I wouldn’t count Space Harrier as one of my very favourites, but this classic shoot ‘em up has still left its mark on me. I now fully appreciate the dangers of mushrooms – countering Mario’s pro-fungus propaganda – and every time I see a large fluffy dog I sing the Bonus Stage music to myself. I actually just learnt that the opening phrase isn’t “welcome to the family, people” but “welcome to the Fantasy Zone”! You really do learn something new every day.

The sheer number of bizarre enemies in Space Harrier was without parallel until the Keio series started, with bouncing mushrooms, deadly Moai statues and reflective metallic… things. The dragon bosses stand out as great encounters, the original red dragon even being resurrected as a minigame in Sumo Digital’s recent Sega Superstars Tennis. It’s had quite a few good home conversions, the best of course being on Saturn’s Sega Ages Volume 1 (shame we never got Volume 2!), but make sure you avoid the 3D debacle on Sega Classics Collection for PS2. It burns!

Recently Tez Okana teased us with the prospect of a brand new Space Harrier, claiming that any future projects (including a new Fantasy Zone!) hinge on the sales performance of underwhelming PS2 shooter ThunderForce VI. I’m not holding my breath, but as always the promise of a new take on an old classic brings with it so  many conflicting emotions. Don’t mess this up, Sega!

I remember getting Shinobi on the Master System as one of my first games, and it still stands up as one of my favourite in the series. As an arcade conversion it’s hardly 100% accurate, but as an action platformer it excels in its own right. There’s more thought involved in the home version, as you learn to plan a route to free hostage children – very Moonwalker! – and avoid enemy fire. The end-of-level ninja bonus levels have gone down in history for being memory and reaction tests of the highest order, and even in my prime I could never clear the fourth test. So many ninja.

What’s amazing from looking at these screenshots is how differently I remember the game. I couldn’t believe it had so little detail – in my memory it was a beautifully sketched game of light and shade, yet the screenshots reveal it to be very different. Funny how our memories play tricks on us, although I suppose I did own this game nearly 15 years ago, which forgives a little memory lapse on my part!

Shinobi’s legacy is clear to see in any number of modern titles, but its greatest contribution to the world is, without doubt, Flying Squirrel Magic. It’s just a shame the attempt to render Joe Musashi in 3D fell flat, because I’m sure resurrecting those bonus levels for the Wii Remote has crossed more than one mind at Sega. Perhaps in Sega Superstars Tennis 2?

I couldn’t decide between the original arcade version, Sega Rally 2 and the recent home update, so I’ve included a generic Sega Rally entry here. Yes it’s a cop-out, but it’s my countdown!

All three are perfect Sega racers – slam the accelerator, flip out the back end and drift lazily around every corner. It’s an extremely Sega way of doing things, and always evokes a timeless and sublime joy. Sega Rally 2007 mixes things up by introducing an extremely advanced track deformation system that moulds under your tyres as you drive, leaving troughs and mud pools in key places. It’s a brilliant idea and to me represents the biggest advancement in the rally genre since it began. I’m sure it’ll make its way into Codemasters’ next rally effort and everyone will go ape over it. 

Sega Rally 2 on Dreamcast is the only weak link here, its beautiful arcade origins marred by a rushed conversion and inconsistent framerate, but it’s a good stab at a meaningful single player career mode, and the ability to upload your best times online as well as carry them in your VM was a generation ahead of its time. In the arcade it was a complete revelation for me, its handbrake so tempting and satisfyingly solid when you used it to pivot and peel away from a hairpin.

I played Race Driver: Grid recently and was appalled when my attempt to powerslide around the first corner resulted in an embarrassing crash, but I was more appalled when people complained the game was “too arcadey”. No wonder Sega Rally 2007 didn’t sell, although the other day at work a couple did buy a copy for each other, which for me is every bit as good as the exchanging of rings.

Sega Racing Studio’s passing was a sad day for any Sega Rally fan – their version of the franchise was every bit as good as the original and perfectly captured the Sega Rally feel, and I can’t help but feel that theirs may have been the last entry in the series we ever see. If that’s the case, you couldn’t hope for three more enjoyable rally games that scream Sega with every powerslide and hairpin.

Probably the pinpoint space-time coordinates Tetsuya Mizuguchi went from accomplished racing game producer to avant-garde music entertainment weirdo. Space Channel 5 is a rhythm action game that doesn’t rely on a novelty controller – a novelty in itself – and with no display to help you gauge the timing it’s not as accessible as it could be. 

With enough practice you’ll get into the swing of things and soon be grooving, shooting and saving hostages with the power of dance. Michael Jackson liked it so much he put in an appearance, and Ulala became the premier 60s-styled Sega sex symbol. In fact, Ulala’s appearance was so eye-catching the lead singer from Dee-Lite (of Groove is in the Heart fame) tried to sue Sega for stealing her look. She was unsuccessful.

Full of catchy music and nice touches – the music detunes if you’re bad – Space Channel 5, and its sequel Part 2, are two of the most inventive entries in the dance genre. Dripping with style and confidence, it shows Sega’s willingness to break conventions – it could so easily have become another anodyne dance mat game, but instead it’s about character and panache, two of Ulala’s best traits.

Ulala’s recent reappearance in Sega Superstars Tennis confirms reports she’s still defending us from the Morollians, so I hope you’ll sleep a little more soundly tonight.

I can’t begin to estimate the impact Sega has made on my life. Growing up I followed them as most boys followed football – who the key players were within each development team, which games from other platforms I’d like to be transferred (usually very, very few!) and even filling my Sonic sticker album. I still consider the Sonic Team of ’96 – Naka, Ohshima, Katano, Setsumaru, Iizuka, Matsumoto, Hataya, Moriya and the rest – to be among the greatest line-ups in history. Most of them are still there of course, which is doubly awesome.

As a youngster I wrote to Sega almost as often as I update this blog. If there was a game I liked, a question I had or a design I’d thought of – I’m still waiting to hear back about "Rocky the Mountain Hare"! – I got out the pen or typewriter and let them know about it.

They always replied. Stephen Wombwell and Mark Maslowicz became familiar names (there were others I’m sure!) and they always gave good answers, and sometimes cool gifts too – Sonic 3 pinbadges, a t-shirt (that I still wear sometimes!), a Sonic and Knuckles LCD watch, signed Sonic R artwork (drawn by me!) and even my prized possession, a silver pre-production copy of Sonic Jam. Awesome!

This series of posts, then, is my latest love letter to Sega. Over time I’ll be posting my thoughts and feelings on what I believe to be the fifty greatest Sega games of all time. I’ve tried to keep multiple entries from the same series to a minimum, but naturally there’s more than one Sonic, Shining and Shinobi. Only the top twenty are in any sequential order, and some might be contentious entries, but they’re all amazing games that were either developed by Sega, Sega console exclusives or ones I primarily associate with Sega.

For all my years of Sega fandom, I still find it impossible to pin down that Sega je ne sais quoi. This project is my attempt to figure that out once and for all.

Yes, welcome to a newly stripped-down version of the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers! It’s no coincidence that David Herbert’s Pariah’s Guild site has recently gone down for maintenance, but I’ll take my victories where I can!

Before we go on, I’d like to extend an open invitation for a reader to host next month’s Carnival – it’s extremely straightforward and boosts your traffic, so if you’re interested then leave a comment or email me at carnival@prosody.co.uk!

Kicking us off in style this month is David Wornica, with his post Console Wars over at 8-Bit Memoirs. David’s flickery, two-colour sprite sums the site up best: “8-Bit Memoirs focuses on the revolution of the video game industry from the pixilated games we know and love to the incredible modern day mega-games that have given birth to the next generation of gamers. In addition to previews and reviews, this blog offers readers the opportunity to relive their gaming past”. Bleep bleep blorp, David! (Don’t take this the wrong way – I love 8-bit stuff! I only recently got a Game Gear, my new baby!)

Dan Wright is up next, sharing with us two short but sweet posts from his website The Video Games Blog. First up is a snappy review of Kung Fu Panda, and the other outlines the appearances of Darth Vader and Yoda in Namco’s Soul Calibur IV. I know they’re not the most revelatory of posts to the hardcore gamer but I’m glad Dan submitted them, and I know next time he’s going to show something even better. Welcome aboard, Dan!

Steve DaSilva has a very tempting proposition for you all now – would you like to learn more about Video Game Testing? Then look over to his site, Testing Video Games, and he can tell you much more about it. I’ll be honest – there’s more than a whiff of advertising about this post, but I know we’ve all dreamed of getting paid good money for our hobby, so it might be worth a look.

Sticking with the game development theme (albeit very briefly!) Blake Delaney shares his post Persistence and the Art of Game Development, which needs next to no extra description from me as it’s a fine article in its own right!

Now, when I think of a website that bills itself as the “Largest Final Fantasy Resource Online“, I think they’d be providers of quality content, supplying the Final Fantasy series’ dedicated fanbase with a high standard of news and insight. If that’s what you think of too, you’ll want to check out what Azar submitted this month, Final fantasy is coming on both PS2 & XBox. The title is a clue to what you can expect.

An old friend from a few months back, Creep Colony has returned with a post on “The different damage types of Starcraft units“, over at Starcraft II Information. I’m sure that with the game’s release creeping ever closer, Creep Colony is going to be an even more invaluable resource for Starcraft fans, so make sure you keep checking and I hope Creep Colony will keep submitting to the Carnival to keep us informed!

Speaking of old friends and triumphant returns, Eclipse is back! Not only back, but back with a Sonic boom, posting a very cool glitch that lets you fly as Super Sonic in Sonic 2! You can read how to buzz around Metropolis Zone in his post Glitch: Super Sonic Flying in Metropolis Zone Act 2 in Sonic 2 over at Gaming My Way; I’ll be digging out one of my dozens of copies of Sonic 2 to give this one a go later on!

One thing I love so much about the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers is the sheer variety of posts I get every month. From gaming’s beautiful past to its brilliant future, there’s so much to celebrate and the stranger, the better in my eyes. That’s why my favourite post this month is from Mr Sands, and his celebration of Winning Eleven’s Japanese commentator Jon Kabira. Even if you’ve never heard of Mr Kabira, I urge you to read the site and listen to the samples at the bottom – they’ll make the UK commentators Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson sound even more lifeless, if you can imagine such a thing. Mr Sands gets double points for naming his site Nippon the Bus. Great stuff!

Lastly, because it really wouldn’t be a Carnival without him, it’s old-wizard with more (mildly) controversial lists, countdowns and that sort of thing. First up it’s Top 13 Scariest Games, featuring some golden oldies for you to dig out with Hallowe’en just around the corner.

Secondly for once it’s not a Top X, it’s an article investigating a serious topic, Violence in Video Games, as part of the OW Investigative series. Is it yet another flame-baiting write-up that mocks its own audience, or a genuinely sensitive approach of an argument that divides gamers and non-gamers? I’ll leave you to decide.

I know it’s a severely cut-down Carnival compared to usual, but I’m guessing nobody ever read all 70-odd articles anyway. At least now you can take a more leisurely trip through the Carnival, and there are a few articles that should take only a few seconds out of your life, so give them a read and let the warmth of the Carnival spread throughout the world (wow, never drink before lunch..!)

I’m very pleased to announce that next month’s Carnival will be hosted by Eclipse at the superb Gaming My Way site. At the time of writing (October 30th) BlogCarnival.com seems to be experiencing some difficulties, but if you still want to submit you can email your post’s link to me at this address, and I’ll pass them on. Keep trying the Blog Carnival submissions link though, it might come active at any time!

Sonic’s first ever RPG experience is released in Europe tomorrow, September the 26th, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few hours hands-on time with the game already. Can Sonic’s speed rejuvenate the often dull RPG genre?

To Sonic Chronicles‘ credit, it dismisses the often-lengthy introductions seen in RPGs, and you’re guiding Sonic around the Green Hill Zone within seconds, just as things should be. The whole game is stylus-controlled, with characters following your pen to run, fly, climb and smash their way around the map, but the real control innovations are found in the game’s battle scenes.

Each character has access to several Power Moves, each of which has a different method of activation – some require you to drag your stylus along paths, others are more timing-based and have you tapping targets in rhythm. The added interaction makes the battle system much more interesting, particularly as you can also counter enemy Power Moves in a similar fashion, keeping your attention at all times. There are similarities to classic Sega RPGs as well – veterans of the Phantasy Star series as well as Skies of Arcadia and Shining the Holy Ark fans will feel right at home with the turns-based, squad-of-four fights.

The story so far hasn’t kicked into high gear yet, but it references various stories, mainly focusing on those since Sonic Adventure, as well as more obscure plots such as the Emerl situation from Sonic Battle. Pleasingly there’s an in-depth Codex that explains any characters or events that may be unfamiliar, but there are also unexpected cameo appearances from characters along the way to fill in any blanks. I’m reserving judgment on the story until I’ve got past Chapter Two, but so far it’s done its job and kept me playing past the introductory levels.

As you progress through the game, you encounter Chao, which you can “bond” (equip) to your character, giving you bonuses such as a free revival or elemental attacks. Each enemy has different elemental resistances, so it’s important to change Chao to water if you spot a robot enemy on the world map, for example. These Chao can be traded with friends to increase their power – initially this was advertised as a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection feature, but it is only available via local multiplayer, sadly. It’s not a huge loss as Chao aren’t that important, but considering the best way to discover and maximise all Chao is to trade with completely different people you might struggle unless you have a large circle of DS-owning, Sonic RPG-craving friends.

Graphically the game is very well-presented, with beautifully drawn environments and characters, which take their cues from the Sonic Adventure and Sonic X versions of the characters, which is fine by me. Some textures are rough and occasionally items and character portraits have a blocky white line around them, which lets the overall polished feel of the game down, although this could just be me not being used to the DS (having been a PSP owner for the past eight months). The sound quality is good, with new themes sitting alongside remixes of classic Sonic tunes very nicely, as you’d expect from any game blessed by the touch of the one and only Richard Jacques.

I’ve got a few gripes with the game though, the main one being its sometimes confusing terminology and statistics system – characters have both Defence and Armour attributes, yet the differences aren’t fully explained. In fact, characters with low Armour often have increased Defence, making you wonder quite what the point is. There’s also a huge range of status problems, including Weakened, Empowered, Sluggish, Fortified and Vulnerable, most of which are caused by Power Moves. Although the in-game help explains these effects, it isn’t available mid-battle, often leaving you unsure of the effects of your Power Moves.

As I said earlier, I’ve only spent a few hours on the game, which is an achievement in itself as it’s not officially released in Europe until tomorrow, and next Tuesday in the US! I won’t give it a score yet, but I will say that it’s a very enjoyable mixture of extremely fast-paced battles and Sonic Adventure-style exploration and skills-based gameplay. The real joy for me will come when the rare weapons and items begin to show up, and each character begins to play a more important role in battle – early RPG battles are almost always simply a case of everyone attacking at once!

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is definitely worth buying if you’re a Sonic fan, or even just a DS owner after a good-looking and substantially different RPG that eschews the usual dungeon plod in favour of a good helping of action.

It’s only been three weeks, but there’s always time for more Carnival! Yet again we have some superb articles on games ranging from Mass Effect to MegaMan, and Pokémon to Prince of Persia. Well, without further ado, let’s get stuck in!

Kicking us off in style this month is Miles Moen, with three posts at his superb website “The Necessities of Life” (extra marks for the right spelling, Miles!). His three posts The N Game Review, Death of My Xbox 360 and Mass Effect: Review are insightful, honest and entertaining – who could ask for anything more?

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Well, I might as well get this month’s Herbertathon underway – here’s our current offerings from the Chancellor of the Carnival himself, HRH David Herbert, all posted at www.pariahs-guild.com. I don’t know if King David knows I know he’s set up a script to spam us with every article he posts, but the second article is a dead giveaway he doesn’t put in as much thought as he should.

PSA-Happy Birthday Pariah’s Guild!
Games-Coming Out This Week-August 31st-September 6th
Games-Videos-Street Fighter IV Japanese Vega vs. Chun Li Gameplay
Games-News-New PSN Games And Trailers!
Modding Warehouse-Interviews-Naruto: Naiteki Kensei
Games-Videos-LittleBigPlanet Exclusive Adventures of Sackboy Trailer
Games-News-Playstation Home Is “on track”
Games-News-Red Vs. Blue Anime!
Games-Reviews-Castle Crashers
Games-News-Sony CEO Admits That The Wii Is Superior In Demographics
Games-Videos-Dissidia: Final Fantasy DKS3713: Tidus vs. Jecht Gameplay

Next up is another veteran of the Carnival, the old wizard himself, old-wizard! As usual he’s conjured controversial countdowns, the leader of which is his “Top 10 Worst Types of People“, including “people who try to defend the Sega Genesis over the SNES” and “People who don’t appreciate 16 bit gaming”. You’re a talented writer, OW: baiting Sega fans is below you (though you seem very good at it!)

After such controversy, OW shares with us his Top 10 Mega Man X Bosses and his Top 5 Racing Games. I’m sure you’ll be extremely surprised to discover there isn’t a single Sega racing game in the list!

Next up is Jet Set Radio legend Jam, with an article on how to “Increase Your Battery Life” posted at Jam’s Ubuntu. Nice work Jam, but how about getting those blades on again?

Now it’s time for one of my favourite posts, How Sweet is the Shepherd’s Sweet Lot: Rickey Reviews “Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise” at Riding with Rickey. I recently got a DS Lite ad Viva Piñata, and I’m loving the game so far – it’s a huge step better than I thought it would be, but don’t take my word for it, read Rickey’s review!

A challenger for Old Wizard‘s magic crown now, the freakily-named Glowing Face Man, with his article Real Life Tool-Assisted Speedrun (TAS)? posted at Glowing Face Man: Awaken the Badass Within. He has this to say about this arcane magic: a “speedrun” is a movie of a video game being beaten extremely fast. It made me ask, what if there was a speedrun of Real Life?

An insightful list next from Cancerkitty, with some great ideas on Improving Video Games, posted over at DelSquacho. I can’t say all the ideas apply to every style of game, but there are certainly some good points that developers would do well to respond to.

That fine chap Jason O from Unfettered Blather is next, busting Another gaming myth – converting the pirates. Taking a logical and well-reasoned look at the notion pirates simply choose not to pay for games, this is an excellent article that debunks a long-held myth.

Time for my favourite posts of this month now, all from the excellent Ryan Rigney at SlapStic.com. His first post, Why Pokémon is the Bane of America is a genuinely funny article that, judging from the comments, some people have taken far too seriously!

His second post Top 5 Upcoming Gaming Sites contains some very familiar faces, including regular Carnival supporter Old-Wizard.com! He just ranks in above my good friend Damien McFerran‘s excellent VC-Reviews site, although curiously I’m nowhere to be seen. Maybe next time..?

Despite my praise for Mr Rigney, he still feels the need to justify himself, explaining to us all “Why I Own an Ugly Xbox 360“. There’s no need, Ryan – we love you just the same. Seriously, relax.

Last from Mr Rigney is his letter to Natsume, entitled Dear Natsume, How to Make Harvest Moon Great Again. As a big Harvest Moon fan I have to say I was massively disappointed with HM: Magical Melody on Wii, which was excruciatingly slow and repetitive even by Harvest Moon standards. Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon on PSP broke the mould with some superb ideas, but if Marvelous implement just a few ideas from this post they’ll be onto a winner.

Eclipse is our penultimate Carnival patron this month, with two posts at his site Gaming My Way. His first, Gaming for Perfects, tries to break out of the mentality that playing defensively in a fighting game is the best way to humiliate your opponent. When you put it like that, Eclipse, you’re absolutely right!

Afterwards he looks at the company we all love to hate, EA! Electronic Arts Still Doesn’t Get It tackles the sticky subject of Digital Rights Management, which made me realise something: this page is currently the only one on the whole Internet that doesn’t mention Spore’s piracy problems! Amazing.

Wrapping up with Vishal k Bharadwaj and his post Prince of Persia Revisited, over at his homepage allVishal.com. He has this to say: as we eagerly await the next-gen Prince of Persia, I take a little look back at the game that started it all. Having recently rediscovered the genius of Prince of Persia on my Mega CD, I really enjoyed reading this post and I have to say I’m quite looking forward to the next-gen PoP title, even though I’ve never played a 3D entry in the series. I also recommend a look at his design and illustration page, which contains some superb stuff!

Well, I hope you all agree that was a fantastic edition of the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers! It’s very rewarding to see a mix of new faces with my favourite writers each month, and I hope you agree. Please post a link to the Carnival on your website, and if you’d like to enter next month’s then head over to the Blog Carnival submissions form. Next month’s edition is on Monday, October 21st, so don’t miss out!

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