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Retro-Review: Double Dragon [SEGA Master System]

Developer: Technos Japan
Publisher: SEGA of America
Released: 1988
Completed: March 4, 2020

The good: Double Dragon on the SEGA Master System is more faithful to the arcade, and features two player cooperative play!

The bad: Just about everything else.

OK, so maybe that's a bit of an overstatement.  On paper, Double Dragon for SEGA's 8-bit machine sounds like a dream come true for fans of the coin-op.  Two player simultaneous play!  Stages and enemies mirror the original much closer than the NES version.  There is no poorly conceived level-up system that locks moves behind experience points in a martial arts beat 'em up.  There can even be more than two enemies on screen at once and, gasp, they can be different enemies!  It all sounds wonderful until you start playing.

That's when you'll see some of the worst sprite flicker you'll ever see, especially in two player mode where sprites all but disappear entirely, or spend more time fighting the sluggish controls while your character's stubby little arms flail harmlessly at enemies mere inches away.  You know that warning in game manuals about how some people are at risk of epileptic seizures while playing video games?  Double Dragon on SMS is the posterchild for that warning because of the flicker.

Though it was also programmed by Technos, it's obvious not much effort went into this port, and it's a damn shame.  It could have been so good with just a little more polish.  All the elements were there, but the programmers just lacked the skill, the desire, or both to bring it all together into a coherent package. 

The most critical thing to nail in any beat 'em up is the controls.  It may have predated much more advanced games like Final Fight, but Double Dragon actually has a more complex move set.  It translated well to the NES, in spite of having one less button and having to unlock the moves, but on the Master System it's like trying to control the game with a fat baby.  No matter how hard you push, it just doesn't do what you want half the time.  I never could get certain moves like the unstoppable elbow smash to work at all, though they're allegedly all programmed into the game.

Matters are not helped at all by the atrocious reach of Billy and Jimmy Lee in this version.  Enemies have to practically share the same space as you to be susceptible to punches and kicks, and you'll likely take just as much damage while you trade hits.  This means the game devolves into non-stop jump kicks.  Just four levels of jump kicking everything because your basic attacks are useless, and half of the special attacks are impossible to pull off.

The graphics aren't particularly pleasing.  Like the NES version, this uses a more anime-influenced look with odd color choices (Jimmy's blue hair).  In many ways, I feel they're inferior to the NES game.  Take the game's opening stage - on the NES you see a nice backdrop of the city between the buildings.  There's chain link fences and barrels for decoration, and a good sense of depth.  On the Master System there's a large brick wall, followed by a large brick building (which, to be fair, was in the arcade version), followed by a mostly empty alley will oil drums and it all looks very flat.

About the only good thing I can say for SMS Double Dragon is the FM music is decent, if you have a way to access it.  If all you have is an unmodified US Master System, prepare yourself for some pretty mediocre PSG renditions of the classic tunes. 

What a bitter disappointment.  So much potential, squandered by inept programming.  I love Double Dragon.  I'll never forget the first time I saw the coin-on, hearing the crisp sounds of the punches and kicks, and the digitized voice samples.  As letdown as I was with the NES version's differences, I'm thankful I didn't have a Master System in my youth because if this was what I had been stuck with, I would have been beside myself.  The scary thing is this isn't even the worst port of Double Dragon, but for the hardware it was on, it should have been much better.

Double Dragon was completed on the Analogue Mega SG with no cheats.

Retro-Review: SpellCaster [SEGA Master System]

Developer: SEGA Enterprises
Publisher: SEGA of America
Released: 1989
Completed: March 3, 2020

I have this weird quirk when it comes to playing games in a series.  Regardless of how much or how little subsequent entries may tie into previous ones, I feel I must play them in chronological order.  Such was the case with SpellCaster, which is apparently the first game in a duology with Mystic Defender on the Genesis. 

Now I like Mystic Defender a lot.  It's tough, and I've never beaten it (yet), but I enjoy it quite a bit.  For a fairly early Genesis game, it's lots of fun.  I expected SpellCaster to be essentially an 8-bit version of the side-scrolling action game - not as pretty to look at or listen to, but a solid title.  The box itself touts itself as "adventure role-playing," and I like both of those things.

Now that I've played it, I can confidently say SpellCaster is a game that exists and you can play it.  If you want to.  Or don't.  It is the most six-out-of-ten game ever.  It's so average and forgettable in nearly every regard, I could barely remember it even 24 hours later, much less a full year (yes, I am writing this in March 2021 and backdating the entry; sue me). 

SpellCaster mixes adventure game elements similar to those of LucasArts' games with a series of verbs such as look, talk, move, etc.  These sequences take place on static images and black backgrounds where you advance the game's story.  The rest of the game is made up of short side-scrolling action levels.  The combination itself isn't a bad idea.  The execution is just so bland it's like the gaming equivalent of eating a sponge.  And not a used sponge either.  That might have some food crumbs or been used to wipe up something flavorful.  No, this is more like a fresh out of the package sponge.

SpellCaster doesn't do anything particularly poorly, but it doesn't do anything particularly well either.  Everything is competent, no more, no less.  There's one level towards the end - the obligatory instant death lava level - that can be maddening, and if you're not familiar with adventure games, some of it may seem inscrutable to you.  Anyone who grew up with Sierra or LucasArts adventures on PC will know to use every verb on every item in every scene until you get a result (or just use a walkthrough and save yourself a headache).  Mercifully, there is a password system so you don't have to play this all in one sitting.  I'm not sure if anyone can handle that level of unexcitement all at once.

Despite the Master System being slightly more powerful than the NES, I never found a lot of its games that attractive.  Often they'd have garish colors, or looked washed out by comparison, and sprite flicker was just as problematic as it was on Nintendo's gray box.  SpellCaster doesn't change my opinion one way or another.  It's fine.  The cinematic adventure portions are fairly nicely detailed, and the action stages are serviceable, but neither is going to knock your socks off.  Even less impressive is the PSG music which, like the game itself, exists but is of no real consequence.

One of the most common problems with any Master System game is the controls.  Thanks to SEGA's idiotic decision to make the d-pad on the SMS controller a giant, mushy square, you'll find yourself pressing down hard in the direction you want to move during the action scenes.  Some Master System games can be played with a Genesis controller, though I didn't attempt it with this one to see if it worked or not.  If it does, that's definitely a better option because the OEM d-pad is not good for anything.

Yep, SpellCaster is a game, alright.  That's what it is.  A purely average, utterly forgettable game.  If white bread were a game, it would be called SpellCaster.  There's nothing really wrong with it, but it's not the type of thing anyone ever says, "I could sure go for some of that right now!" 

SpellCaster was completed on a real SEGA Master System with no cheats.