Jeremy Parish

Segaiden #011: Lode Runner / Safari Race / Champion Boxing / Champion Soccer (Patreon)

Published:

2021-04-14 13:00:05

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

lode runner sega segaiden

Content

This week, we throw the mic back over to Sega and four more for ’84. Some impressive visual gimmicky happening here—once Sega manages to marry these visuals to equally strong gameplay, it'll be easier to see how SG-1000 represents basis of this first-power powerhouse's long and memorable life as a console industry superstar.

Lode Runner: I'd like to promise this is the last we'll see of this property for a while, but both Famicom and SG-1000 have Championship Lode Runner lurking in the wings for ’85.
Safari Race: The most visually impressive racer on SG-1000 yet, let down by an extraordinarily fussy design choice.
Champion Boxing: The most visually impressive SG-1000 game yet, period. So good it was released as-is for arcades. Alas, it doesn't play nearly so well. But it is notable for reasons explained within...
Champion Soccer: Finally, an SG-1000 sports sim that feels more in line with the NES era of games than the Atari 2600 years.

Files

Lode Runner/Safari Race/Champion Boxing/Champion Soccer retrospective: Lock ’n Lode | Segaiden #011

Yet another look at a Lode Runner game? Yes, that's right. It was a pretty big deal back in the early ’80s. The upside to this repetition is that the SG-1000 version of the game makes possible a direct comparison against its contemporary release, providing a clear picture of what the two platforms were all about. Also this episode, Sega finally starts to push beyond the innate limits of the hardware with another racing game and two more Champion sports titles, all of which employ graphical tricks that help make the console look a little more competitive against the competition at Nintendo. This series has been made possible in part by the work of Omar Cornut, the Game Developers Research Institute, segaretro.org, iFixRetro, and Analogue Co. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.