Welcome back to our SEGA Dreamcast Anniversary celebration at The Splintering! Today we’re reviewing Playing at the Next Level in which author Ken Horowitz details the history of SEGA of America with an emphasis on SEGA’s U.S. development teams and some of their more notable games.* Starting with the ill-fated Master System and continuing all the way until SEGA’s swan
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Today, The Splintering is reviewing the most famous of all of the SEGA Genesis launch titles: Altered Beast! I know pretty much everyone interested in classic gaming knows about the original pack-in for one of the greatest consoles of all time… and most people do not have the nicest things to say about it, either. However, I am one of
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Today we’re all celebrating the Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection,* a new retro compilation of all of SEGA’s Wonder Boy and Monster World games from the 80s and 90s released to mark the 35th anniversary of the series. Weird number, but who’s complaining? If you’re thinking that this review seems awfully familiar, there’s a very good reason, as ININ Games published a Wonder Boy Collection less than a
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Welcome back to Jolly Jinglings, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of all dancing sugar plums, fairy type or otherwise. In 1992, “Batmania” was in full effect. The success of Tim Burton’s Batman film in 1989 had reignited mainstream interest in the Dark Knight, what followed was a marketing blitz of toys, school supplies, breakfast cereal, and every other piece of cinematic synergy that
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Welcome back to the Festival of Dread, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of all things strange in you neighborhood. Today we’re going to take a look at Ghostbusters, a side-scrolling action game released for the SEGA Genesis in 1990. Developed by Compile (Guardian Legend, Blazing Lazers) and published by SEGA, Ghostbusters is based on the characters from the movie of the same name. That’s
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Of all the games I’ve owned, sold, repurchased, etc., over the years, I’ve never sold any of my original Splatterhouse games. Why? Because braining demons with blunt objects and watching their unholy essence spray from their freshly-cracked skulls is good ol’ family fun. Wholesome shit, am I right? My personal experience with the Splatterhouse series went like this: Splatterhouse (TG-16 version), Splatterhouse 3, and finally Splatterhouse
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of all things octogenarian… from a 20th century point of view. The SEGA Genesis is largely remembered as a 90s gaming powerhouse, but it was actually released in 1989. That makes a handful of the console’s early games babies of the 80s. Truxton (aka 達人 or Tatsujin in Japan… which means something like “expert”) is one
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of everything 80s. Derp. Despite being primarily famous as a 90s console the SEGA Genesis (aka Mega Drive) was actually released in 1989, so the launch games and other early titles can still lay claim to being entertainment artifacts of the 80s. One such launch game is Thunder Force II. I know what
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The first Jurassic Park game was a huge blockbuster on the Genesis, and SEGA quickly tried to recapture that success. Not content with waiting for a true movie sequel, Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition is a “what if” type of story which takes place in an alternate timeline picking up immediately after the events of the first film. Rampage Edition is
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QUByte and PIKO Interactive recently revealed that “cult classic” Jim Power: The Lost Dimension is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, and the Super Nintendo, SEGA Genesis, and original NES. Originally released in 1993 under the title Jim Power: The Lost Dimension in 3D, the game is a sci-fi side-scroller with a unique parallax scrolling effect and a punishing level of
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Streets of Rage 2. Geez, what a joke. I know a lot of you SEGA dorks out there just love your Streets of Rage 2. I myself still have my original Genesis cartridge as a relic from the 16-bit console wars, but I have to tell you, it’s not as good as you remember. Don’t believe me? Come along, friends, and
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Nintendo recently announced that SEGA Genesis games are coming to the Nintendo Switch via a Switch Online “Expansion Pack”, so I thought the time was right to highlight one of the most prized games included with this additional subscription service: M.U.S.H.A. This write-up is a bit more in-depth than a standard “review,” so I’m winging it with the whole “retrospective”
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since the Trojan War! Despite being a prominent presence of the 90s gaming scene, many forget that the SEGA Genesis (aka Mega Drive) was actually released in 1989. So today, we’re continuing our 80s coverage by reviewing one of the console’s launch titles: Last Battle! *Note: Did
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Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of the greatest decade since chopped liver! While many will recall SEGA’s 2018 release of Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise for PS4, western gamers, particularly the younger ones, might be interested to learn that SEGA has a long history with the Fist of the North Star license. Yes, indeedy.
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Welcome back to Attack Helicopter Week here at The Splintering! We previously reviewed Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf in Attack Helicopter Weeks of years past, so this year, we’re diving into that game’s sequel: Jungle Strike for SEGA Genesis. Published by Electronic Arts in 1993 for multiple platforms, Jungle Strike: The Sequel to Desert Strike is very much like
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It’s that time of year again. The time when we believers all take a step back and remember the sacrifice. We remember the selflessness. We remember the death and resurrection of our lord and savior, Superman, the last son of Krypton.
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While we here at The Splintering try to have fun and embrace escapism as much as possible, sometimes we may go too far and miss the mark. Following our retro review of Captain America and the Avengers for SEGA Genesis, we received literally tens and tens of messages of concern from our readers. Literally. You see, in the text of
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Konami has issued a safety recall for the “Justifier,” a light gun peripheral used with the Lethal Enforcers series for SEGA Genesis and SEGA CD, nearly 30 years after its original release. Note that the Super Nintendo and PlayStation versions of the Justifier were not mentioned as neither are included in the recall. A representative from Konami explained the company’s
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To celebrate this week’s release of Justice League: the Snyder Cut on HBO, we’re polluting cramming The Splintering chock full of content for Justice League-related games. In consideration of high political tensions in the United States, we’re also going to attempt to make this review 100% politics-free. Without further ado, let’s see how truth, justice, and the American way fare
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Late last week, Hall of Fame baseball manager Tommy Lasorda passed away at the age of 93. While I wasn’t the biggest Dodger fan as a kid, there are two things that come to mind when I think about the legendary MLB icon: Ultra Slim Fast commercials and Tommy Lasorda Baseball for the SEGA Genesis. In that spirit, we decided
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The very first episode of Tiny Toon Adventures debuted on 14 September 1990, so to mark this anniversary, we’re going to review one of the several video games based on the groundbreaking show. I was hitting middle school around the time that Tiny Toon Adventures first aired, and given that it landed at such a formative time in my life,
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Welcome to The Splintering’s Attack Helicopter Week. With 2020 being the 30th anniversary of Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait, it makes sense to mark the occasion with one of the games inspired by that short-lived conflict. Published by Electronic Arts in 1992, Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf is a slower-paced, isometric shooter released for multiple platforms. While it was inspired
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In 1991, Data East released Captain America and The Avengers in arcades. It became a moderate hit, prompting Data East to develop a console version on the Genesis/Mega Drive in 1992. Now, 30 years later, justice has finally been served as Marvel Entertainment has released the MCU Avengers movies, all based on Data East’s arcade classic! Okay, so that last
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Gaming in the 1990s was the historical epicenter of the battle surrounding violence in video games, complete with U.S. Senate hearings, parents forbidding their children from visiting arcades for fear that they may catch a glimpse of a “fatality,” and so on. Yet even amongst all of that controversy, SEGA’s own Videogame Ratings Council (V.R.C.) still rated RoboCop Versus the
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Every now and again, we at The Splintering are going to lean on our mascot, Chomp the Termite, to go out into the world of myth and fiction to get the stories that we non-fictional types just can’t get. With the release of Streets of Rage 4 now imminent (30 April!), ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, in all his paved glory, the Streets of Rage!
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Rejoice! The upcoming brawler revival Streets of Rage 4 will now feature four ways to play as Blaze Fielding! Behold, the latest trailer!
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The futurists working in entertainment are always letting us down. Back to the Future part II promised us hoverboards and flying cars, but when 2015 rolled around, they were nowhere to be seen. The original animated Transformers movie promised us hoverboards by 2005, so Hasbro was even more off the mark. As it turns out, video games have been predicting
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Review spoiler warning! I friggin’ love Splatterhouse 3. It’s the reason why I love the Splatterhouse series so much, and as far as both violent games and 16-bit brawlers go, it definitely top-tier. That being said, it’s not 100% flawless, and fans of the first two games might not appreciate the changes made to the third installment. Voice: Nobody cares,
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In the 80s, tough, badass action heroes were all the rage, and no other onscreen action hero was bigger and badder than Rambo. With the release of Rambo: Last Blood in cinemas this weekend, the character has appeared in five separate movies, several of which spawned video game adaptations. Rambo III was released for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive shortly after
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Every now and again, we at The Splintering are going to lean on our mascot, Chomp the Termite, to go out into the world of myth and fiction to get the stories that we non-fictional types just can’t get. Since the Genesis 30th anniversary is the reason for the season, and since Altered Beast was the console’s original pack-in title,
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