Caliber .50 Arcade Port Genesis/Mega Drive

 I'm guessing not many folks have reviewed Caliber .50 for the Genesis, much less anyone who actually owned the original arcade game. I picked up a "Cal 50" and ran it in my home arcade for a couple years. The arcade control setup was identical to Ikari warriors with rotary joystick. The arcade game is really good, maybe better than <gasp> Ikari Warriors. At the time I was running Ikari Warriors, Ikari Warriors 2, and Cal 50 in my arcade. Cal 50 is great but I ended up selling it. Why? Well.... the game uses rotary joysticks like Ikari Warriors, Time Soldiers, etc. BUT the rotary is accomplished using an optical design vs. pure mechanical. When I bought the game one joystick wasn't on the game, and I thought it would be easy as I had some rotary joystick spares for my other games. Once I got it home and realized it was a totally different design, I went down a rabbit hole online only to figure out it was near impossible to find a replacement. After watching on ebay for a couple years I decided to ditch the game. Now, the Genesis port is pretty awful with standard controls - and it's all on the controls. It uses the same rotation scheme as Forgotten Worlds, where you hold a button down to rotate right, and another button down to rotate left. Cal .50 is a very difficult game even with purpose built controls. The game is impossible on Genesis with only 3 continues. You won't get far. You will rage. You will probably never boot the game again. BUT if you poke around in the game settings, and select control scheme B, move the difficulty to down a bit, and give yourself more lives, THEN you can experience why the arcade is considered by some to be better than Ikari Warriors in single player, no Genesis Cal .50 does not have co-op like the arcade. The arcade does what Genesis don't. With the settings mentioned above you will find the game controls basically the same as Commando or Ikari console ports, you fire in your movement direction. BUT with one MAJOR flaw. See, the Genesis standard control had three buttons. The default setup has your dude rotating left and right (takes two buttons) and firing. To deal with this, the programmers coded the grenades to fire when you let off the fire button. With Option B, where you fire in the direction you move, the other two buttons are unused, which is a missed opportunity to have grenades firing with a separate button (like commando). The result is you have to hold down the fire button all the time and when you want to fire a grenade you have to tap the same button. It's REALLY dumb. Another annoying aspect of the game is that your gun fire range is limited, not going to the screen edge, while the enemies fire the full screen with no range limits. Cal .50 could have been such a great upgrade over Commando or Ikari, with cool vehicles, weapon upgrades, and all the Vietnam War details you would expect - vehicles from the era, civilians carrying bombs, chickens running around, tunnels, pit traps, etc. The game is completely destroyed with an idiotic control scheme. Controls might be OK for folks who didn't grow up with Commando or Ikari, but for me was a total bust. This port could have been so good and they totally botched it up. 4/10. No need to play this again given this. 

Ms. Pac-Man for Genesis / Mega Drive

 Ms. Pac-Man on Genesis: Seems like a decent port, but I couldn't personally deal with the scrolling screen as the entire board isn't on the screen at once, due to the non-4:3 limitations of modern screens. I would have preferred shrinking the screen and adding a bezel. Appreciated the different difficulty modes as well as the speed-up option, which can be enabled by holding down a button in game or game be turned on permanently. Gameplay is as expected, with many graphical upgrades. Boards and cut-scenes are all authentic and true to the arcade. Fruit progression is correct. Cut scenes have updated graphics and animations. For example, the stork when the baby is born is much upgraded over the original, sort of wiggling as it moves with richer graphics. For me this game is probably like a 6/10, I played it up to junior/baby and don't really need to go back to it, given other ways to play the game. Reasons I don't really need it play it much in the future:

• Scrolling screen is super annoying
• Playing this game with a control pad is mostly impossible (not a fault specifically of this version)
• Much prefer the original graphics for nostalgia purposes
• I'd be ok with a upgraded/different version using these updated graphics but not just a straight port of the original, when not REMIX it?

Check out the game if these items sound interesting:

• Music is good
• Difficulty settings (on easy) + permanent speed = you can see all the cut scenes if you were unable to see them as a kid on normal difficulty in the arcade
• Can only play on Genesis, it's not awful if this is your only option

Waka, Waka, 

James