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| Sega Pro guide to Sega games Vol.4 |
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| Mean Machines tries to cover every Sega game |
Here we have a quick look at two magazines that released a bumper collection of a year of their Sega reviews. Sega Pros The Complete A-Z of Sega Games from 1995 and Mean Machines, The Essential Sega Guide from 1993. The A-Z covers the early days of the Saturn (Victory Goal and Street Fighter the Movie both score 88%!) and the last death throes of the Game Gear and Mega CD, plus two arcade reviews for some reason. While editors Richard Leadbetter and Julian Rignall do their best to review over 350 Sega games between them, on the MegaDrive, Mega CD, Game Gear and Master System for the Essential Sega Guide.
Here are three pages from the A-Z, Brian Lara can still play a good game of cricket, has there even been a cricket game to match it since? I have never come across Revengers of Vengeance on the Mega CD but it looks interesting. Plus a look at AfterBurner on the 32X, great game. I will put up all the 32X reviews from this book when I get round to it. Eight games in all. (I know, I know!)
Ristar, a cut down but playable version for the Game Gear. Why hasn't poor Ristar been given a recent outing on DS or something? Indy 500 looks rather nice. The other arcade game reviewed was Rail Chase 2 and it got a Proscore of 85!
Considering they had so many games to get through, 374 in total, Richard and Jazza don't do too bad a job. The Game Gear gets the short end of the stick with six reviews per page. The Mega CD pics make it look even grainier than it actually was. While some of the pics don't even match the game being reviewed. Look at the screen shots accompanying Ghouls n Ghosts and Golden Axe Warrior on the Master System? Mistakes like this and some odd choices of font for the game names makes it look a very hurriedly done book in places.
Pit-Fighter 70%?? 'Amusingly Thuggish' are not the words I'd use to describe it. Poor Indy only scrapes a 47% but then Jack Nicklaus out does it with 42%, I didn't think it played too bad a game of golf, but Jaz is right it's no PGA Tour II.
John Madden games sold by the bucket load back then with each new year, and it improved every year too. Not like the phoned in updates you get today because it's the only game on the market. According to Mean Machines, '92 is the version you should pick up, getting a massive 95%. Rich calls Dick Tracy 'a pleasant change from the norm' and handing it 80%. The norm being a good game I presume! At the back of the book are a number of pages showing upcoming releases, if the hundreds of games reviewed that you could buy just didn't do it for you.
Pit-Fighter 70%?? 'Amusingly Thuggish' are not the words I'd use to describe it. Poor Indy only scrapes a 47% but then Jack Nicklaus out does it with 42%, I didn't think it played too bad a game of golf, but Jaz is right it's no PGA Tour II.
John Madden games sold by the bucket load back then with each new year, and it improved every year too. Not like the phoned in updates you get today because it's the only game on the market. According to Mean Machines, '92 is the version you should pick up, getting a massive 95%. Rich calls Dick Tracy 'a pleasant change from the norm' and handing it 80%. The norm being a good game I presume! At the back of the book are a number of pages showing upcoming releases, if the hundreds of games reviewed that you could buy just didn't do it for you.