kids Mode, and unlike some retro shooter reissues we’ve reviewed recently, there’s no option for unlimited lives to abuse while you get your bearings. One one hand, this forces newcomers to actually play the game as intended, but on the other, many will find retreading the initial stages over and over off putting.

Enemies are loose riffs on the Giger-inspired biomechnical aesthetic very common in video games at the time (see Gynoug, Mega Turrican et al), but are far from the best examples of this particular sci-if trope. While rarely more than merely serviceable in the looks department as a whole, Thunder Force IV’s impressive parallax scrolling effect deserves a special mention. The many interweaving layers of sprites here, both in the fore and background, create a pleasing sense of depth and forward momentum.

The original Mega Drive release of Thunder Force IV is notorious for chugging on occasion when things get too busy. Given how many orders of magnitude more powerful the Switch is than the Mega Drive, M2 have seen fit to include a ‘Reduce Processing Delay’ option, thereby utilising some of the Switch’s leftover horsepower to improve performance. There’s a tangible improvement, but the game still doesn’t deliver a locked frame rate, even with this mode engaged. A disclaimer states that some slowdown is by design, and thus unavoidable. We’ll have to take M2’s word for it on that one.

Sound effects are forgettable and of generally poor quality, particularly the harsh, lo-fi voice clips that play when you collect a power up. Weapons likewise sound brittle and tinny. The music is a mixed bag: we think the compositions are pretty great, but the actual quality of the samples leaves a lot to be desired. Ultimately, it seems that Thunder Force IV may have been hamstrung by the limitations of the Mega Drive’s Achilles heel: its notoriously lacklustre Yamaha YM2612 sound chip.

Summary

It’s easy to become weary of SEGA’s never ending cycle of modern re-releases, but to the company’s credit, each set of reissues is generally better than the last. This AGES version of Thunder Force IV is an excellent starting point, and certainly more interesting to hardcore SEGA fans than yet another Sonic the Hedgehog redux.

The game is satisfying to play with some nice and unique ideas, even if it hasn’t aged all that gracefully from an aural standpoint and pulls few punches in terms of difficulty. The new AGES wrapper is by far the slickest yet, and bodes well for future releases, among which is the arcade version of Thunder Force III, Thunder Force AC. .

PROS:

+ Original shmup gameplay

+ Extra STYX Mode

+ Slick AGES interface

CONS

– Poor sound effects

– Performance issues

– High difficulty

Following a surprise outing on the Gamecube, it’s also been made available on Steam, Xbox 360 and even Android, although the latter isn’t compatible with newer versions of the mobile OS and is no longer available on Google Play.

Even Though The Ideal Is High, I Never Give In

For the benefit of the uninitiated, Ikaruga is a shooter in the classic Treasure tradition, albeit with an ingenious twist. Your ship can alternate between black and white polarities, and enemies likewise come in one of two monochrome flavours.

You’re impervious to attacks from enemies of the same colour,  absorbing their bullets to fill your special gauge, but do bonus damage to those of the opposite colour. While a very basic risk/reward trade-off at its core, this easy-to-learn-difficult-to-master mechanics gels brilliantly with Ikaruga’s expertly honed fundamentals, resulting in a truly remarkable SHMUP that is as great today as it ever was.

From a technical point of view, this Switch port is based on the more recent PC, Xbox 360 and Android reissues, sporting a ton of customisation options. It trucks along at an all but constant 60fps in both docked and undocked modes, with nary a jagged edge in sight. Models and effects hold up well, even if backgrounds are somewhat sparsely detailed.

With what appears to be a full 1080p resolution when docked and the Switch screen’s native 720p undocked, it’s a massive step up from the Dreamcast original, which tops out at just 480p in VGA mode, but very much in line with the aforementioned more modern PC, Xbox 360 and Android ports.

Ikaruga works brilliantly as a portable game. As we’ve seen with other Switch SHMUP updates (see our review of Zero Gunner 2- in Mega Visions issue 6), the myriad difficulty and gameplay options on offer here go hand in glove with the Switch’s casual, pick up and play premise.

You can approach the game however you want, and engage in anything from a hardcore single credit score attack to a brief, laid back firework show, where enemies don’t even fire back and continues are unlimited. You can even give one of the Joy-Cons to a friend and play cooperatively in both docked and undocked modes.

I Never Die With Regrets

Perhaps the most appealing addition here for genre devotees is Tate mode. In short, it’s possible to play the game with your Switch placed vertically, mimicking the screen orientation of the original arcade cabinet and doing away most of the otherwise necessary onscreen borders. Which is a good thing too, because they do take up a lot of screen real estate.

But would it were that simple. While hardly the fault of Ikaruga, Treasure or Nicalis (this version’s publisher), the Switch is actually quite impractical to use longways, because the kickstand doesn’t work that way.

Indeed, you have little choice but to perch the console on your knee, and you can’t even attach one of the Joy-Cons to the bottom, as the console just keeps prompting you to attach a second. That is, unless you use some kind of third party solution: we found an old iPad stand just the ticket for keeping the Switch safely held at a favourable angle, while using the Pro Controller for input.

Elsewhere there’s also a pretty cool gallery of artwork and renders, plus the ability to browse and listen to the game’s soundtrack at your leisure. You can even upload your high scores to an online leader board – assuming you don’t touch the difficulty setting, of course – or choose to tackle the main game with Geikei, the ship originally reserved for player 2.

While these features themselves aren’t new, they still round out the overall package nicely, and ensure that Ikaruga for Switch really is the definitive experience, whether on the go or at home sat in front of your TV.

SUMMARY

There’s a ton more SHMUPS slated for release on Switch in the coming months, and our hope is that Ikaruga and the aforementioned Zero Gunner 2- will be the first of many Dreamcast ports. A Psyvariar redux is already confirmed, so here’s hoping Psyvariar 2: The Will To Fabricate, which came to Dreamcast first back in the day, isn’t far behind. And while we’re at it, what about Mars Matrix, Zero Wing or Border Down? If Ikaruga does the business, who knows?

While far from the first Ikaruga re-release, this latest for Switch is undoutedly the best yet. The ability to play on the go, in co-op with one set of Joy-Cons and in Tate mode, plus the myriad additional bells and whistles make Ikaruga for Switch easy to recommend unreservedly, and worthwhile even for die-hard Dreamcast fans that still have the original GD-ROM kicking around.

PROS

+ Timeless, polarity-shifting gameplay
+ Tate mode (some assembly required)
+ Local co-op with one set of Joy-Cons

CONS

– Most of the extras aren’t new
– Dull backgrounds
– Punishing difficulty unless lowered from default

Since abandoning the hardware side of things, the company have doggedly re-released a near-identical list of Mega Drive games on too many formats to list here.

Truth be told, it’s actually pretty surprising that only now, four years after launch, are the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One finally getting their due, in the form of the aptly titled SEGA Mega Drive (or Genesis, if you’re in the US) Collection.

ONE FOR THE AGES?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that by now the whole exercise is beginning to feel more than a little perfunctory. However, this time around, developer D3T have at least gone to the trouble of introducing some new (or relatively so) features, such as online multiplayer and a horizontal flip mode, changing the standard left-to-right gameplay for most games, into right-to-left.

Likewise, the games list itself has undergone some tinkering: notable by their absence are all of the Ecco games, Fatal Labyrinth, plus Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles. In their place we get 16 ‘new’ titles, including Bio-hazard Battle, a curious insect-themed shmup missing from previous generation collections. I say ‘new’ because all the games featured in the SEGA Mega Drive Collection (plus a few more) are available on Steam and many were on the Wii’s late Virtual Console. It’s a solid line up with a good mix of genres, albeit an all too familiar one.

The collection’s interface is a full 3D render of an early ‘90s SEGA fan’s bedroom, complete with various on point props and appropriate pre-millennial decor. As appealing as that may sound, it’s worth bearing in mind that what’s on offer here is almost identical to the free front-end released on Steam a few years ago. So, while technically this collection is also coming to PC, it’ll be a relatively minor upgrade to the existing experience and we’d expect games to continue to be sold separately rather than as a set on Valve’s digital platform.

AN UNALTERED BEAST

Choosing a game to play involves navigating a shelf full of spine on Mega Drive cases, just like real life in days of yore. It’s cute, but feels a little sluggish. Thank goodness there’s a favourites feature, allowing titles of your choice to be moved to the very start of the list. Various game-specific challenges can also be accessed from here, and where applicable, it’s possible to immediately skip to the correct part of the appropriate game to attempt them. While a nice idea, this is only likely to be of use to hardcore trophy or achievement hunters. The aforementioned flip mode is similarly throwaway, with few practical applications outside of novelty speedrunning and streaming.

For a handful of games, it’s possible to select from a number of regional variations. While it’s not quite clear what the criteria were here,  this seems to be an option for text-heavy RPGs where there’s likely to be a language barrier, plus in a couple of instances where there are significant differences between versions (Streets of Rage, for example). Although there aren’t any digital manuals to peruse, the obligatory save state function is present and correct, with quick functions handily mapped to the right stick.

The emulator itself has a wide number of customisation options, but again, little we haven’t seen before. Since these games run natively at a 4:3 aspect ratio, by default they’ll have black borders on either side. If that’s not to your liking,  you can instead choose from a number of border designs, to stretch the display area to 16:9 or even zoom out in such a way that the games can be seen actually running on the cute little portable CRT in your aforementioned virtual bedroom.

What’s more, there are optional scanlines, a TV Projection setting, which mimics the distinct curvature of old tube TVs, and a number of Pixel Filters. While we’d assert that a sharp, pixel perfect presentation with plain borders is best for extended play, there’s certainly some fun to be had playing with the settings here. Below are some examples to give you an idea of what’s possible:

Video reproduction is almost perfect, as is sound, the odd dodgy effect notwithstanding. We did experience occasional, sporadic split second pauses during play, but the overall experience is solid. We’re quite sure that the vast majority of gamers, even those who played these games back in the ‘90s, will be perfectly happy with the quality of the emulation, but ultra hardcore perfectionists may beg to differ.

SUMMARY

We love the Mega Drive, and on one hand it’s great to see some of its best games grace current generation consoles. On the other, the stock line up of titles is getting pretty stale by this point, and the cool bedroom interface is far from new itself.

The bottom line is this: these are excellent games that still hold up today, but if you’re here, on SEGA Nerds, you’ve probably played them to death many times over. Yes, it’s convenient to have them on a modern console, particularly when it’s getting harder and harder (or rather, more and more expensive) to connect pre-HDMI consoles to new TVs, but we’re pretty sure that every human being on earth that was ever going to play Sonic the Hedgehog already has by now.

If you’re one of a tiny minority of nostalgics that has yet to re-live SEGA’s 16-bit halcyon days, or desperately want some to add some Mega Drive classics to your PS4 or Xbox One library, this collection is great. For the rest of us, though, there are simply too few new gameplay opportunities.

PROS

+ Great games

+ Customisable emulator

+ Cool interface

CONS

– No truly new games

– Minor audio issues

– Flip mode and challanges little more than novelties

[Editor’s note: SEGA provided a promotional code for the purposes of this review]

Crown Jewels

The key appeal of this new edition, entitled ‘Dragon’s Crown Pro‘, is increased graphical fidelity. As you might expect given that expectation-setting ‘Pro’ suffix, PlayStation Pro owners enjoy a bump to full 4K resolution. Those still trucking along with the base PS4 (or Slim) get a less impressive – but still welcome – increase to full HD. Both are a massive boon for the game, given its exquisite artwork.

Music tracks have likewise been re-recorded with a full orchestra this time around. While there’s a definite boon to overall quality here, the musical score was pretty forgettable to begin with, and unfortunately, throwing a dozen or so extra instruments into the mix has done little to remedy this.

Dragon’s Crown mixes arcade style-brawling with the action RPG trappings of Diablo, Titan Quest, Victor Vran et al, albeit sacrificing the third dimension. Messy, busy combat takes center stage here, which thanks to its beat-‘em-up esque inputs, feels far more visceral and hands-on than other genre examples. A top down click-fest this isn’t, and the moment-to-moment fisticuffs actually wouldn’t feel out of place in an arcade cabinet.

Before starting out, you’ll have the opportunity to create a character from one of six different classes. Their appearances are predefined and absurdly exaggerated (to put it politely), with only name and a few color options available in terms of customization. You’ll also get to type in a number of predefined messages that will appear for other human players in certain circumstances; your death, for example.

Regrettably, the look of your character does not alter as you upgrade your equipment, save for your weapons, stunting your sense of achievement somewhat. At least the available classes do all play markedly differently, and compliment each other quite well in the heat of battle.

Dragon It Out

Dragon’s Crown’s story beats are narrated (by a number of possible narrators) in second person present tense; the Dungeon Master in a game of D&D might be an apt comparison. Truth be told, your quest to save Hydeland is a painfully dull yarn whose central concern is seemingly to ensure that as many fantasy tropes are name checked as possible than crafting a meaningful or engaging narrative.

Mandatory tasks will take you through a variety of beautifully drawn environments, culminating in a boss fight. Unfortunately, these areas are very small, and the optional quests that you can undertake at the Adventurers’ Guild involve retreading many of the same steps.

What’s more, the second half of the game tasks you with retrieving items from each of the areas you’ve already visited, albeit via their ‘B’ route, which to be fair, do include new locations and some very imaginative new boss fights. But there’s still a fair amount of recycling on display here, both in terms of background art and enemies.

Dragon’s Crown is particularly fun when tackled with up to three other characters, be them local, online co-operators (available from around the half way point) or CPU-controlled assistants.

Indeed, if you’re short of Dragon’s Crown-owning friends, you can resurrect the bones of fallen heroes found during your exploits at the Temple of Canaan, giving you a pool of increasingly powerful pre-cooked comrades to choose from. The game is so much more exciting with a full party, and this is certainly a interesting way of ensuring that even the most lonely adventurer doesn’t have to ride solo.

The town hub you visit between quests also boasts the usual gambit of fantasy retailers, quest-givers and a tavern in which to recruit comrades. Annoyingly, any CPU-controlled party members disappear once a task is completed, arbitrarily forcing you back to the tavern to rehire them over and over.

This is far from the only oddball gameplay mechanic.  Once you’ve reached a certain point in Dragon’s Crown, the gate you’ve been using to get from town to the various areas of Hydeland you need to explore malfunctions, meaning that it will take you to a random place rather than letting you decide.

You can use the Stable to choose your destination, but doing so costs gold. Having to fritter away in-game currency to get to the places you need to in order to make progress is irritating, and feels like a ploy to encourage the grinding out of already completed areas.

While the 2D artwork remains as ornate as ever, some of it is isn’t animated particularly well. It’s difficult to shake the feeling that many of the game’s assets started life as static drawings, to which Vanillaware simply added crude joints and simple animations.  When Dragon’s Crown Pro does look good, though, it looks absolutley stunning. Some of the screen filling-bosses on the aforementioned B routes especially look amazing in either HD or 4K.

Summary

If we were feeling particularly cynical, we could say that Dragon’s Crown feels like merely a solid-but-not-outstanding vehicle for art director, George Kamitani’s, heavily-stylized etchings. In other words, the objective appears to have been to create as much content from the artwork available as possible, wrap it around the bones of a competent RPG and kick it out the door.

But Dragon’s Crown Pro does work well as an overall package, and the there’s never been a better time to play now it’s available on a more modern platform, even if gameplay remains identical to the original PS3 and Vita versions.

If you’re an aRPG fan who’s a sucker for high-quality fantasy art, you could do far worse than Dragon’s Crown Pro. However, if you’re looking for deep, meaningful RPG that will still be surprising you 50 hours in, this isn’t it.

Pros:

+ Beautiful fantasy artwork

+ Fun brawler-style combat

+ Interesting party mechanics in single player

Cons:

– Recycled assets

– Forgettable Story

– No new gameplay over 2013 original

Within a few weeks of release, concurrent play counts fell off a cliff.  Not only that, but the game’s official forums were awash with complaints, and many prominent pro-Warhammer and/or gaming YouTubers have posted videos criticising it.

I reviewed the game for our sister publication, Mega Visions, and awarded it a full 5/5. Although ours was undoubtedly one of the more gushing verdicts on Dawn of War III, I stand by everything I said, and critical reception elsewhere was also generally positive. Sadly, the fan reaction was markedly less enthusiastic.  So much so, that Relic’s previously mooted DLC plans were shelved earlier this year, and the future of the series is now in serious doubt.

By far the community’s biggest bugbear has been with the single, MOBA-inspired multiplayer mode the game shipped with: Power Core. Power Core’s objective is to destroy the titular globe in the middle of your opponent’s’ base, after taking out their Turret and Shield generator beforehand. Combine this with other MOBA-like mechanics such as having to select up to three – oftentimes micro-heavy – Elite superunits and a loadout of passive army abilities, and you have a game mode which, on the face of it, appears to be a far cry from the rigid RTS structures of old.

But here’s the thing: as an RTS fan of over 20 years, I feel more than qualified to state categorically that Dawn of War III feels very much like an RTS, not a MOBA. Most team games of StarCraft, for example, involve a push/pull game of cat and mouse which typically lasts until one side steamrolls the other. Even in Power Core mode, Turrets and Shield Generators are placed natural pinch points, which would be hotly contested with or without their presence. The cores themselves are inside the enemy base and far too sturdy to snipe, so by the time they are a viable target, the victor is all but decided anyway. Indeed, having a focal point such as this means that you no longer have to waste time mopping up every last structure or unit.

Relic attempted to backpedal some of these changes with what it dubbed the Annihilation Update, which removed as many MOBA-related gubbins as possible, albiet only for custom games – not that this would have proven too bothersome, given that matchmaking was barely functional by this point anyway due to a lack of players. Sadly, it did little to reverse the game’s fortunes.

Secondary to these misgivings were concerns about the game’s aesthetic, specifically, accusations that it was neither grim nor dark enough to be a legitimate part of the grimdark. While it’s a lot harder to argue against people’s perception’s of a visual style than is their fundamental misunderstanding of its gameplay mechanics, I still do disagree for the most part.  Sure, Gabriel Angolos’ somersaulting in power armour was a bit much, but the game is absolutely brimming with personality. I particularly enjoyed the voicework, which is by far the best in the series, and while you could argue that some gameplay mechanics (such as cover) are simplified, the net result is that you feel more in control of your units than in any previous Dawn of War game. While doing away with much of the background number crunching does arguably make the game less tactical, it pays dividends in terms of making combat far more dynamic and satisfying.

Also, the single player campaign was, I thought, a solid effort. While not without its issues as regards pacing (it took far too long to set up an economy in the later missions), the story was engaging and the objectives varied.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t keen on the idea of automatically being passed between the three available factions at first, but the Orks weren’t as annoying as I thought they’d be.  In the end, they provided some unexpected comic relief, and a nice break from the power armour-clad self-righteousness of the Space Marines and Eldar.

But what it really boils down to is this: as I said in Mega Visions, the original and most fondly remembered Dawn of War is 15 years old now, and released at a time when traditional RTS still enjoyed wide currency; the first StarCraft and WarCraft III had healthy competitive scenes, Command & Conquer was still a thing and Supreme Commander, with its (at the time) unmatched sense of scale, felt like the next big thing.  Since then, MOBAs happened, and while real-time strategy still has a small number of standard bearers, most of what remains in that space necessarily has to borrow from the hugely successful genre it created to stay relevant.  Fans expecting anything less were setting themselves up for disappointment.

And they’ve probably killed Dawn of War.  Mark my words, as much as I’d be onboard with it, a pure, undiluted RTS experience bearing the Dawn of War name is never, ever coming; too much has changed in terms of both consumer trends and how games are monetized for such a thing to ever be greenlit. The closest you’re ever going to get is the original Dawn of War‘s still active mod scene.

SEGA are an increasingly large player in the PC strategy space, and we can safely assume that they can’t have been happy with this latest installment’s performance.  Warhammer, in both it’s sci-fi and fantasy flavours, is one of the genre’s holy grail franchises, and a few short years ago it seemed like an enormous coup on SEGA’s part to own the creators of both Dawn of War and the then-unannounced Warhammer: Total War games. While the former may now be forever committed to the annals of the Imperial Archives, Creative Assembly‘s fantasy empire-building series is going from strength to strength.

Regrettably, this may well be the closest we’ll get to more Dawn of War in the future.

Endless Space 2, Amplitude’s Studios’ latest sci-fi 4X offering, officially released in May last year following a soft launch on Steam Early Access in late 2016. We looked at it in both its pre and post Early Access states for our sister publication, Mega Visions, giving it a well-deserved 5/5.

Since then, Amplitude has offered up a very generous slate of small, free DLC packs primarily featuring new questlines, heroes, minor factions, and quality of life improvements.

More recently, however, the Paris-based developer has turned turned their attention to paid-for content. In January, the “fan favourite” Vaunters faction from the original Endless Space broke the ice, followed by Untold Tales and Lost Symphony.

Endless Space, Finite Content

The former is a familiar bundle of the aforementioned. While being more content-rich than Amplitude’s prior complementary efforts, it’s still a pretty svelte package that adds a 4 minor factions (with whom you can interact with but not play as), heroes for each, plus additional questlines.

The problem is, most of this is simply thrown into Endless Space 2’s existing random number generator rather than taking centre stage in their own mini campaign or seperate mode. Ergo, start a new game and the overwhelming likelihood is that it’s going to take you a fair while to happen across anything new. Indeed, unless you’ve sunk some serious hours into Endless Space 2, you may well struggle to tell where the old content ends and the new begins.

Likewise, Lost Symphony adds 7 tracks to Endless Space 2’s already generous repertoire of grandiose, ethereal musical accompaniments, but throws them to the existing mix at random. Plus, it adds another fan-favourite minor faction to the fray: somewhat apty, The Harmony.

Endless Space 2’s soundtrack has always been a strongpoint, from the warbling, thoughtful minor chords of ‘Geodesic’ to the airy, ascending synths of ‘Dyson Sphere’. This further septet are just as much – if not more – of an aural treat than what’s gone before. We particularly liked ‘Digital Minds’, with its tense and sinister sounding electronica and powerful drum beat.

Summary

The problem with both of these mini-expansions is that the content they offer compliments the Endless Space 2 experience in quite a tertiary way, and paying real money for the mere prospect of encountering new quests or factions at random will not appeal to everyone, even at such a low price. There’s nothing ‘wrong’ here as such, but our advice would be to wait until Amplitude has turned out a few more bitesize morsels of paid DLC and then buying in bulk to get a more worthwhile, cumulative supplement to the base Endless Space 2 experience.

PROS

+ New content
+ Low price
+ Lost Sympony adds some truly excellent new music

Hucast Games is one of the most well known independent Dreamcast developers, and certainly no strangers to the genre in question either, cutting their chops on the Dux/Redux series. One of their most recent offerings, Ghost Blade, released on the Dreamcast in 2015, to a broadly positive reception.

As much as we love the Dreamcast, we’ll concede its market for new games is about as niche as you can get, so seeking to migrate successful projects to modern, more lucrative platforms is understandable, and there’s certainly an established precedent for it. Thus, Ghost Blade’s HD port for PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PC sees it spruced up and re-submitted for mainstream approval; so much so that Hucast’s website makes little mention of its relatively humble origins.

To be fair, if we didn’t know better, we probably wouldn’t have been able to tell that Ghost Blade HD started life on far less capable hardware, as its high-res 2D artwork can stand to-to-toe with any current gen offering, and gameplay blazes along at an utterly unshakable 60 fps (something which cannot be said of the Dreamcast original). Puritans may prefer the more pixelated look of yesteryear’s genre alumni, but we think the game looks pretty spiffy overall. A shame, then, that the soundtrack is merely adequate, with throbs and warbles in all the right places but nothing to make it truly noteworthy.

There’s little in the way of a tutorial here, but Ghost Blade HD sticks rigidly enough to established conventions so as to render such concerns moot. Other than dodging hazards and deciding when to deploy the obligatory screen-clearing bombs, your key consideration is when to switch between normal and focus fire modes. Broadly speaking, normal fire mode spreads your damage-dealing potential quite widely accoss the screen, whereas focus packs it into a dense stream directly in front of you. It’s worth noting that there’s further variance between the three ships you have to choose from before starting the game. You’ll also notice that each comes with its own accompanying scantily clad lady, because why not.

Ghost Blade HD boasts a steep learning curve on Normal difficulty and above, whereas Easy should be passable by even the most ham-fisted trigger happy wannabe after a couple of tries. While it stops short of emulating the genre’s worst excesses, you can still rightfully expect to be ducking and weaving through elaborate spirographs of candy coloured projectiles. The best strategy is often to focus your attention entirely on evading hazards while having one or the other of your fire modes engaged constantly. After all, there’s no ammo to worry about and targets are so numerous and/or large that you’re bound to hit something worthwhile.

If you prefer a more precise approach, however, rest assured that using one of your bombs or destroying the source of said projectiles will clear or turn them into collectables, giving you an out in all but the tightest squeezes.

Running time is pretty short, with only five levels on offer, but this is par for the course for many shooters. The replay value here comes not only from chasing high scores but also from the sheer joy of cutting through reems and reems of enemies like a hot knife through butter, enjoying the fireworks as you go.

Our only real qualms are with some annoying UI quirks, such as not being able to back out of the Ship Select screen and being forced to type an alias (scrolling through letters manually, no less) into a local scoreboard after every qualifying run. The latter seems utterly redundant in a world of mandatory usernames and relatively scarce local multiplayer.

Summary

In its original Dreamcast incarnation, Ghost Blade was a labour of love which addressed a very tiny market and commanded a price tag that reflected both its indie chops and limited capacity to provide Hucast with a return. As such, it would be difficult to recommend to but the most ardent shooter fans or hardcore Dreamcast collectors. Repackaged as an impulse-priced current generation offering, however, Ghost Blade HD offers excellent bang for your buck at $9.99, and much needed front and centre exposure for a type of game that’s been out of the limelight for far too long.

[Editor’s note: Hucast Games provided SEGA Nerds with a promotional copy for review purposes.]

Pros

+ Excellent 2D artwork
+ Satisfying gameplay
+ Solid 60 fps performance

Cons

– Only five stages
– Some UI quirks
– Nothing new or revalatory

Hell, even SEGA themselves attempted to draw a line under Sonic’s inconsistent 3D career with Sonic 4, which was billed as a true sequel to those revered 16-bit classics. With that game, they and Sonic Team learned the hard way that there’s far more to making a good Sonic game than simply removing that ever-troublesome third axis.

During Sonic’s 25th Anniversary Party held a couple of days ago during the San Diego Comic Con, Sonic Team announced Sonic Mania, for release digitally on PS4, Xbox One and PC next spring. A 2D love letter to SEGA’s most enduring mascot, Sonic Mania just might be the best thing to happen to the beleaguered franchise in a very long time indeed.

You might notice Sonic Mania’s presentation calls to mind many of the best fan games, because in many ways, that’s exactly what it is. It’s being developed in conjunction with PagodaWest Games, a US/UK-based software house known mainly for its kitsch mobile indies, in addition to the legendary Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomly (the latter via his HeadCannon brand).

These two are a particularly welcome addition to the roster, having been responsible for the exquisite mobile ports of Sonics 1, 2 and CD.  In-game graphics are colourful and detailed; retro-style but too high-res to be considered ‘pixel art’. In fact, the colourful shading and smaller character sprites (relative to the viewable area) recalls 32X offshoot, Knuckles’ Chaotix. There do seem to be some loving aesthetic throwbacks to more traditional quirks of the Mega Drive era, though: for example, the Mode 7-style, Sonic’s-face shaped, spinning island in the background of the title screen. The animation on Sonic here is simply stunning.

Most fan games draw heaviest inspiration from Sonic CD, owing to its long-held place at the very apex of the classic Sonic hierarchy. They’ll frequently lift everything from the ripcurl move, to Sonic CD’s unique jump sound to the use of alliterated stage names (Palmtree Panic, Wacky Workbench, etc). While these particular aspects don’t seem to be present in Sonic Mania based on what we’ve seen so far, the soundtracks of the two games do appear to be apt points of comparison.

Indeed, there are clear shades of Stardust Speedway  (PAL/JAP OST, ofc) in Studiopolis, in terms of production and composition.  Interestingly, Sonic Mania’s trailer features a retro chiptune credited to Hyper Potions and Nitro Fun, but the actual in-game music is of considerably higher fidelity. More a nod to the game’s perceived old-school chops than anything, then.

As an aside, our eagle-eyed editor-in-chief (and others we posted about earlier) has noticed that a company called Studiopolis has actually done audio production work on love-it-or-hate-it animated series, Sonic Boom in addition to a number of more recent Sonic games. Coincidence?

We know that the only playable characters will be the original trio of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, and that the game will feature environments from the classic series reimagined as well as entirely new Zones. It’s not clear at this point if emeralds and or special stages will make an appearance, but frankly, I’d bet my last ring that they will, as will Super Sonic. We can see in gameplay footage posted here that the lightning, fire and bubble shields from Sonic 3 feature, in addition to the standard issue vanilla one. It’s also pleasing to hear that the game’s physics are being lauded as very close to classic Sonic, if not a precise 1:1 recreation of them.

As a Sonic fan, you should be very excited indeed about Sonic Mania. It’s early days yet, but based on what we’ve seen and heard so far, Sonic Team and its collaborators have yet to put a foot wrong; this really is everything fans could want and more.

With retro-style indie games still enjoying wide currency, perhaps we should have anticipated that SEGA would capitalise on this trend eventually, and look to release a new Sonic game that celebrates the best of his existing legacy rather than attempting to reinvent it for a modern audience that cares little for fallen platforming mascots. Either way, it’s win-win for us, right?

Sonic Mania wasn’t the only new game to be announced at Sonic’s two-and-a-half decade shindig, of course. A new 3D game, which is as yet untitled, is set to release at the end of 2017.  While SEGA were keen to underline the fact that the game is being developed by “the team that brought you Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations,” two of the series’ best recent 3D offerings,  it’s certainly fair to say that Sonic Mania stole the show.

The hope is that Sonic Mania will represent the something of a sweet spot where nostalgia, fandom and a (spin) dash of the modern converge to create something truly special. It’s also fantastic to see Whitehead and Thomly given another chance to shine, given that their stunning Sonic 3 Remastered pitch looks unlikely to be commisioned any time soon.

SEGA still seem determined to chase the metaphorical 3D dragon in the hopes of successfully bringing Sonic back to the big leagues. I hope they succeed, but in a strange twist of fate, the company may have just stolen its own thunder with what is effectively a fan game on steroids.

And I can’t wait for it.

Indeed, all manner of SEGA and Sonic merchandise and licensed paraphernalia was doing the rounds to your local Woolworths, Toys ‘R Us et al in the early ’90s.  I myself was a card-carrying segaphile even back then, and I remember having all sorts of SEGA stuff besides my beloved Mega Drive, including Lock-On, a home laser tag set for two players. You’d be forgiven for not having heard of it.

The guns and headsets themselves are the same deep, iconic blue as the SEGA logo, strengthening brand association with the added bonus of ensuring that the guns look like toys rather than real killing implements. The headsets sport a small, single character LCD used mostly for displaying a player’s remaining lives.  These displays are reflected into semi-transparent plastic eyepieces for the wearer to see, which is actually a pretty ingenious way of negating the need for a costly second display while maintaining almost full visibility.

Everything functions as you might expect. Getting shot by your opponent’s infra-red beam results in losing one of your nine lives; unless, that is, they’ve pressed the ‘super shot button,’ thus giving them a brief window to hit you for three. A ‘single player’ option is touted in the manual, but it really only amounts to shooting at a another headset set to two-player mode. Not quite the same as stalking live quarry, is it?

The guns feature buttons rather than triggers (again, distancing them from functional, honest-to-goodness weapons), and a speaker to give off passable gun noises. We’re not talking FLAC quality, of course, but they set the scene well enough. Thankfully, your headset beeps when an opponent has a shot lined up, thus giving some idea of when you need to be commando rolling behind the nearest piece of furniture.

Interestingly, the nature of infra-red beams meant that reflecting your shots off mirrors, garish pre-millennial wallpaper and the like was entirely possible, more often than not leading to the perennial childhood cry of foul play: “mum, he’s cheating”. War really is hell, eh?

Lock-On came in three flavours. Mark I and Mark 2 were functionally identical, with the latter being simply a smaller, more compact version of the original, which will be a far from alien concept to contemporary console gamers. The third version, Lock-On Voice Command, includes guns which you can control with a number of basic phrases. Sadly, “pop a cap in his ass” isn’t one of them, but apparently the whole affair was very hit-and-miss anyway.

Combining plastic, mock guns and video games would fall out of favour by the time the PS2, GameCube and Xbox started doing the rounds. Likewise, SEGA cabinets bristling with make-believe firearms, once a common sight in arcades, are a dying breed.  Nevertheless,  Lock-On is an interesting piece of SEGA history, and an interesting reminder of the reach those iconic four letters once had.

The original Sonic Adventure had been the Dreamcast’s great white hope: the first true 3D outing for SEGA’s most important franchise. While it might be a stretch to say that the console’s success rested on that of Sonic Adventure, the game certainly stood the best chance of returning disenfranchised Mega Drive owners that had abandoned SEGA during the Saturn years to the fold.

Given Sonic’s erratic career trajectory since then, it’s easy to forget that back in 1999 the mainstream gaming populace still held a lot of affection for him, and that there was a palpable sense of optimism in the buildup to the Sonic Adventure’s release, which would be day and date with the Dreamcast itself outside of Japan.  It was a critical time for the SEGA – if they weren’t able to establish and maintain enough momentum at retail before the almost messianic coming on the PlayStation 2, the dream would be over almost before it had begun.

We now know that to be true because it actually happened, of course, but back when Sonic Team USA began work on a sequel to Sonic Adventure, SEGA were still very much committed to making the Dreamcast success. In the end, Sonic Adventure had received a strong but not outstanding reception, owing largely to its glitchy camera, cheesy dialogue and overall lack of polish. The game had clearly been rushed to market, meaning that fans hoping for a Super Mario 64-like revelation had been left somewhat disappointed.

Big changes were afoot for Sonic Adventure 2. As we touched on a moment ago, the game was to be helmed by Sonic Team USA as opposed to the developer’s Japanese branch, although it’s worth noting that veteran homegrown luminaries such as Takashi Lizuka, Eitaro Toyoda and Kazuyuki Hoshino still formed the core of the games’s creative nexus.

Storied series legend, Yuji Naka, also received a producer’s credit, juggling work on Sonic Adventure 2 with Phantasy Star Online back in Japan.

The San Francisco-based development team allowed local scenery and architecture to inform their work, a fact that would be particularly apparent in stages such as City Escape, which is clearly inspired by its steep, tram-packed streets, or the massive Golden Gate-style bridge seen at the start of Radical Highway. In this regard, Sonic Adventure 2 served as something of a blueprint for many future titles in the series that would seek to draw inspiration from real world locations, such as Sonic Unleashed or the much maligned 2006 reboot attempt.

Sonic Team USA also opted to double the first Sonic Adventure’s rather erratic 30 frames per second to a nigh-on unshakable 60, while managing to cram just as much – if not more- detail into the graphics. The increase in terms of smoothness was certainly pleasing to the eye, but the key benefit here was much improved controller response. This and a number of gameplay changes to the Sonic-style stages, specifically, the instantaneously activated light dash and addition of grinding, streamlined the gameplay no end, starkly contrasting the first Sonic Adventure’s stop-start level design and, arguably, better distilling essence of classic Sonic.

Rather than offer a separate story for each character, Sonic Adventure 2 split the playable cast into two teams of sorts: Hero and Dark. They ran parallel to each other in narrative terms, leapfrogging between three main gameplay types: Sonic and Shadow’s platforming, Eggman and Tails’ shoot ‘em ups and Knuckles and Rouge’s treasure hunts.

Sonic Team also did away with the original game’s hub world Adventure Fields. This was no great loss, however, since of the three featured in Sonic Adventure, only the Egg Carrier was worth exploring. Thankfully, completed stages could still be revisited via a map screen.

Chao, Sonic Adventure’s virtual pets of sorts, made a welcome return for its sequel. You could boost their stats by giving them a Chaos Cores gained from defeated enemies, take them for walks via the Dreamcast’s VMU and then have them take part in various contests. They’d even change appearance based on which character they had an affinity for. Some fans have particular affection for the Chao system, jokingly referring to both Adventure games as ‘Chao simulators’.  Indeed, Takashu Iizuka has stated in interview that Sonic Team considered the Chao system as being key to the game’s longevity.

Sonic Adventure 2 was revealed to the industry at large at E3 2000, having been rumoured to be in the offing for a while. Its debut trailer emphasised what would turn out to be a key theme: the contrast between good and evil, and heroes and villains.  At the trailer’s end, you’ll catch a teasing glimpse of what would perhaps become Sonic Adventure 2’s most enduring legacy, the introduction of Shadow, the quintessential anti-Sonic.

Last year, I wrote an opinion piece on him for SEGA Nerds which you can read here, but suffice to say that an ‘evil Sonic’ had long been a staple on fans’ bucket lists by the time it actually happened. Bizzare mammal-come-anthropomorphic sexpot, Rouge the Bat, also saw her inaugural outing in Sonic Adventure 2, albeit a largely forgettable one.

The public got its first hands-on with Sonic Adventure 2 via a pack-in demo included with Phantasy Star Online, which featured opening stage, the aforementioned City Escape. It served as an excellent representation of the final product (despite the usual disclaimers to the contrary).

The only notable differences were cosmetic: a different logo for the game and the lack of licensed Soap grinding shoes that would be worn by both Sonic and Shadow in the final retail version. Also, in the demo the music for City Escape was instrumental only, with vocals yet to be added at that point.

The game’s actual release ended up being somewhat bittersweet, owing to the fact that in January 2001, around 6 months before Sonic Adventure 2 hit stores, SEGA had declared their intention to discontinue the Dreamcast and leave the console hardware business for good. Fans knew that this would be probably be the last time a main series Sonic game graced their beloved underdog of a console.

SEGA ensured the game was a fitting bookend to Sonic’s tragically short Dreamcast career by releasing a lovingly put together 10th anniversary edition alongside the standard SKU. It included a gold-coloured CD featuring music from various Sonic games released up until that point and a commemorative coin and booklet, all in an exquisite blue case.

Speaking of fan service, dedicated players who managed to successfully collect all 180 emblems, by completing various in-game tasks and challenges, got a very special anniversary treat: a fully 3D version of the iconic Green Hill Zone, the first level from the first Sonic game. Additionally, although multiplayer had traditionally been an afterthought for Sonic Team, they nonetheless saw fit to include competitive split screen multiplayer and even a kart racing mini-game; nobody could accuse Sonic Adventure 2 of being short on content.

Reviews were positive. Gamespot noted that it was “easily a must-have game for fans of the platforming genre in general and the original Sonic games in particular”, and IGN asserted that it was “one of the best Sonic games ever on one of the best consoles ever”.  The game’s camera remained a sticking point however, and there was much disagreement over the quality and necessity of the non-Sonic stages.

Post-Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle graced the Gamecube in 2003. It was much the same game, barring a few additional multiplayer characters and features. That isn’t to say that the port is half-hearted though, as SEGA put a lot of effort into replacing the original Dreamcast version’s Chao VMU functionality with a solution which allowed Game Boy Advance owners with copies of Sonic Advance to transfer Chao to and from it via the Game Boy Advance Link Cable.

Despite this, it arrived to a noticeably more frosty reception than the Dreamcast release. The Steam, Xbox 360 and PS3 ports released in 2013 have been similarly berated for not adding anything new and/or not aging particularly well.

Now, 15 years later, Sonic Adventure 2 occupies a somewhat odd place in Sonic history. While its gameplay, story and graphics are arguably much better than those of its predecessor, the original Sonic Adventure is recalled more fondly. This is largely for the reasons we talked about earlier: it was the first 3D Sonic, with a fate indelibly linked to that of the Dreamcast. In short, it made gaming history purely by virtue of being first, which is something that cannot really be said of its successor.

That said, if you want to remind yourself that, despite the mountain of evidence the contrary, 3D Sonic can work brilliantly, Sonic Adventure 2 is probably the best place to start. It and Generations stand tall to this day as Sonic Team’s finest 3D creations.