AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Well, its Easter time and as comes tradition, comes ridiculous candy.
Seriously, i have a chocolate patrick star... That wasn't dyed.
Oh boy...
But for those of you who actually celebrate this holiday, you probably got a game or something.
So i wanted to do this for a while, it would be easy to do, and would be fun.

So Game of the week is where i choose a random game and discuss over it and how it impacted gaming back then.
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So to celebrate the season of easter, i chose a game with humans transforming into cute little wolves.
Yup, today, were gonna talk about Altered Beast.

(Image from Wikipedia)

Altered beast, or "Beast Kings chronicles" in japan, was a pack-in game for the Mega-drive before our blue upstanding member of society hero came along. And they knew what they were doing when they chose for a pack in game, as this game is actually pretty sweet.

Now, Altered beast was originally released on arcades and was a huge success, so it was chosen to be ported to the mega drive, and was also considered one of the consoles best games. While it doesn't hold up today, it can be considered a relic of the Genesis before Sonic came along.

Altered beasts story is that your pretty much some dead guy who is reborn by Zeus, oh wait, it turns out this guy is a Roman Centurion. You must save Athena, Zeus' daughter from some asshole called "Neff".

The game is as generic as a sidescrolling puncher can get, you can punch people in the head or duck and punch. But this isn't the only thing you can do.
Occasionally, a blue pig-like creature can appear, killing it gives you a "Spirit ball", which causes the player to grow in muscle mass. Once 3 are collected, you can become a monsterous being, where you can use stronger abilities, for example, on the first level, you become the games mascot, the Wherewolf who can...punch harder.
But this isn't the only thing you can become, in other levels, you can become a dragon-like monster that can fly and zap lightning. Another is a Bear that can jump like Mario when he has a star in SMB3. However, the final level's transformation is kind of a letdown, as it only transforms you into a Wherewolf again but with a kickass new move. In the end you save Athena, the peach you were trying to save and get a sweet ending image and the worst credits ever.

While Altered beast is a forgotten game by many, it can still be remembered as a game we could waste our time with while waiting for the blue hedgehog to come along and revolutionize the fuck out of gaming.



So i want comments on how i did, did i get any facts wrong? Did i mistype something? If so, please tell me and i'll try my best to fix them.

POWER UP

Ok folks, time for another Gotw!

Today we will be talking about a game that pretty much became a big fucking classic. Seriously, we all love this game.
Today we will talk about people so manly they make arnold sch-schwartzene-schwarttze- the badass guy in films that can chop a guys head off with a machete.

Today we are talking about Contra.
Today.

(Credit to NintendoPlayer for the titlescreen)

Now, like Altered beast, it was originally an arcade game, however, it wouldn't become famous until it got an NES port.

They expected us to play some game of a word we never heard of? Bah! Thanks Wikipedia.

So once it was ported to the NES, it became an immediate success, making sure that the sequel be made on the NES.
Oh yeah, this thing got a FUCKTON of sequels. but only 4 have a nu-wait...

Huh, thats weird. Thanks Klustr/contra database.

Yeah, this game had a sequel called Super C. Technically this means Super Contra. It was released on arcades and nes like its predecessor. This game was pretty much meant to be contra's sequel, but many people were confused by the name so they generally ignored it.

This game later got a 3rd installment for the SNES. But i'm not gonna go too far down Contra's history. I didn't even get started on the game itself.

The gameplay was pretty much your generic left and right shooter, except it had something VERY unique over many NES games at the time.
2-player co-op.

You see, the NES was only off its babby legs and many games had a 2p mode like Mario. So when people heard contra had this, they all just wanted it.
Seriously, this game is kickass with 2 players. If you wanna play contra with me, i will absolutely join if i have free time.

But you may think that with a friend at your back, this game is easy.

NO.

Many people remember Contra for its Difficulty. You have only 3 lives, and 3 continues.
And one bullet.
One. Bullet.
Kills you. Period. Dead. Kaput, enjoy savengarde. But their was something hidden in this game that would pretty much be a must-have to people who just got the game.
Enter the Konami Code, a hidden code that Konami tends to smack into their games to offer an easier time to players.
Up up down down left right left right B A start and you get 30 lives, which sums up to 90 lives for you and your buddy, which can pretty much get you up to 180 wopping lives in one game.

daisies.

For the story, it starts with you having to go onto an island to destroy the Red falcon, an evil terrorist group.
Oh, wait, its a Terrorist ALIEN group.
Yeah, dem aliens always fucking with us.

Once you pretty much get through the whole base and dominate the red falcon, winning the game and destroying the base.

So once you beat the game, your considered a hero and a legacy is born.

So how did this game leave a mark? It was one of the first home-console games to even feature co-op without having to wait for your turn.
This game also proved that the NES could beat Arcade games.
And its in general an awesome game, must i say more? Everyone loves this game.

Ok, thats it for today, i might have left out some details and im sorry, but im very tired now and just can't sum up the effort to do this better. Terribly sorry.

Time for another segment of "Game of the Week"
Time to talk about pretty much the number one upstanding member of society in the world, he's been in some of the best and worst games to date. He's pretty much the fastest living fucker alive.
Do i even need to name him?
Today were talking about Sonic the hedgehog...2.

"But wait, why Sonic the hedgehog 2? Shouldn't you do the first one?"

To be honest, i only found Sonic the Hedgehog to be a testing bed for the coming Sonic the hedgehog 2, and i consider Sonic 2 to be the overall best in the classic era.
I mean, compare the 2 games together, when you look at them, its obvious Sonic 2 is the more refined one. Truly showing off Sonic in his golden glory.

So Lets start already.


(Thanks to Sonic News Network/Sonic Wiki)

So Sonic the hedgehog 2 follows the first one where Sonic Travels to his favorite vacation spot via Biplane, the Tornado.
Apparently Doctor fatass followed him.
So this game takes place on Westside island, apparently some ancient civilation used the Chaos emeralds here. I have no idea how they could seeing as how the things were stuck on Angel island back then. But Angel island wasn't created then. While their, Sonic finds a little fox named Tails being picked on by the others because of his famous dual-tails. Tails sees Sonic run by and ultimately follows him. Due to his 2 tails, he could run very fast and actually keep up with sonic back then. (Nowadays he can just boost and beat tails in a race).

Now hold da fuq up.

The first game Tails was in was in fact Sonic 2 for the Master System. So this all apparently takes place during this version of Sonic 2.

The Master System/Game Gear Sonic 2 box art.(Sonic News Network/Sonic Wiki)

So this means Sonic was with Tails at the time they went to westside island, right?
Enough with this story mumbo jumbo.

Lets look at sonic 2's Development which is by far the most interesting part of this game.

With Sonic the Hedgehog being a massive success, a sequel was a must. Sega didn't want to spearhead their golden game.

Then for some reason Sega created the Sega Technical Institute which was for those who were just getting into game development.
A little bonus fact, Craig Stitt, creator of Spyro the dragon, actually signed in a resume to join.

Around this time, Yuji had quit Sega, but joined STI for a better salary, a possible ferrari, and more executive power.

So with everything set, Sonic 2 began and was developed in America by STI, they chose to make a massive 18 level game featuring the older levels form sonic 1 with new twists.

Now enter the beta.

The Sonic 2 Beta is ridiculously popular amongst sonic fans.
A cartridge was stolen from Nick arcade while it was being shown in 2 episodes.

It was later leaked onto the internet and holds quite some interesting stuff...

A screenshot of Sonic 2's Hidden Palace(Sonic Retro)

Their were many beta levels, 2 only worked.
Hidden Palace
This was originally going to be a level that sonic would go to if he got all 7 chaos emeralds, he would earn his super sonic powers here. It featured dinosaur badniks. It also has the best music ever.



Wood Zone

A Screenshot of Sonic 2's Wood Zone(Sonic Retro)

This zone was cut due to it being bland.
Its music was a different version of Metropolis Zones that sounds like something out of Kid Chameleon.

Those were the only beta levels you could actually play. Its a shame they were removed.

However, their were many more beta levels that weren't even in the prototype, like Dust Hill, Rock Zone, Genocide City/Cyber City(the 3rd Metropolis act's beta), and winter zone.

Due to time constraints, their were only 8 levels and the rest were put on the chopping room floor.

Tommorow i will focus on part 2 of this game of the week, this is a very long development and a detailed game. Hope you all enjoyed this part, and excuse moments of laziness and incorrect details. I'll deal with them when i can.

Neat to know about the Wood Zone. I have to check that out with further details later.

Keep up with these ^~^

I would suggest a GotW but it seems like nobody on this forum has even heard of it. And it's an old motherfuckin' game too.

Dude I love playing the unheard of/unknown games of old.

I could whip up a large list of games right this moment.

Im planning for a game called "Little samson" for next week.
Its a forgotten game, don't worry.


PART 2 FOLKS!

So now that were out of development, into the game we go!

So Sonic 2 shows off the true potential of Sonic 2, with your first step into the game, you can say "Holy shit!".

The gameplay is like the past Sonic games, but introduces a new play element

The Super sonic spindash.

Aka the most overpowered move in any Sonic game.
Well, second.

Simply holding down and spamming the B button will cause sonic to turn into a ball, releasing it makes him dart off, this helps getting up slopes and what not.

Its pretty much the most useful thing, if you get hit, spindash, did you fall? spindash, stuck on that last part of Chemical plant?

Spindash.

So as i said in the last part, this game also introduces tails, you can in fact play as him via the second controller, he still retains his AI invulnerability, so try it out if you have a brother or something.

But it will get hectic.
Trust me.

So with Tails introduced, their is now a 2 player mode, but this is the weaker part of the game, the screens are stretched and flat.
The cool thing is that instead of those tiny-booty acts, the 2 player levels are the full acts from singleplayer, they also have their own 2 player music.

So what happened in the end is that Sonic 2 pretty much gave Sega more market share than Nintendo, for once, Nintendo wasn't at the top, and it was thanks to Sonic 2 that Sega had that market share.

Sonic 2 can be considered what legends are made of, it sold 6 million copies upon release, and well, thats it.

So that was small. I could talk about the zones in detail if anyone wants me to, im a nut when it comes to sonic so i could talk about them with ease.