THE FORGOTTEN
CONSOLE
SEGA'S FAILED ATTEMPT STILL HAS MANY GAMES
WORTH YOUR TIME
Chris Olewicz
T
12
Lunar: The
Silver Star
he Sega CD was
the first of two peripherals designed to
extend the life of the
Sega Mega Drive. The
second was the 32X,
which boosted the
power of the console
to something near the
power of the Sega Saturn and was meant as
a crossover product for
those who wouldn’t be
able to afford the cost
of the Mega Drive’s
successor. The latter
was never successful,
and produced few
games worth talking
about beyond their
novelty value.
Though it never took
off in Japan, the Sega
CD sold just over 2 million units worldwide.
Sales were hampered
by the high launch
price, and the fact that
only two games were
initially available. In
hindsight, the proliferation of mediocre FMV
games in the peripheral’s early days damaged its reputation,
given their limited long
term appeal. Other
criticisms included the
number of games that
were merely Mega
Drive rehashes upgraded to CD format,
and the slow loading
times associated with
video clips.
In spite of this, there
are plenty of interesting
games worth playing
from this era of Sega’s
history. Here are five to
get you started.
tion,
and
Rise
of the Dragon
(1993)
our
palette is
washed in a green
tinge – but the addition
of a good voice cast,
including Cam Clarke
as Blade, really helps
maintain a dark atmosphere.
Lunar: The Silver
Star (1992)
T
he influence of
1980s sci-fi movies
such as Blade Runner and Terminator on
game designers cannot
be overstated. Rise of
the Dragon, a 1990
adventure, was one of
two games by Dynamix to receive a conversion.
A cyberpunk thriller, Rise of the Dragon casts you as Blade
Hunter, a detective
hired to solve the mysterious death of the
mayor’s daughter at
the hands of a mutilating designer drug, and
to rid the city of a mysterious Chinese cult.
The game runs in real
time over the course of
two days, and it is quite
easy to run out of time.
The Sega CD version
has its flaws – the col-
t ho u g h
the plot
is fairly generic, it has
enough interesting
twists to keep the player interested, in part
due to the inclusion
of high quality anime
cutscenes. The English
conversion, produced
by Working Designs,
has long been hailed
as the benchmark for
translating Japanese
games. A sequel, Lunar: Eternal Blue, was
also well received, despite being set 1000
years after the first
game.
Robo Aleste
(1992)
T
he Mega Drive was
always more popular in Europe than
its native Japan, but
this game became its
highest-selling title in its
home country, and the
second highest worldwide after Sonic CD,
reportedly selling its
entire production run of
100,000 copies in the
first year of its release.
Developed by Game
Arts, Lunar was a conscious effort to create
a game that focussed
on storytelling over ac-
W
hat
happens
when you blend
Mecha (giant robots)
with Japanese samurai
folklore? You get Robo
Aleste. The sequel to