March 9th
Today's challenge is: Underrated.
Today kinda gave me trouble. “Underrated” felt somewhat redundant with “you like, but everyone hates", so I had to come up with a very specific interpretation of “underrated”, and here's what I've got: I have to pick a game that's generally understood to be great, but that I feel like is still not valued as it should. Thinking of it like that, a few titles were singled out in my mind, and I think I've found a satisfying example. But first, some context.
The console wars of the early 90s could be particularly difficult for the average gamer. I'm talking Genesis/Megadrive versus the Super Nintendo. For most gamers who could not invest in both systems at the time, they'd feel like both systems had exclusives that more or less countered whatever the other one had. That is, unless you were strongly skewed towards certain genres. For example, if you were into RPGs, this choice was pretty simple. Sure, SEGA had the Phantasy Stars, the Shining series and a few other gems like Beyond Oasis, but there's no way it could match what the SNES had to offer in that respect. On the other hand, if you were into shmups, Nintendo might have had a few heavy hitters, like Space Megaforce/Super Aleste and a few others, but there's no way it could rival with SEGA, who was the king of all arcade genres and ports in my mind.
And I am going to focus on shmups here. The Genesis is one of the consoles any shmup enthusiast has to own given what it has to offer, but if you look at anyone's top 5 list or whatever, you'll see titles like Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force, MUSHA, Eliminate Down, Gley Lancer, Elemental Master, but there's one title that's usually missing from those lists, and I'd argue it should sit at the top of most of those lists, or at least tied with Lightening Force or something. That game is
Battle Mania Daiginjou, also known as Battle Mania 2, which was unreleased in the West, but was a sequel to Battle Mania, which was known over here as Trouble Shooter.
So what exactly does Battle Mania Daiginjou do that the rest doesn't? Well, a little bit of everything. It offers multiple playstyles, an extreme and tasteful variety in level design, great characters and a fun storyline (yes, really), perfect controls across the boards, great arsenal customization, a fantastic soundtrack, wacky enemy designs (remember how I said I was into cute 'em ups?), amazing visuals and a plethora of other great features.
So, what's the catch? Well, feel free to look the game up on ebay to find out that it typically ranges in the 4 digits (not counting the pennies, so at least a grand to get your hands on a genuine copy). It also wasn't released in the West, so gamers didn't grow up with this title. Those who played it know it's amazing, but that doesn't include a whole lot of people. Even so, I find it odd that this game is so often excluded from personal lists, especially nowadays, with the everdrives, emulators, fanmade translations and reproduction carts. I honestly cannot comprehend how it could fall off of anyone's top 3 among the shmups on the console if nostalgia is ignored. And there's a level in which one of the enemies is Super Mario himself, hurling mushrooms in your face. I am not joking.
It took me forever to play this title. My bro Felix bought me an everdrive for my 28th birthday, which I spent with Hakulyte (given that we share the same birthday). It was one of the first game I wanted to try out, so I handed him the controller after selecting what I thought was the first game in the series. It blew both of our minds, and instantly overthrew MUSHA as my favorite Genesis shmup, and became my favorite “classic and retro” shmup as well. It's a little hard to admit because I really, REALLY like Power Strike 2 on the Master System, but this is just too good.
The game was only out for the Megadrive, and if you ask me, I do think it's worth its hefty price tag.
