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My current gaming credentials are as follows: I own a Xbox 360, slim, connected to a 37” Vizio with HDMI. I’m a Gold subscriber (pretty much have to be), with a controller, a headset, and about 10-12 games. Also where I live, there’s a Sega Genesis in the living room, and a Playstation 2 plus original Xbox downstairs.
Today, I am going to discuss the Genesis, the start of my gaming sub-culture.
Back in the 90’s, the Sonic character ruled, and it was no different in my family. Whether it was 2, 3, with or without Knuckles, Spinball, 3-D, you name it, that blue hedgehog’s innovative way kept creeping into the house.
One of my favorite memories of the Sonic games was when you would put the Sonic 2 or 3 cartridge in the Knuckles cartridge, and suddenly the original game (2 or 3) changed big time. Who knew in Chemical Plant Zone 1 there was a little cheat to get three extra lives, or who knew climbing up walls in 3 would get you extra big rings? Knuckles had the power, and that little red monster certainly kicked ass.
Of all the Sonic boss battles, none were as hard to beat (in my opinion) than the final boss of Sonic 2. It was impossible to hit, and mainly, one hit was death because of the dearth of rings available to you to grab. At least they somewhat “corrected” that in Sonic 4.
Did anyone else thing that Scrap Brain Zone from the first game was entirely way too difficult? Seriously, that level in its whole required the precision of a heart surgeon to get through without losing a life, much less a hit! Hitting some of those jumps correctly took a wing and a prayer to execute, and even then, it was sometimes impossible!
Another one of the more popular games in the house was Kid Chameleon. Released in 1992 to mild critical acclaim, this difficult side-scroller was interesting in it’s conventions.
For example, when you collect the diamonds, you really collect them for either protection or any of Kid’s alter-egos to get either more hit-points, lives, enemy wipeouts, etc. There’s a limit of 99, and when you try to collect them after that number, they “fall” off the screen.
Also, there were “wall” levels that continually scared me as a young one, where you have to outrun a spike-filled wall and avoid the traps. That was not easy, trying to not only do it as fast as possible, but also not get hit or anything! Bloody Swamp was by far the worst of these levels, but after some trial and error, there’s a pattern (and alter ego) you need to possess in order to successfully go through it.
As Pink Floyd would say, “RUN… RUN…RUN….RUN…”
This game was ingenious also in the fact that with a cheat code, you could warp from Blue Lake Woods II all the way to Plethora*, which is the last zone of the game. Where you see the asterisk, the cheat code under the Youtube embed!
An epic cheat code. DOWN-RIGHT-JUMP-ACTION at the same time, which by default, is the down and right buttons on the d-pad, b and c! Modify this cheat accordingly due to your controller setup!
Speaking of CHEATS, there is one more major one to discuss, a time warp cheat. First off, it requires you get 100,000 points. You complete the first two Blue Lake Woods levels, with all the bonuses (no hit, no prize, fast time, etc.). Then you need to do the first Highwater Pass with the same thing, but only get the Bezerker alter-ego at the beginning (this is a requirement). At the end of this level, you will have about 60K points, maybe a tad more. THEN, you get to the second Highwater Pass level. Go through it, but when you go downhill, you can go right or left. Go right, and up the platform with that green hand of death. There’s a pod, TAKE IT! You’ll go to a ‘Elsewhere’ level where with a hidden continue, you need to get the Cyclone alter-ego, which is the fourth block from the left on the top level of "hiding” blocks. Fly to the pod on the other side of the level, and it’ll take you to Under Skull Mountain I. Run and fly to a point where the ground is covered with pointy “dead bones”, if you catch my drift. There is a “hidden” block with a life ‘P’ above it. Either get it or skip it, but keep flying to the right, and up. There are 4 ‘P’s worth 10K of points (as in it says 10,000). Get all four P’s, and this happens:
That flash will transport you… ALL… THE… WAY to Woods of Despair I, which is approximately 2/3rd’s into the game! Cool ain’t it? After that, you’ll be back as Kid, but you get a alter-ego choice at the beginning. After that, you complete that level, and it turns out, you truly have more than ONE MILLION points!
A better example of what I was talking about. Insane, isn’t it?
One more game of smashing success I’ll tell in this edition is the Road Rash series. Between myself and my brother, we could never get enough of speeding bikes, abusing cops, and more importantly, abusing the riders whose mission was to take you down. While Road Rash I may not have much in the way of weapons (clubs), it’s a better “seat of your pants” racing game, where literally strategy will get you to your final destination.
Home of one of the most epic title menu tracks of all time!
What he doesn’t tell you is when you hold down the buttons, you hear the music slow down, and the main player goes, “YEAH!” When you hear this, the cheat is done correctly. Now you have unlimited nitros, and a top speed of 228 MPH. Good luck holding on in the slower categories!
#3 is a little more lackadaisical. With more weapons, the driving style is not as engaging and while the bike customization is expanded, the vehicles themselves feel always 10 miles per hour slower than the competition.
Here’s a video of #3 at the snowy Germany track.
Running over that flag man is funny stuff!
While I could go on for days and days about how many great games there are for the initial Sega outing of systems, one does deserve mention for being the standard-bearer for which all racing games were compared to: Ayrton Senna Super Monaco II.
Racing in the Master category with a SEVEN SPEED manual is the only time you get to race with Senna in the first race!
When I was younger, all I knew how to do was ‘Automatic’, and severely lagged behind my brother, who would kick ass and take names with a seven-speed manual. 214 is faster than 198, that’s for sure!
As I got older though, I learned to race with the manual, and became a prodigy at this myself. I remember the first time I won at USA in a Serga with a seven-speed, and therefore went won to win all the races in the season and inherited the Madonna. A proud kid I was indeed, though emulators helped hone my skill.
In conclusion, there is one more story I’d like to tell, and it doesn’t even revolve around a game.
Back on Christmas in 2008, I was watching ‘Grumpy Old Men’ with my siblings. At the same time, we were pondering what to get our mother for her birthday, seeing as it falls on the second of January. We all though yeah a gift card was nice, but what other options could we do?
As time in the night went by, we were all thinking about the Genesis we had that went by the wayside in early 2004 because it, as you would hear from the Simpsons, “…died on its way back to its home planet.” By this point, we’d also hear from our mom about how she misses the Sega too.
So for her birthday, we all went in a Genesis with a ton of games to boot!
The look on her face and the jubilation in all of ours made it feel so worth it. It was as if a time warp happened, and all of us children were little again. Trading the controller back and forth on Kid Chameleon was a tradition that took place once again, and trying to get through all of Mega Bomberman without dying (or losing that infinite bomb card) was reborn again.
So here’s to you Sega Genesis, a 16-bit gaming phenomenon from the golden years who deserves every bit the recognition you accumulated.
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