Master System Month: Shadow Of The Beast

Game: Shadow Of The Beast
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Psygnosis
Release Date: 1991

Shadow of the Beast is a strange game; partly because it starts players out on an overground level with no instruction and assumes they'll walk left, find a key, enter a building and decent underground to continue the game which defies most gamer logic and partly because it feels so different to other Master System games. Most platform games take place on several height levels, but the start of Shadow of the Beast is completely flat, and gives no indication that the player should be getting a key instead of exploring.

Once you get underground the game is difficult, but a little more predictable. Any items picked up can be used via a pause menu of sorts, though some potions will take away health so it's best to exercise a little caution. The enemy and boss designs are interesting, and even the player character is very different from that of normal games, though explanation for this can be found in manual rather than the game itself.

Graphically the game is pretty impressive with some seriously nice visuals in the underground part of the game. The music is the main audiovisual achievement though with a classic soundtrack both on this version and on the 16-bit Mega Drive version. Psygnosis were always known for pushing the gaming boundaries a little so it's unsurprising that Shadow of the Beast is good, if a little unconventional.

Overall the game is playable once you know what you're doing, but still can be somewhat difficult at times with enemies zooming in from off-screen to take your health, and some exploration and item menu experimentation needed to finish the game. If you want something a little more complex than your standard 8-bit game though, it's well worth a try!

Rating: 62/100
Grade; C

Master System Month: Spider-man

Game: Spider-man
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Technopop
Release Date: 1991

Depending on what you want out of a Spider-man video game, it's possible that Spider-man on the Master System will be tolerable. The classic web-swinging movement through levels is nice and fluid and works well with the control system, and it's easy enough to wrap up baddies in webbing and dispatch them off screen. The issue comes with the game's overall premise though; players are given 25 minutes to collect 5 keys from 5 Spider-man arch-enemies and disarm a bomb.

The story begins with The Kingpin blaming Spider-man for placing the bomb, and since everyone appears to believe him, Peter Parker must clear Spider-man's name by stopping it from going off. Most levels consist of platforming, beating up baddies and bosses, and swinging around by web. Inbetween levels the story is advanced via pictures and hard to read text.

Graphically the game is pretty average for the era; the sprites are small but it's easy enough to tell who's who, and the locations are recognisible but not particularly detailed. The music isn't all that memorable, but it's the mix of an overall time limit, some tough sections of the game and repetitive gameplay that lets Spider-man on the Master System down the most.

Overall the story isn't all that exciting; collecting 5 keys to disarm a bomb supposedly planted by you seems contrived, and we'd have to wait for the Spider-man games on the Playstation 2 before we got the web slinging action we truly craved from this sort of licensed video game. A version of this game also came out for Mega Drive, but this is one of the rare cases where the Master System game appears to be better than the 16-bit version.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Master System Month: Time Soldiers

Game: Time Soldiers
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1989

To make a truly good 8-bit game, all you really need is a good concept, and good gameplay. Time Soldiers nails a good concept, as players must travel through time to rescue their comrades, visiting prehistoric times, Rome, the world wars, and futuristic times in the process. The gameplay though is a different story; an offcentre shot makes it difficult to aim throughout levels, a lack of enemies makes the game super easy to just walk through and many repeats of each stage mean that there's almost no replayability.

All of the games levels play bottom to top, with players making their way past enemies and obstacles, but in no real danger as the enemies are slow, and have awful aim. Some take more than one shot to beat, which makes it hard to tell if your shot has hit its target or not. None of the levels are particularly interesting, even though their basis is in interesting historical locations, and bosses are much too easy to defeat for the most part.

Graphically the game is disappointing, sprites are small and undetailed, colours are bland and uninteresting and the animation is basic. Shots are represented by small circles and not much else, and even the powered up shot isn't very exciting. The game's music is also basic, with few redeeming qualities to the audiovisual presentation in general.

Overall Time Soldiers had a good concept with its time travel in order to save a team worth of comrades. With a few more stages, variation in obstacles and enemies, and a little more difficulty, in addition to better visuals and music, this could have been a classic for the time, but it seems like a lot less effort was put into the execution than the concept.

Rating: 39/100
Grade: E

Master System Month: The Cyber Shinobi

Game: The Cyber Shinobi
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1990

The sequel to Shinobi (not counting Alex Kidd in Shinobi World), the Cyber Shinobi delivers a futuristic twist on classic Shinobi gameplay. With various shot power-ups and ninjutsu powers to aid progression through levels, players work their way through hordes of baddies mainly using hand-to-hand combat and their timed jumps to aid taking damage, and come out on top.

The game plays well with simple controls, and a clearly laid out HUD, even if it does take up nearly one third of the screen. While the original Shinobi allowed players to use unlimited shuriken against baddies, all ranged weapons must be collected as power-ups which changes the overall feel of gameplay quite a bit. Levels aren't particularly long, and there's a boss at the end of each though they don't really fit with the general bad guy aesthetic; the first boss being a construction vehicle!

Graphically the game is pretty standard for the Master System with a limited colour palette and low detail on sprites. That being said it's locations and levels are nicely designed and the music is far above the usual 8-bit soundtrack standard. The difficulty level is high, but not so much as to discourage players from giving levels just one more go.

Overall The Cyber Shinobi is an impressive game for 1990, managing to combine a fun play style with impressive music and level design. It's a shame that there wasn't a basic shuriken type weapon to continue the style of play from the original Shinobi, but this adds a new strategic element to player's movement through the levels.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Master System Month: Alien 3

Game; Alien 3
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Release Date: 1992

I've yet to watch the Alien films, but before telling me to stop playing Master System games and watch them right away, consider that Alien 3 on Master System has seemingly little to do with the overall plot of the film or series. Players are tasked with rescuing captured comrades in underground air ducts which are crawling with xenomorphs who are pretty quick and can spit acid. Luckily there are weapon and health power-ups scattered all over place to aid players in what would otherwise be a difficult mission.

While there's not a whole lot of variation from level to level, the gameplay is tight, responsive and fun. Planning routes to avoid taking damage from the xenomorphs and hunting for your allies around the map add a strategic element to the game, and the simplicity of the controls allows players to focus on this too.

Graphically the game ins't anything special; too many of the same types of shades appear most of the time with the grey/blue mix being the worst offender, as the colour of the walls, floor, xenomorphs and the player's shirt. The music is good though, and serves as a good accompaniment to the gameplay's changeable pace as xenomorphs attack.

Overall Alien 3 is a fun little Master System title with a good core concept and gameplay, which needed maybe a little more variety to become a true classic for the console. Exploration through the tunnels and ladders in the game is a nice touch for platform games of the time, and the experience is generally a lot better than most licensed games of the 80s.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Master System Month: Galaxy Force

Game: Galaxy Force
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1989

Galaxy Force is an interesting space shooter which set its own rules at a time when most video games in the genre were pretty homogeneous. For a start, players can select which of the game's four missions they want to play first. The follows a few freeform minutes of Afterburner style space shooting action, flying towards a planet until players are met by a tunnel. Flying through this zig-zagging tunnel successfully will result in the mission being cleared and return players to the mission menu screen.

The levels are colourful and varied although there's only four of them, perhaps the first part of missions is too free form though, and there's hardly any combat in the second part; just turning left or right, based on which command is given. While Galaxy Force is unique, there's no doubt that it's a very short game once you know what you're doing.

Graphically the game is impressive for its time, the launch sequence preceding missions especially. The second part of missions can be a little too flashy, with black and white alternating walls and flashing turn instructions. The in-game music has some funky bass-grooves and is well worth a listen, even outside of the game.

Overall Galaxy Force struggles to be more than an interesting set of two gameplay modes and some varied space-based levels. This is all it really takes for a Master System game to stand out though, and although there's little replayability, it's a nice little game.

Rating: 70/100
Grade: C

Master System Month: R-Type

Game: R-Type
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Irem
Release Date; 1988

R-Type is an impressive shoot 'em up for it's time, featuring detailed backgrounds and a different musical theme for each of its levels, tight gameplay and a big helping of challenge. A lot of shoot 'em ups around this time took a far more simple approach, and this is part of what helped R-Type to stand out as a full video gaming experience.

Players take control of a ship, leading the effort against the Bydo Empire and fire at everything in their way. Through collecting power-ups, additional weapons and add-ons will join the fight and increase the offensive potential. The bosses at the end of each level are well designed and provide a final obstacle to overcome before moving onto a new area.

Graphically the game looks great for the early Master System era, enemies, bosses and levels are all well detailed and varied. Although the controls for shoot 'em ups are usually basic, R-Type controls well and allows players to choose whether their add-on weapons are docked to the ship or floating free, which is a nice touch.

Overall, whilst pretty tough R-Type offers players the chance to gain more credits through a couple of cheat codes, and never uses cheap tactics to hit players. It's features put it years ahead of other shoot 'em ups of the time, and define it as a classic.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Master System Month: Enduro Racer

Game: Enduro Racer
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1987

Part of a series of early games on the Master System to rival Nintendo's Black Box series, Enduro Racer was essentially Sega's answer to Excitebike. Where Excitebike used a horizontal scrolling effect, Sega decided that a diagonal scroll for Enduro Racer would somehow create a "stunning 3D effect". It did not. The result of the diagonal scroll is that players can see less oncoming obstacles than with the horizontal scroll, and they have to constantly steer right a little bit too.

Gameplay consists of ten point-to-point stages with vague themes, lots of ramps which appear to slow the bike down more than anything, and a varying amount of obstacles which usually only serve to get in the way and cause damage to the bike. There are also opponents to race; overtaking them gains points once the stage is complete, but crashing into them will incur yet more damage to the bike.

Graphically the game uses a dull colour palette, some fairly unimpressive and 2D objects for cars, bikes and scenery effects, and choppy scrolling. It's tough to get to any stage past the 4th or 5th, and crashes become almost unavoidable as the game progresses, irreparably damaging the bike. The music that plays behind gameplay gets old pretty fast, and the sounds of the motorbike are mixed a little loud for my liking.

Overall this was the kind of game you might have expected to play in 1987, especially with many home computers still on the market. It was a time before we really knew what console gaming could achieve, and video games were just little pieces of software that you could waste some time playing around with, rather than a deeper experience. Excitebike is still better, though.

Rating: 28/100
Grade: F

Master System Month: Bart vs. The Space Mutants

Game: Bart vs. The Space Mutants
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Arc Developments
Release Date: 1991

In what can only be described as one of the worst licensed games of the 3rd generation, Bart vs. the Space Mutants manages not only to fall far short of its potential as a Simpsons game but of being a video game in general. Players control Bart, on a mission to hide, destroy or spray paint all purple items around Springfield. Although the items appear pink in-game, the gameplay will soon distract you from this shortcoming.

There are lots of smaller mutants which must be avoided whilst exploring Springfield. Bart's movement is slow, his jump very floaty and his hit box slightly different than you'd expect it to be. All of this adds up to frustration when trying to move anywhere. Not to mention the fact that to progress in the game, Bart must jump on windowsills, phone boxes and other items which appear to be in the background, but are actually solid.

Graphically the game is bright, but almost too much so. Only a few colours are used, and there's hardly any properly displayed landmarks from the cartoon. The same music track plays over and over, and although there are 5 levels, it's incredibly difficult to even progress to the second, as Bart can only take two hits before losing a life.

Overall Bart vs. The Space Mutants would have been better as a simple platformer with Simpsons based power-ups, and a level for each of the main family cast. As basic as this would have been, any game with competent controls beats 5 levels of trashy, unfair exploration. This is hands down one of the worst Master System titles.

Rating: 10/100
Grade: F

Master System Month: Strider

Game: Strider
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 1991

Strider is set in 2048, with a dystopian future as the backdrop for the player character, Hiryu's mission to assassinate the Grandmaster, ruler of an Eastern European Federation. With 8 way movement and looping jumps, players can explore the 5 levels of the game in a style similar to Metroid, though the levels aren't nearly as big. Attacks are carried out with Cypher, a plasma sword which can be swung either side of Hiryu.

While movement is fairly slow, and there's some sprite flicker in busier moments, gameplay is fun and intuitive. There are various types of power-ups which help players to progress through the levels, and health items are especially useful in moments which require Hiryu to take damage in order to progress.

Enemies vary between run and gun style targets, mini bosses and other unique ideas, which pair well with the jumping and exploration elements of the game. There's a good variety across the game's five levels, representing Eastern European terrain mostly. A skilled player should be able to complete the entire game within 15 minutes or so, with good knowledge of the levels.

Strider features one of my favourite 8-bit bosses, an image of the Grandmaster which translates very well from the more powerful consoles of the era. It's interesting that the Master System version used assets from the Amiga home computer version which came before it.

Graphically the game is impressive for the Master System and competes well with other 8-bit versions. It's a shame that the pace of the game is slow and there's sprite flicker, but this is to be expected of ambitious titles. The music can become annoying after a while, as there's only one track to accompany gameplay, though the game features a few other jingles here and there.

Overall Strider is an enjoyable and competent Master System game which suffers a little from the limitations of the console. Given a little more speed, and a tune-up this could have been one of the console's best titles.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Master System Month: Mortal Kombat

Game: Mortal Kombat
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Release Date: 1993

It's no great secret that I don't really like Mortal Kombat as a fighting game. Revered more for its gore than its gameplay, most versions seem to reward button mashing over calculated attacks, and there's no end of lazy palette swaps instead of an interesting roster of characters. A big chunk of the Master System library is made up of games which came out on the Mega Drive and were ported back a generation as an afterthought, Mortal Kombat is one of these games.

With just two buttons on the Master System controller, attacks are limited though movement is fairly fluid with the d-pad. Hit detection is essentially random chance as your attacks sometimes damage the opponent and other times go straight through them. There's no weight to kicks or punches, they just sort of happen until one fighter falls over. Gameplay is a bore, as is Mortal Kombat's progression in general.

Graphically the digitized sprites don't look too bad rendered in 8-bit, the lack of detail almost fits. The fact that the game features a tiny roster of 6 playable characters and just 2 stages to fight on is a disappointment. Obviously there's only so much space on a Master System cartridge, but the soundtrack sounds almost passable and could easily be described as one of the best parts of the game.

Overall Mortal Kombat on the Master System was never going to be amazing, but even so it's let down by many issues, some of which recur through all versions of the game. Luckily this version is a little better than the Game Boy release, but then again things can't get much worse.

Rating: 32/100
Grade: E

Master System Month: Battle Outrun

Game: Battle Outrun
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1989

Battle Outrun is one of four Outrun titles for the Master System, the best of which being Outrun itself, the original release. After this came Outrun 3-D, requiring the Master System 3D glasses. Battle Outrun was the third release, playing far more like Chase HQ than an entry in the Outrun series. The final Outrun series release for the Master System was Outrun Europa, a particularly slow game which didn't do the franchise justice either.

Battle Outrun fails as an Outrun game on a few levels; it begins in a promising manner, allowing players to select any of the game's 8 levels across the USA, and one of the four tracks on the radio to accompany gameplay. As soon as gameplay begins though, "thug cars", acting on the part of the bosses that lie in wait at the end of each level attempt to constantly get in the player's way. In earlier outrun games, traffic wouldn't actively get in the way but these weave all over the road and kill any sense of forward momentum.

The first half of each level consists of driving far enough to enter the upgrade van which allows players to purchase better car parts, and nitro which is useful later to boost into the bosses, causing more damage. The second half of the level sees players driving to catch up to the boss, then crashing into their car as much as possible, preferably at an angle for maximum damage.

Throughout both phases of gameplay, the thug cars get in the way constantly and take away any fun players might be having from driving along. All stages are time based and after the first few, there's hardly enough time to reach the boss, let alone destroy their car. The engine and nitro power ups do help towards completing stages faster, but the manual advises to save nitrous for damaging the boss.

Graphically the game looks pretty average for 1989, the car models during gameplay aren't all that big, and it's tough to see thug cars coming from the horizon. The different locations across America are interesting, but there's not a lot of detail in the landscapes. With four music tracks to choose from there's enough audio choice, but none of the classic Outrun tunes appear in the game.

Overall Battle Outrun is disappointing both in features and gameplay. Deviating from the Outrun formula leaves a game which is like Chase HQ but worse, less fun than regular Outrun and without any unique selling points. It's not a terrible game, but you'd expect more from an Outrun game, and the constant crashing is bound to get on any player's nerves.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Master System Month: Penguin Land

Game: Penguin Land
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 1988

When I started Penguin Land up and was greeted with its colourful title screen, I thought I'd be in for a fairly simplistic 8-bit puzzle game. It's a little more complex than that though, as players are tasked with guiding a penguin egg down through a series of levels, breaking blocks to lead it past polar bears, eagles and more hazards and to safety. There are 30 levels that can be selected from the start screen and a level editor in which players can design their own.

Players move the penguin with the d-pad and are able to jump and break blocks with the 2 controller buttons. The egg can only fall a short distance, and blocks can only be broken from an adjacent block, meaning that some planning is necessary to guide the egg down to the end of the level. With patrolling polar bears, and an eagle that tries to smash your egg if you leave it in one place for too long, there's a level of complexity to this puzzle game which isn't often seen in 8-bit titles.

Graphically the game is basic, but has enough detail for the objectives to be obvious, and for special types of blocks and enemies to be apparent to players trying to plan their route through the level. There's only one bit of music which plays throughout the entire game, which is a little disappointing but obviously there's only so much space on a Master System cartridge. At least the music isn't particularly grating or repetitive.

Overall Penguin Land is a far better puzzle game than you'd think on first impressions, and has enough levels and subtleties to its gameplay to lend a good amount of replayability to its levels. The level editor is also a big plus, as players who have mastered the way the game works can test themselves against their own levels and continue the fun.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Master System Month: Xenon 2: Megablast

Game: Xenon 2: Megablast
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: The Bitmap Brothers
Release Date: 1991

Although I've never been a big fan of shoot 'em ups in the traditional sense, I'd like to think that I can tell when one is below par. A good shoot 'em up is usually side-scrolling, with fast movements, un-cluttered maps (save for enemies), good boss designs and a reasonable level of difficulty. Xenon 2 decides to do away with all of these features, leaving a frustrating experience.

Firstly the game is much slower than traditional shoot 'em ups, with the screen scrolling bottom to top at a snail's pace. Then there's the rocks and other features which make narrow paths for the player to navigate. Add an abundance of enemies which can go through these features in, and you've got a slow and badly designed Master System game.

Visually the game is pretty unoriginal, without it's own style and seemingly uses a mix of ideas from other space and horror based games. The ship is upgradable but these are drip fed and hardly help players to progress through the levels. Bosses are tough and badly designed, taking up much of the screen space players need to hide in. The music is okay, but is the type of 8-bit track which is far better when remixed in a modern rock style than it's original presentation.

Overall Xenon 2 is utterly forgettable, and tries to re-invent the shoot 'em up wheel most of the time. As with any shoot 'em up, the further you can get, the more you'll enjoy the game, but this one actively makes it hard thanks to its design rather than legions of enemies or anything skill based.

Rating: 33/100
Grade: E

Master System Month: Super Space Invaders

While I've been a little busy with other projects recently, I haven't forgotten about this review blog. Having received a Master System Converter for Mega Drive in the post recently, I'm back and ready to get my retro on, with a month of Master System Reviews for January 2018. This means that all 26 Master System games that I haven't yet reviewed are getting one! Starting with...

Game: Super Space Invaders
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Domark
Release Date: 1991

While Space Invaders had practically been around forever by the time this game was released, there's plenty of fresh stuff to keep players somewhat entertained. For a start the visuals behind gameplay are more interesting than ever, and the invaders don't move in a uniform way anymore. Elements of other shoot 'em ups have been added to revitalise gameplay and bring the series up to date. Players also have shields so as to avoid instant deaths from being hit by enemy fire, and power-ups which drop from the UFOs racing across the top of the screen, once hit.

There are a variety of levels to progress through, each a little different, and some featuring bosses or interesting variants on regular gameplay. Although some elements are taken from other shoot 'em ups, the screen doesn't scroll at any point and this is somewhat of a missed opportunity, given the calibre of similar games out in 1991. Retro games looking to sell using only their franchise name should instead be looking to move with the times and sell on the merit of their features and gameplay.

Visually the game looks good for master system with some nice colour gradients and boss designs, but the audio and regular enemies let it down a little. With the audio especially there's a complete lack of soundtrack, and the sound effects are pretty weak on their own. Considering that this is the accompaniment to the Mega Drive "Space Invaders '91" though this is to be expected.

Overall there's some fun to be had with Super Space Invaders, it breathes a little life into what was a dead franchise, and it's certainly better than Space Invaders Anniversary for PS2. Sometimes there's only so much you can do with an existing franchise; sometimes you can change things up a little too much (like in the case of Space Invaders: Invasion Day for PS2). With an Atari 2600 Flashback game out on PS4, it's inevitable that nostalgia for these games will continue, this one is just alright though. 

Rating: 54/100
Grade: D