Alien Soldier: too difficult to even bother with.

[winona]

This thing costs a fortune on ebay, what a nightmare for the collector who at some stage wants everything, ie me!! Damn this is going to test my desire, it looks amazing though.

Everything? Alien Soldier costs next to nothing compared to the truly rare titles like Outback joey.

[Genesis Knight]

Everything? Alien Soldier costs next to nothing compared to the truly rare titles like Outback joey.

That's just a technicality. Alien Soldier is one of the most expensive G/MD games out there, alongside Melf's Forgotten Five and whatever.

[megabomberman]

Forgotten five?

[Zebbe]

Battlemania 2, Eliminate Down, Gleylancer, Panorama Cotton and Undead Line.

Five shmups only released in Japan. I can't see why Twinkle Tale isn't among them making a "Forgotten Six"... but then again there are probably quite a few more exclusive JP shooters.

http://www.sega-16.com/Genre%20Spotl...travaganza.php

[megabomberman]

Thanks zebbe, I really think it would be great if someeone did a feature on 10 of the most expensive megadrive games to get that are essential to your collection (eg tetris is not realistic) sticking to the likes of alien soldier and stuff would be great....

[Zebbe]

Yeah, that would be cool, but the problem is that everyone has their own opinions of what is expensive or not. Some people are like "$30 for a Genesis game!? No way, that is far too expensive for a game to an old 16-bit system!" and others like "Haha, you think $70 is a lot? Then you should see my collection, there isn't a single game under $150 in it!"

A feature of ultr@ r@re games would be better, but there is problem there too. You have to consider regions, prices, demand etc. and that would force to include games that aren't really rare, but only expensive. People would probably want max prices in that kind of feature, which is even harder, as it changes over time, may be cheaper in certain places and be very different overall.

[Genesis Knight]

Most I've ever spent on a Genesis game is $50 for Beggar Prince. Other than that the most has been $35 for Crusader of Centy. (Stupidly overpaid, I know.)

[megabomberman]

Still though if someone did a feature of great games, that megadrive game owners should have that are (a) hard to get or (b) expensive (around 80$) it would make a great feature, if opinions are divided we all hop on the forums and debate about it, which is actually a good thing and a good reason to do this article!

[Zebbe]

I'll see if I can do something in the future. I'm already full with school and have some other stuff coming for the site first. The topic needs to be discussed and researched first.

[Blaze]

this game got mad adrenaline rush. If ur jus angry enuff, u might make it thru the entire game. Its alot about keepin dat rage up. u also need to rely on ur animal instincts and quik reflexes



man thats why I loved Sega bak in the 16bit days. U can always come bak to playin those games like they were Speed pillz or something. Sega knew how to make a gamer up for countless days

[winona]

I agree with the complicity of making an "rare" list. For exaple. PAL punisher usually goes for 80$ when sold on tradera. Which is pretty much close to never. Its American version is readily available at all time.

Someone said that they would pay over 75£ for a PAL non classic copy of World Championship Soccer 2. Should that make the list despite the fact that the classic version can be had fo 2$?

I think I would like to see a PAL vs US vs Japanese list of games that can be found without TOO much trouble. I.e Eliminated Down, Snow Bros and such for the japanese systems and games like Body Count, Punisher and Death & Rebirth of Superman for PAL systems. Spiderman web of Fire & others for the genesis.

And then there could be a silly list. With games such as outback joey (I think its a 1000$ game) Tetris and Darxide.

Here is an example of a RARE but not all that goodgame:
http://cgi.ebay.com/fatal-fury-speci...mZ250160382251

And an example of its opposite, good but not all that rare (pay no attention to seller trying to tell you its one of the rarest games for the system, its far from true):
http://cgi.ebay.com/SHINING-FORCE-CD...mZ300148170210

[108 Stars]

What game is outback joey? Never heard of it.

[winona]

Its a personal trainer game that came bundled with some excercise gadget that you connect to your bike or whatever. Very few copies are known to exist. And apparently its not a 1000$ game but still quite pricey:

http://www.sega-16.com/Features/Gene...%20Auction.htm

[Sixfortyfive]

Man, the first few pages of this thread make me sad. Alien Soldier is my favorite Genesis action game. Probably my favorite Treasure game too, and I own all of them except for Rakugaki Showtime. It doesn't have the wide appeal of a game like Gunstar Heroes, which you can either play seriously or just relax and goof around with the weapons, but it never failed to entertain.

I wasn't able to give it a proper play-through until it was re-released on PS2 as part of that Sega Ages mini-compilation, though. (Didn't feel like plunking down $100+ for the original cart at the time.) When I had tried playing the game previously (through... ahem... alternative means) I couldn't get past the first boss for the life of me either. A proper gamepad is vital. Keyboard doesn't cut it for AS.

Like others have said, it's just a matter of figuring out all of the techniques and which weapons are the most practical (sword force for best all-purpose weapon; lancer and flamethrower for superplayers). Learn how to use zero teleport, counter force, and budget your ammo properly. Most bosses require nothing more than good reflexes and simple pattern recognition skill once you know what you're doing. AS isn't easy, but it's never cheap.

I recorded a short video a while back to show another person how the game played. Even though I make a lot of dumb simple mistakes in this vid, I think it's useful because it shows how a beginner should be approaching the game. Superplays are cool to watch, but all sorts of glitches are exploited in those and an intimate knowledge of the game is required to pull off some of those tricks.

I spent about a week's worth of my free time gradually improving my performance at this game, from simply being able to clear easy mode to 1-credit clearing hard mode. The challenge and progression is perfect once you get past that initial hurdle. I actually thought Contra Hard Corps was a lot tougher than AS, and Ranger-X is waaaay more unfair on its hardest setting than this game.

[Alien_Soldier]

Sixfortyfive, that was a great post! I agree with you. This is an amazing game, and they way to play it is definately working on it for hours at a time, honing your skills to perfection. I am only at stage 10 or so right now.

Cool video, btw.