Retro Review: Alisia Dragoon

The cocoon prison of Baldour, the manifestation of evil, has returned to Earth and his followers are gathering for his return. You must use your gift of sorcery along with your four familiars to put and end to them and vanquish Baldour once and for all, thus avenging your father's death. Or you could just be a gladiator set out to kill everything that crosses your path...depending on your region of course.

Alisia Dragoon is an action platformer released for the Sega Genesis in 1992 by Game Arts in partnership with the animation studio, Gainax, known for their critically acclaimed anime works such as the Evangelion series and Nadia: the Secret of Blue Water. Essentially Gainax designed the characters, story and environments while Game Arts were responsible for the actual development of the game. The story, as told in the Japanese instruction manual, follows my blurb above while the english localized versions took a simpler route, toting Alisia as a gladiator who's mission is to vanquish the evil monsters plaguing the world.

What makes the game stand out against other 2D platformers of the time is the unique way you do combat. Alisia's main attack is a beam of lightning that automatically targets the enemies in front of her. For the most part aiming only involves facing in the right direction. That may sound easy but the strength of your attack is derived from the energy bar beneath Alisia's health. As you hold down the attack button the bar depletes and only refills when you stop attacking. Surviving in this game requires keeping a watchful eye on this energy bar. Burning the bar all the way out will cause her to be defenseless for a second which is more than enough time for the swarms of enemies to do their damage. However, if you go an extended amount of time without attacking the energy bar will max out and begin to glow giving Alisia access to a screen clearing special attack. Fortunately you are able to level up Alisia's health and lightning attack power through hidden power ups as well.

Sometimes the amount of enemies can be hard to handle and that's where your familiar spirits come in. From the start of the game you have access to four partner spirits that you can switch between on the fly by pressing the A button. Each spirit attacks in their own unique way, so you want to pay attention to how each enemy attacks and select the right familiar for the job. Their ability to attack is unlimited and also follows an energy bar much like Alisia, but they also have their own health bars as well. It's important to keep an eye on how they're doing so you can side line anyone who's health gets too low because if they die they're permanently out of the game unless you can find a rare power up to revive them.

This combination of platforming and run and gun action gives Alisia Dragoon a high energy arcade game feel. The levels are big and beautifully detailed with lots of hidden areas that encourages exploration to find all the hidden power ups, and you're going to want to do so to make sure you're a full power by the time you reach the final stage. Every environment is different than the last, complete with unique enemies that are almost never reused. It's refreshing to see a game refrain from using recolored enemies everywhere which keeps the fighting from ever becoming tedious.

The bosses are menacing at first but after a few play throughs you'll likely have their patterns down and will find them easily dispatched. Especially if you're brave enough to unleash a fully charged lightning attack at point blank range of their weak spots (that's a big tip there by the way).

When your game ends you're given a rank. How high can you score?

The soundtrack is grand and sets the atmosphere perfectly for a grand adventure. By the end of the game you'll be hard pressed not to hum along as the main theme finds itself woven in here and there. The sound effects are loud, crisp and satisfying, especially the various roars from the bosses and explosions.

I highly recommend the title as a must play for any Sega enthusiast as well as any fan of the platforming run and gun genre. It's hard to find this level of polish in such an early title in a console's life.

Pros:

-Controls extremely well.
-The combat and familiars system is unique and fun to experiment with. Using Alisia's lightning is just plain addictive.
-The stages are all colorful and richly detailed.
-Beautiful character designs and animation.
-Killer OST and sound effects.

Cons:

-Once you learn the patterns of the bosses they become very easy.
-At 8 stages the game is relatively short (though if you're seeking an arcade like experience this may be just right for you).

Happy 25th Anniversary Sonic the Hedgehog!

Today marks the 25th anniversary of Sega's cool blue mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog! To honor the occasion, the Mega Base staff sat down to share some of their favorite memories of the most famous hedgehog in the world. Enjoy!

Brandon:

Like many others Sonic introduced me to the 16-bit revolution. My first console was the NES but for whatever reason I had asked my parents for a Genesis for Christmas instead of the SNES which would have been the logical upgrade for such a Nintendo lover as myself. Lucky for me, my parents did get me the Genesis (with never playing one to my knowledge) and my first game was Sonic 2. As soon as my tiny 13-inch television came to life with the vibrant colors of Emerald Hill I knew I had received something special. My eyes were glued to the screen and my ass to the floor for most of the day while zipping, spin dashing and springing over as much of the levels as I could absorb. Sonic was so different from everything else I had played up to that point. The beautiful stages, amazing music and Sonic's undeniable "'tude" really blew me away that day. Playing Sonic 2 on Christmas morning will always be one of my fondest gaming memories.

FistoftheWind:

Where do I even begin? Sonic has been possibly my favorite video game character for 25 years now (man do I feel old). I remember the first time seeing Sonic in a test play kiosk at Hills and my jaw dropped. That was the most colorful game I had ever seen at the time. It may sound absurd now, but the parallax scrolling and speed of the game made me seriously wonder "man, will other video games ever be able to top this?"

Needless to say, after running around that first loop in Green Hill Zone for the first time I was sold. I could say that's the very moment in time when I became a Sega kid. Sadly we didn't bring a Genesis home that night and my NES felt extremely lame afterwards.

When we finally got a Sega Genesis I didn't move from that spot in front of my tv for days I'm sure, haha. I was hooked and couldn't get enough of Sonic. It wasn't long after that until I started collecting the comics and....well this is getting long enough as it is. Happy anniversary Sonic! I'm going to go play the games now.

Phaser Pulse:

I can't believe it's been 25 years since Sonic the Hedgehog first broke in to the gaming scene. I was 10 years old when I was first introduced to what would become Sega's mascot and main leading "man," if you will. I remember the vivid blue and other colors blazing across the screen. The TV was up way too loud, so that all too familiar music from the Green Hill Zone was blaring as I watched my cousin play, speeding through the level with ease, collecting rings and trying not to hit an enemy and lose them all! Then I was handed the controller - it was finally my turn to play!

I can tell you, I was not disappointed. It was hard to let go of that controller to head home that day, but I spent many hours enjoying that first Sonic game with my cousins. Over the years, I enjoyed the many sequels that followed, as well. My absolute favorite Sonic game is Sonic Spinball, a combination of Sonic and one of my favorite types of video games, pinball! I am glad that my generation has had so much fun playing Sonic over the years (I still do), and it makes me happy to see the next generation of gamers enjoying both retro Sonic gaming and the newer iterations of our favorite blue hedgehog, in cartoons, toys, and video games alike.

Fr0zenbeast:

From sonic the hedgehog to sonic boom, Sonic has become an iconic figure to the gaming community for 25 years. I can remember when I first set eyes on his super fast speed in gorgeous 16-bit colorful graphics. I never thought anything would ever top the graphics of the original nes or the characteristics of 8-bit hero's such as Mario or Mega man. Sonic delivered one thing though that has always been branded into my mind as the face of himself and the Sega Genesis, ATTITUDE!

Sonic was the key to opening the gate to the Sega Genesis in my personal opinion. If it weren't for Sonic being Sega's iconic mascot I honest don't picture Sega going as far as it did in its successful life against the snes. On the nes we had Mario, a plumber from Brooklyn that never gave us much personally other than jumping on enemies, saving princesses, and eating spaghetti was pretty much his specialty. Don't get me wrong Mario is a grand daddy mascot for Nintendo but when Sonic came into the picture he was a true equal rival to the plumber but with more personality. I was sold on sonic more than Mario the first time I seen his animation of I guess you would call it "I'm waiting!" sprite movement. "Pick up the controller and let's get going" is what would go through my mind seeing that animation.

I could go on and on about Sonic all night but I'm gonna keep it short. Like I said before from sonic 1 to sonic boom, sonic has been in our hearts for many generations. Yes he has had his ups and downs in his gaming career but us as fans still pick up the controller and play what that speedy blue hedgehog is staring in next. We owe it to sonic and Sega for the glorious memories they have given us over the past 25 years, and to that I say happy birthday Sonic and hope you have a good 25 more!!!

Welcome to the Mega Base!

Hello and thanks for stopping by! I know there's not much to look at for now while we're getting started but our hopes are that this place will one day be a bustling hub of game reviews (video and board!), news, and local event information.

We've had an active forum for a while now and decided that it was time to expand. So don't rush away just yet, be sure to check the forum link above and introduce yourself to some of our community members. If you've looking for a friendly group of people to chat about gaming and other nerdy interests, you've found it.

Once again, thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll decide to become a part of our community.

~the Mega Base team