Favourite Mega Drive moment

[djcarlos]

The first time I summoned the Police car in Streets Of Rage.....mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

[timewarpgamer]

There are so many, it's hard to organize my thoughts, so I'll try the chronological approach:

1) Seeing Tyris Flare's full magic attack in Golden Axe, and realizing just how great an arcade port I was playing of a game that I easily spent $5 or more to beat in the arcade, plus another $5 from my brother who fought the good fight, too. It made my top 10 list for good reason. Check it out here: http://timewarpgamer.com/top10s/beat_em_ups.html

2) Hearing the opening music to Streets of Rage, and becoming totally absorbed before the game even actually began.

3) Entering hyper space speed in Silpheed, and being treated to one of the best levels and music tracks in the game.

4) Discovering the truth about Random Hajile in Snatcher.

5) Plugging the ugly 32X on top of my model one Genesis (in addition to the original Sega CD expansion), and enjoying Space Harrier, Virtual Racing, and NBA Jam for the first time at home. The 32X may have sucked overall, but those titles rocked my console world back then. And they still do.

[Smurph]

I must sound like a broken record by now, but in the first level of Thunder Force IV (Strite) when the boss is approaching and the scrolling speed cranks up, and the music starts really going mental, I nearly shat, to be honest. Nothing has come close to that moment for me.

[jb1014]

its a combination of events really. After it came out, a local lad opened a shop from which he rented games and consoles (not sure how legal it was). At the very same time, we were also enjoying the wonders of dominic diamond on gamesmaster teatime bbc2 (that combined with fresh prince was a magical hour but that is slightly off point). The best moment was seeing some new megadrive game and then being able to go down the shop and rent it instead of having to wait/save up the 40 odd quid to buy it (which then took ages or the advent of a birthday or xmas). The games that I remember we got the most excited about were rocket knight adventures and gunstar heroes.

The best pure megadrive moment does, though, have to be the first time I loaded up sonic - it was such a massive leap from what I was used to (c64 and spectrum) that it blew me away. The colours, the music, the pace - but also the adventure - you could whizz through or take your time and collect all the rings and find hidden rooms - the first time I found the hidden room with an extra life and 40 rings on the second stage act 1 was pure joy.

By the way, having mentioned games master above - would it not be worthwhile doing a feature on it at some point? For me, it was one of the joys of the 16 bit era.

[djcarlos]

By the way, having mentioned games master above - would it not be worthwhile doing a feature on it at some point? For me, it was one of the joys of the 16 bit era.

Seconded!

[learnedrobb]

My favorite MEga Drive moment was the first time I completed Streets of Rage 2. Me and my next door neighbour sat down as soon as I brought the game home from the shop, and played until we beat it. The sense of relief and achievement was awesome. And I can still hear the ending theme in my head to this day.

[neuromancer]

Several years after my Megadrive had been played to near-death, dragged around the country and back, packed up and almost forgotten, I bought a 32X for £15. The moment the Christmas-tree-esque wiring was in place and everything was powered up I realised this was not so much an add-on, more a resurrection machine - a flux-capacitor applied to a DeLoren.

Virtua Fighter Deluxe, Virtua Racing, and Mortal Kombat II between them valiantly fended off my urge to buy a Playstation for some considerable time; VR Deluxe remains one of my all-time favourite games to this day.

[xcalibur]

M y favourite megadrive moment was the first time i ever turned it on and watched ghoulsnghosts load up with that title music,just awsome.
its probably my favourite gaming moment as well seeing as this was the first time we had arcade quality games at home.

[GREENHORN]

The feeling of wonderment when I opened the box and flicked the switch, to be blasted head first into the wonderful world of sonic the Hedgehog filled with speed, colour and innovation.

[storm_maker]

I remember my jaw dropping to the floor as a kid when I saw the floating leaf stage of Castle of Illusion, for me, at that moment video games had graphics on par with cartoons.

Rolling down a hill in Sonic the Hedgehog, jumping on one of those gravity wheels and going around in circles was a cool moment too.

The 1st stage on Thunder Force IV with the giant ship, and then afterwards even better was that fantastic level with the star filled background which looked amazing, then all your team mates turned up to help you, with the scene culminating in them all getting blasted away by the boss leaving only you left.

Launching the cow in Earthworm Jim

Running away from that giant mech in Rocket Knight Adventure and finding that at the end of the level was another giant mech just waiting to be commandeered

Rising up the Statue of liberty in Shadow Dancer with masses of ninja's attacking and the classy music playing in the background

That boss in Gunstar Heroes that kept turning into different things was genius too.

The magic carpet ride on Aladdin just getting faster and faster until it's just ridiculous

Making all the different animals stand on your head for the 1st time in Rolo to the Rescue

[Mire Mare]

The first gloves off, sticks down fight in NHLPA '93. Smashing the perspex barrier with the puck was cool too.

[aaa]

3) Entering hyper space speed in Silpheed, and being treated to one of the best levels and music tracks in the game.

Yes!

Try putting the Silpheed disc in a normal CD player (and skipping past the data track, pbviously). I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[BobGeorge]

I spent so much time playing my mate's Megadrive. Damn my useless memory.

From what I can remember though;

1) Playing Sonic for the first time on my mates Megadrive. I was and still am a Nintendo fanboy, but Sonic blew me away. The speed was just amazing, but the game play was great too.

2) Playing 'Castle of Illusion' for the first time. Again, it was on my mate's Megadrive and even though we'd been out, bought it in the morning and completed it together before nightfall on the same day, it was still a title that we replayed plenty of times.
The graphics were jaw dropping, animation was fantastic and the controls were spot on. We didn't stop playing all day just to see what the next level would bring.

3) Playing Madden through using only Fake Punt. That was always good for a laugh.

4) Holding back the tears of laughter when I found that my mate had bought a MegaCD. Although I playing a shooter on it, can't remember the name (I did read the article in this months RG to see if I could remember what it was called, but nothing jumped out at me), but it was actually very good. I think it had a CD soundtrack which sounded great when playing through.

[edit] The answer to the title is amazingly posted above my post and I didn't see it. I should get my eyes tested I think.

[aaa]

The answer to the title is amazingly posted above my post and I didn't see it. I should get my eyes tested I think.

The in-game music on Silpheed is actually generated entirely by the console's sound hardware: some of the instruments are done with the Megadrive's FM chip, while others are samples played by the Mega CD's PCM chip. The reason the backgrounds, which are streamed off the CD, are so smooth and detailed (well except the Earth and Moon levels ) is probably due to the game's lack of in-game CD music.
The audio tracks on the CD are cover versions of the in-game music, played on proper MIDI synths.

As much as I love Silpheed, I find it quite sad that it's one of only a couple of games that use the Mega CD hardware to the full extent of its capabilities. I wonder what developers would have come up with on the system if it had lasted a couple of years longer, or if there had been less of a focus on using it as an FMV machine.

[James A]

Hearing the music on the first level of Streets Of Rage, still think to this day its an awesome track , and then followed by the rocket launcher special.

I think as well seeing all the import screen shots in C&VG of stuff coming out in Japan was always a favourite moment and wondering what other thing would be following.