I Just Can't Wait To Be Lion King

The console versions of The Lion King are considered by most people I know as classic platformers, or at the very least, 16-bit games that they are nostalgic about, and I'm not entirely sure why. Granted, the movie undeniably invokes remembrances of joy from those of us who were young in the 90's, but the games just aren't all that great. Today I played the Genesis version of the game, just because it was there and I was bored, but when it came around time to write, I decided to play the Game Gear version by the forgettable Syrox Developments, because it seemed like an appropriate time to compare the portable version, which I've never played, with the Genesis version that I remember from my childhood.

I Miss When Sonic Only Had Triple The Trouble

Back in the 90's there were quite a few Sonic The Hedgehog games that not many people played. No, I don't mean Knuckles Choatix or Sonic's Schoolhouse. I am referring to the various Sonic games for the Game Gear and Master System. These 8-bit versions of Sonic were something like second-class citizens compared to the Genesis titles, but considering they were released for a portable system and a dead console, it's not hard to see why. Sonic The Hedgehog Triple Trouble is the fourth Sonic game for the Game Gear, the second that wasn't a port of a Genesis game, and one of many developed by Aspect, the people responsible for that terrible Game Boy version of The King of Fighters '95. Based on the quality of this game, I think I'll lay the blame for that game on Takara.

Chakan: The Forever Man

When I first decided to write about Chakan, I figured it would be a quick and simple article. Sure it's a weirdly dark action platformer for the Genesis and Game Gear, but it was only one game that was only ported once, so how complicated of a history could it have? As it turns out, this undead pilgrim-looking guy has had a lot of behind-the-scenes drama. Chakan began life as an indie comic book that, as far as I can tell, was never particularly successful. Someone at Sega must have been a fan, because in 1992 it was adapted as a video game. The Genesis version was the first game developed by Extended Play Productions, who went on to exclusively make FIFA games for the next five years and then dissapear. The Game Gear version was developed by an unnamed Sega internal studio.

Shinobi II: The Silent Fury

Shinobi II: The Silent Fury for the Game Gear is a pretty unremarkable game. It has some interesting ideas, though nothing particularly original, and it is all hampered by clunky controls. This is one ninja game where you don't feel much like ninja. You aren't particularly fast, deadly, or stealth, not that I'd expect that element from a Shinobi game. My biggest gripe with the game is that Sega had Yuzo Koshiro do the soundtrack, and the Game Gear hardware just doesn't do the man justice.

Jurassic Park-athon Part 1: It Begins!

I think if I were to try to explain to someone significantly younger than me why Jurassic Park was such a huge deal, they wouldn't get it. I mean, it was a movie with dinosaurs that looked real, and that was mind-blowing, but to kids that have grown up with convincing CG, any movie could do that. Jurassic Park was huge multimedia blockbuster franchise with movies, comic books, and most importantly to this site, video games. Oddly enough, there was never a cartoon series like every other thing marketed toward kids in the 90's, not that weren't people trying to take advantage of the hype, like the people who made Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. That's right, before Tyrannosauruses were used for irreverent comedy and before Velociraptors were philosophers, dinosaurs were just plain awesome. Part one, of what I'm guessing will end up being a three part series, will be about the games from the era of the first film. Be sure to listen to the Jurassic Park theme while reading this, otherwise the entire article doesn't make any sense.