Football season got started in earnest yesterday, and probably left some of you still hungry for more pigskin. If so: Eat pork rinds, they're delicious. If you want more football though, the Virtual Console has you covered. Imagine: Football in video game form.
NES Play Action Football (NES, 1-4 players, 500 Wii Points): The press release from Nintendo touts a "distinct overhead viewpoint" creating an "almost 3-D field." Also, there eight available teams with "multiple running/passing plays" and "a wide selection of defensive schemes."! Madden who?
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): If you think about it, in many ways, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is exactly like football. You run as fast as your can always trying to collect rings. And Dr. Robotnik kind of looks like a bald Mike Ditka. Also, you're competing against an echidna that you eventually befriend. ... Just like football.
Neutopia II (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Despite what we will occasionally put on mortgage applications, we are not scientists. But we think that Neutopia is scientifically the polar opposite of football. That's so much the case that we feel free from tying it to our theme, and can instead just say that this game wants to be Zelda so bad that it's considering seeing Dr. 90210 for ear extensions.
So is it the complete "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" or just "Sonic3"...? I disliked having to buy two cartridges back in the 16bit days and the gimmicked "snap on other cartridges" for Knuckles or that dumb globe special stage(the best one was in Sonic2 or Sonic 3D Blast for Saturn).
I remember the special stage in Sonic 2, it was great! Eventually I was able to get all the chaos emeralds by the end of chemical plant zone and blast through the rest of the game in about 10 mins as super sonic! Good times.
My tiny 9 year old brain thought that the "lock-on" technology was the greatest thing invented since Earth itself. I remember plugging every Genesis game I had into Sonic & Knuckles.
Anyway despite the gimmick, Sonic & Knuckles is and will always be the greatest Sonic game...EVER.
I may be the only person on the planet who prefers Neutopia to Neutopia II. N2 is objectively probably better, but the first game, IMHO, has more responsive controls and overall superior gameplay. Being able to walk in eight directions SHOULD be superior, but in practice, not so much, IMHO.
I felt the same way about Dungeon Explorer II, they made some changes, and they weren't all for the better.
I prefer Neutopia as well. It is in some respects better than even Zelda. Great game. Reminds me of Summer of 1991. I played it all summer while on break.
The Neutopia series is almost like a bridge between the original Zelda and the Zeldas that came later on the Gameboy and SNES. The later Zeldas have a lot more interaction with NPCs, and little mini games and stuff, whereas Neutopia and N2 are pretty much straight up action adventure games. You make your way through the overworld, find the dungeon, and beat the boss. It doesn't get any more complicated than that, and that's just how I like it :D
and by the way, I used to hate the sonic3 globe bonus stages, but I came to like it. I feel there is a much greater sense of speed than the sonic2 halfpipe.
Damn, it took them ages to get Neutopia up and Neutopia II shows up only a couple weeks later. Between Bioshock and Metroid Prime 3 I haven't even had a chance to snag the first one yet. It's good to know that whenever the next drought starts there'll be plenty of solid VC titles to play. I've gotta grab Super Metroid also.
