Earlier this year, SEGA announced a successor initiative of sorts under the (oft used) moniker, SEGA AGES. With M2 again at the helm, a plethora of first party classics were promised for the Switch. First out of the gate are Sonic the Hedgehog (yes, again) and the classic Mega Drive shmup, Thunder Force IV.

One for the AGES

For whatever reason the game was retitled Lightening Force: Quest for the Darkstar in the US, but those of you reading this from across the pond will be happy to learn that both it and the international release are available here. It’s worth also noting that although this AGES outing is based on the original Mega Drive version and not the 1996 Saturn Port, it does include the previously Saturn-exclusive Styx mode, which we’ll go into later.

The all new AGES interface is pretty slick, with large, colourful icons (presumably for visibility in handheld mode) and artwork, in addition to a great little animated intro sequence. There’s even a cool “SE-GA” like jingle on the title screen that’s sure to tug on the old heart strings when you’re not perusing bet365 betting.

As is par for the course nowadays with retro reissues, there are a ton of visual customization options, including the obligatory CRT filters. Sometimes these effects can be somewhat overbearing, but the AGES preset Vintage Mode actually looks pretty good, with just the right amount of blur and curvature applied to the image to evoke childhood memories of classic gaming via cathode ray.

Styx and Stones

Thunder Force IV follows the shmup genre’s broad strokes, while at that same time successfully forging an identity all of its own.

Unlike many horizontal shooters, in Thunder Force IV, the play area can also be scrolled vertically within a limited range on most stages. This serves to at least create the impression of freedom, even if in truth, you’re just as anchored to the inevitable rightward crawl as ever.

As you’d expect, weapon power-ups come in many shapes and sizes, but unusually, you’re free to cycle through any you’ve collected at will rather than being stuck with the last one you acquired. There’s also a rear fire mode, which is handy given that a great many enemies will try and flank you.

Moreover, it’s possible to control your ship’s speed, charging your engines to anything from 1 to 100% by holding down the Y button. We have two misgivings with this: first of all, in such a fast paced shooter, we don’t really understand why you’d ever want your ship at anything below 100% manoeuvrability at all times. Secondly, while you can adjust engine power by as little as a single percent at a time, we’re pretty sceptical that affording players such pinpoint precision was ever really all that necessary.

Given Thunder Force IV’s gameplay quirks, it’s no bad thing that there’s a digital manual specific to this AGES release to consult at your leisure. Interestingly, it actually opens in the Switch’s onboard web browser, which to be fair, doesn’t prove as cumbersome as it might sound. Most importantly, the manual is sharp and legible in both handheld and docked modes.

Now onto Styx Mode. As we mentioned earlier, this was previously exclusive to the Saturn version of Thunder Force IV, released as part of Thunder Force Gold Pack II. In Styx mode you take control of the eponymous ship from Thunder Force III, sporting a different array of weapons in addition to a dodge move of sorts. Interestingly, (minor spoiler alert) Styx also makes a cameo appearance in stage 5 to fight alongside your usual craft, Rynex. Styx mode is a nice addition and could prove attractive to Thunder Force IV veterans that never got around to picking the game up on the Saturn.

AGED to Perfection?

The shooting in Thunder Force IV is just as fun now as it ever was, but difficulty may prove a sticking point for the uninitiated. In short, it’s a pretty challenging game, even when tackled in the patronisingly titled Kids Mode, and unlike some retro shooter reissues we’ve reviewed recently, there’s no option for unlimited lives to abuse while you get your bearings. One one hand, this forces newcomers to actually play the game as intended, but on the other, many will find retreading the initial stages over and over off putting.

Enemies are loose riffs on the Giger-inspired biomechnical aesthetic very common in video games at the time (see Gynoug, Mega Turrican et al), but are far from the best examples of this particular sci-if trope. While rarely more than merely serviceable in the looks department as a whole, Thunder Force IV’s impressive parallax scrolling effect deserves a special mention. The many interweaving layers of sprites here, both in the fore and background, create a pleasing sense of depth and forward momentum.

The original Mega Drive release of Thunder Force IV is notorious for chugging on occasion when things get too busy. Given how many orders of magnitude more powerful the Switch is than the Mega Drive, M2 have seen fit to include a ‘Reduce Processing Delay’ option, thereby utilising some of the Switch’s leftover horsepower to improve performance. There’s a tangible improvement, but the game still doesn’t deliver a locked frame rate, even with this mode engaged. A disclaimer states that some slowdown is by design, and thus unavoidable. We’ll have to take M2’s word for it on that one.

Sound effects are forgettable and of generally poor quality, particularly the harsh, lo-fi voice clips that play when you collect a power up. Weapons likewise sound brittle and tinny. The music is a mixed bag: we think the compositions are pretty great, but the actual quality of the samples leaves a lot to be desired. Ultimately, it seems that Thunder Force IV may have been hamstrung by the limitations of the Mega Drive’s Achilles heel: its notoriously lacklustre Yamaha YM2612 sound chip.

Summary

It’s easy to become weary of SEGA’s never ending cycle of modern re-releases, but to the company’s credit, each set of reissues is generally better than the last. This AGES version of Thunder Force IV is an excellent starting point, and certainly more interesting to hardcore SEGA fans than yet another Sonic the Hedgehog redux.

The game is satisfying to play with some nice and unique ideas, even if it hasn’t aged all that gracefully from an aural standpoint and pulls few punches in terms of difficulty. The new AGES wrapper is by far the slickest yet, and bodes well for future releases, among which is the arcade version of Thunder Force III, Thunder Force AC. .

PROS:

+ Original shmup gameplay

+ Extra STYX Mode

+ Slick AGES interface

CONS

– Poor sound effects

– Performance issues

– High difficulty

The game will be available as a digital download only and will cost $19.99. Those who buy Valkyria Chronicles 4 through the eShop will receive a 25% discount towards Valkyria Chronicles. The game will be available on October 16th. You can watch the announcement trailer above.

SEGA announced Thursday that Blaze the Cat, Silver the Hedgehog, and Vector the Crocodile have been added to the roster in Team Sonic Racing under the name “Team Vector.”

Sonic and Shadow may have the coolest cars, but Team Vector’s cars are on fleek. Silver’s ride takes after the aesthetic of Tron: Legacy, Vector’s car has teeth that can chew anyone he attempts to tailgate, and Blaze’s car has enough fire and horsepower to outrun even Sonic.

If you think Team Vector isn’t hot enough to break the ice, Tails’ Channel’s screenshots of Ice Mountain will tell you otherwise.

Team Sonic Racing will be zooming to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch Winter 2018.

Team Sonic Racing will be playable at Gamescom 2018, so give us your thoughts on the game so far.

Team Sonic Racing will be available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC this coming winter.

Press Release

BlobCat, which was released on Steam last year, comes to the Switch on Aug. 9 and features 110 puzzles, six different worlds, local and online multiplayer and crossplay support.

If you’re unfamiliar with ChuChu Rocket!’s gameplay, in BlobCat, players place arrows on a grid to guide the Dicemice to a Micehole to save them from the BlobCats that roll around trying to eat the mice. The game gets pretty crazy especially when four players play at the same time.

The game is available to pre-purchase on the Switch now for $9.99.

The current state of TSR is that it will come out in the Winter of 2018, which is right in the range of the date. However, it is odd that it is set this late in November, considering that most Sonic titles are released before Thanksgiving holidays.

We will probably get an actual date in the coming months, but at least we have some sort of time frame for when this game will come out.

However, things have really picked up over the past couple months, with the game finally going into closed beta. More recently, HumaNature issued a Kickstarter update confirming that Back in the Groove will indeed release this year and committed to having the game shipped by Thanksgiving 2018.

They didn’t give an exact date, and the game could release before that, but it’s great to finally get a confirmed timeframe when the game will make it into fan’s hands.

In a previous Kickstarter update, series co-creator Greg Johnson announced that his development team and the game’s publisher Adult Swim Games mutually agreed to part ways, and HumaNature will self-publish Back in the Groove.

“Adult Swim Games has some other big titles they plan to launch this summer so when Back in the Groove pushed back, we both agreed that it made sense for them to hand us the reigns, rather than taking a chance on this getting pushed back any more,” the Kickstarter update read. “Also I’d like to say how deeply grateful I and all of us here at HNS are to Adult Swim Games. We wouldn’t have gotten this game to this point without them… seriously.”

ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove raised more than $500,000 on Kickstarter after the campaign was launched in late February, 2015. The game will be released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac and Linux.

Regardless of my own delusional fight against time, it has indeed been 11 years since we last saw SEGA’s Shining series properly in the West, with the PlayStation 2’s Shining Force EXA being the then-apparent swan song. Since its departure from Western stores, SEGA’s classic RPG series has been prosperous in its homeland of Japan, not just as an RPG, but even dipping its toes into arcade games and fighting games. Those without the ability to import, and/or read Japanese were deprived of 12 games, despite an outcry from fans for each one of them to make the journey overseas.

However, with the current boom in Japanese games coming over that SEGA has played a huge role in, it seemed like only a matter of time before Shining, like Yakuza before it, made another attempt to break into the West, and finally that time has come.

Was Shining Resonance Refrain worth the decade-long wait?

First things first

Shining Resonance Refrain is a remaster of 2014’s Shining Resonance, coming to the West complete with a full English localization, to include voice acting, two new playable characters, a new side story, and practically all of the original game’s DLC available right from the start.

The game’s story centers around a mystical kingdom with princesses, witches, dragons and outfits and weapons that make no sense within the time period the rest of the setting draws inspiration from. Par for the course, and if you’ve ever played an RPG, you already know what to expect. The most interesting thing the setting does is tie everything to a musical theme.

The characters’ weapons double as musical instruments called “armonics” and range from a bow as a harp, all the way to the Gene Simmons’ special, an electric guitar that doubles as a battle axe. The full-party power up attack is called a B.A.N.D. Session – a buff-granting musical performance powered by a BPM gauge. The theme even factors into one of my favorite small details in the game, as the victory fanfare changes depending on who you have in your party, almost as if the characters are playing the fanfare themselves.

It can come off as hokey at first, especially if you’re like me and not exactly a fan of medieval things, but I generally enjoyed the game’s setting. Having music play such a role in the game’s theming helps a ton, as it’s not something I’m personally used to seeing outside of the rhythm genre. It also doesn’t hurt that the game has a fairly lovely cast of characters.

Let’s start a B.A.N.D.

While no one made me freak out and claim them to be the best character ever, there’s not a bad one in the bunch. They’re all mostly well written and acted, with Max Mittelman’s Agnum (pictured above) and Patrick Seitz’s King Arnold topping the list. Tony Taka’s character designs are also on point, and even mostly practical to boot! Shocking, given his … erm … typical works. Don’t search his name at work, is all I’m sayin’.

Aesthetically, Shining Resonance Refrain translates pretty well to the current generation. While screenshots don’t exactly do it much justice, due to heavy motion blur, it does look rather nice in action. There are some beautiful visuals to be seen, but it’s not exactly perfect. Most models, especially the main characters, have been bumped up quite a bit for the PS4 and look fantastic, but some of the monsters and environments have not, including some of the worst foliage I’ve ever seen in a game. Which, come to think of it, might the nitpickiest thing I’ve ever said. In any case, it can lead to some uncanny valley moments at times, but it’s not a deal breaker.

There are some performance issues as well. For the most part, the game runs at a fairly smooth framerate. However, further into the game, I experienced very noticeable framerate drops during battle, especially when using Agnum’s magic attacks. Considering this is the character I ran the most through the campaign, this got quite annoying over time. Once again, not exactly a deal breaker, and I learned to live with it, but definitely confusing considering the power of today’s hardware.

If there’s anything truly disappointing about the game’s aesthetics, it’s the music. It’s strange, given the game’s use of music as a main storytelling theme, but none of the music really stands out as memorable. It’s not particularly bad in any way, far from it actually, but it does end up becoming white noise after in even the most tense of encounters. About the only things that really stand out are the J-pop image songs for the dragons themselves, if only because of the hilarious idea that this happy, poppy music causes the most hardened of knights to lose all their composure.

But how does it play?

And that brings us to the meat of the game, how does it play? Honestly, it’s games like this that are the hardest to write about. Shining Resonance Refrain is simply a solid action RPG that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, nor does it botch and turn the wheel into a triangle. It feels rather similar to Valkyria Revolution in that regard. My time with that game was mostly enjoyable, but it wasn’t something I was clamoring to go back to after all was said and done. It’s the same deal here. The game is solid, inoffensive and succeeds in making each character play uniquely, but it’s ultimately forgettable when you’re done.

For those who want to jump in due to the social link aspects of the game, you won’t find a ton to work with here. It’s cool that the game allows you to pick specific character traits for each party member, turning their relationship values into several different buffs on the battlefield, but aside from that, night events, dates, and romances are as basic as you can get, and don’t really mean much once you’ve done one or two of them.

The most positive thing I can really say about the gameplay as a whole is that it’s easy to get lost in. I would sit down to play a few minutes, maybe walk around and grind some levels while waiting on a snack to cook or something, and later find myself wondering why it’s 3 a.m. and my noodles are cold. It never felt annoying to grind in like many JRPGs, and the ease of combat mixed with serene environments, interesting setting and likable characters made it a very relaxing game to play at the end of a long day.

Summary

At the end of the day, I’m not sure if Shining Resonance Refrain is the game fans of the series waited 11 years for. Its by the book gameplay mixed with a few little issues don’t particularly make it a must buy for everyone. But if you’re looking for a story with an interesting setting and theme, or you’re just into JRPGs in general, it’s worth a shot. Especially given its wallet-friendly $50 price tag.

It’s a great base to build off of. I just hope it’s not another decade before we see a Shining game in the West again.

PROS

• An interesting theme with some wonderfully written and designed characters to go with it
• Full English dub with generally quality voice acting
• Very easy to pick up and play, and easy to relax with as well
• Extra bonuses like new characters and story arcs make it worth picking up for new fans and those who imported the original alike

CONS

• Inconsistent levels of visual polish, with great character models paired with at times iffy environments and creatures
• Music is mostly forgettable, which is disappointing in a game themed around music
• Gameplay is solid, but not something that encourages much replay value after beating the game
• Relationships have no real lasting effect, for those into the dating sim aspect

A closed beta for the game will be released soon according to the latest Kickstarter update. HumaNature Studios announced that Adult Swim Games will no longer be publishing the game and will be self-published instead.

“Adult Swim Games has some other big titles they plan to launch this summer so when Back in the Groove pushed back, we both agreed that it made sense for them to hand us the reigns, rather than taking a chance on this getting pushed back any more”

Developed by Sumo Digital, the team behind the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing series, Team Sonic Racing will allow players to play either solo or within teams of up to 12 members online (4 offline) in various single and multiplayer modes, including Grand Prix, Time Travel and Team Adventure. Teammates will also work together with new features, such as Item Transfer, Skim Boost and Slingshot.

Players can even pimp their rides (rapper slang for “vehicle customization,” in case you didn’t watch MTV’s Pimp My Ride) to suit their racing style. Unfortunately, a multi-platform game does not a cross-platformer make, as PS4 gamers cannot race their Switch-playing friends, and Xbox One players cannot challenge PC gamers and vice versa in multiplayer races.

Also, Crush 40, every Sonic fan’s favorite rock band, is returning to spice up the race with new music.

Team Sonic Racing will be racing to the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Steam this winter. Pre-order now!