Today at Sega‘s iPhone Games Day, they revealed two more emulated Genesis titles that will be hitting the iPhone. Gamers who had purchased a Genesis prior to the Sonic the Hedgehog craze should be instantly familiar with the original system’s pack-in game Altered Beast. The other title is the cult classic run and gun shooter Gunstar Heroes from Treasure.
While the previous emulated titles offered by Sega have sold really well, there has been an underlying feeling of disappointment from many gamers due to the poor performance of both the controls and actual game emulation. Recently, Sega has updated this emulator after working hard to optimize the performance and tighten up the controls. Virtual buttons may not be ideal for fast-paced arcade style games like these, but after playing both titles today I can safely say that they perform much more admirably than previous games have in the past.
Altered Beast – Originally a popular arcade title, Altered Beast was ported to the Genesis to show the capabilities of the new 16-bit system in bringing a similar experience to the living room. For those not familiar with the game, Altered Beast is a side-scrolling beat ’em up where you play as a warrior who has been resurrected from the grave in order to rescue Zeus’s daughter Athena from the evil demon Neff. You’ll fight a slew of eveil creatures, and can collect orbs that will incrementally beef up your hero into stronger and stronger variations, culminating in a powerful werewolf type creature.
Altered Beast is a classic to be sure, but time has not treated the gameplay very well. After the evolution that the beat ’em up genre went through during the 90’s, Altered Beast feels pretty dated. It’s still quite a bit of fun, and has a strong nostalgia factor. It plays surprisingly well in Sega’s updated version of their iPhone emulator, and I was amazed that I could actually make it to the first level’s end boss and defeat him. It’s a shame that this port isn’t the superior arcade version of Altered Beast, but if you enjoyed the Genesis version then you will likely enjoy this one as well.
Gunstar Heroes – One of the most revered developers of the past two decades is Treasure, who are famous for creating such classics as Dynamite Headdy, Radiant Silvergun, and Ikaruga. Their first title though was Gunstar Heroes for the Genesis. Similar to Contra, Gunstar Heroes is a side and vertical-scrolling run and gun shooter. It is mostly remembered for the intense amount of frantic action you would be subjected to at any given time, as well as the interesting weapons and intense battles with humongous bosses.
Also similar to Contra, Gunstar Heroes requires precision controls and quick reflexes in order to not meet your end. The lack of tactile feedback with virtual touch screen controls usually makes games like this nearly impossible to play, but after trying out the game today I was actually really impressed with how well it works. I’m not going to say that it’s perfect, but certainly as close to perfect as a touch screen will allow for this type of game. Gunstar Heroes is tough as nails, and virtual controls won’t make it any easier. But it’s still very playable, and more importantly quite a bit of fun, especially if you enjoyed the original game. Controls aside, there are likely many players that will be grabbing the game just based on the fact that it’s Gunstar Heroes, and I’ll admit that it will be very cool to have such a classic available in my pocket to play at any time.
What is really interesting is that both the titles shown today were originally 2-player co-op games, and this functionality has been preserved in the iPhone iterations via bluetooth. Since one of the biggest allures of both Altered Beast and Gunstar Heroes was teaming up with a buddy to play the game, it’s nice that this will still be possible on the iPhone. Additionally, Sega is planning on updating some of their previous iPhone Genesis titles with bluetooth multiplayer, although no specific games were mentioned. Both Altered Beast and Gunstar Heroes were looking pretty good in action, and you can expect to see them released sometime this fall.
Frame rate is often lower on iPhone 4 not higher. The device has 4x as many pixels but isn't 4 times as powerful.
Love the post apocalyptic genre, please don't screw it up guys! It looks awesome.
That seems to make sense, but I have yet to see a game where the retina display version is slower than the standard version.
And yes, it does loom great -- I'm definitely getting a Motorstorm vibe from that footage.
That doesn't make sense. There isn't a directly proportional relationship between screen pixels and processor speed. For one things, there are many other variables. Regarding just the processor, it's certainly not the case that double the pixels requires double the processor speed etc. in order to have the same framerate.
Yeah what kinda cracked out thinking was that? Double the pixels, double the processor? That's so wrong... It's almost genius.
You are absolutely correct about 4x the pixels having the potential to be slower but in practice it isn't happening much yet. It's all down to the complexity of the fragment shaders (including the ones GL1.1 uses to emulate the old hardware on new hardware). Most GL1.1 games don't have a problem but some do. Anything using fog for example causes huge issues. Ground Effect running at iPad res for example runs at 13 FPS with fog on, it isn't much better on Retina. Turning the fog off gets it back to 40FPS of course...
Anyway, the point is that the iPhone 4 absolutely can't be relied on to be able to do everything 3gs does at 4x the resolution. Sure, most iPhone games port to it fine but anything using fog or other badly emulated features is going to suffer.
More importantly some of the cool stuff that's just coming out with complex bump shaders, awesome shadows etc.might actually run better in full res on 3gs.
Looks like a great game, I hope they change the HUD though, because that'S the part that I don't like! :p
the atmosphere is nicely drawn however the cars are what kill it for me if you look at the tiers there boxy and the cars look like bricks on wheeles. it needs more work. It has the potential for greatness but if it going to be .99 then leav it as it is and I would buy it. 2.99 or more it will need a graphical improvement. needs to look like real racing. I cant wait till some one utilses the the camaras like the up cumming 3ds.
I love the Fallout/Mad Max theme but will there be an iPad version (or even better universal)? 2x scaling is alright but its not great. I'm a little disappointed that not a lot of developers are sinking into the iPad or at least universal support. Some games scaled are down right unplayable due to the controls not being scaled and moved.
Seconded, this looks AWESOME and i'm really hoping for an iPad version...
Agreed. Plus, this game looks to be a bad candidate for 2x where graphics are concerned.
+ 1 for an iPad version.
Wow... what an Icon :eek:
The analog speedometer is a nice touch even though it occupies a good chunk of real estate
Meh, just another ipod racer with different textures, just give me Reckless Racing!
The first racing game on AppStore where the curves are real curves
*yawn* this looks boring, looks slow and doesnt have weapons or anything.
Love the idea of it and has a huge amount of potential but from the gameplay video it looks a bit too drift-senstive to me and I don't get a great sense of speed from it either. Like I said though, huge amount of potential.
It reminds me of one of my all time favourite racing games, Powerslide on windows. That said, a lot of the fun in that game came from the 8 player LAN games in the office...
You think in an alternate future we wouldn't be stuck listening to generic electronic music.