A Black Falcon
Member
I started this list in 2010, and continued it in 2013, updating it with some thoughts on the games I'd gotten since making the original list. I improved the old list yesterday for posting on my site, and decided now to finally post it on NeoGAF as well, since I never did before, though I had posted it on a few other forums back in '10. Even though the list is now longer than the old version, this is still by far my shortest list like this; I have few games for the system, there aren't many to get, and I didn't write as much in 2010 in these lists as I would now. I expanded some of the reviews out, but others are still pretty short. But it's the small collection, and small library, that are the main reasons, and also the main things that push people to not buy a 32X -- the system has very few games for it. There are good reasons to get one anyway, though.
The 32X has often been described as looking like a mushroom. It's kind of true.
System Overview
The 32X is the second, and final, major addon to the Sega Genesis. The Genesis is Sega's best and most successful console, but its addons were not as popular, the 32X particularly. The last, and most powerful, 4th-gen video game console, the 32X was released in late 1994, and was pretty much a complete disaster overall, sadly. Perhaps one of Sega's worst ideas ever, the 32X helped ruin Sega's reputation when they abandoned it in favor of the Saturn only barely over six months after its release. The system only lasted 13 months, and has about 40 games total, a quite small library. However, despite this, Sega released some pretty good first-party titles on the system, and for the Sega, or Sega Genesis, fan, it's almost a must-have, really. It is worse overall than the Sega CD, but actually might have more good action games from Sega itself than the SCD does. The few games Sega released for the 32X are mostly interesting.
The original idea for what became the 32X came from Sega of Japan, who wanted to make a Genesis that allowed for more colors than the Genesis's too-limited palette. Sega of America heard about it and convinced them to instead work together on a more powerful addon that did not only add more colors, but also some fairly powerful processors as well. Contrary to some beliefs, the 32X actually was designed in probably one of the last moments where Sega of America and Sega of Japan were actually working together. Their divisions would soon help ruin them, but neither side realized how bad an idea a second, short-lifespan addon would be. Sega thought that the 32X would be a somewhat short-lived system that would last for a couple of years for people who wanted next-gen power but didn't want to buy the expensive next-gen consoles yet. However, at $180 at launch, the 32X was somewhat pricey too, and it didn't even initially come with a packin game, just some coupons for games. Generally, Sega believed that it was better to charge people once for an expensive addon than to put enhancement chips into every cartridge, as Nintendo was doing with the Super FX; only one Genesis game uses an enhancement chip. Unfortunately for Sega, Nintendo, while perhaps charging consumers more overall, proved to have the more successful strategy; consumers look first at the sticker price, rather than the total cost, and Sega's addons were expensive. Nintendo made a point of saying how Donkey Kong Country didn't need an addon to have "next-gen" graphics, and this was a winning argument to many people.
The 32X is a powerful system. Of course, given that the 32X released after most of the 5th gen consoles, it should be expected to be powerful. It is. It has a somewhat unique design, though. In addition to the other reasons Sega had for making the 32X, Interviews on Sega-16 (see Joe Miller's, for example) have also said that the 32X was also supposed to help ease developers into dual-CPU development, because like the Saturn, the 32X has two processors. However, the 32X actually released shortly AFTER the Saturn first launched in Japan, so it was probably of limited use at best as a stepping stool for dual-CPU development. And anyway, even on Saturn, many developers never used the second processor, The 32X also has some enhanced audio capabilities that were virtually never used in its games. Graphically, 2d 32X games can look like Genesis games with more colors, but games which use its dual processors for polygonal 3d or sprite scaling and rotation show off what the 32X can really do. 32X 3d and sprite manipulation are easily the best of the generation! It's all done in software, though; the 32X CPUs are just CPUs, and don't have hardware polygon or sprite manipulation features for whatever reason. It all needed to be programmed in. In its short lifespan games did not max out the system's capabilities, though some prototypes and techdemos show more of what the system can do, such as the famous Zyrinx techdemo video, or prototype games like X-Men.
Despite its problems, I'm glad to have a 32X, and like some of the games. The colorful graphics of 32X games are great compared to the Genesis and Sega CD's often dithered, color-poor visuals, and some of the polygonal and scaling-sprite games are good as well, and would be far worse on any other 4th gen platform, if they could be done at all. However, when thinking about the system, I can't avoid the fact that it never should have been released. Releasing and then abandoning the system badly hurt Sega's reputation in the US, and I don't think they ever fully recovered from it. Sega made many mistakes between 1994 and 2000 that forced them out of the industry as a first party, but the 32X episode is near the top of the list. Sega (of Japan, particularly) abandoned the Sega CD a bit too soon, and scaled back Genesis support while it was still very successful in the US and Europe, while also releasing this new addon that they gave up on after only six months. Sega needed to either never release the 32X, or to support it solidly for a couple of years. What they did was the worst option by far, compared to either of those. I know Sega had stretched itself too thin in 1995 (they were supporting far too many consoles at once!), but abandoning the 32X, and the Genesis and Sega CD too, hurt Sega more than it helped it, because the decision hurt Sega's standing with gamers, and also failed to get many people outside of Japan to buy Saturns.
Ah well. The 32X does exist, and that means that these games exist. And you need a 32X to play quite a few of them legally, too -- Sega has never re-released any 32X games anywhere, not even in emulated collections, Virtual Console, or anything. That's unfortunate, but owning an actual 32X might be worth it.
Favorite Games
--
1. Space Harrier
2. Shadow Squadron
3. V.R.: Virtua Racing Deluxe
4. Star Wars Arcade
5. Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000
Worst Game: Supreme Warrior
Changelog
--
2010 - List first posted.
2011 - Knuckles Chaotix, Motocross Championship, and Virtua Fighter reviews added.
2013 - Cosmic Carnage, Star Trek Starfleet Academy Starship Bridge Simulator, Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000, Slam City featuring Scottie Pippen (32X CD) reviews added.
2014 - Shadow Squadron review added. I also reread and expanded most of the previous reviews, so they're all at least somewhat better now. I also wrote the new System Overview section and added at the beginning.
Notes
--
In the summaries below, I list the cart games first, and 32X CD games second. 32X CD notes are above their section. I have 15 carts and 3 CD games. Review formatting is the same as in all of my Game Opinion Summary-series lists. The 6 button controller is recommended for the 32X.
----
Summaries: Cartridge Titles
----
After Burner
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. This is a good port of the arcade classic scaler-style rail shooter, the first good port of the game. It does run at a lower framerate than the arcade game and is a little blockier, but it looks and plays great. Now that there are perfect ports on the Saturn, Dreamcast, and PS2 this one doesn't matter as much as it did when it came out, but still, it's a very good port and it's great to have -- the Genesis scaler games were almost all awful. As for the game itself, I do find After Burner to be somewhat annoying. It's just too random, you get hit by missiles that you couldn't even see coming far too often. I did manage to beat the game on Easy (when you get game over in this version you get sent well back, though, so the game is beatable. The game is challenging, but fun more often than it is frustrating. One reason to get this version over the later ports is that most newer versions of After Burner just have infinite continues from the stage you're on, but on the 32X you have to go back to the last of the few checkpoint stages when you get a game over. This makes the game harder and increases the replay value. Still, the deaths are just too random for me to beat it on Normal. I like Space Harrier more, in that game deaths are clearly your own fault, unlike After Burner. Even so, overall After Burner Complete for the 32X is fast, smooth, and great looking. It's a very fun game, and despite the frustration factor because of how hard the missiles often are to dodge, the great sense of speed, constant action, and great graphics keep this game fun. It's too bad they didn't make a 32X scaler racing game like Power Drive, Outrun, Turbo Outrun, or Outrunners, it'd have been just fantastic to have... why only two rail shooters, and none of the racing games? Both of the rail shooters are amazing, they should have continued this series! Also, on a 6-button controller, you can use the Z button as a fire button. That's awesome, it's kind of like a trigger. But beyond that, you want a 6 button controller for this game, it makes controlling your speed much easier. After Burner is available on many platforms, but this was the best home version available at the time of its release. Newer ports like the Saturn and Dreamcast versions are better, though.
Cosmic Carnage
--
Two player simultaneous, no saving, 6-button controller support. Cosmic Carnage is a 2d fighting game from Sega. This clearly wasn't from one of Sega's better teams, though, as Cosmic Carnage is a poor game. This is a 2d side-view fighting game, but it makes use of the 32X hardware with scaling limbs galore. Almost every time either fighter attacks, their arm or leg flies around in scaled '3d', in order to show off the 32X's sprite-scaling powers. However, the gameplay of this somewhat Mortal Kombat-esque futuristic alien fighter's not any good, and I've still only rarely played it. This is a simple button-mashing-heavy fighting game. Too simple. I like that you can choose the light, medium, or heavy armor, customizing your character's speed, defense, and look, and that armor pieces can be knocked off too, but the game doesn't have anything else going for it unfortunately. The fighting is kind of simplistic and lacks depth, controls are not great, and character designs are weird and also not great either. Cosmic Carnage has a few fans, but I'm very much on the other side on this one. 32X exclusive.
Doom
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. 32X Doom looks decent graphically and has a fairly smooth framerate, but features-wise is quite disappointing. I like the SNES version, but this one... yes, the graphics are better than on the SNES, but some other things are seriously lacking. First, 32X Doom has the fewest levels of any released version of Doom -- it only has 17 levels. The original PC game had 27. The Jaguar version, which the 32X version is a port of, had 24, two of which were new, so it had 22 levels that were modified, geometry-reduced versions of the PC levels and two new ones. The 32X version drops the whole third episode, all five levels of it, so it ends at the end of what would be episode 2 on the PC and SNES. SNES Doom had 22 levels, though the five levels removed from that version are completely different from the five removed on the Jaguar and its ports -- play both versions and you play all the PC version levels. In comparison to the Jaguar, the SNES version actually uses almost unmodified versions of the original levels, which is one reason I like it. The PC game is from 1993, the Jaguar and 32X versions in 1994, the SNES and Playstation in 1995, the 3DO in 1996, the Saturn in 1997, and the GBA in 2001; except for the SNES, all of these console ports are conversions of the Jaguar version. SNES Doom also has a fantastic soundtrack -- the developers did a great job making SNES versions of the music. On the 32X however, music is one of the game's greatest weaknesses, While it does at least have music, unlike games like Jaguar Doom or Doom 64 which only have atmospheric sounds, the 32X version's music is so pathetically awful in comparison to the PC or SNES music that it's really sad and makes a big negative impact on the game. The controls are as good as you can do on a 6-button Genesis controller, but the SNES does have better controls due to the shoulder buttons for strafing; normally I prefer the 6-button Genesis controller to the SNES controller, but in this case the shoulder buttons do make a difference. Still, it works on a 6-button Genesis pad (not so much on 3 buttons though, but that's common in 32X games).
So yes, the resolution is higher than SNES Doom, the visuals clearer, and the framerate better, but the levels are less accurate, the music is much worse, and the game isn't a straight port of the PC game like SNES Doom is -- Jaguar Doom and all its ports drop the level map between stages, the episode breakdown (so it's just one "episode"), the between-episode story texts, and more, all things the SNES has. Both versions only have a single facing for enemies, so they are always facing you and can't turn and shoot at eachother and things like that, for space reasons on the carts. In 32X Doom you just have a level select at the main menu -- you can start from any of the 15 main levels, flat out. The only ones you'll have to work for are the two hidden levels. SNES Doom had a somewhat annoying episode select system, and also had no saving, but the 32X's solution is kind of lame really. The biggest problem, though, is definitely the lack of levels. Why is Episode III completely missing from this version? It's pretty sad, and really hurts the game a lot. With the last third of the game this might be good, despite the terrible music. Without it, it's unacceptably broken. Even so, 32X Doom does have two or three levels in it that are not in SNES Doom, which is nice, and the smooth gameplay is fun. Also this cart is extremely common and cheap, probably the second most common 32X game after Star Wars Arcade, so most people with a 32X will probably end up with a copy at some point. It's worth a try, even if it is disappointing -- but don't expect anything from the music! Of the two 4th-gen console versions, though, more people seem to prefer this 32X version, but I definitely like the SNES version more. On many platforms - PC, Mac, Saturn, SNES, PS1, GBA, Jaguar, 3DO, PS3 PSN, 360 XBLA, Xbox, and more.
Knuckles Chaotix
--
Two player simultaneous, on-cart saving. One of the most prominent games on the 32X, Knuckles Chaotix is a tough game to review, really. On the one hand, Chaotix is a very disappointing game thanks to its barren and unfinished-feeling level designs. But on the other hand, it has some of the most fun bonus stages in any Sonic game! But first, the bad. Levels in Chaotix are pitfall-free and enemy-light, and you will only very rarely actually die in a level in this game. This is a somewhat slow-paced game, and has a full 25 stages, with 5 worlds of 5 levels each, so it's longer than other classic Sonic games, and less fun. To make things worse, you play through each group of levels in random order, so there isn't much of a difficulty curve between the five worlds, only between the levels within each world. You start with the five level 1 stages in the randomizer, and as you beat levels later ones replace the completed levels. So, you will bounce around in difficulty based on random chance, and there are a full five long levels at each difficulty tier. If the game was actually fun and even remotely challenging at the beginning this might work, but it is neither, unfortunately. No game this easy and empty should have actually shipped! How could you actually publish a game where many levels take 5-10 minutes to get through, but in all that time the only actual challenges that can damage you are a couple of very easy enemies and maybe a spike trap or two somewhere? It's ridiculous! Also, Chaotix is mostly an entirely 2d game. The bonus stages are polygonal 3d tubes, and look and play great, but in the main game, it's very Genesis-like, but with more colors and occasional sprite scaling. The main game probably could have been done on Genesis, with some cuts.
Central to Knuckles Chaotix are its unique controls, but they definitely take getting used to. Perhaps the levels were designed as they are in order to make the controls less frustrating, but if so, perhaps they should have changed the controls too, as well as the level designs. Chaotix is a much slower paced game than the 16-bit Sonic games due to the unique two-characters-connected design; at all times in the game, two characters are tied together by a bungie ring thing. The game can be played co-op, but probably actually is more fun alone. You control one, and drag the other around as an AI-controlled ally, though you can swap at will. Having to constantly drag around the other character is the main thing which slows down this game. You do have some abilities, though. In addition to normal jumping, you can charge up and go flying around the screen in a direction you initially control. This can be fun, and occasionally is useful in puzzles as well, though not often enough. Also, far too often this just slows down the game even more. You will often have to charge one of the characters for a few seconds just to get up a ramp. All this really slows down the pace compared to the Genesis Sonic games, so levels will take quite a while to get through even if they probably aren't actually longer than Genesis Sonic levels in actual size. Another very poor decision is that you cannot select your partner, only the first player; your partner is randomized, just like the levels are. You can try to get the partner you want, but it will take luck, and level selection is completely random. The flat, and low, difficulty curve is the worst thing about this game. It's not all bad, though. Enough 16-bit Sonic is in this game for it to be fun for a little while, and it certainly does look nice in that Genesis Sonic way. Once you get used to the controls, flinging yourself around on the spring that connects your two characters can be pretty cool. You really can toss yourself around, and exploring the levels is fun even if the challenge is quite lacking. By far the best thing about the game, though, are those polygonal 3d bonus stages. You run down a tube, collecting chaos emeralds and avoiding obstacles. It's a bit like a very early railed tube 3d platformer! These levels are just awesome, and almost are worth playing the game just to see. They should have made an entire game of just the bonus stages, and abandoned Chaotix's main game for the batch of flawed ideas that it is. Overall I do think Knuckles Chaotix's negatives outweigh the positives, but the game's not a total loss, and it is original and unique; I don't know of any other games with the two-characters-connected design of Knuckles Chaotix. 32X exclusive.
Metal Head
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. Metal Head is a textured, 3d first person mech shooting game. This is a simple game, but it is reasonably good for the time. You walk around in a mech shooting enemies. Each level is a mazelike web of streets, and you have to kill all the badguys and save the day with a variety of weapons. The graphics are maybe the most impressive thing about this game -- it is the only US-released 32X game with textured polygons, and is one of only two on the platform. This game is well worth getting just to show off that the 32X can indeed do textured 3d! However, while impressive for the system, the graphics definitely have aged a lot, and the gameplay is really only average. You walk around, shoot enemy vehicles, walk more, shoot more, and that's about it. Your walking speed is slow, but there is a run button to speed you around more quickly. You do have mission objectives to accomplish in each stage, so you sometimes have to do something other than shoot, but usually the missions just involve going somewhere and killing the enemies along the way. Still, it's something. The game can be a challenge, too; enemies quickly get tough, and there are a lot of them. In the rectangular and somewhat mazelike levels, you travel on streets and corridors between the buildings, walls, or what have you that form the maze. The on-screen minimap makes it easy to navigate. I consider a good map to be pretty important to many kinds of gamers, and Metal Head's is good. It is great that it has a map, it makes it more fun than it would be otherwise. Beyond that, do remember that run button. Also, this is one of many 32X games that benefits greatly from the 6 button controller, and uses the buttons well. You don't want to play this on a 3 button controller if you have a choice. Overall, Metal Head is okay, but not great. It's fun for a while, but has little depth or variety, and is quite dated. Still, it's cheap and decently fun, so get it if you have a 32X. 32X exclusive.
Mortal Kombat II
--
Two player, no saving, 6-button controller support. MKII is a good game, and is my favorite game in the Mortal Kombat series. This is a fine version of the game, on its own. However, it's just not that improved from the Genesis, and it's debatable as to whether it's even as good as SNES MKII. And because of that, it is a little disappointing -- people got the 32X for a sort of next-gen experience, but the games that didn't use polygons often struggled to look much better than Genesis games, greater color use aside. That was particularly true for games like this one that are quick ports of Genesis titles. The developers of 32X MKII did add some things -- there are more colors used in the characters than on the Genesis, there's more blood in the backgrounds, and a few more things, so this is the superior version of the game compared to the Genesis, but somehow, I'd expect more. Still, MKII for the 32X is a fine version of a classic arcade fighting game, so it's well worth having, particularly if you don't have the Genesis or SNES versions of the game. I've never liked actually playing Mortal Kombat games all that much, and am quite terrible at all of them, MKII included, but MKII has always been my favorite game in the series, and still is. When I got the 32X I definitely wanted this, and it's great to have it. Also on many systems, including the Arcade, PC, Saturn, PS1 (Japan only), SNES, Genesis, Master System (Brazil only), Game Gear, and Game Boy.
The 32X has often been described as looking like a mushroom. It's kind of true.
System Overview
The 32X is the second, and final, major addon to the Sega Genesis. The Genesis is Sega's best and most successful console, but its addons were not as popular, the 32X particularly. The last, and most powerful, 4th-gen video game console, the 32X was released in late 1994, and was pretty much a complete disaster overall, sadly. Perhaps one of Sega's worst ideas ever, the 32X helped ruin Sega's reputation when they abandoned it in favor of the Saturn only barely over six months after its release. The system only lasted 13 months, and has about 40 games total, a quite small library. However, despite this, Sega released some pretty good first-party titles on the system, and for the Sega, or Sega Genesis, fan, it's almost a must-have, really. It is worse overall than the Sega CD, but actually might have more good action games from Sega itself than the SCD does. The few games Sega released for the 32X are mostly interesting.
The original idea for what became the 32X came from Sega of Japan, who wanted to make a Genesis that allowed for more colors than the Genesis's too-limited palette. Sega of America heard about it and convinced them to instead work together on a more powerful addon that did not only add more colors, but also some fairly powerful processors as well. Contrary to some beliefs, the 32X actually was designed in probably one of the last moments where Sega of America and Sega of Japan were actually working together. Their divisions would soon help ruin them, but neither side realized how bad an idea a second, short-lifespan addon would be. Sega thought that the 32X would be a somewhat short-lived system that would last for a couple of years for people who wanted next-gen power but didn't want to buy the expensive next-gen consoles yet. However, at $180 at launch, the 32X was somewhat pricey too, and it didn't even initially come with a packin game, just some coupons for games. Generally, Sega believed that it was better to charge people once for an expensive addon than to put enhancement chips into every cartridge, as Nintendo was doing with the Super FX; only one Genesis game uses an enhancement chip. Unfortunately for Sega, Nintendo, while perhaps charging consumers more overall, proved to have the more successful strategy; consumers look first at the sticker price, rather than the total cost, and Sega's addons were expensive. Nintendo made a point of saying how Donkey Kong Country didn't need an addon to have "next-gen" graphics, and this was a winning argument to many people.
The 32X is a powerful system. Of course, given that the 32X released after most of the 5th gen consoles, it should be expected to be powerful. It is. It has a somewhat unique design, though. In addition to the other reasons Sega had for making the 32X, Interviews on Sega-16 (see Joe Miller's, for example) have also said that the 32X was also supposed to help ease developers into dual-CPU development, because like the Saturn, the 32X has two processors. However, the 32X actually released shortly AFTER the Saturn first launched in Japan, so it was probably of limited use at best as a stepping stool for dual-CPU development. And anyway, even on Saturn, many developers never used the second processor, The 32X also has some enhanced audio capabilities that were virtually never used in its games. Graphically, 2d 32X games can look like Genesis games with more colors, but games which use its dual processors for polygonal 3d or sprite scaling and rotation show off what the 32X can really do. 32X 3d and sprite manipulation are easily the best of the generation! It's all done in software, though; the 32X CPUs are just CPUs, and don't have hardware polygon or sprite manipulation features for whatever reason. It all needed to be programmed in. In its short lifespan games did not max out the system's capabilities, though some prototypes and techdemos show more of what the system can do, such as the famous Zyrinx techdemo video, or prototype games like X-Men.
Despite its problems, I'm glad to have a 32X, and like some of the games. The colorful graphics of 32X games are great compared to the Genesis and Sega CD's often dithered, color-poor visuals, and some of the polygonal and scaling-sprite games are good as well, and would be far worse on any other 4th gen platform, if they could be done at all. However, when thinking about the system, I can't avoid the fact that it never should have been released. Releasing and then abandoning the system badly hurt Sega's reputation in the US, and I don't think they ever fully recovered from it. Sega made many mistakes between 1994 and 2000 that forced them out of the industry as a first party, but the 32X episode is near the top of the list. Sega (of Japan, particularly) abandoned the Sega CD a bit too soon, and scaled back Genesis support while it was still very successful in the US and Europe, while also releasing this new addon that they gave up on after only six months. Sega needed to either never release the 32X, or to support it solidly for a couple of years. What they did was the worst option by far, compared to either of those. I know Sega had stretched itself too thin in 1995 (they were supporting far too many consoles at once!), but abandoning the 32X, and the Genesis and Sega CD too, hurt Sega more than it helped it, because the decision hurt Sega's standing with gamers, and also failed to get many people outside of Japan to buy Saturns.
Ah well. The 32X does exist, and that means that these games exist. And you need a 32X to play quite a few of them legally, too -- Sega has never re-released any 32X games anywhere, not even in emulated collections, Virtual Console, or anything. That's unfortunate, but owning an actual 32X might be worth it.
Favorite Games
--
1. Space Harrier
2. Shadow Squadron
3. V.R.: Virtua Racing Deluxe
4. Star Wars Arcade
5. Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000
Worst Game: Supreme Warrior
Changelog
--
2010 - List first posted.
2011 - Knuckles Chaotix, Motocross Championship, and Virtua Fighter reviews added.
2013 - Cosmic Carnage, Star Trek Starfleet Academy Starship Bridge Simulator, Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000, Slam City featuring Scottie Pippen (32X CD) reviews added.
2014 - Shadow Squadron review added. I also reread and expanded most of the previous reviews, so they're all at least somewhat better now. I also wrote the new System Overview section and added at the beginning.
Notes
--
In the summaries below, I list the cart games first, and 32X CD games second. 32X CD notes are above their section. I have 15 carts and 3 CD games. Review formatting is the same as in all of my Game Opinion Summary-series lists. The 6 button controller is recommended for the 32X.
----
Summaries: Cartridge Titles
----
After Burner
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. This is a good port of the arcade classic scaler-style rail shooter, the first good port of the game. It does run at a lower framerate than the arcade game and is a little blockier, but it looks and plays great. Now that there are perfect ports on the Saturn, Dreamcast, and PS2 this one doesn't matter as much as it did when it came out, but still, it's a very good port and it's great to have -- the Genesis scaler games were almost all awful. As for the game itself, I do find After Burner to be somewhat annoying. It's just too random, you get hit by missiles that you couldn't even see coming far too often. I did manage to beat the game on Easy (when you get game over in this version you get sent well back, though, so the game is beatable. The game is challenging, but fun more often than it is frustrating. One reason to get this version over the later ports is that most newer versions of After Burner just have infinite continues from the stage you're on, but on the 32X you have to go back to the last of the few checkpoint stages when you get a game over. This makes the game harder and increases the replay value. Still, the deaths are just too random for me to beat it on Normal. I like Space Harrier more, in that game deaths are clearly your own fault, unlike After Burner. Even so, overall After Burner Complete for the 32X is fast, smooth, and great looking. It's a very fun game, and despite the frustration factor because of how hard the missiles often are to dodge, the great sense of speed, constant action, and great graphics keep this game fun. It's too bad they didn't make a 32X scaler racing game like Power Drive, Outrun, Turbo Outrun, or Outrunners, it'd have been just fantastic to have... why only two rail shooters, and none of the racing games? Both of the rail shooters are amazing, they should have continued this series! Also, on a 6-button controller, you can use the Z button as a fire button. That's awesome, it's kind of like a trigger. But beyond that, you want a 6 button controller for this game, it makes controlling your speed much easier. After Burner is available on many platforms, but this was the best home version available at the time of its release. Newer ports like the Saturn and Dreamcast versions are better, though.
Cosmic Carnage
--
Two player simultaneous, no saving, 6-button controller support. Cosmic Carnage is a 2d fighting game from Sega. This clearly wasn't from one of Sega's better teams, though, as Cosmic Carnage is a poor game. This is a 2d side-view fighting game, but it makes use of the 32X hardware with scaling limbs galore. Almost every time either fighter attacks, their arm or leg flies around in scaled '3d', in order to show off the 32X's sprite-scaling powers. However, the gameplay of this somewhat Mortal Kombat-esque futuristic alien fighter's not any good, and I've still only rarely played it. This is a simple button-mashing-heavy fighting game. Too simple. I like that you can choose the light, medium, or heavy armor, customizing your character's speed, defense, and look, and that armor pieces can be knocked off too, but the game doesn't have anything else going for it unfortunately. The fighting is kind of simplistic and lacks depth, controls are not great, and character designs are weird and also not great either. Cosmic Carnage has a few fans, but I'm very much on the other side on this one. 32X exclusive.
Doom
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. 32X Doom looks decent graphically and has a fairly smooth framerate, but features-wise is quite disappointing. I like the SNES version, but this one... yes, the graphics are better than on the SNES, but some other things are seriously lacking. First, 32X Doom has the fewest levels of any released version of Doom -- it only has 17 levels. The original PC game had 27. The Jaguar version, which the 32X version is a port of, had 24, two of which were new, so it had 22 levels that were modified, geometry-reduced versions of the PC levels and two new ones. The 32X version drops the whole third episode, all five levels of it, so it ends at the end of what would be episode 2 on the PC and SNES. SNES Doom had 22 levels, though the five levels removed from that version are completely different from the five removed on the Jaguar and its ports -- play both versions and you play all the PC version levels. In comparison to the Jaguar, the SNES version actually uses almost unmodified versions of the original levels, which is one reason I like it. The PC game is from 1993, the Jaguar and 32X versions in 1994, the SNES and Playstation in 1995, the 3DO in 1996, the Saturn in 1997, and the GBA in 2001; except for the SNES, all of these console ports are conversions of the Jaguar version. SNES Doom also has a fantastic soundtrack -- the developers did a great job making SNES versions of the music. On the 32X however, music is one of the game's greatest weaknesses, While it does at least have music, unlike games like Jaguar Doom or Doom 64 which only have atmospheric sounds, the 32X version's music is so pathetically awful in comparison to the PC or SNES music that it's really sad and makes a big negative impact on the game. The controls are as good as you can do on a 6-button Genesis controller, but the SNES does have better controls due to the shoulder buttons for strafing; normally I prefer the 6-button Genesis controller to the SNES controller, but in this case the shoulder buttons do make a difference. Still, it works on a 6-button Genesis pad (not so much on 3 buttons though, but that's common in 32X games).
So yes, the resolution is higher than SNES Doom, the visuals clearer, and the framerate better, but the levels are less accurate, the music is much worse, and the game isn't a straight port of the PC game like SNES Doom is -- Jaguar Doom and all its ports drop the level map between stages, the episode breakdown (so it's just one "episode"), the between-episode story texts, and more, all things the SNES has. Both versions only have a single facing for enemies, so they are always facing you and can't turn and shoot at eachother and things like that, for space reasons on the carts. In 32X Doom you just have a level select at the main menu -- you can start from any of the 15 main levels, flat out. The only ones you'll have to work for are the two hidden levels. SNES Doom had a somewhat annoying episode select system, and also had no saving, but the 32X's solution is kind of lame really. The biggest problem, though, is definitely the lack of levels. Why is Episode III completely missing from this version? It's pretty sad, and really hurts the game a lot. With the last third of the game this might be good, despite the terrible music. Without it, it's unacceptably broken. Even so, 32X Doom does have two or three levels in it that are not in SNES Doom, which is nice, and the smooth gameplay is fun. Also this cart is extremely common and cheap, probably the second most common 32X game after Star Wars Arcade, so most people with a 32X will probably end up with a copy at some point. It's worth a try, even if it is disappointing -- but don't expect anything from the music! Of the two 4th-gen console versions, though, more people seem to prefer this 32X version, but I definitely like the SNES version more. On many platforms - PC, Mac, Saturn, SNES, PS1, GBA, Jaguar, 3DO, PS3 PSN, 360 XBLA, Xbox, and more.
Knuckles Chaotix Bonus Stage
Knuckles Chaotix
--
Two player simultaneous, on-cart saving. One of the most prominent games on the 32X, Knuckles Chaotix is a tough game to review, really. On the one hand, Chaotix is a very disappointing game thanks to its barren and unfinished-feeling level designs. But on the other hand, it has some of the most fun bonus stages in any Sonic game! But first, the bad. Levels in Chaotix are pitfall-free and enemy-light, and you will only very rarely actually die in a level in this game. This is a somewhat slow-paced game, and has a full 25 stages, with 5 worlds of 5 levels each, so it's longer than other classic Sonic games, and less fun. To make things worse, you play through each group of levels in random order, so there isn't much of a difficulty curve between the five worlds, only between the levels within each world. You start with the five level 1 stages in the randomizer, and as you beat levels later ones replace the completed levels. So, you will bounce around in difficulty based on random chance, and there are a full five long levels at each difficulty tier. If the game was actually fun and even remotely challenging at the beginning this might work, but it is neither, unfortunately. No game this easy and empty should have actually shipped! How could you actually publish a game where many levels take 5-10 minutes to get through, but in all that time the only actual challenges that can damage you are a couple of very easy enemies and maybe a spike trap or two somewhere? It's ridiculous! Also, Chaotix is mostly an entirely 2d game. The bonus stages are polygonal 3d tubes, and look and play great, but in the main game, it's very Genesis-like, but with more colors and occasional sprite scaling. The main game probably could have been done on Genesis, with some cuts.
Central to Knuckles Chaotix are its unique controls, but they definitely take getting used to. Perhaps the levels were designed as they are in order to make the controls less frustrating, but if so, perhaps they should have changed the controls too, as well as the level designs. Chaotix is a much slower paced game than the 16-bit Sonic games due to the unique two-characters-connected design; at all times in the game, two characters are tied together by a bungie ring thing. The game can be played co-op, but probably actually is more fun alone. You control one, and drag the other around as an AI-controlled ally, though you can swap at will. Having to constantly drag around the other character is the main thing which slows down this game. You do have some abilities, though. In addition to normal jumping, you can charge up and go flying around the screen in a direction you initially control. This can be fun, and occasionally is useful in puzzles as well, though not often enough. Also, far too often this just slows down the game even more. You will often have to charge one of the characters for a few seconds just to get up a ramp. All this really slows down the pace compared to the Genesis Sonic games, so levels will take quite a while to get through even if they probably aren't actually longer than Genesis Sonic levels in actual size. Another very poor decision is that you cannot select your partner, only the first player; your partner is randomized, just like the levels are. You can try to get the partner you want, but it will take luck, and level selection is completely random. The flat, and low, difficulty curve is the worst thing about this game. It's not all bad, though. Enough 16-bit Sonic is in this game for it to be fun for a little while, and it certainly does look nice in that Genesis Sonic way. Once you get used to the controls, flinging yourself around on the spring that connects your two characters can be pretty cool. You really can toss yourself around, and exploring the levels is fun even if the challenge is quite lacking. By far the best thing about the game, though, are those polygonal 3d bonus stages. You run down a tube, collecting chaos emeralds and avoiding obstacles. It's a bit like a very early railed tube 3d platformer! These levels are just awesome, and almost are worth playing the game just to see. They should have made an entire game of just the bonus stages, and abandoned Chaotix's main game for the batch of flawed ideas that it is. Overall I do think Knuckles Chaotix's negatives outweigh the positives, but the game's not a total loss, and it is original and unique; I don't know of any other games with the two-characters-connected design of Knuckles Chaotix. 32X exclusive.
Metal Head
--
One player, no saving, 6-button controller support. Metal Head is a textured, 3d first person mech shooting game. This is a simple game, but it is reasonably good for the time. You walk around in a mech shooting enemies. Each level is a mazelike web of streets, and you have to kill all the badguys and save the day with a variety of weapons. The graphics are maybe the most impressive thing about this game -- it is the only US-released 32X game with textured polygons, and is one of only two on the platform. This game is well worth getting just to show off that the 32X can indeed do textured 3d! However, while impressive for the system, the graphics definitely have aged a lot, and the gameplay is really only average. You walk around, shoot enemy vehicles, walk more, shoot more, and that's about it. Your walking speed is slow, but there is a run button to speed you around more quickly. You do have mission objectives to accomplish in each stage, so you sometimes have to do something other than shoot, but usually the missions just involve going somewhere and killing the enemies along the way. Still, it's something. The game can be a challenge, too; enemies quickly get tough, and there are a lot of them. In the rectangular and somewhat mazelike levels, you travel on streets and corridors between the buildings, walls, or what have you that form the maze. The on-screen minimap makes it easy to navigate. I consider a good map to be pretty important to many kinds of gamers, and Metal Head's is good. It is great that it has a map, it makes it more fun than it would be otherwise. Beyond that, do remember that run button. Also, this is one of many 32X games that benefits greatly from the 6 button controller, and uses the buttons well. You don't want to play this on a 3 button controller if you have a choice. Overall, Metal Head is okay, but not great. It's fun for a while, but has little depth or variety, and is quite dated. Still, it's cheap and decently fun, so get it if you have a 32X. 32X exclusive.
Mortal Kombat II
--
Two player, no saving, 6-button controller support. MKII is a good game, and is my favorite game in the Mortal Kombat series. This is a fine version of the game, on its own. However, it's just not that improved from the Genesis, and it's debatable as to whether it's even as good as SNES MKII. And because of that, it is a little disappointing -- people got the 32X for a sort of next-gen experience, but the games that didn't use polygons often struggled to look much better than Genesis games, greater color use aside. That was particularly true for games like this one that are quick ports of Genesis titles. The developers of 32X MKII did add some things -- there are more colors used in the characters than on the Genesis, there's more blood in the backgrounds, and a few more things, so this is the superior version of the game compared to the Genesis, but somehow, I'd expect more. Still, MKII for the 32X is a fine version of a classic arcade fighting game, so it's well worth having, particularly if you don't have the Genesis or SNES versions of the game. I've never liked actually playing Mortal Kombat games all that much, and am quite terrible at all of them, MKII included, but MKII has always been my favorite game in the series, and still is. When I got the 32X I definitely wanted this, and it's great to have it. Also on many systems, including the Arcade, PC, Saturn, PS1 (Japan only), SNES, Genesis, Master System (Brazil only), Game Gear, and Game Boy.
This is my favorite 32X game. It took a lot of practice, but I finally beat the game earlier this year! It's tough, but so, so worth it. Outstanding title. Also on Arcades, PC, Famicom, TG16, various other computers, Saturn, Dreamcast, etc.
