At the height of the 2D fighting game craze of the mid-90s, SEGA decided to make their own. The SNES may have had everything that Konami, SNK and Capcom were throwing at the genre, but first-party titles in the West were relegated to the Punch-Out series. Thus was born Eternal Champions in December 1993/January 1994 for the Mega Drive.
The plot for Eternal Champions is pretty basic. There are nine characters, and whoever wins the tournament - held at the pleasure of The Eternal Champion - would get to live. Oh, yeah, each character had been plucked from the timeline, moments before they were supposed to die, I should have mentioned that.
Each of the nine were distinct in appearance and fighting style, and came from throughout history from 50,000 B.C. to 2345 A.D. There was a ninja, a cyborg, a caveman, an alchemist, an Atlantean, a vampire, a bounty hunter, an aristocrat and a cat-burglar. When you won the tournament, you got to see how they averted their own death while assuming that everyone else died as intended.
Due to the game using six basic attack moves, you had to either keep swapping between punches and kicks by pressing Start, or you had to buy a six-button controller. You could also use the SEGA Activator, a “controller” which sat on the floor, and could detect if you waved a foot or a hand over it. If you used an Activator, it increased the damage you dealt while decreasing the damage you took, which was certainly novel.
This story is from the Issue 148 - February 2022 edition of GameOn Magazine.
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This story is from the Issue 148 - February 2022 edition of GameOn Magazine.
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MythForce
MythForce seems like the videogame version of all those cartoons you loved as a kid, like He-Man or She-Ra. The game even has its own animated intro and theme song! I was so excited to start playing once I saw this. It was apparent that a lot of time and love went into this intro, so they must have put this much work in, but can it live up?
Gunbrella
Sometimes, a game title tells you everything you need to know about that game in just a word; Gunbrella is an amazing example of this. If you’ve ever had thoughts of becoming a lethal Mary Poppins, this is the game for you. The developers at Doinksoft have you playing as a quiet woodsman, decked out in a brown bowler hat and a long white scarf whose life has taken a tragic turn. At the beginning of the game, we see him out gathering mushrooms. In the distance, we see a wooden cabin covered in flames, this is our woodsman’s home. He runs there as fast as he can, and runs into the burning building. Alas, it’s too late to save his wife. She has been killed.
Astrea: Six Sided Oracles
Astrea: Six Sided Oracles is a deck-building roguelike with noticeable inspiration from Slay The Spire. Despite this inspiration, however, it manages to hold its own incredibly well, even going so far as potentially being one of my favourite deck-builders of all time.
Baldur's Gate 3
Through a litany of modern games mired by microtransactions and shifty live-service releases emerges a shining beacon of light: Baldur's Gate 3. Your buddies at work are talking about it; your favourite Discord servers are awash with videos about it; heck, even Grandma and her bridge club are wittering away about it (probably). The game has quickly become a cultural phenomenon and with my playtime knocking the three-digit mark, I finally feel ready to evaluate my adventure through Faerûn — so let’s dive in.
The Crew Motorfest
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Fae Farm
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Tevi
TEVI is a bullet-hell metroidvania, developed by Crespirit and was an utter joy to play. Full of fascinating systems, fluid combat, and some fantastic world-building, TEVI is a very interesting title.
Farmer's Father: Save The Innocence
I had the opportunity to preview the survival videogame Farmer's Father: Save the Innocence. Prequel to the farming simulator Farmer's Life, you play as the former protagonist’s father as he, his wife, and baby child try to survive 1945 East Europe. The game begins with the Axis forces marching on your front door, forcing the three of you to flee your burning home to the safety of a nearby bunker. Once safely inside, you sleep the night off, now alone during the middle of winter. In the bunker you’ll find: a rifle with 10 rounds of ammunition, a bunk bed, a single lamp resting on a table, a working fireplace/oven, and a chest where you put all of the provisions and items.
Moonlight Peaks
It's no secret that I am absolutely obsessed with spooky themes (what with my name being Spooky_0ne everywhere I sign up!), so when I found out there was a life sim game coming out with vampires, witches, potions, nightshades, etc.... Well, I kind of lost my mind from excitement! Thankfully, the team over at Little Chicken gave me the fantastic opportunity to interview them.
So I Tried... Persona 5 Royal
Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I make my “did not finish” list one entry longer? I’ll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for a spooky visual novel that is said to be one of the best narrative games you can play: Persona 5 Royal.
