• Tag Archives Renovation
  • Valis III (Sega Genesis)

    Valis III (Sega Genesis)

    http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/164435207362/kidchameleonmd-valis-iii

    Valis III was originally released for the PC Engine CD-ROM2 (TurboGrafx-CD) in 1990 and then for the Mega Drive (Sega Genesis) in 1991. In North America, that release order was reversed for some reason. The Genesis version came out in 1991 while the TurboGrafx-CD version came out in 1992.

    Valis III is a side-scrolling adventure game in which the player can switch between several characters. Since the Genesis version was not CD based like the TurboGrafx-CD version, certain compromises were made. Most of the cut scenes were removed from the Genesis version and several levels were removed (though one new level was added). Both versions are well regarded but the TurboGrafx-CD version is a little better because of the differences mentioned. In Japan, the PC Engine version was released in emulated form for Windows in 2007.

    You can see the box art for both the Japanese and North American releases of the Sega Genesis version of the game above. I’m not sure why they changed the anime style art to what seems to me to be far more generic artwork for the North American Release. Artwork aside, this is definitely a game you should add to your collection if you have either a Genesis or TurboGrafx-CD (or Turbo Duo).

    As far as North American releases, the first two Valis games were also released on the Genesis while the fourth was released on the Super Nintendo. All were also available for the PC Engine in Japan.





  • Gaiares

    Gaiares

    If you are a fan of horizontal shooters, then Gaiares is the game for you. It was released by Renovation for the Sega Genesis in 1990. It was one of the first 8Mb cartridges for the Genesis and was probably the best shooter for the Genesis at that time.

    The title Gaiares is a combination of “Gaia” meaning Earth and “res” which is short for rescue. The game is set in the year 3000 and most of Earth has become a toxic dump. Some bad guys are trying to harvest some of the toxic pollution to create WMDs. A third party warns Earth about these guys and tells them that if Earth can stop them then they will help clean the place up. If not, they’re just going to blow up the planet to stop the bad guys themselves.

    Gaiares has a few features that are quite unique. For instance, instead of collecting weapons as power ups, your ship learns the weapons of enemies it shoots. There are 18 different weapons in the game that can be captured and these each have various strengths. While many of the levels show obvious influences from other games like Gradius, there are unique visual elements as well, including many of the bosses. The bosses are huge and often take up nearly the whole sceen. There is also significant use of parallax scrolling. These features combine to make this a visually impressive game.

    If there is a downside to Gaiares, it is that it is a relatively difficult game. This is not for the neophyte shooter fan and you will have to spend some pretty long hours to beat it, some of them no doubt frustrating. Having said that, veteran shooter fans may look forward to the challenge.

    There have been no sequels or re-releases of this game that I am aware of. You will have to either hunt down an original cartridge which isn’t cheap (currently loose carts start at around $50) or play it on an emulator. For shooter fans, this game is well worth it though.