This is a game I’ve wanted for a long time. It’s been hard to get simply because it’s expensive. If I were to guess I think it might be because Dahna never made it outside of Japan. And that is part of why I’ve wanted this game. I enjoy experiencing games that were exclusive to Japan. I feel like I’m finally getting a taste of some of the things I missed out on.
I actually had this game back in the day on my Mega Disk which is how I knew about it. I really liked the game but the floppy I had it on failed and Dahna and I were parted before I was ready. Now so many years later I have it again; properly. 🙂
Dahna
Dahna is a platformer and it controls reasonable well. The only thing I have trouble with are her three stances. You can stand, crouch and go prone. From standing you can push down and she’ll crouch, push down again from a crouched position and she’ll go prone… and then pressing up will cycle back through the three positions. Sometimes when I’m smashing the joystick a bit much I get stuck in a position I didn’t want. But really this is not an issue I just need more practice.
Despite not doing anything really well you can do some cool stuff. Jumping is well done and you have an upward thrust attack, you have magic and you can ride various mounts like horses and giants.
It’s a good fun game but not worth the typical price tag that I’ve seen it for. Dahna cost me $50 (including shipping). I’ve been looking for a good long while and I’ve never seen it complete and in good shape for less than $40. For me this is one I’ll play and enjoy having in the collection.
Two close friends of mine surprised me yesterday with this gift. After spending a few hours helping them demolish their garage (not yet complete) they gave me this 20th Anniversary Sonic the Hedgehog. He’s really well done. He looks spot on perfect and he’s also very pose-able.
Sonic Unwrapped
I’m sure it’s pretty hard to design a toy based off a character that was only ever 2 dimensional but Jazwares Inc. did a great job with this Sonic figure.
Sonic’s New Home
Sonic in The Sega Collection
I knew exactly where I wanted to place Sonic and I think he looks great in his new home. He adds a little splash of colour and he’s through and through SEGA. He’s perfect.
One thing I did notice after placing him is that I have a lot of white space around the collection and all of a sudden it looks a little barren. The games look great but there is some room to dress things up a little. I’ll work on this over time.
I find it ironic/funny that I got this gift just one day after I posted a comment stating that Jon doesn’t give a damn about my Sega Collection! It’s still might be true but regardless I am feel’in the love.
But back to the main point of this post. Thank you two for this very cool gift! I’m already really enjoying my Sonic 🙂
Without any consideration for cost or space or any other important detail I ran out and doubled the capacity of the collection by buying another book shelf and a TV stand.
The first image shows the additions after they were mostly assembled. The TV stand is supposed to have two drawers on the bottom but I modified it to be just shelves. At some point I might add an additional two shelves to divide the space under the TV stand but for now this will do.
Expansion Phase One
Expansion Phase Two
Phase two was more fun. I decided to use the left for the Japanese Mega Drive games and the right for Genesis games. The Master System and Mark III games took the bottom two shelves of both cabinets.
When I first moved the games I tried to spread them out evenly on each shelf but it didn’t look dense like when everything was packed into a single book shelf (obviously). I didn’t like how thin the collection looked so I filled whichever shelves I could. After this there were four empty shelves. I had enough Mega Drives games to make two look somewhat used and only enough Genesis games to do the same for one of the empty shelves on the second book cabinet. In the second picture you can see one empty Genesis shelf and it wont be hard to spot the other three that are mostly empty. But I once again have room to grow and I’m pretty happy with the new look so far.
The furniture is real wood and came from Ikea. The Book Shelf cost $145.00 plus tax and the TV Stand was $120.00 plus tax. I’m happy with the look and quality and I don’t think I could have done much better for the money. (The first bookshelf, which is identical, cost me $200 plus tax a year and a half ago)
Yes, an actual TV and a gaming system or two are missing! I’m working on that. I’m also close to doing my first Genesis mod. When it came time for dremel to meet plastic I got a bit shy.
There are some games that I really want in the collection.
I’ve started noticing that a lot of these games are the earlier releases from when I was most into my Genesis. Shadow Dancer is definitely one of those games. It’s a great game from a great series. The mechanic of your companion dog was really well done. It wasn’t over powered but still very useful. You could set your dog on an enemy and while the enemy was busy wrestling with the dog he wasn’t able to do anything else allowing you to easily take him out. This is a very good game.
This copy is in excellent condition and cost me $20 including shipping.
I’ve surprised myself at how pleased I am with these three new additions. Because of the language barrier I wouldn’t be able to play two of them and the third is unofficially ranked as the worst Sega Mega Drive/Genesis game ever… So why am I excited about these additions?
First, they’re were cheap and they are all in Excellent condition. Yay! Second, they all have pretty good artwork. And finally (and oddly) I found a positive review about Sword of Sodan on Sega-16.com that does a great job painting an entirely different impression of what is commonly thought of as a horrible game (more on that below the screen shots).
Rent a Hero looks like it could be a very cool game. I’ve read that it is a RPG that uses the Phantasy Star 2 engine but the combat is real time and similar to 2D fighting games. Sounds very interesting! I believe there is translated ROM lurking around the Internet. I might have to check it out.
Super Hydlide is a RPG that I almost bought back in the day. I loved the cover art so much I found it very hard to resist. A good friend was able to talk me down and save me from some disappointment. To this day I don’t know if Super Hydlide is bad or if it would have just been too complex for me as a kid… But now when cover art is enough I finally have this one for the Mega Drive side of my collection.
Rent a Hero
Super Hydlide
Sword of Sodan
Rent a Hero – $8.00
Super Hydelide – $5.00
Sword of Sodan – $10.00
Plus $14.00 for shipping (approx $12 per game)
Now, back to Sword of Sodan. I had never played this game and from all I read and what I saw of it on youtube I was ready to agree with the common consensus that it sucked really very hard. Then when browsing Sega-16.com I found a fans lengthy comments about his experience with Sword of Sodan and I was impressed. Not with the game but this gamers point of view and ability to explain the mechanics of the game and all the details that everyone else seemed to have missed.
Brothers and sisters, I am now among the few, the proud, the “WTF-is-wrong-with-you?”: for scarcely an hour ago, I beat Sword of Sodan on its highest difficulty setting. That is, Normal difficulty, three starting lives, and using the guy character — whose name is, I kid you not, “Brodan”.
Jokes aside, I think the game is far better than its reputation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s got loads of problems, and I totally understand why people are frustrated and annoyed by it. It also didn’t help that the game defaults to the hardest difficulty setting — it makes the first level almost unplayable, at least without a lot of experience and patience.
But it seems like Sword of Sodan is yet another entry in the long line of offbeat games with strange controls, and apparently high difficulty, that get trashed relentlessly as “worst game ever” (paging Bokosuka Wars)…but which, if you actually take the time to learn their idiosyncracies, are totally playable and even fun. I’ve gotten to the point where, on any setting except Normal/Brodan, I can beat the game at least 50% of the time.
I think I even…am I allowed to say this here?…likeSword of Sodan. A lot of people complain about the stiff animation, but it doesn’t bother me at all — it’s as if I’m playing a medieval painting come to life. And I like the fact that there’s no music during the levels, it’s a welcome change from all the in-your-face Poochie power-chord bullshit that plagues so many games from the early 1990s.
For the record, I want to dispel a few myths and misunderstandings about Sword of Sodan:
“You have to crotch-stab everyone” – Totally not true, and a really bad strategy to boot. The overhead (Up+C) and thrust (Forward+C) attacks are the key to this game, and 99% of the time, they’re the only attacks you’ll use.
“The pits in Level 5 are invisible” – Again, not true, they’re just concealed. If you look at the backgrounds closely, there’s a little divot in the stone floor that shows you exactly where they are. Almost everyone gets this wrong, including the guy who wrote the GameFAQs walkthrough, but kudos to the Sega-16 reviewer who gets it right.
“The hit detection sucks” – OK, it kinda does, but at least it’s consistent. Once you learn where the hit boxes are on your enemies, they’re pretty reliable.
“It’s unbelievably gay” – I can’t really argue with that, because it’s easily one of the most homoerotic games I’ve ever played, on a par with NES Ring King even. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld saying “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”) I’d normally assume it was all unintentional, but when even the programmer bio in the manual says that “he may be on Uranus”, you really start to wonder. Actually, I think it’d be totally awesome if the whole game was deliberate camp; maybe John Waters could direct a sequel? “Sword of Sodan 2: The Battle of Baltimore!”
Having said that, there are two things that 100% suck in this game, at least if you’re playing on Normal difficulty. One is the first level, which is relatively easy with Shardan (the girl), but a nightmare with the guy, who doesn’t have enough reach to match the pikemen; a flaming sword (ahem) is the only answer here. The other one is the giant soldiers at the start of Level 5 where, unless you have an orange potion or a shield, it’s basically impossible to kill them if they double up on you.
There are some other things missing from the GameFAQs walkthrough, and I’ve thought about either emailing the author, or writing a second walkthrough of my own. For example, you can get through Level 4 (the zombie level) without taking a hit, simply by immediately jumping to the far right side of the screen and attacking repeatedly. Done correctly, it works every time: the zombies never have a chance, because you push them offscreen faster than the scrolling can catch up.
There’s a warp in Level 5, triggered by falling into the third pit (IIRC), that sends you straight to Level 6 and bypasses the rest of the giant soldiers. And in the final boss battle, you can actually drive him backwards just by kneeling right next to him! I also think he has some sort of regeneration timer — sometimes I’ve had to kill him three or four times before he changes into the wizard form, but if I do a lot of damage quickly, it only takes one cycle. (The occasional audio chime might have something to do with this? Not sure.)
So…anyone else out there who’ll stand up for this much-maligned but lovable freak of a game?
If you grew up in the ’90s in North America, you most likely have memories of the FBI logo screen and slogan “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” in most arcade games. Indeed, it has become a cultural icon of the time, although now merely relegated to a retro and sarcastic saying (Major League Baseball proved this false). At the time, it was on the forefront of the very serious War on Drugs… which in retrospect is sort of ridiculous.
However, to really get that arcade feeling, the kind people at Electronics Arts added a unique Easter egg for players looking for a quick fix. During the game, if you drink one of each kind of potion at the same time, your character’s chest bursts open and you fall to the ground, dying. Text appears that reads “Winners don’t do drugs.”
I’ve wanted the Final Zone the Genesis version of FZ Axis for a long while. It’s one of the few examples where the Genesis had different artwork but was also good. Good game, good artwork and very good condition. It’s a nice one for the collection.
Final Zone
Atomic Runner strikes me as an old style video game that managed to find it’s way to the Genesis. Similar to some of the Wonder Boy games where the levels always move to the right forcing the pace of the game. It’s also a one hit and you’re done game. I played it for a bit and it is very hard! It’s in very good condition and looks pretty good for the collection.
I know stopxwhispering over at retro-video-gaming is getting ready to post a review for this one but I’m guessing she still hasn’t beaten it; which for stopxwhispering is a prerequisite for her review. Good luck with this one! It’s a real challenge.
Atomic Runner
Global Gladiators is a franchised McDonald’s game. I wouldn’t have considered it except it was very cheap, complete and in excellent condition. The graphics are surprisingly good.
Global Gladiators
One of my main interests here is Land Stalker and unfortunately it’s not in as good shape as I thought it would be. I’d say the condition is good and I was expecting very good. I went back to the sellers pictures and there is no fault there. Sometimes pictures can be misleading. It’s a very good game but for the money I wish it was in better shape.
Land Stalker
Batman Forever was cheap and in excellent condition. <– That’s a big weakness of mine. But the game play is horrible. Global Gladiators is much much better.
Batman Forever
Final Zone – $24.95
Atomic Runner- $19.95
Global Gladiators – $5.95
Land Stalker- $29.95
Batman Forever – $8.95
Plus $3 for shipping. It wasn’t actually three but I was able to work out a deal and the seller took it out of the shipping cost. ($18.55 per game)
Dahna
Retro Megabit 