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Post by 108stars on Oct 8, 2012 19:23:12 GMT
Damn, what were those guys smoking?
82% for Fire & Forget II, Shadow of the Beast 80%... but 36% for Golden Axe Warrior? And what's with all the mixed up screenshots?
The guide is not completely rubbish, as the most popular games do get their deserved scores, but in case of GAW I just can't see how someone who doesn't hate action-adventures in general would not like this in 1991.
Shadow f the Beast on the other hand is a case I think where the UK tended to be very over-enthusiastic about a beautiful, homegrown product. The 16-bit versions looked amazing, but even they did not play very well... and the SMS-version doesn't improve the gameplay, nor does it have the beauty of the Amiga version. The 80% must come from watching Amiga screenshots and basing the score on that.
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Post by playgeneration on Oct 8, 2012 20:15:03 GMT
I think the fact the SMS version of Shadow of the Beast is a really good port of the original Amiga version is why it scores so well in magazines. But yeah it was never really a great game, interesting and atmospheric though.
I don't like that they have marked down Castle of Illusion and Sonic just so they could give their sequels higher scores. A sequel doesn't suddenly make the original any worse, especially in the case of Sonic 2.
How they can slate Outrun Europa and even recommend buying Fire and Forget II instead is beyond me.
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Post by 108stars on Oct 8, 2012 20:24:27 GMT
What was the most popular Sega related maazine back in the day in the UK? Was it Mean Machines?
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Post by Transatlantic Foe on Oct 8, 2012 21:03:16 GMT
Shadow of the Beast is style over substance. Whilst a memorisation-based game like R-Type can be enjoyable, I really don't know who played Shadow of the Beast without a walkthrough and enjoyed it. Style aside, it's an average platform/adventure with seriously obnoxious trial and error memoriser traits. It got awesome reviews all over the place.
Mean Machines was multiformat originally, then split to be Mean Machines Sega later. Don't know if it held up to Sega Force and Sega Pro - the latter had regular price swings depending on what was the cover gift, if I remember rightly.
I am enjoying going through my old GamesMaster mags. It seems that anything shooting based got a raw deal in the early 90s purely because reviewers were fed up of playing new shooters. Then a bunch of really shallow FMV or 3D things make them gawp and mess themselves in excitement for the graphics. 90s reviews are pretty odd.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Oct 8, 2012 21:39:04 GMT
Shadow f the Beast on the other hand is a case I think where the UK tended to be very over-enthusiastic about a beautiful, homegrown product. Happens in every country. German magazines also tend to overrate german video games. But the Master System version of Shadow of the Beast isn't that bad. It has a bit more substance, the gameplay is better and i get the impression that Reflections tried to make a better game out of it. It's not great by any means (and the MM rating is a joke as i mentioned before) but it isn't a horrible game either. What was the most popular Sega related maazine back in the day in the UK? Was it Mean Machines? Judging by longevity i would say Sega Power (was published from 1989 to 1997). I have a few PDFs and it seems like a pretty good magazine, way better than the mess Mean Machines* is or Sega Pro (horrible magazine, that, with a very bad translation was also sold here in Germany) Mean Machines later split into two Magazines: Mean Machines Sega and Nintendo Magazine System, ignoring all the other systems they reviewed before (like the Turbografx) It's interesting that this seemed to happen quite a lot with british magazines. Sega Force was split up into Sega Master Force (who thought a Master System only magazine was a good idea to start in August 1993?) and Sega Force Mega. I don't like that they have marked down Castle of Illusion and Sonic just so they could give their sequels higher scores. A sequel doesn't suddenly make the original any worse, especially in the case of Sonic 2. Yeah but that's pretty common by video game magazines around the world. The reason is always "The Sequel has better graphics and improves on the gameplay" which sometimes is the truth but in the case of Sonic 2, i think the prequel outbids it in terms of music (Sonic 1 has music by Yuzo Koshiro), the graphics (despite the slow-downs) and level design.
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Post by lambrettadave on Oct 9, 2012 7:47:27 GMT
I use to buy sega power very good reviews for the master system. CV and G wasnt to bad either as a multi format magazine.
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Post by kungfukid on Oct 16, 2012 16:29:45 GMT
I've got this too, though it is falling apart a bit having had it quite a while. Personally my favourite magazine at the time was aways Sega Force (before the split), and then Sega Master Force during its brief existence.
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Post by lambrettadave on Dec 8, 2012 12:17:36 GMT
Nice work, certainly more professional than whoever put the magazine together! Horrendous mistakes with screenshots. Some Mega Drive ones in there, Gauntlet (with its title mistakenly switched with Ghouls 'n Ghosts) has shots from Gain Ground, Golden Axe shots for Golden Axe Warrior, the same two for Strider and brilliantly one upside down for Xenon 2. Plus: Land of Illusion Screenshots at Castle of Illusion and Super Monaco Grand Prix 1 Screenshots in the review for the Sequel. Alien Storm has Screenshots of the Mega Drive version and the second Columns Screenshot is also from a different version of the game. Looks like they didn't waste much time producing that Guide. Anyway, i just have to rant on that magazine: When i was rampant collecting gaming mags in pdf last year (ending up with about 120 gigabytes ;D) i came across Mean Machines and while i knew some Mean Machine review scans from that MM-archive, reading the complete issues left me speachless. The layout is all over the place, the 'reviews' are short as the 80% of the pages are just screenshots randomly placed over each else, it's like a bunch of kindergarten children high on coffee and sugar were let loose on the layout. The reviews were extremely short, usually only about 5-6 sentences and then came the ratings... I mean: G-Loc: 82% Fire & Forget 2: 82% Galaxy Force: 85% Impossible Mission: 94% Super Kick Off: 96% (highest rated master system game by them!) Speedball 2: 88% Prince of Persia: 91% Indiana Jones and the last Crusade: 85% Xenon 2: 84% while: Ms. Pac Man 31% GP Rider: 34% Golden Axe Warrior 46% (and you have to love that: "Urrr! Golden Axe was a brilliant Sega cart, but the idea to turn the concept into a role-playing game is simply a bad idea. I can imagine many people buying this game with the idea that they're getting a sequel to the best beat 'em up on the Sega. They're not. What they are getting is one of the most boring games I've played on the Sega lately. The adventuring aspect is tedious and progress is hampered by the absurd combat section - it's simply too hard and stabbing at a number of malformed sprites isn't my idea of fun by a long chalk. With its mind-numbing sound and tedious gameplay, I find it hard to recommend this to any self-respecting Sega owner.") I really wonder what drugs those people took... Sorry to drag up old thread but..... Do you still have your mags in PDF and if so which ones?
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Post by ShadowAngel on Dec 26, 2012 18:54:39 GMT
Sorry to drag up old thread but..... Do you still have your mags in PDF and if so which ones? Every issue of Mean Machines and Mean Machines Sega (about 5.8 gigabytes). I downloaded them from Underground Gamer, a torrent site that has tons of old video game magazines and books from all around the world
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Post by Retrobob on Dec 26, 2012 21:33:55 GMT
Downloading now, thanks SA.
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Post by ShadowAngel on Dec 26, 2012 23:08:29 GMT
Downloading now, thanks SA. No problem, i actually forgot to mention another source (because i haven't visited it in ages, it doesn't seem to be updated anymore) which may be a bit easier and faster than registration and torrent use: www.wuala.com/C64-Base/Zeitschriften/Englisch/?key=kgkDBxDGlldTSince it's in german i give you guys a bit of navigation: click on "Sonstige Computersysteme1". Under Sega you will only find "Sega Computer" (A very interesting Magazine from New Zealand that ran between 1984 and 1987, it deals mostly with programming) but if you click on "Konsolen" you will find Mean Machines, Mean Machines Sega and some other magazines. It's a direct download, you can have 4 downloads at the same time and they should run at maximum speed. And also click on "Commodore (Teil 2)" as it features multi-platform magazines like "Computer & Video Games" (until mid-1992) and "Retro Gamer"
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Post by lambrettadave on Dec 27, 2012 7:44:19 GMT
Downloading now, thanks SA. No problem, i actually forgot to mention another source (because i haven't visited it in ages, it doesn't seem to be updated anymore) which may be a bit easier and faster than registration and torrent use: www.wuala.com/C64-Base/Zeitschriften/Englisch/?key=kgkDBxDGlldTSince it's in german i give you guys a bit of navigation: click on "Sonstige Computersysteme1". Under Sega you will only find "Sega Computer" (A very interesting Magazine from New Zealand that ran between 1984 and 1987, it deals mostly with programming) but if you click on "Konsolen" you will find Mean Machines, Mean Machines Sega and some other magazines. It's a direct download, you can have 4 downloads at the same time and they should run at maximum speed. And also click on "Commodore (Teil 2)" as it features multi-platform magazines like "Computer & Video Games" (until mid-1992) and "Retro Gamer" gona download them CU amiga mags thanks ever so much for replying and providing. seasonal greetings
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Post by Retrobob on Dec 27, 2012 15:47:45 GMT
I've got those MM mags now, seeding away so please help yourselves.
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Post by lambrettadave on Jan 9, 2013 9:48:20 GMT
Nice work, certainly more professional than whoever put the magazine together! Horrendous mistakes with screenshots. Some Mega Drive ones in there, Gauntlet (with its title mistakenly switched with Ghouls 'n Ghosts) has shots from Gain Ground, Golden Axe shots for Golden Axe Warrior, the same two for Strider and brilliantly one upside down for Xenon 2. I downloaded Mean Machines Sega and them mags were a mess too, wernt worth the money. however Mean Machines was alittle better sort of a console version of CV&G.
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jono
Transbot
Posts: 15
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Post by jono on Jan 12, 2013 2:46:01 GMT
I have this guide also, and have read it cover-to-cover many a time. Aside from the rather obvious screen-shot mix-ups I think it’s a pretty dam good read.
Whilst I don’t agree with every single review in this guide I do find all the negative comment s about it highly amusing, particularly seeing as Mean Machines was the best-selling console magazine at the time (alongside CVG) – oh, and it outlasted Sega Power and Sega Force by many-a issues (and didn’t change staff members half as frequently), but that’s only if you include the various spin-off mags, otherwise Mean Machines and Sega Power were pretty head-to-head in terms of printing duration.
I also think that the rating for SCI is more than fair; I mean who would want to pay 30 quid for a game you can complete within an hour (tops!). Fair enough if you picked the game up for a fiver, but at the time is wasn’t a budget release so I think the marks are about spot on.
Though I will admit that 85% for Indiana Jones and the last Crusade is quite insane – that game is terrible (reminds me of poorly programed C64 games)
91% for Prince of Persia is also crazy; I am a huge fan of the (original) Prince of Persia and this has to be the stiffest, most cumbersome port I have ever played.
As for the Shadow of the Beast Score, well it was one of the UK’s best-selling games on the Amiga a year or so prior, so is it really that surprising that the 8-bit console counterpart that eliminated the tedious Amiga load-times scored 80%? Not really. I not saying it’s a great game though it was MASSIVE upon its initial release.
- Jono
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