Neo Geo on the Sega Genesis

[Music] the snk neo geo it was a powerhouse of arcade technology at its original release in april of 1990 it featured a blisteringly fast motorola 68000 at 12 megahertz a z80 co-processor and a video controller capable of thousands of on-screen colors the neo geo came in two forms the arcade-only mvs and the home version known as the aes the initial home release was available only as a limited commercial rental device in major cities but a year later it was made available to purchase in the consumer home console market to put it bluntly it was far more powerful than sega's genesis and nintendo's super nes the leading home machines at the time the neo geo could scale sprites and hardware could display far more color and came on cartridges many times the size of what we saw elsewhere it truly was an arcade experience at home of course snk and its partners were not above licensing out their software on release for their competitors hardware and that's where this episode you are about to see comes in we are going to compare the sound and visuals of the neo geo ports on the sega genesis to their original releases i broke out the real hardware for this one so you're getting both the neo geo and the genesis in all their original glory could sega's 16-bit workhorse give snk's 24-bit monster any competition let's take a look [Applause] [Music] [Applause] super baseball 2020 was an interesting one because it always had the best chance of doing well on the genesis this was released in 1993 and published by electronic arts a port of the 1991 neo geo game 2020 super baseball as you can see in the side by side here the genesis does an impressive job with the sprites and animation the field retains the overall look of the neo geo original though you can tell the color takes a hit with a much simpler heads up display when the outfield comes into play you'll notice some larger differences most of the writing on the various zones is missing on the genesis and the crowd lacks the same level of animation sound of course is another area where the genesis version sees some noticeable cuts gameplay seems to retain most features of the neo original however power ups obstacles pitching hitting and fielding all feel strikingly similar and it's easy to go from one to the other without feeling like you're missing something i think overall this is a very impressive effort by the developer new fx who also handled crew ball for the genesis this is particularly impressive given the fact that genesis release was a mere 16 megabits only about a third of the neogeo's 46 megabit original by keeping the sprite size and much of the main stadium intact the faithful gameplay is allowed to shine in a way that makes this one one of the better home ports of that time i'll leave you now with some music examples so you can hear the differences for yourselves [Music] [Music] [Music] the viewpoint conversion had a lot more to deal with there were tons more sprites and animations to consider to add to the challenge of this port the nature of the assets also meant the color would need to be scaled back heavily when viewed together it's easy to see where the cuts were made to get this on the genesis many of the sprites remain large and fairly well animated but that color difference is stark and unmistakable the genesis also has a much harder time handling the performance of everything that's happening on the screen resulting in some significant slowdown the original neo geo version was a very difficult game so this may seem like a positive to some but i can't say i want to play this in slow motion either way but for everything that it lacks the overall quality is still impressive considering the neo geo original was a whopping 74 megabits a huge difference compared to the genesis cart that was just 16. this was handled by american sami and nexus interact resulting in a release only seen in the united states in late 1994 there is a fair bit of difference in the audio presentation as well so let's listen to a few examples [Music] i wasn't a fatal fury man myself i just never felt the gameplay was anywhere near as good as street fighter 2 but i recognized it does have its fans and should you own a genesis this is a cut back but serviceable port this was developed by guy brain aspect and takara coming home on an oddball 12 megabit cartridge in 1993. this means you get the standard cutbacks in animation details and sound effects but playing these two back to back you can't help but feel the genesis still did a very respectable job with the source material especially considering it was having to port down the 55 megabits of the neo geo original sadly two of the enemy characters are completely lost with the cutbacks but you do get to choose the rest in versus mode something you couldn't do in the arcade more positives include the time of day changing between the matches and the story cinematics remaining between the locations the gameplay feels very similar between the two so if you can get past the audio and visual changes the gameplay should keep you happy and speaking of sound let's listen to a few music tracks so you can get a sense of how it's changed [Music] [Music] as decent as the first fatal fury was on the genesis 1994's fatal fury 2 trumps it in pretty much every way now on a much larger 24 megabit cartridge guy brain and takara had a lot more room to do the arcade version proud it carries over the base gameplay model that is quite a bit better than the first and even includes a speed setting that wasn't even in the original neogeo release after spending some time with them both i have found that many of the same strategies work between the two and most of the moves landed similar in feel voice work is weaker on the genesis and you do of course get the expected cuts and animation and background detail those backgrounds do retain the time of day changes and many other more prominent set pieces so they aren't bad looking at all i'd argue this is a significant step up in quality over the original effort and it includes a survival mode if you want something different to get away from the story you won't be getting these two confused with one another but fans of the neo original should be happy enough to squeak out some enjoyment from the genesis version i again leave you with some audio so you can hear the differences and how things sound [Music] [Music] it was sega and snk that teamed up to make art of fighting happen on the genesis in 1994 and it's quite a bit different from the neo edition first and unsurprising the zoom feature is completely absent in the genesis release i was actually happy for this because i found the arcade jarring with its constant in and out movement this effect was not as smooth as it was in other neo geo titles and the genesis port instead chooses to add parallax to the backgrounds and a line scrolling floor these effects are not in the neo geo original since the zoom is gone on the genesis the developers chose to keep the sprites in a much smaller state so a side-by-side can be stark content-wise most of what was in the arcade is retained here you still get a story mode with cinematics and you can still play as the enemy fighters in versus mode gameplay feels similar though the lack of the zooming effect definitely impacts the pacing of the two if you're expecting it sadly much of the sound presentation is altered or completely removed here even the japanese and us versions of the genesis game have a number of differences in japan the ai is far less aggressive and the u.s version has an additional layer of fog on mickey stage overall the genesis didn't do a terrible job with it i feel you got the expected cuts and special effects and voices but the solid color use and additional background scrolling were very well done snk only had 16 megabits to work with for the sega release quite a cutback from the 102 megabits that house the arcade original as for the music let's listen and see how it turned out [Music] sega internally developed and published world heroes for the genesis in 1994. that means this is the best neo geo port on the platform by a mile right nope not even close this version of the game is important name only and a mere shell of the arcade original visually the cuts are as you'd expect less color less animation and the standard sound effects and music differences and if it all ended right there this might have been somewhat palatable but good lord did sega completely destroy the gameplay now i want to be clear i am no world heroes fan even the neo geo original was an average fighter that was buried beneath better games but here sega shat the bed and there is nothing else to say other than it's just awful damned awful it feels nothing like the neo original you'll have just as much luck jamming the buttons as fast as you can as opposed to mounting any real strategy and worse the flow of the gameplay is further butchered with choppy movement that sees the fighters composed of an absurdly low amount of frames now i know this is only 16 megabits compared to the neo originals 82 but if this was the best sega could do they should have left this port alone and did something else this is by far the worst neoport on the genesis it is irredeemably broken if you are hoping for anything resembling the original world heroes was always a sea tier fighter but on the genesis it's easily one of the worst fighting games on the platform you will get no music comparison following this commentary we are done with this steaming pile of and i'll waste no more time on it the first king of the monsters was a good time in the arcade particularly when played with a friend the 1993 genesis effort was a majorly cut back release that was a mere 8 megabits and absurdly small cart that had no hope of recreating the original 55 megabit arcade release here we see a massive drop in color and detail in the sega version the fighters are smaller and have less animation and the sound has seen a ton of changes particularly the speech there are also two less monsters to choose from in the genesis version and the ai is so unfair that it's virtually game breaking in the later stages grapple the cpu and you'll lose pretty much every time the saving grace of this port is the two-player mode which is actually a blast and can be a great time but that's about all this port has going for it when directly compared to the original i do recommend the japanese mega drive release if you want to own a version for your sega platform it is a much more fair version in the one player mode that can actually be beaten without resorting to spamming the same pattern over and over let's get a few sound examples going so you can hear the differences there as well [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] king of the monsters 2 on the genesis gets a 16 megabit cartridge and a radical redesign in all areas of the game courtesy of takara and a developer called btop gone are the beat'em up elements from the arcade with a new focus on how the first game played it's now pretty much a one-on-one contest and you can choose any of the monsters something you couldn't do even in the neo geo version each monster has been given a new set of fighting game style moves that pretty much changes everything about how it feels and plays of course the graphics and sound again see some major downgrades from top to bottom the neo geo version was 74 megabits so you know the deal the stages aren't as detailed there's far less color everything is smaller in comparison and the sound and music is quite a bit weaker frustratingly the ai is again immensely unfair in the single player mode and borderline unplayable when grappling this leads to spamming long range and projectile attacks over and over to get anywhere that leaves us again with the two-player mode to save the day and with a friend this is so much better it's not even funny hell it's practically a completely different experience i'd even say as long as you are playing this in a competitive setting it's better than the original neo geo release the ability to choose any monster combined with the new gameplay moves really elevates the versus mode to something that is much more enjoyable than you would have ever expected by yourself this is a hard pass but if you play with friends i highly recommend it oh man here's the big one samurai showdown on the neo geo is a 118 megabit legend a weapon based fighter that gave street fighter 2 stiff competition in 1993. a year later this genesis port landed on a 24 megabit cartridge with the hopes of being close enough to its arcade cousin to warrant your attention and if we all just looked at video games without playing them this port is an absolute winner side by side the genesis does a respectable job recreating the original assets the scaling feature is of course cut out but the zoomed in perspective gives us large detailed sprites that are quite striking the backgrounds though missing almost all of the original's impressive animation still have the major set pieces in place capturing the feel of the environments on a level you never thought possible with just 64 on-screen colors of course we all want to actually play games and it's here where this version sees the largest disappointment there are so many animation cuts that it actually takes away moves from the fighters that's right missing are some of the actual moves from the arcade original this is bad enough but there is also a fair amount of slowdown that creeps into the flow of the gameplay it's constant and becomes extremely noticeable in the back to back play with the original further content cuts include the original intro being abbreviated the fighter earthquake being removed entirely and most of the voice work catching the axe the fact of the matter is is that it has the looks to be considered a strong port considering the power gulf between the genesis and the neo geo but the missing moves and near constant slow down really hammer its long-term appeal i feel the genesis could have done this so much better and the developer cut things that should never be changed in a fighting game let's end this comparison with a few musical choices [Music] [Music] [Music] the take away from this episode is pretty simple the genesis had an uphill battle doing these ports for a number of reasons the neo geo was simply a lot more powerful and the cartridges the genesis used were so much smaller before things like special effects sprite size and color were even considered the genesis developers hands were tied by size constraints this meant that sound effects animations and even content like characters and stages were often cut out that leaves the burning question in this day and age of near perfect emulation and fpga solutions are any of these genesis editions worth your time the answer is yes absolutely super baseball 2020 is an excellent port that plays just as well as the original king of the monsters 2 is basically a brand new game specific to the genesis that really shines in multiplayer viewpoint is a zaxon like shooter that really has nothing similar on the genesis to compare it to if i had to recommend one to avoid completely it's world heroes it really is a terrible showing that plays nothing like it's supposed to for those of you that have access to a sega cd or some way to play its games there were a number of neo geo ports there as well fatal fury special samurai showdown and sengoku are worth checking out if you're curious each one has their issues but it's interesting to see how things were different on a cd based console curiously enough it would be years before disk based consoles had enough memory to truly do neo geo ports without compromise that says a lot about how solid the core technology of the neo geo was and why it has such a lasting legacy of greatness i still get a kick out of those old magazine ads snk used to do they really went after their competition and even though they used some questionable tactics in defining their technology you really had to love their style i'm single lord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 98,043

Keywords: neo geo, snk, mega drive, neo geo aes, neo geo mvs, neo geo cd, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari

Id: Z2xPrPlA4Ns

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2022