I'm happy to announce that I consider my Sega Genesis mapping project completed. Initially I planned 20 games, then I excluded 3 of them, but added 8 more to compensate, and now almost all of my childhood games are mapped by either me or other people. I want to say a few things about the games I've mapped, some sort of a short review, since a lot of them have a special meaning for me. I'll mark my childhood games with a (CG).
Alien 3, 04/22 (CG) - the first game I mapped, and also one of the games that simply must have a map, since it's all about mazes that must be traversed with a strict time limit. Though I had no problem beating this game in my childhood even on the hardest difficulty, but only because I understood the line "please play again" too literally, expecting to see something new instead of it. I'm also glad that this game is more "Aliens" than "Alien 3", with lots of enemies and guns, as opposed to the movie. Despite how many times I was playing it, only during mapping I've discovered some of the secrets I've never seen, as all hidden items can be easily found when you use "sprites always on top" option of the emulator. Unfortunately, I did a few mistakes - I flooded the maps with pointless arrows, and since I didn't know about a special emulator with a "pink background" option, I made these maps with black background. But still it was a good start, and I did better with the next games.
Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers, 07/22 (CG) - another maze-like game with lots of stuff to collect, and since it was all about pursuing that cheater of a bird, I decided that it would be wise to map every single "pit-stop" Tweety makes, because he always follows the same path. Hitting him with a claw during flight makes him skip one of the "pit-stops" and move to the next one, so these maps can be useful for speedrunning or something. It should be noted that the difficulty of the game not only affects what levels you can play, but also changes a lot of items on the stages. I only made maps for 100% difficulty (you need at least 80% to beat the game), but someone can try to make maps for other difficulties to show all different items and their placements. But there's a catch - the difficulty button moves by 1%, so you have to explore the first level 100 times to make sure you've seen everything, and the same for other available levels (20 times for the last one, for example). A challenging idea, huh?
Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure, 10/22 (CG) - that nasty game everyone knows about, some find it funny, some find it gross, but all can agree that it was something unique. Despite the vast levels, the game is mostly linear, with some secret items hidden in the walls. Like with Alien 3, I found a lot of new stuff with "sprites always on top" option during mapping, and I did my best to show where to find it all, though I had no problems beating this game in the childhood without all these items. There's also an interesting system of sewers - bonus levels with some more stuff. On my real Genesis cartridge there was a nasty bug - when you see a goblin that rises from the sewer well to launch a snot, the game freezes for some reason, so, knowing this, I've never explored these bonus levels. At least now I could do this during mapping, and with all stages and sewers I made 36 maps in total, not counting "bosses and bonuses" that are fused into one image. That's a lot for one game, but the record was easily beaten by the final game from this list...
Blades of Vengeance, 11/22 (CG) - another lenghty game with dozens of secret hidden in the walls, though this time they weren't so difficult to find, so I've hardly seen anything new during mapping. Except for Level 1-2 - who would be crazy enough to stand on the drowning rocks to see if they will take you somewhere else instead of the deadly lava?! It's a good thing I've got necessary cheats to test all these things and put everything I've found of the map. Hovewer, I have to say that I'm really frustrated with games that have their interface fused with the front layer - this means that when I'm taking a screenshot, I have to cut the interface part manually, wasting more time and reducing the size of every screenshot. Needless to say, it took a lot of time and effort to make maps of this game, and, unfortunately, this was only the first with the same interface problem...
Vectorman, 11/22 (CG) - ...because the very next game forced me to deal with this stuff again. Vectorman is a great game with impressive graphics, cool soundtrack and the option to get in-game achievements - both for collecting all photons/tvs and not collecting a single thing. The developers created a lot of huge and non-linear levels with tons of stuff, and I was determined enough to map everything down to the last photon, while also double-checking every map to see if I missed anything. Someone on VGMaps even requested this game because of all these collectables, but, unfortunately, there's a nasty catch - on most of the levels you can't collect everything because of the non-linear levels with a lot of points of no return. And even if you use cheats to fly through walls, there's Day 6 level where developers somehow forgot to put 12 photons, so you can't 100% the game even with cheats. And while I had the same interface problem as with Blades of Vengeance, at least this time I had this very comfortable ghost mode that allowed me to map the game faster and easier than the previous one.
World of Illusion, 12/22 (CG) - one of the easiest and shortest games, but it's beautiful and replayable with all these addional levels for all three choices of players. And, being so short and slow, this game was very easy to map, too, aside from some hard places, like that blasted cart ride on Stage 1-2 (M&D) and some other lenghty tracks. Too bad there aren't any secrets, and the levels are almost completely linear, but at least most of the maps are looking very colorful with all these backgrounds and sprites that I've managed to compile together. Again, thanks to JonLeung for choosing this compilation as the "Maps of the Month", I wasn't expecting this, giving the little usefulness of these maps.
Pinocchio, 03/23 (CG) - like World of Illusion, this game is also pretty linear and easy, at least on Easy difficulty. But here each level gives an unique gimmick, such as Level 3 with all of these dance movements that I recorded on map, making it much more useful than if I'd just left screenshots of backgrounds and nothing else. Too bad the game also contains two "race" levels that look as a simple horizontal line. I don't like levels like this, I prefer more "square" stages than horizontal, but I have to map every single level possible, including these lenghty and straight ones, even if their maps will look pretty pointless. When it comes to backgrounds, I usually just copy and extend the available background to cover the whole map, but in this game I made an exception for Level 8 - I simply made the whale's insides larger, because it looks more logical, even if not detailed enough.
The Terminator, 04/23 - pretty cheap and extremely short game with weird infinite waves of enemies, which looks crazy in present time - Kyle Reese appeared to save humanity, but not before shooting hundreds of people in the guts from his shotgun. I didn't have this game on my Sega, but it's so short and easy that I only spent a few hours to make these maps, especially since there's no reason to map enemies, as they appear from everywhere on every step. Of course I should've mapped Sega CD version of this game instead - it's much greater in every way (but you still kill hundreds of humans there), but I'm kinda determined to map only Genesis games to keep a streak. I probably should put CD version on my "possible" list, though.
Dynamite Headdy, 05/23 (CG) - this is totally one of the best games on the whole console, with awesome graphics and music, lots of different gimmicks, and with an unique setting of a puppet show, which affects every aspect of the game, even the interface. Of course it was a must to make maps for this game eventually, but I can't deny that these maps are purely aesthetic, as the game is mostly linear, with little to no secrets, so mapping it wasn't really necessary, especially with such a big amount of short or even one-screen stages. There's also a system of "hidden bonus points" that you get for doing something fast... or something dumb (like not touching the boss for a few minutes on Stage 5-2 or standing in one place on Stage 6-1), but I didn't add them on my maps, because all they give is points. I also have no idea how to fully map rotating stages such as 5-2 and 5-3, and the former is also seemingly endless... So, in total, I'm not really proud of making these maps, even if the game is so great.
Streets of Rage 3, 05/23 - the game is great, but I think that mapping some of the video game genres is unnecessary, such as beat 'em ups or scroll-shooters, because most of the time all you can show is a straight line from start to finish. But it was JonLeugh's request, and I also like SoR games a lot, so I did my best to map this game. Fortunately, it has a couple of non-linear levels and a dozen of hidden items here and there, so these maps aren't completely useless. I also mapped some enemies, but only those that appear for the first time - either new types or new recolors, although I'm afraid that enemies' appearance may vary between difficulty settings, so their placements may not be precise. I also carefully checked which items appears for 1 player and 2 players and marked them too, all of this just to make maps a little more interesting.
Shinobi III, 06/23 (CG) - another great and pretty linear platformer with some obvious secrets and lots of prize boxes. I really like when these boxes contain fixed stuff instead of random, so I could fully mark them all, and now you can see which box contains useful stuff, and which is a deadly bomb. The maze on Round 6-2 is also pretty confusing with all its doors leading you back to the entrance, so this is one of the times when a map is really helpful. I also thank JonLeugh for choosing them as the "Maps of the Month"!
Animaniacs, 07/23 - to be honest, I don't really like this game. While it looks and sounds great, the gameplay is too slow and difficult, with all these boring bosses, fragile heroes (it's Warner Siblings we're talking about, they can't be beaten that easily!) and a weird placements of a very few hidden bonus levels. Why did I map it then? Well, just look at my profile picture! I became crazily obsessed with Slappy Squirrel and was inspired to do a lot of things about her, such as drawings, videos, comics translations, and of course I had to map this game, too, because it has a small Slappy cameo on Scene 5-3, Studio Select and in the credits. I even used her sprite from this game to make a new sprite sheet for my pixel animation. A lot of work, but I have no regrets!
Sunset Riders, 08/23 (CG) - I know that SNES and Arcade versions of this game are a lot better, with more playable characters and levels, but I had this one on my real Genesis, so I mapped it even though the maps are short and not useful for anything. At least mapping games like this one is very easy, and you can always add something optional, like prizes in the bags or ending screens.
Doraemon, 08/23 (CG) - I've never seen the anime, don't even know what it's all about, but I somehow got this game in my childhood, and, despite the fact that you die from touching anything, it's still one of the easiest games. Though, when I started to map it, I was expecting to find lots of secrets, but there aren't many of them. I also don't know a single Japanese word, so I had no idea what the options says, and only during mapping I tapped them all randomly to discover that this game also has some sort of Easy mode, with all levels becoming short and linear, but you won't get a good ending after playing like this. I've mapped both Easy and Normal modes, but I only hope there's nothing else I could miss because of not knowing Japanese.
Dragon's Revenge, 09/23 (CG) - yes, after all this talk about usefulness I made yet another useless map, this time of a small pinball game. At least it has decent artwork with distinct bonus levels, so I've combined them all into a single image to preserve another childhood memory.
Captain Planet and the Planeteers, 10/23 (CG) - some games that I owned were great, and some were like Captain Planet - pretty cheap, clumsy and short. However, I like local aestetics of different villains with their differently themed levels, especially when they all combine into "Zarm's Doomsday Barge" in the end, so mapping this game allowed me to finally see this epic monstrocity in its full view.
Taz in Escape from Mars, 11/23 (CG) - this game is actually a lot bigger than I thought, the mazes from Alien 3 are so small when you put them on Taz's maps to compare (of course this is nothing compared to Sonic games, but I'm still impressed). I could never beat Stage 6-2 on the real Genesis, but at least now all these huge and complicated levels are mapped, and I really like when the game uses both lenght and height instead of only one of them.
Revenge of Shinobi, 11/23 - I've never even played this game before, only its sequel, so it was good to try something new for myself after I've noticed JonLeugh's request of this game. Although it's pretty slow-paced, the game still features lots of stuff to map, especially the same prize boxes with fixed items as in Shinobi 3. But the more important thing is that this game has a lot of invisible prize boxes flying in the air, some of them giving you crazy stuff like 50 shurikens or 2 extra lifes at once. Most of these hidden boxes are actually listed in text walkthroughs on GameFAQs, so at first I was only looking for them using these descriptions. But then I found some undiscovered items, and this forced me to crazily explore the whole game, shooting shurikens at every single pixel in a hope to find more stuff. And while I only found a few new boxes, the final maze at Round 8-2 proved me right to be so persistent. Just look at
the map - this stage contains so many hidden boxes that weren't listed in any walkthrough! And now I've caught 'em all, which felt much more satisfying than catching all Pokemon.
McDonald's Treasureland Adventure, 12/23 - once again, I've never played this game, but JonLeugh's request gave me a reason to try it at last, and I've discovered that the game is not only developed by Treasure who made my favorite Dynamite Headdy, but also has lots of interesting levels with dozens of items, and even a couple of Shinobi-like door mazes - these types of levels need mapping more than anything else in my opinion. It always feels great to map a big and lenghty game such as this one while showing everything it has to offer.
Predator 2, 12/23 - like with the Terminator, this game also forces you to kill hundreds of fellow humans instead of the true enemy, and it also shows that Yautja are not as honorable as they claim to be, as this Predator is always trying to kill incapacitated unarmed civilians instead of all these armed bandits running around. The game itself is pretty simple and short, but it has enough nonlinearity and items to be worth mapping. I've discovered that these items also vary between difficulties, so I did my best to double-check them all and put all these differences on the maps, as well as all hostages - these Alien 3 vibes give a lot of motivation!
Daze Before Christmas, 02/24 - honestly, I'm kinda disappointed with this game, as it only features a few true Christmas-like levels, while most of the time you just jump on boring rocks and conveyor belts in the middle of nowhere. Still, this was yet another of JonLeugh's requests, and while he wanted the SNES version, they're mostly the same (with all these rocks and conveyors, yes), so I've managed to both complete the request and not lose my Genesis streak. Merry Christmas! (if you happen to read this during December) And remember - Santa's presents are dangerous!.. Well, it's kinda weird to see that most of his presents are filled with enemies or bombs. But at least I've mapped them all, so now you're warned!
Vectorman 2, 02/24 - I didn't really want to map this game, knowing that I'll have to deal with that blasted "interface is fused with front layer" issue again, and the game itself looks much more bleak than the first one. But someone's got to show all these hidden photons and powersacks (replacing TVs from Vectorman), especially since this time you actually can 100% the game, and my maps may help you greatly with this!
Pink Goes to Hollywood, 04/24 (CG) - another game that may be better on SNES, but I only had this one. Still looks fine and offers some interesting levels with decent music and a few secrets. Like with Captain Planet, I was very interested to see the ship level in its full glory, although this one is not as epic as the Doomsday Barge.
Golden Axe 3, 04/24 - same as with Streets of Rage 3, as we already have maps of the previous two games, this one could use them too, especially with all these forks on some stages that allow you to change the path. Though if you're the "good ending" type, there's no reason to go up, as your fellow player characters are all standing on the lowest paths, awaiting to be rescued. Like with SoR3, I've put only new types or colors of enemies on the maps, so they won't look too empty. Now we have all SoRs and Golden Axes sorted out!
Stargate, 05/24 (CG) - the final, the biggest and longest game I've ever mapped, it took me a month and a half to complete, with all of its 57 different rooms, caves and deserts. Although Dynamite Headdy takes more time to beat due to its epic boss battles, Stargate is more about running and exploration, as you need to find lots of quest items on every level, as well as discover all 7 hieroglyphs and 7 nuclear bomb parts, if you ever wish to see a good ending. I know, I know, there are bigger and harder games to map, but for me Stargate was some kind of the ultimate endurance challenge, so I've left it to the end of my mapping project. And now it's finished, just like this short review.
And that wraps it up. I spent the last two years making maps from time to time, but now I think that I should put the possibilities of my gaming PC to something more demanding, as I can always return to make maps even after I'll have to switch to a cheap one. There are still some of my childhood games left (shown in "possible" list), but they're either too problematic or too boring to map, at least with they way I do it - by screen capturing and manually combining the pieces of a map like a jigsaw puzzle. Anyway, there are tons of other unmapped games on Sega Genesis, my first and only console, so I don't plan to switch to others, but for now it's time to work on my other projects. I want to say thanks to JonLeugh and everyone else who was enjoying my maps. See ya!
