Game: Global Defense
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Sega
Year: 1987
Global Defense is a space shooter for the Master System, the player begins the "Offensive half" of the round by shooting down missiles and other stray items in space, travelling across the screen. The controls are somewhat odd, the control pad moves the aiming reticule and holding down a button and using the control pad moves the ship, essentially meaning that you can't adjust your aim and move the ship at the same time. This makes shooting everything you wish to and avoiding stray spacecraft difficult.
Assuming you make it through the offensive half, a defensive half then occurs in which you must protect the planet from the missiles and spacecraft which made it through in the offensive half. The gameplay is much the same, although now from top to bottom rather than left to right. It's difficult clear 100% of the missiles in the offensive half, but if you do, you can skip the defensive half, and get a score bonus.
Really this game suffers from two fatal flaws, the repetition of the two stages, offensive and defensive stages are not different enough, perhaps some sort of mission control board for defense might have given more excitement, and the controls. In the arcades this game had a joystick to move the ship and a trackball to aim with. Granted that's impossible with the master system but if the best you can come up with is "You can't move and aim at the same time", then there's something wrong.
The music and graphics in the game aren't bad however, the scrolling space background and rock soundtrack earn it some playability, its the sort of thing that you wouldn't want to complete, but is worth a go. Even with the hardware limitations, there's better Master System space shooters, so why waste your time?
Rating: 36/100
Grade: E
Game: Double Dragon
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Techmos/Sega
Year: 1988
Double Dragon begins with a musclebound fiend punching your girlfriend in the stomach and carrying her away. Fairly simple for the plot of a Beat Em Up, and one that's been on so many different consoles. Note that this is just a review for the Master System version, as the rest seem to be somewhat better. In the game, you have unlimited continues up until the final level begins, so in a way difficulty is not much of a problem. What is satisfying in Beat Em Up's though is the player's sense on control over his character. This is a shame as the hit detection and moves in this game do not give that sense.
The problem seems to be that there is a very specific area of proximity in which the player can hit a target. Being too close to an enemy can result in not being able to strike them with a number of your attacks, for unknown reasons. Another issue the game has is that the character sprites when moving tend to flicker, resulting in a confusing mess of limbs rather than a discernable fight. This is not, however due to hardware limitations as Streets Of Rage, for the Master System has no such problem and is a much better Beat Em Up Conversion.
Graphically, the flicker aside, the game is alright, the backgrounds look better than the sprites however. The music is fairly catchy and gives the player some hope to fight on. With unlimited continues, it's difficult to lose completely, but you'll find your health bar being drained often. The NES version of this game doesn't seem to suffer from half the problems of the Master System version and is often considered a classic. Its a shame that this conversion couldn't compete as the Master System obviously had the specs to do better.
On the whole then, you're probably better off playing the game on one of the many other consoles it has appeared on, or playing Streets of Rage for Master System, there's little fun to be had with this, even two player is somewhat a drag.
Rating: 30/100
Grade: E
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