16-Bit Blast Processing Heroes - Ecco, Vectorman, Ristar, Kid Chameleon, etc

[Berto]

That's ages away! I'm patient, but that's still a long time.

Why call it the Power Surge? They might as well call it the Sega Renaissance and marketed along with the Non-Sega games such as Alex Kidd DX and Streets of Rage 4.

Power Surge means a major comeback for the classic franchises.
Alex Kidd DX, Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash, and Wonder Boy: Dragon Trap weren't major comeback since they're a remake (added with new things), not a new game.
For SOR4, SEGA's actually marketed it again by bundling it with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.



But I understand they didn't put SOR4 in Power Surge since Power Surge already have Streets of Rage Revolution.

[Mystic Monkey]

Power Surge means a major comeback for the classic franchises.
Alex Kidd DX, Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash, and Wonder Boy: Dragon Trap weren't major comeback since they're a remake (added with new things), not a new game.
For SOR4, SEGA's actually marketed it again by bundling it with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.



But I understand they didn't put SOR4 in Power Surge since Power Surge already have Streets of Rage Revolution.

Still, how can Sega keep the hype? Power Surge was announced ages a go. At this point, these new games might as well be their own market than under a campaign.

[Berto]

A Fan Port of Phantasy Star II to SEGA Master System is in The Work!







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkPAMIm9oyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuXXFcOY8ig

xfixium: "Sega Master System version of Phantasy Star II work in progress. Bringing in everything from the original title, plus some additions:

Battles with backgrounds:
These will change based on the area you are in. Apparently the Master System has enough VRAM to pull this off. Color me surprised.

64 tiles for background
160 tiles for enemies
32 tiles for the party graphics
Second half of VRAM holds sprites and UI graphics
128 tiles for sprites or bg tiles (Attack animations mostly)
64 tiles for UI (No lowercased letters)

Jobs:
One of my complaints of the original is that they did not flesh out character interactions more. With the optional jobs that you can take on from Central, I'm hoping to display more of the characters personalities, and interactions. Making some jobs where you are required to have a specific hero to be in your party to complete. And yes, you will have to find a cake shop in a cave.

Other Notes:
An "AGES styled" menu will be available to set multipliers and difficulty. An alternative character available to fill in the hole Nei leaves behind. Also more discussion here."

Link : https://www.smspower.org/forums/19275-SMSPhantasyStarII?start=50

[Berto]

Still, how can Sega keep the hype? Power Surge was announced ages a go. At this point, these new games might as well be their own market than under a campaign.

The marketing's probably now done individually for each game.
I'm not even sure if they still kept the "Power Surge" branding now.
While I know Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was market heavily (there's even a booth for it in game/anime convention all over Asia and US last year), there's no mention of "Power Surge" word in them.

[Mystic Monkey]

The marketing's probably now done individually for each game.
I'm not even sure if they still kept the "Power Surge" branding now.
While I know Shinobi: Art of Vengeance was market heavily (there's even a booth for it in game/anime convention all over Asia and US last year), there's no mention of "Power Surge" word in them.

Maybe Sega overblown the hype then. They could've just made a video showcasing upcoming games as they are in a "Nintendo Direct" fashion, or given each game their own mini-trailer etc.

The "Power Surge" gave me the impression of a marketing campaign showcasing upcoming games that will be released roughly around same time. Just as "Fearless: Year of Shadow" was a marketing campaign to correspond with Shadow's debut in Sonic's third movie, by having Shadow-related content leading up to Sonic X Shadow Generations, all under the span of a year.

[Berto]

Maybe Sega overblown the hype then. They could've just made a video showcasing upcoming games as they are in a "Nintendo Direct" fashion, or given each game their own mini-trailer etc.

The "Power Surge" gave me the impression of a marketing campaign showcasing upcoming games that will be released roughly around same time. Just as "Fearless: Year of Shadow" was a marketing campaign to correspond with Shadow's debut in Sonic's third movie, by having Shadow-related content leading up to Sonic X Shadow Generations, all under the span of a year.

It's the game magazines / websites who overblowned them.
Unlike "Fearless: Year of Shadow" who constantly had events, contents, and collaborations, SEGA's literally just giving a trailer for Power Surge and answering some interviews, nothing more.

[Mystic Monkey]

It's the game magazines / websites who overblowned them.
Unlike "Fearless: Year of Shadow" who constantly had events, contents, and collaborations, SEGA's literally just giving a trailer for Power Surge and answering some interviews, nothing more.

So, Sega didn't intend the hype? I find that a bit hard to believe. I mean, they probably wanted to hype us up for attention and potential profit, and that's it.

[Berto]

So, Sega didn't intend the hype? I find that a bit hard to believe. I mean, they probably wanted to hype us up for attention and potential profit, and that's it.

They intend the hype of course, since it was released during TGA 2023, but they're not hyping the "Power Surge" brand name.
The hype is for for "classic games return" which is like an information that SEGA's bringing back some classic games.
After that it depended on which classic game you'll be interested in since each of them was made by different team.

[Berto]

Ecco the Dolphin's new game from the original creator has a countdown underway in its website

"It has been years in the making and we're honored to bring Ecco back," said Ed Annunziata, Chief Creative Officer of A&R Atelier.
"Ecco has always been more than a game about a dolphin - he's a bridge between worlds." Oh god, please let that be a reference to the aforesaid storyline and not a hint about some Netflix transmedia merchandising op. In general: please let A&R Atelier not be some kind of shady cash-in operation. I've never heard of them before and they don't have a proper website, at the time of writing.
We do already have some concrete indications of what those new Ecco projects are, concrete enough that the elusiveness of this week's announcement feels slightly weird. In an Xbox Wire post from May last year, Annunziata revealed that "me and the entire original team are going to Remaster the original Ecco the Dolphin and Tides of Time games. Then we will make a new, third game with contemporary play and GPU sensibilities." I also notice that the official Ecco the Dolphin site has a countdown on it, with approximately 2329 hours or 100 days to go.
While Ecco ...

Article: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/segas-beautiful-singing-boy-ecco-the-dolphin-is-getting-a-new-game-from-the-original-creator-with-a-countdown-underway

[Mystic Monkey]

They intend the hype of course, since it was released during TGA 2023, but they're not hyping the "Power Surge" brand name.
The hype is for for "classic games return" which is like an information that SEGA's bringing back some classic games.
After that it depended on which classic game you'll be interested in since each of them was made by different team.

So hype for... the sake of hyping?

Ecco the Dolphin's new game from the original creator has a countdown underway in its website



Article: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/segas-beautiful-singing-boy-ecco-the-dolphin-is-getting-a-new-game-from-the-original-creator-with-a-countdown-underway

I've been meaning to catch up with Ecco.
Which version of his games are better? Mega Drive or Sega CD?

[Berto]

So hype for... the sake of hyping?

That's nothing new, many game publishers have done similar thing.
A trailer for a release date trailer or gameplay trailer.
Announcement (Nintendo Direct trailer) for announcement (Nintendo Direct).

I've been meaning to catch up with Ecco.
Which version of his games are better? Mega Drive or Sega CD?

I'd say Mega CD version since it's a port from Mega Drive's version with better music (which Michael Jackson loves).

[Mystic Monkey]

That's nothing new, many game publishers have done similar thing.
A trailer for a release date trailer or gameplay trailer.
Announcement (Nintendo Direct trailer) for announcement (Nintendo Direct).

Yeah, but Nintendo Direct keeps it... well, direct. It doesn't hype the games up as a marketing campaign or the likes, just showcase upcoming games as they are.

I'd say Mega CD version since it's a port from Mega Drive's version with better music (which Michael Jackson loves).

Ah, OK. I was going to play it on Kega Fusion, but found out there were two versions and didn't know which is the better.

However, the ones I downloaded from romsfun.com didn't work because they were CHD format, so I found another site called Vimm's Lair, which had some roms in the "vault".

I downloaded Ecco, Tides of Time and Golden Axe Warrior.
But what's strange is, the control scheme of GAW seem a bit messed up. ↑ is left, ↓ is right, → is down, ← is up. B is attack, X is pause, Y is menu. However, keyboard arrow keys work fine, despite the emulator set to my Sega Saturn Pro Controller.
I figured, maybe Kega Fusion isn't made for the Pro Controller, but when I tried it with Ecco, the controller seem to work fine.

[Berto]

Yeah, but Nintendo Direct keeps it... well, direct. It doesn't hype the games up as a marketing campaign or the likes, just showcase upcoming games as they are.

That's not true. If you go to Nintendo groups on Facebook, every time a Direct's announced, fans are already excitedly speculating what's franchise's getting new game announced in there.

Ah, OK. I was going to play it on Kega Fusion, but found out there were two versions and didn't know which is the better.

However, the ones I downloaded from romsfun.com didn't work because they were CHD format, so I found another site called Vimm's Lair, which had some roms in the "vault".

I downloaded Ecco, Tides of Time and Golden Axe Warrior.
But what's strange is, the control scheme of GAW seem a bit messed up. ↑ is left, ↓ is right, → is down, ← is up. B is attack, X is pause, Y is menu. However, keyboard arrow keys work fine, despite the emulator set to my Sega Saturn Pro Controller.
I figured, maybe Kega Fusion isn't made for the Pro Controller, but when I tried it with Ecco, the controller seem to work fine.

That's strange, I never had any control problem playing GAW or any Master System games with M30 controller.
But I use BlastEm, it's the recommended emulator for Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System (though many said Kega Fusion is better for 32X/Sega CD).

[Mystic Monkey]

That's not true. If you go to Nintendo groups on Facebook, every time a Direct's announced, fans are already excitedly speculating what's franchise's getting new game announced in there.

Even before my detest with Meta, I kept off of FaceBook... Unless Google Images recommends me a funny picture.

That's strange, I never had any control problem playing GAW or any Master System games with M30 controller.
But I use BlastEm, it's the recommended emulator for Genesis/Mega Drive and Master System (though many said Kega Fusion is better for 32X/Sega CD).

I might trade up Kega for BlastEm and another 32X/Sega CD emulator. Though what I like about Kega Fusion is all in one app.

[Berto]

"Streets Of Rage 2: New Era" Fan-Made Project V3.1.0 Released



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYwFFz6QVCE

The fan-made project Streets of Rage 2: New Era has received a new update with the release of version 3.1.0, bringing further gameplay tuning and a handful of important fixes following the major 3.0.0 milestone.
This update focuses mainly on balance adjustments and polish. Enemy health scaling has been lowered when playing with multiple players, making co-op sessions feel fairer and more fluid. NKB attacks have also been adjusted to deal more damage, improving their usefulness in combat. On the technical side, several long-standing issues have been resolved, including broken control switches for control modes and rumble, a typo in the rumble description, and a visual bug that caused low-quality graphics when launching the game in fullscreen mode.
Version 3.1.0 builds on the foundation laid by v3.0.0, which introduced major additions such as online score leaderboards, speedrun time comparisons via speedrun.com, and the long-awaited addition of ...

Article : https://metalgamesolid.com/games/streets-of-rage-2-new-era-v3-1-0-released/