Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (1993 Sega Genesis):

Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition (1993 Sega Genesis):

“The Mega Drive/Genesis version, titled Street Fighter II': Special Champion Edition and released as Street Fighter II Dash Plus (stylized as Street Fighter II′ Plus) in Japan, was released on September 27, 1993 in North America, September 28, 1993 in Japan, and October 29, 1993 in Europe. It is the first of two Street Fighter II versions for the console and is in a 24 megabit cartridge. A six-button control pad was made primarily for it.” -Wikipedia

Ok, so, the classic experience of Street Fighter II for me was always on the Super Nintendo. I wanted to try something different. So, I went for Street Fighter II: Special Champion Edition on Sega Genesis. Well, right off the bat, you can tell things are compressed down. The graphics are a bit smaller. The sound palette is a bit more “farty”. I mean, you'll get blips and squeals where some music and sound effects cut out.

Other than that, the name of the game here is speed. Just like in Street Fighter II Turbo, it introduces a speed mechanic which can be toggled up or down in the main menu. It's called hyper here, instead of turbo. I ran a basic E. Honda play-through, because his moves are easy for me to do. Anyone can press punch fast. It was ok, other than the farty sound palette.

This was right before my favorite game in the series. Just a year later, Street Fighter II: The New Challengers would release. In Champion Edition, you do get to play as the 4 bosses. Sagat, Balrog, Vega, and M. Bison are all available. They didn't introduce Cammy, T. Hawk, Deejay, or Fei Long until 1994.

Overall, they're some good ideas were here. I just prefer the Super Nintendo experience. Although, I get that they were going mostly for speed. The playable bosses are nice. But, knowing that The New Challengers would include both them and new fighters makes the game feel a little limited. I'll bet it was good for its time. In my opinion, you can probably skip this one and play either Street Fighter II Turbo or Street Fighter II: The New Challengers.

Pirates! Gold (1993 Sega Genesis):

Pirates! Gold (1993 Sega Genesis):

“The player can play as a pirate, privateer, or a pirate hunter. It features sword fighting, ocean-faring battles, and land battles as its three main arenas of action, connected by role-playing which allows the player to court the favor of local politicos, romance women, and recruit pirates in the local pub.”

-Wikipedia

Pirates! Gold is an amazing game. It's a pirate sim, complete with different ships, towns, treasures, quests, and abilities as you sail the Spanish Main in the 17th century. First you choose your “captain”. This is the player. You can choose what ability you have, you can change your name, (Sidney is the default name.) and your nationality: English, Dutch, Spanish, or French.

Your abilities are fencing, charm, gunnery, or navigation. You only choose one. Fencing makes your sword strength better. Charm lets you get married more easily. Gunnery makes your cannons more effective. Navigation can help you weather storms and not crash on reefs. (And that happens a lot.)

Well, once you've started, you can sail around and attack ships or towns, capturing and plundering, or you can hunt for treasure. You can gain letters of marque to fight on behalf of any of the 4 European nations. So, when you capture enemy ships or towns, you can do so in the name of England, or whoever. This is usually the way I play. It's just too fun.

But, you have to keep your crew happy and well-fed or else they can desert and mutiny. Things that make them happy are like successful attacks or appropriate ship size vs. crew size. (You can capture a large variety of ships, including Galleons, Frigates, Sloops, or Merchant Ships, among others.) Of course, finding treasure makes them happy. You can buy treasure maps at local taverns throughout the Caribbean, sometimes.

Press “C” in sailing mode to check out all your maps, and figure out wherever the heck you are in the Spanish Main. You can also pinpoint places on the Spanish Main map. Often, you'll run into other ships you can choose to engage in combat or sail away. Once in sea combat, you can try to sink enemy ships or capture them. You can also fence the enemy captain by crashing your ship into theirs and boarding.

Other than attacking towns and sinking or capturing ships, you can complete quests too. These include capturing another pirate, getting married, finding lost cities, robbing treasure fleets, finding treasure, or finding each one of the members of your captain's long-lost family. Completing each one of these effects your score at the end when you divide up all your gold. Every game is different.

Some endings are more spectacular than others. If you have a lot of gold, and complete a lot of missions, you can ultimately become a pirate governor or King's Advisor if you do really good. Others include Rich Banker, Rogue, Fleet Admiral or even Beggar or Pauper, if you do really bad. Since I don't do a lot of missions, I usually end up more on the bad side. But, it's more fun to me just to sail around and attack things, rather than figure out where such-and-such lost city is from unmarked maps.

My usually bad final scores aside, Pirates! Gold is an still an amazing game. It looks and sounds great. Frankly, I'm surprised it runs on a Genesis cartridge. If you have access to a virtual Sega Genesis (or Sega Megadrive as the Genesis is known in Europe.), or even a physical cartridge, give it a try today. You won't regret it! I can play this game all day still.

THE END OF EVANGELION: THE NEON GENESIS EVANGELION MOVIE (1997)

THE END OF EVANGELION: THE NEON GENESIS EVANGELION MOVIE (1997)

“Reality can be painful. But, it’s something you have to accept.”

- Kitsuragi

    Right off the bat, this “movie” is a little weird. I don’t remember that Asuka ended up wounded from the battle with the last Angel…but the movie starts with her in a hospital bed. Fair enough. Maybe something happened in-between. But, that doesn’t matter anyway, because NERV gets attacked by hijacked EVAs. Not the Angels, because theoretically they‘re defeated! Meanwhile, Asuka’s death puts Shinji in doubt again, and right when they need him to connect to his giant robot to kick butt, he “can’t do it.”

In general, I find that anime movies made from series tend to be weak, because they reset most of the character development, However, in this case, at least it progresses the story, and gets rid of the final villains…it takes the form of 4 episodes, effectively becoming extensions to a series that could’ve ended 10 years earlier, no muss no fuss. But, the villains are using EVAs to back Angels to restart mankind. Plus, at least Shinji has Asuka’s death to push him back into doubt. It makes sense, but is no less annoying. Kitsuragi and the rest of NERV fend off the terrorists, but still Shinji won’t pilot the EVA, and needs a pep talk.

I wouldn’t think that Shinji would have a choice. But, here’s where things get a little crazy. Kitsuragi gets shot and dies in front of Pen-Pen, the lovable cyber penguin, just after she gives her talk. And it turns out Asuka wasn’t dead, and that she was being visited by the spirit of her dead (German, remember!) mother which activates her EVA. She fights the rest of the EVAs alone while Bach plays in the background. It is glorious, and the best scene in the movie…not only because it’s the only straightforward action scene, but because it’s Asuka!

 Shinji’s father reveals that he was working with the Angels, and Rei (The 3rd pilot, remember!) tells him she won’t participate, but nonetheless she ascends a staircase to this weird looking giant Robojesus on a cross and becomes a giant spirit, an angel herself. Here’s where it gets weird. Rei approaches Shinji and asks if he wants to restart the Earth, and becomes blended physically to Shinji. The rest of the movie is Shinji reasserting his individuality.

So, it turns out that Shinji/Rei did destroy the Earth, but by choosing to be an individual…he saved it. Or re-created it? Is it recreated just how he remembers it? Does everyone continue on like before? What just happened? Doesn’t that invalidate the entire movie? So many plotholes to restarting timelines…wouldn’t Asuka still be dying in a hospital?

Overall, I liked this movie, but only because I get to see those characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion again. Though two out of three characters are in their worst philosophical forms. A siege is no time for philosophy. I mean,  Evangelion had comedic moments, but is mostly action. But, you wouldn’t know it from this movie. I gotta give them credit though. One of the show’s main supporters, Sega, was on the brink of oblivion at the time. By 2001, they’d cease to develop hardware.

Hey, I’m always up for some philosophy…it just happens in awkward places throughout the episodes. The siege of NERV; Rei becoming an Angel; right before Shinji needs to defeat the last Angel, Asuka! Some of the manipulation of Christian imagery is nice, as well as German classical music during Asuka’s battle scenes. And yet, the message is slightly contradictory and detracts from the mind-blowing revelations of the series. Face reality…from a giant robot! On second thought…never change, Evangelion! 3 out of 5 stars for this one, despite a rocky start and tragic ending. Oh, and feel free to discuss the ending in the comments!