Andee

Zero Wing passed me by on the Mega Drive, and to this day I've still never played it — Hellfire I really remember enjoying, but it didn't have quite the style and finesse of Thunderforce 3 and 4

@Axelay71 Yes, this a thousand times. Luckily some are available to purchase (Ape Escape, Syphon Filter), but not all.

@GlasgowGuy It is bonkers that Ridge Racer, arguably the game that most people owned, and associated with the original Playstation, isn't available to purchase/download.

I was but an Amstrad person, but luckily there was plenty of crossover with the Speccy, many of which played identically across both platforms — can't beat a bit o' Dizzy!

@Axelay71 Mean Machines kicked monkey ass!

"A revamped hit-stun to allow for more stylish combos"

That was a deal-breaker for me in the original game, that it was not possible to chain moves together — there were a couple of moves that hit twice, but Street-Fighter esque combos were off the menu.

I know I'm probably missing the point here, but wouldn't it be ace if M2/Sega released these games digitally on modern consoles? I know a lot of them are already available, but I'd love to have all of these (and the ones on the previous model) on my Switch, in one place.

Still chipping away at Phoenotopia Awakening — man that game is vast; just wish the fast travel was a bit better implemented, done SO much backtracking so far...

@belmont yeah, that tracks — the characters in those games were pretty huge, and if memory serves, there was no flicker apparent. Played like an absolute dog, mind.

Interesting fact about the Master System version — the characters used background tiles rather than sprites, hence why it had a super choppy, "grid-like" look to it, but it eliminated sprite flicker and slowdown.

I really wish Sega would make the arcade versions of Golden Axe 1 and 2 available on current gen consoles; am I right in thinking there's some rights issues with some of the voice samples they nicked from Rambo/Predator?

I'd like to hear the original Count Basie ending theme music.

Can we puh-leeese get a re-release of the original arcade version of GA1 and Revenge of Death Adder? I don't know if the sequel ever made it to consoles, and I believe the original is stuck in limbo because it uses voice samples from Rambo/Conan... 😓

@GravyThief The original skin-peeling skull animation was the stuff of (k)nightmares — well, most of the show was. I used to think if you died in the show, you died for real.

@Ristar24 Yeah, the Amstrad/Speccy (double sided tape!) game was not great — outside of the helmet it bore almost no resemblance to the show — and yeah, I could never get beyond the second room.

Solid list — I'd probably swap out FFVII for FFIX and WO 2097 for Wip3out as my personal faves from those series.

Also, no Ape Escape? For shame...

@Hikingguy absolutely — 2D graphics had finally come to a point where you could get a faithful arcade-style experience in the home.

Then again, the 3D games we got at the time felt more like a lot of developers experimenting and finding their feet, so maybe we needed that period for them to figure things out, rather than waiting for the technology to catch up with their ambition.

Yup, this ^ — I'm hoping the Cowabunga Collection will inspire Konami to release some of their other licensed titles, and it's not like Disney don't like money.

Some absolute bangers on this list — for my money...

• Flashback
• Dynamite Headdy
• Desert/Jungle Strike
• Wonder Boy in Monster World
  ...are the cream of the crop

@Fizza Yuzo Koshiro is an absolute legend - he made that Mega Drive sound chip sing.

Ooo that's tough... Personally It'd have to be a 3.5-way tie between SF2 Champion/Turbo, Alpha 3, and the original version of 4, as those were the ones I was exposed to the most. Didn't play any of the III series until years later on PS3

I would love to see a reprint of the original Mean Machines — and with only 24 issues, I don't think it'd be that unfeasible