Shut Up and (Mega) Drive
First up is the Sega Mega Drive port of Capcom’sStreet Fighter II: Special Champion Edition. Released over a year after the SNES port had dominated the market, Sega’s take on the biggest game of the day was a fair port of the coin-op classic, and necessitated the development of the Sega Mega Drive six-button controller for anybody who wanted to play the fighter with any degree of compatibility. While still not a patch on the SNES edition ofStreet Fighter II Turbo, Mega Drive fans were incredibly grateful to finally receive the Capcom hit on their platform of choice.
The second release in the line-up is another arcade port, albeit one of a much older release.Flickyis the home edition of Sega’s own 1984 arcade release, in which a mother bird must gather up all of her chicks and lead them to safety, while staying one step ahead of a sinister kitty cat, as well as dodging various environmental hazards.Flickywas Sega’s effort to enter the “dot eating” market, and was loosely designed after Namco’s similar hit,Mappy.
The third title is the totally-tubular-dood platformerKid Chameleon, which was released as a Sega Mega Drive exclusive in the day-glo days of 1992. Players guide rad kid Casey, sucked into a video game world, who must battle through an array of different zones and titles in order to rescue his friends and return to the real world. Upon release,Kid Chameleonwas praised for its varied environments and characters, and was considered one of the better-conceived releases of the post-Mario platforming boom.
The final title in the new update is GameFreak’s latter-day adventurePulseman,which launched on Sega Mega Drive in 1994 and only found its way west via the short-lived but pioneering Sega Channel. InPulseman, players guide a Mega Man-esque “future boy”, conceived of a love between a human and an A.I. (no, really).Pulsemanis understandably rare, given its limited release, so this Nintendo Online edition will give many players their first chance to check out this anomaly.
