Superhero games for the Sega Genesis

Sega CD Summer is out! This is the fourth entry in the Sega Tote Series

When you were a kid, you didn't always have a ton of money to buy new games. They were expensive, after all. Most games had to wait for Christmas, but since I had a paper route, I was able to put some money aside to buy something new on occasion.

I've always had an affinity for superheroes and the '90s gave us some incredible cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and X-Men: The Animated Series.

I read comics from time to time (and they were often compilations), but most of my "comic book knowledge" comes from the '90s animated shows, which introduced things like "The Dark Phoenix Saga," the symbiote suit, and the origin of Two-Face.

It was only natural (and profitable) for publishers and comic book companies to release superhero games. My collection didn't have a ton of them--I'll cover three that I own--but countless comic books heroes appeared on video game consoles. Victor Lucas over at Electric Playground has a fantastic series of reviews of games ranging from the Genesis to the SNES, NES, and Game Boy Advance, among other systems. Seriously, go check out Side Scrolling Superheroes.

Captain America and the Avengers won't win any awards, but it's a fun arcade-style beat 'em up.

I'll start off with Captain America and the Avengers. This is a port of Data East's arcade game featuring four playable characters: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Vision. The arcade cab featured four players simultaneously, but the Genesis version only offered two-player co-op.

I love this game. At one point, my brother and I got so good at it that we could get through it without losing a life. We never made it through a "no damage" run because the Crossbones battle was extremely cheap. I usually played as Cap while my brother used Iron Man.

The controls in this game are super-responsive. The voice samples are, well, not great, but the music is good. Most importantly, it's fun to play and a couple shooter-like stages break up the beat-'em-up levels. I liked using Captain America because his shield attack felt fast and fluid. Iron Man was a close second, while Vision's and Hawkeye's attacks felt slow.

My brother and I always made fun of the voice on the selection screen whenever one of us chose Hawkeye because, well, it sounded like the guy had something stuck in his throat and had to clear things out, so to speak.

The SNES also got a port. I've read a lot of reviews saying the game is slow and the controls aren't very responsive. That happens without Blast Processing, you know.

My copy probably isn't considered complete in box because the Captain America pin is missing, sadly.

The cartridge is red, and that's about all this game has going for it.

Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage is based on an extremely '90s Spidey storyline.

The game is a standard side-scrolling beat 'em up--and it's pretty tough. I played the game a lot but didn't get very far. It was nice to be able to use Spider-Man or Venom, although I don't recall many differences between the two characters other than their sprites.

Enemy variety wasn't great. The game featured some nice comic book-inspired cutscenes and followed the comic fairly well, to my understanding. I didn't love the game soundtrack, although I understand some players really dig it.

The most notable thing about the game was probably its red cartridge. I'm not sure how "collectible" the thing was, however.

The "special edition poster" is lost to time

Another really tough game, X-Men came out in 1993 from Sega. You could play as four different characters: Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, and Nightcrawler. A few other X-Men characters, such as Jean Grey, Storm, and Archangel, served as complementary support characters who could attack or provide a useful function.

I could easily get past the Excalibur Lighthouse level using Nightcrawler. After that, though, I couldn't get very far. The game is hard with some blind jumps, confusing level layouts, and powerful enemies. I liked playing it, despite my inability to progress through it.

A few things I remember: you could park Wolverine in a safe area and he'd heal; Gambit was too "tall" for the Shi-ar Empire level and would get hit by laser fire even if he ducked; Iceman's bridge power helped you cheat in the Savage Level. Also, save the help characters for the bosses.

The game is pretty famous for having players press the reset button at a certain point to progress the story. I think people generally consider X-Men 2: The Clone Wars to be the superior game.

Meet the Characters: Mr. James Glad

Sega CD Summer is out! This is the fourth entry in my Meet the Characters Series

If there's a villain in Sega CD Summer, it's not Mr. James Glad.

Sure, he's ornery. Sure, he's a prankster. In some ways, he makes Tommy's life as a paperboy pretty miserable. On the other hand, he's a lot of fun.

Mr. Glad lives to torment Tommy, deriding his deliveries as a "motor route" and offering some questionable life advice in the form of "tips." He puts Tommy's picture up in the post office as a "wanted" poster and misleads him about the nature of a certain outbuilding on his property.

On the other hand, Mr. Glad reaps what he sows. Tommy gets him pretty good a couple of times.

A shrewd businessman, Mr. Glad is a pillar in the Williamsburg community. He once served as commissioner of the youth baseball league and coached his kids when they were younger. The founder of a successful transportation business, he's semi-retired but keeps a finger on the pulse.

With a sharp wit and the innate ability to push Tommy's buttons, Mr. Glad loves to tease his paperboy. He delights in promising him a "tip" only to pull the rug out from under him like Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football.

When his community needs him most, though, Mr. Glad steps up. And for Tommy, one of his "tips" finally pays huge dividends.

Star Wars on the Sega CD

Sega CD Summer is out! This is the third entry in the Sega Tote Series

The Super Nintendo had the Super Star Wars series.

I was so jealous! I distinctly remember seeing blurbs in '90s video game magazines saying the games were in development for the Genesis. 

They never came out. A prototype of the Genesis/Mega Drive version of Super Star Wars surfaced a couple years ago (here's Pat the NES Punk talking about it on the CU Podcast and more about it from Hidden Palace).

Rebel Assault for the Sega CD

I had a pair of Star Wars games for the Game Gear: a U.S. Gold port of the NES Star Wars game and a Super Return of the Jedi port published by Black Pearl Software. Apparently, no one wanted a game based on The Empire Strikes Back. The poor 32X received a port of Star Wars Arcade.

The Sega Master System, a dismal failure in the U.S. and far more successful in overseas markets, received a port of the Star Wars game for the Nintendo (it's similar to the Game Gear version). It did not see a North American release because no one cared about Sega before the Genesis.

One reason I wanted the Sega CD in the first place was the upcoming release of Rebel Assault. The game came out on PC, but I didn't have a computer capable of playing it at the time. I saved up paper route money for the Sega CD and ordered Rebel Assault from a mail-order company called Jack of All Games. It took forever for the game to show up, but once it did, I loved it.

I certainly understand the limitations of both Rebel Assault and the Sega CD. The graphics are so noisy and pixelated on the system that you can't play the hardest mode because you can't make out any targets without the reticle that shows up on the easier levels. The video compression, as it always did on the Sega CD, looked awful.

I had a blast playing as Rookie One in the Sam's Choice version of the Star Wars trilogy. There were some great levels and visuals here, especially for the mid-1990s. Standouts included the Hoth level (every game has a Hoth level, it seems like), an attack on a Star Destroyer, and, of course, the famous Death Star trench run.

I didn't learn until years later that the Sega CD version was missing a level from the PC version. I maintain that this game was fun for its era.

The Software Toolworks Star Wars Chess

The only other Star Wars release on the Sega CD was Star Wars Chess by Software Toolworks. It's pretty much what it sounds like: video game chess with characters from the Star Wars movies. There really isn't much to it.

You will find some fun "victory" animations that play each time a piece gets taken from the board.

Two simple reasons I bought it: 1) it had Star Wars on the cover and 2) Sears put it in the discount bin. That's right, kids: don't pay full price for a Star Wars chess game.