Shining Force (and other Sega 16-bit) Classics

From 1989-1993, the 16-bit revolution was in full swing, with the Sega Genesis, NEC Turbo Grafx 16, Super Nintendo, and SNK Neo-Geo (self-proclaimed 24-bit)

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Darryl B.
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Shining Force (and other Sega 16-bit) Classics

Post by Darryl B. »

I just ran across the Shining Force Classics app the other day for the iOS. I assume it's also for Android and various other platforms.

This comes with the Sega Genesis (and possibly Megadrive?) RPGs of Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force and Shining Force II. I was never real big on RPGs but I do have Shining in the Darkness. I rented Shining Force and II back in the day and had the Shining Force CD for that add-on but the original Shining in the Darkness is the only one I still have. Since I need an adapter of some sort to play my Genesis stuff on a modern day tv I jumped on this one, as, even though you have to do a bit of grinding, I still like the game and go through it occasionally.

We-ll, after I had to dig through boxes after moving, *trying* to find the game instructions and the map to the first labyrinth and part of the Cave of Strength after that. Finally, with the last three or so blasted boxes, I finally found that :) So I dove right in.

All the music and graphics are in place for Shining/Darkness, plus I've been through the labyrinth and it seems to be nearly an exact port of the game, although after I got Pyra and Milo to join my team and was grinding to get their experience levels up they took out the Kaiserkrab the second time around, which I'm pretty sure they left it in there on the original. I'm pretty sure the Cave of Strength is easier, which is wrong, they should've just left it as it was. Controls are screwy though: usually going forwards and backwards is fine but it's hard to turn left and right. This is ridiculous. Lord knows how Sonic the Hedgehog responds (or not) unless they fixed that. It's nice the Sega Forever company to do this though, as they have several other of these packages available (which I'll get to). I'm also pretty sure they changed some of the Cave of Strength around as it doesn't match up with my map I made back in the day. Granted, I screwed up the maps some but I can pretty much still get around them decently. If I had an adapter I'd fire up the original game on my Genesis but I don't have one right now.

If you have some kind of account you can save the game wherever you want. I still choose just to save it in the Shrine since that's what I'm used to. You can also tweak the graphics and turn the music off and all. There only seem to be ads when I first turn my phone on and that's it; I was afraid it'd be after every third battle or something.

Quitting a game is confusing though. The old guy says he'll turn in, the Shining in the Darkness logo appears, and...you can't pick back up on that? You have to go to the main menu since the so-called onscreen Start button won't respond. After that you can start where you left off. Whatever. Wake up, old idiot!

This game is just as is though. It's not like a lot of the Atari Flashback consoles where they have virtual reproductions of instruction manuals, so you're still going to need those, as various characters can only use certain weapons, so you have to look them up before you buy anything, lest you waste money on a useless weapon a character can't use.

So far I give this 3 stars out of 5 since the meh controls are ridiculous and the Cave of Strength I'm pretty sure was changed. I'm kind of afraid to see what will happen in the later challenges as well but we'll see how those go. I assume they're just as wonky on the other two games but it'll be quite a while when I get to those so I can't judge them for now (beating Shining/Darkness takes weeks on and off). I thought Shining Force 1-2 were a bit overrated, only renting them back in the day after never buying them. Plus I'd have to download the instructions from something like replacementdocs.com if they have them.

And, here's all the games I can find so far: just right off the bat when you get to the title screen, you can also download:

*Sonic Dash
*Sonic CD
*Sonic Forces

Plus, all the other Genesis/Megadrive stuff I can find in the App Store include:

*Phantasy Star Classics
*Sonic the Hedgehog Classics (probably the same as the first list)
*Gunstar Heroes Classic
*Vectorman Classic
*Beyond Oasis Classic
*Street of Rage 2 Classic
*Kid Chameleon Classic
*Comix Zone Classic
*Ristar Classic
*Sonic the Hedgehog 4? Not sure which platform that was released on, I'm sure it wasn't the Genesis (so this is a bonus, along with Crazy Taxi)

Every single one of these are free. Don't know how the controls are though. I'm glad Sega Forever is doing this but I hope all apps don't need some additional work though.
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