My thoughts on Cosmic Carnage

I don't think it's really that bad. I sat with the game for a while, beat all the opposing inmates and watched the ending. While yes it has unusual amounts of slowdown and limited attacks, the rest of the game feels fine. The characters respond well, the graphics look pretty good and the sound is also fine. It's not great but it's not outright horrible either. I can play it reasonably well within it's limited playability due to a lack of attacks. I think that's one of it's only flaws, you barely have any means of attacking competently. I was also thinking how the zooming out feature could have made this game an awesome Art of Fighting clone. :)

Besides, this game has an Alien (AvP) rip-off! How can you go wrong with that? ;)

When I bought it new for $50 along with my $149.99 32x I thought I went pretty wrong. :(

Ouch. MSRP purchase. For "Cosmic Carnage" of all games. What were the other launch titles?

The game sucks, gameplay-wise, as it moves sluggishly and doesn't have much of a combo system outside of special attacks. Plus, the CPU is ultra cheap.

It does have good graphics though, and shows what an SNK fighter could've been like o n the 32X. Backgrounds are pretty stark and boring however, except for one or two (like the asteroid field background and the one with the infinite rings).

The characters are uh, pretty out there.........in the Japanese version, "Cyber Brawl", which is included in the U.S cart. What little personality the human characters had were stripped in "Cosmic Carnage", as they were edited into otherworldly beings.

To echo the sentiments of Joe Redifer(this! *cue '90's dance music*), the soundtrack, produced entirely by the Genesis hardware, is great. Best thing about the game IMO. It was composed by Hikoshi Hashimoto, who also composed the music for Genesis classics such as "Pat Riley Basketball" and "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie" (GREAT adaptation of the show's soundtrack on the latter). He clearly had a good handle on the Genny sound suite. Lots of spacey, futuristic-type music, akin to what S.S.T did on 'Galaxy Force II".

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

Ouch. MSRP purchase. For "Cosmic Carnage" of all games. What were the other launch titles?

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Star Wars Arcade for one. Wasn't Space Harrier a launch title too or was it released a little later?

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The game sucks, gameplay-wise, as it moves sluggishly and doesn't have much of a combo system outside of special attacks. Plus, the CPU is ultra cheap.

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Funny, I could say the same about many early 90s fighting games, mainly SNK's offerings like Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. Mind you they don't have slowdown, but they are still painfully slow compared to newer fighting games. Point is Cosmic Carnage isn't that bad when you consider what it was competing against at the time. It's still bad but not as bad.

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The characters are uh, pretty out there.........in the Japanese version, "Cyber Brawl", which is included in the U.S cart. What little personality the human characters had were stripped in "Cosmic Carnage", as they were edited into otherworldly beings.

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Speaking of which, I forgot how you access Cyber Brawl. How do you do so?

Space Harrier was released in the 1st or 2nd quarter of 95.'

CC to me was just plain awful. When Sega had given us Eternal Champions a year later and it pushed the Genesis to the max. Then we got CC which by all accounts should've shitted all over EC in terms of graphics and sounds. But it slower that molasses there isn't anything in that game that screams 32-Bit. The zooming feature seems as it could done in software on the Genesis due to how slow the game is. This game should'nt exist and had the 32X got VF instead of this crappy game then the 32X would've at least looked like a respectable add on.

The launch titles, I believe, were Virtua Racing Deluxe (which I bought with the system on launch day), Star Wars Arcade and Doom. Cosmic Carnage was not among the launch titles, but came soon.

Eternal Champions is far worse (not to mention eye-bleedingly ugly) than Cosmic Carnage. At the very least, Comsic Carnage has some great music. Eternal Champions sounded like a limp penis trying to fart. It didn't push the Genesis in any way. In fact, it may have put it a few steps behind. Can a cartridge underclock a system and remove features?

I liked some of the character designs, music and graphics, but the gameplay... ick. Had potential though.

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

The launch titles, I believe, were Virtua Racing Deluxe (which I bought with the system on launch day), Star Wars Arcade and Doom. Cosmic Carnage was not among the launch titles, but came soon.

Eternal Champions is far worse (not to mention eye-bleedingly ugly) than Cosmic Carnage. At the very least, Comsic Carnage has some great music. Eternal Champions sounded like a limp penis trying to fart. It didn't push the Genesis in any way. In fact, it may have put it a few steps behind. Can a cartridge underclock a system and remove features?

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CC came out in December

IDK what you are smkoing Joe but you need to stop it cause EC shits all over Cosmic Crapage.

I thought EC was impressive, graphic-wise for a Genesis fighter. Big sprites, detailed backgrounds with lots of touches, good use of the palette. The music was standard GEMS fare though, and the hit sfx were so blatantly ripped from "Street Fighter II" that it's actually funny. At least EC had a combo system. The SCD "sequel" greatly expanded on the game.

Eternal Champions was one of the most un-fun, clunkiest, ugliest and most embarrassing games of the entire 16-bit generation. Cosmic Carnage is no gem, but I'd rather play that than Eternal Champions. Like I said, at least Cosmic Carnage has good music.

Not to mention that Eternal Champions was one of those games specially designed for the used of the Genesis "Activator"...Yeah right, what a sick joke...

The Activator...Sega's version of the WiiFit :)

Cosmic Carnage vs. Eternal Champions. I find it humorous, people duking it out over which 3rd rate SF2/MK ripoff is better than the other.

I think the problem with Cosmic Carnage is that it suffers from the same thing as Knuckles Chaotix, which is that they were trying so hard to show off 32X's graphical capabilities, that gameplay was thrown to the wind. I mean Cosmic Carnage looks great, possibly better than any other fighting game on 32X(seeing as how MK2, Primal Rage, and Brutal were just updated versions of their Genesis counterparts)

(You know which game I wish got ported to 32X? Pit Fighter. It was a great arcade game but none of the console ports of the game at the time were worth half a crap. The SNES version was rushed and seemed like it was completed in a day. Not to mention the fact that it's so difficult that it's basically impossible to defeat without altering the game or cheating with an emulator.)

I mean, really, when you're playing Cosmic Carnage(and Chaotix) is it just me, or do they make it a point to "make sure" to show off every single one of 32X's capabilities, regardless of gameplay, and that's the entire point of the game, the only reason why they made it. Really.

The music is pretty good, for being such a poor game. I think it had potential, but it was dragged down by the slow sluggish controls, and the lack of offering anything that the other 500 fighting games released after the successs of Street Fighter 2 didn't already provide. At least it's not like Primal Rage, with characters burping, farting, pissing, and shitting on each other.

(You know which game I wish got ported to 32X? Pit Fighter. It was a great arcade game but none of the console ports of the game at the time were worth half a crap. The SNES version was rushed and seemed like it was completed in a day. Not to mention the fact that it's so difficult that it's basically impossible to defeat without altering the game or cheating with an emulator.)

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

Eternal Champions was one of the most un-fun, clunkiest, ugliest and most embarrassing games of the entire 16-bit generation.

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No, just no. EC was good looking and pretty original for a console fighter back in the day. It also offered a stiff challenge, which is more than can be said for a lot of games.

Cosmic Carnage was just slow and dull (with admittedly pretty good music).

3D0Man, the 32X doesn't do much in Chaotix, certainly nothing that affects play, save for the bonus rounds. All it is responsible for are the sprites and the drums.

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Originally Posted by Silanda

EC was good looking

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I do not understand why people think Eternal Champions looks good. Most people are too ashamed to even spell the whole name out and just shorten it to "EC". Sure, some of the detail in the background like rats running around or whatnot might be kind of cool, but the detail is for naught when the art sucks in the first place. The game's super-grainy visuals have always made me want to vomit and make me ashamed to own a Genesis at times since people love to proclaim this as some of the system's best graphics. As for being original, sure... it was. But it wasn't very inviting or fun. I own both of the games (since I am a collector) and hate playing them. The Genesis deserved to lose with games like this in its stable.

I mean in Chaotix, how many times during one stage do we need to see a sprite warp, glow, twist, zoom in, zoom out, and disintegrate. Really, it's a treat for the eyes but not much else.

I don't think any of that affects gameplay. Chaotix started off with the same play mechanics on the Genesis as Sonic Crackers. So the 32X glitz cannot be blamed for any misgivings you may have about the gameplay. Chaotix has lots of real fans. Cosmic Carnage, not so much.

I personally like the EC's art, though the game itsself seems a bit bland. I'm not much of a fighting game fan though, don't care much for most of the Mortal Kombat games, though I like Street Fighter II OK. Eternal Champions CD is definitely a big improvement though. (the music is decent if nothing else)

The grainiess isn't all that apparent with blurry composite video (and sharpness turned down on the TV), with S-video, RGB or emulation a lot of the BGs are kind of ugly though. (characters not so much)

I know taste is music is subjective but to say that CC music is better than EC music is LOL worthy and I will use this as proof.

The rap act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony have sampled music from this game for the instrumentals of several of their songs. The songs "Eternal" and "Crossroad" (not to be confused with their song, "Tha Crossroads") are the most notable cases of using Eternal Champions for their beats. However, Bone does not mention Sega in the album credits for using their copyrighted music. The cartoon show "Courage the Cowardly Dog" also employed some of the same audio loops (probably included with the same software) as bases for creepy background music.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal...nd_merchandise

I don't think anybody was lining up to sample CC.

I liked Cosmic Carnage, well, the music most certanly... EC looks poor unless you're using RF (which I don't... RGB all the way here), I could not find fun in the game really, apart from the finishing moves...

The characters from EC were meant to each get their own spin-off game.

Only one ever did - Larcen Tyler, who appeared in Chicago Syndicate on GameGear.

I think X-perts is some kind of Eternal Champions spin-off too...

I guess if Sega didn't loose their market share overnight, we'd have been bombarded with loads of other games of the same "quality".

I think you're right - X-Perts had one of the female characters in it.

Well, Joe, this is one where I'm going to have to disagree with you. I think that EC was a decent game, if not hampered a bit by it's difficulty and unfamiliar characters. I have yet to play the Sega CD version, but EC is by no means a horrid game.

CC was just a garbage game that didn't push the limits of the 32X in the least bit. All it did was zoom in and out!

Eternal Champions on Genesis imo was balls hard. I always have to wonder if it was SEGA's answer to the SNES & CAPCOM's love affair with the many Street Fighter titles they were getting prior to SEGA finally getting a port.
The overall graphics of EC are not nearly as bad as Joe's making it seem, now I don't uses shitty RF, and I have yet to have find a RGB cable for my Genny, so I used composite AV. The backgrounds for some of the characters like Jetta, Xavier, and Trident were nicely done. I also liked Xavier's Halloween like bg theme. The hard thing about EC that many will agree was it's punishing contest, where losing a battle would knock you down to 2 opponents below and have to reface opponents that you already beaten.

Eternal Champions 2 on Sega CD corrected all of the above issues I had with the original and I wish it SEGA had not killed off the franchise to focus on promoting only Virtua Fighter. Can you imagine how great Eternal Champions would be today, I'm certain it would be a 2D fighter up there with King of Fighters and BlazBlue.

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Originally Posted by gamegenie

I'm certain it would be a 2D fighter up there with King of Fighters and BlazBlue.

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Sega of America isn't exactly known for their love of 2D gaming.

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Originally Posted by Aarzak

It was composed by Hikoshi Hashimoto, who also composed the music for Genesis classics such as "Pat Riley Basketball" and "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie" (GREAT adaptation of the show's soundtrack on the latter). He clearly had a good handle on the Genny sound suite. Lots of spacey, futuristic-type music, akin to what S.S.T did on 'Galaxy Force II".

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The same Hikoshi Hashimoto that did the music from ATP Tour Championship Tennis?

Yup. :)

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Originally Posted by Da_Shocker

I know taste is music is subjective but to say that CC music is better than EC music is LOL worthy and I will use this as proof.

The rap act Bone Thugs-N-Harmony....

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OK, stop right there. I agree that is proof. A rap act using Eternal Champions music is proof that it is much worse! Not only have I never heard of this "rap act", but rap sucks balls in general, it has a beat but it has next to no actual musical properties such as melody, etc. It's "music" at its most primitive and simplest form. So basically you have proven that if a bad music genre prefers one game to another, the game they prefer must therefore sound much worse. Also, they probably couldn't even afford a 32X, much less know what one is.

I have a question concerning Cosmic Carnage (imagine that!).

I can't access Cyber Brawl at all. I've checked a couple of sites and the code is X+B+Z then Start either during the introduction or the main menu. I've tried literally dozens of different combinations. Model 1 and 2 Geneses, both my 32Xes, a myriad of 6 button controllers, different times and patterns of entering the code, even testing it on an emulator to see if there's something wrong with my copy of the game. Nope, none of the above works. I can't get Cyber Brawl to switch over. Can anybody point out what I'm doing wrong?

I think the only way to do it is to set your Genesis to a JP region.

CC always gets a bad rap but I liked it. Yes, there is slowdown but the graphics weren't too bad and I played this game like crazy. Beat it with every character. I remember buying it about the time it came out but don't remember paying $50 for it.

There is a code. I used to use it all the time. It was cool because I was in my anime faze.

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Originally Posted by Iron Lizard

There is a code. I used to use it all the time. It was cool because I was in my anime faze.

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Now that you mention it I recall codes, too. Can't remember what you could get with them, though.

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

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Just because some hip hop sucks, it doesn't mean that hip hop sucks in general. Good rap definitely has its standards that aren't easy to replicate.

Reduction of "musical properties such as melody" is an absolutely legitimate form of composing btw. You don't need to jump melodic scales up and down for something to be great music.

Edit: We had a few similar discussions a while back and I posted a few songs I like here.


And yes, Eternal Champions is a pretty bad game indeed.

With CHAOTIX I don't think that the overdone graphics affect gameplay, just that they focused too much on making the game look great and less on gameplay mechanics. I think in Chaotix the rubber band thing was an innovative idea but I wish there was an option to turn it off, it does get annoying at times.

Carnage could have done alot more than it did. There were really very few games that shined on the 32X and Carnage could have been one of them, but it just had too much of a rushed SF2/MK feel to it.

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Originally Posted by Joe Redifer

OK, stop right there. I agree that is proof. A rap act using Eternal Champions music is proof that it is much worse! Not only have I never heard of this "rap act", but rap sucks balls in general, it has a beat but it has next to no actual musical properties such as melody, etc. It's "music" at its most primitive and simplest form. So basically you have proven that if a bad music genre prefers one game to another, the game they prefer must therefore sound much worse. Also, they probably couldn't even afford a 32X, much less know what one is.

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How old are you? And you can't be that ignorant not to have heard of Bone Thugs N Harmony they were nominated for Grammy in 96.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_1999_...hart_positions

Chart (1995) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard 200 1
U.S. Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums 1

Song Chart (1995) Peak
position
"1st of tha Month" U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 1
U.S. Hot Rap Tracks 1
"East 1999" U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 1
U.S. Hot Rap Tracks 1
Song Chart (1996) Peak
position
"Tha Crossroads" U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 1
U.S. Hot Rap Tracks 1


Those numbers don't lie you either had to been living under a rock in 95 or to baby.

Christuserloeser that is the more popular remix version this is the one that samples EC

Cool. Think you could post some YT videos with the tracks that they got the samples from ? - I am so not familiar with Eternal Champions, I played it for a few days when it was released but never touched it since.

You guys are funny.