Night Striker: Why am I liking it?

[samanosuke]

A couple of weeks back I purchased Night Striker for the Mega-CD. Now I know it's not a great game as I'd played it once before, but at around ?4 including postage from Japan it was cheaper than a pair of Hi-Tecs.

Anyroad, I fired it up once it had arrived and sadly my memories of it being as enjoyable as watching El Dorado seemed true. However, being the masochist that I am, last night I decided to have another dig at it and I changed the controls to normal instead of reverse and switched off that auto-centering bollocks. I ended up playing it for about an hour and a half and got right into it! I looked beyond the pizza-looking mess of an excuse that is the graphics, and while it was no Space Harrier an addictive game began to emerge.

Okay, so the graphics are sh*te. I mean, f*ck me, I've seen higher resolution 2600 games. Come to mention it I've seen better 3D on 2600 games too, but at least you have to give Taito some credit for utilising the 3D capabilities of the MCD, even if they did it so poorly.

Both Soulstar and Batman Returns p*ss on this technically, but I find the simple arcade-orientated gameplay of Night Striker great for quick blasts of gaming.

Anyone else like this game or have I just gone crazy?!?

[dvdx2]

get the Jpn Saturn version ....much better

[Yakumo]

I loved the Mega CD version as well about 18 years ago but these days I can't really recall how bad it looked. I now play Night Striker on the Saturn which is a very good arcade conversion plus has some nice extras. I'm also quite a fan of the Zuntata soundtrack on that ame.

Yakumo

[Team Andromeda]

I think the Arcade game and home versions aren't as good as some people make out . That said I did enjoy the game , it was fun and a laugh . Bar the Screen Res the Mega CD version is spot on port and I love the soundtrack .

It reminds me of Touring Car onthe Saturn , with that it was the frame rate that let an otherwise near perect port down , with Night Striker it was the Screen Res that let an otherwise brilliant port down .

Cliffhanger and Batman Returns still makes the best use of the Mega CD imo, thanks to the brilliant work of Steve O'Brien

[samanosuke]

Soulstar is pretty awesome too, especially the Twingan Ocean level (both above and underwater sections).

[Vince]

Hmm, i've been tempted to pick up the PS1 version of this as i like old arcade games and Zuntata, might have to now.

[Team Andromeda]

Soulstar is pretty awesome too, especially the Twingan Ocean level (both above and underwater sections).

Yeah, I think Soulstar pushed the Mega CD to its limits, I love the 3D sections with thier Saturn style VDP II style floors and Ceilings Mode 7 effects . I like the game , but its just too hard and when you done a level it really should have saved into the memory .

I really wished Core made a Jaguar XJ220 Pt II too. I loved the 1st game, it was the 1st game when I really saw the Mega CD sprite scaling in full effect in a game. It would have been nice to have more track side objects , a bigger screen , and 64 colours on screen