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Sega Genesis
The game: Eternal Champions
Its cost: 800 points
 
 Lucas DeWoody – Here’s a little game few own, yet it is absolutely notorious for its insane violence level—so much so in fact, that Sega tried to quietly bury its existence during the early 1990’s video game violence hearings. The plot is pretty unique for a fighter. Each of the diverse lineup of characters (including: a ninja (of course), blacksmith, gladiator, caveman, police officer, scientist, cop, cyborg boxer, and even an ex-cat burglar) met their untimely death on earth and have now have to chance to brutalize each other. The winner gets resurrected to defend the human race in their era. The gameplay is your standard fighting fare, but the characters move sets have been tailored to suit their personalities so the styles are quite diverse for a 2D fighter. Due mostly in part to the game’s age though, the fighting will feel slow to anyone used to modern fighters, 2D or 3D alike. It’s a matter of age, not quality. Still, Eternal Champions manages to set itself apart from the other 90’s fighters with something unique for its era—pure unadulterated Grindhouse gore. Other fighters of the era like Killer Instinct did an admirable job in presenting some good ole’ fashioned gore, but Eternal Champions makes Mortal Kombat look like a pillow fight. You’ve got fighters throwing each other into fans, spraying organs all over the place. Cars run over fighters, heads splatter, bodies are impaled, people’s skin is boiled off, gutting, burning alive, shotgun killings, exploding chests, and stage deaths galore. Some are so beyond brutal; they shouldn’t even be mentioned here. The game is a showpiece for the best/worst in video game violence. Problem is most of these deaths are insanely hard to trigger—much more so than other fighters of the era, and unfortunately, a ton of those hardcore deaths I just mentioned are exclusive to the elusive Sega CD version released a year later. The Genesis version here is limited by cartridge restraints meaning animation is much more jerky and restricted and the sound is just atrocious. The Sega CD version has more characters, a badass heavy metal soundtrack, (thankfully) faster gameplay, and absolutely murderous deaths. This Genesis original pales in comparison. So, with the advent of TurboGrafx-CD games on the VC, it is no stretch to expect the Sega CD version of this little known fighter will make its way over eventually. Wait for the better (and notoriously bloodier) version.
 Western culture gives the game a standout style in a traditionally “Japanese” genre; For fans of violence, this makes Mortal Kombat look like Barbie’s Friendship Quest; Quality 2D fighting engine, unique setting and plot
 Game pacing is slow compared to modern fighters; Sound sucks, pure and simple; Violence level is so high, only hardened gamers need apply; Possible future release of vastly superior Sega CD version completely negates this version’s worth
Nintendo Entertainment System
The game: Zanac
Its cost: 500 points
 
 Lucas DeWoody – There are a lot of early NES titles on the Virtual Console, and on average, they don’t fare well when they show their faces in the present day market. Zanac is an exception to the rule. Released in 1986 in Japan (1988 for North America), Zanac comes from expert old-school developer Compile (M.U.S.H.A., Aleste, Blazing Lazers), so you know they made the machine sing. Zanac’s most unique attribute is its AI. Depending on how well you are doing at any point in the game, Zanac will adjust the difficulty on the fly and fling more or less enemies at you depending on your situation. Otherwise, it’s a standard 8-bit shooter that stands out among the pack. You’ve got the shooter staples at your disposal including your standard upgradeable weapons and “assist orbs” that lend extra firepower. Graphically, it’s sometimes hard to tell that you are playing an NES game. Dozens upon dozens on bullets can flair all across the screen with enemies raining down, debris fling, and your own blasters blazing, yet the machine rarely suffers from slowdown, but flicker can occasionally get in the way as the screen scrolls like lightening. It’s impressive for 1986, a time when Xevious was still fresh in people’s memory. The soundtrack is catchy too, which is fortunate for the limited amount of tunes presented to you. Of course difficulty wise, Zanac really isn’t that bad. If you’re new to shooters in general, the game will go very easy on you until near the end. Really, the only flaw of mention is poor judgment in re-spawn placement. After you die, the game will occasionally drop your ship in the fray of bullets, and the re-spawn invincibility period is absurdly short. Just remember, the sequel Zanac X Zanax (liable to make an appearance on the VC soon) is among the 8-bit elite in terms of punishment. It’s one of the original games that coined the term “bullet hell” featuring endless streams of punishment that only those with the highest level of concentration and nerve can survive. The original Zanac though isn’t so much of a hassle, and should be accessible enough to just about any level of gamer.
Adaptive AI adjusts the difficulty to suit the skill level of the player; Nice visuals for an 8-bit shooter
Poor judgment in re-spawn placement can cause countless unnecessary deaths, Easy to loose track of bullets amidst sprite flicker
TurboGrafx-CD
The game: The Dynastic Hero
Its cost: 900 points
 
Lucas DeWoody – Did anybody here download the early Genesis title Wonder Boy in Monster World? If you did, then you’ve essentially already played The Dynastic Hero. Yes, they are both the same exact game with different characters, setting, and music. The game was developed by Westone, and published by Sega under the Wonder Boy name, then later released on the TurboGrafx-16, and TurboGrafx-CD. This is the latter (and better) CD version. Instead of Wonder Boy and crew, you and the Dynastic Hero are out to protect Tarron from the Drillkor Empire’s wrath. Dynastic Hero (just like Wonder Boy) is an action/adventure in the same vein of Zelda II and emulates just about everything from the gameplay to the save files with the exclusion of any overworld map and everything far cuter and light-hearted. You wander from town to town slashing at enemies, jumping from ledge to ledge and performing basic level RPG tasks in towns you run into along the way. It’s nothing original, but it works to mix up the action without loosing the gameplay focus. One annoying thing about the visuals is that the HUD is way oversized taking up a third of the screen just to display rudimentary information common to any platformer. It feels like wasted space and cramps the gameplay view. The colors are a slightly less in number than the Sega game, but the enhanced art and better palette choices more than cover the difference. The TurboGrafx-CD version presented here is also known as one of the single rarest TurboGrafx-CD games in existence. Rather than pay a fortune for the game on Ebay, you can settle for the $9 asking price here. Honestly, it’s still a little high, but between the two versions, this is the better deal. Though the visuals took an ever-so-slight hit in the TurboGrafx conversion, you get (arguably) more original character design, new cut-scenes, and a great Redbook soundtrack in return. Dynastic Hero isn’t quite the best platformer you’ll ever play, nor is it the most complex, but you will get a good time out of this “improved” Wonder Boy port. That’s all that matters.
Eye catching artwork; Excellent soundtrack; Quality time-tested gameplay
If you already played Wonder Boy, there really isn’t much point in going through Dynastic Hero; Gameplay isn’t exactly revolutionary or original in any way
some images courtesy of vgmuseum.com
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