#7 Parodius Deluxe Pack (Sega Saturn)

I started blogging on this topic with a shmup and here's 2 more. The 1st two games in this great and criminally ceased series are on this disk. This landed on my doormat this week - however I'm still gaining ground on covering my collection as this is a bit of an indulgence. I already have a PAL copy of this for my PAL Saturn but this Japanese copy is for my white Japanese Saturn. With an Action Replay 5-in-1 I can play the PAL version on my white Saturn but its nice to have the true 60Hz version - the intro sequence is slightly different but the main reason is the rumours that extended use of an AR 5in1 damages the Saturn expansion port as the PCB is too thick.

These are 2 great games - the first one is showing its age now but the second game is still an auditory and visual overload. Parodius is a spoof or parody of the Gradius games - the gameplay is the same but the graphics look drug inspired and the music is made up of weird remixes of classical and other well known tunes. I posted a fairly hefty review of this series on the original AA site which can still be found there as the staff here have kept that up. Here's the link : http://www.armchairarcade.com/aamain/forum_viewtopic.php?7.8391

Being shmups they suit the middle-aged gamer on a time budget and the kids like this series too due to the visuals but also the large array of characters you can choose to play with. I'm still chasing the 1 credit kill on these though - I find these games just as tough as the Gradius originals but somehow they aren't as annoying due to the overall oddness of these titles and the obscure Japanese cultural references they are stuffed with.

These games are also available on lots of other platforms including the SNES, PSP, PC Engine and PS1 (there's even a GameBoy port) - but I stick with the Saturn versions as it has a better reputation for handling 2D.

Looking at these games and considering my age I sometimes wonder if I'll ever really grow up.

This week's Matt Chat is on Tomb Raider, one of my favorite games on the PS1. It was my first 3D platformer, and I still vividly remember the experience. Core did an excellent job really demonstrating what was fun about 3D and what the third dimension could add to the genre. Of course, the game also introduced Lara Croft, the most famous female avatar.

Racketboy has a neat feature up called Together Retro Game Club: Sega Light Gun Games, in which the community explores a number of great light gun games for the Sega systems (Saturn and Dreamcast) with a few hits for the PC and Wii thrown in. It's a nice feature if you're interested in lightgun games.

A new version of Yabause - an open source Sega Saturn emulator for PC - is out. Check it out at http://yabause.sourceforge.net . This emulator is very versatile and compatibility is increasing rapidly.

SegaThere's a brief article at a site called "The Older Gamers Paradise" about The Rise and Fall of Sega. It's not so much a detailed factual history as an opportunity to reminisce with a former diehard Sega fanboy (who now sounds a bit jaded, if you ask me). He's got some interesting speculations Sega's most fateful mistakes, the biggest seeming to be creating massive consumer confusion around 32x and Saturn. Here's an interesting thought--If Sega had used the CD unit as a springboard until perfecting the Saturn, things might have gone differently. If you're a Sega fan (or just want to see what the nostalgia is like from someone who is), you'll enjoy reading the article.

Sega SaturnBeta 5 of the Japanese Sega Saturn emulator for PC has been put on-line for download. It's an emulator capable of playing games from real Saturn Gamedisks. Great work from a Japanese person who named is webspace 'Phantasy', all that is to be found on his websites is a discussion forum and specs of the emulator. All in Japanese. The emulator can be configured to have English dialogs though.