Mega Final Fight - DIPSWITCH

After having successfully shrunken arcade Final Fight down to a Mega Drive-sized cart file, fan devs CFX have, quite apparently, gotten drunk on their power. Not only have they added a scroll feature to the character select screen that reveals two brand new player options - Captain Commando and Maki from Super Nintendo exclusive Final Fight 2 - but extra moves have been added to the three original selections. Cody inherits elements of his Street Fighter Alpha 3 move-list while Haggar gains a meaty double axe handle-style strike. 

Final Fight Ultimate - 2P

Another look at CFX's Final Fight Ultimate, a modern fan project that squeezes Capcom's seminal coin-op down to a blast processing-friendly size. This latest clip shows off a gameplay mode missing from the SNES' 1990 adaptation (a Japanese launch title no less, which probably explains why the cart was a little feature poor): simultaneous two-player action. 

Final Fight Ultimate - BLASTED

First look at a Final Fight fan project that shrinks Capcom's seminal coin-up down to Mega Drive dimensions. Although there's not much but menus in this clip, Edmo Caldas, Master Linkuei and Mauro Xavier's Final Fight Ultimate already looks about on par with the nearest equivalent adaptation, the 1989 Mega CD release, and conclusively trumps the period SNES cart(s) by allowing players to chose from all three street fighting characters. Although hardly a fair match-up, given the intervening decades of accumulated compiling know-how, it's still fun to see Sega's humble 16-bit system pushed to its limit. 

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Characters by Sam McKenzie

RoboCop Versus The Terminator - VIOLENCE MODE

Replay Burners' latest playthrough vid is especially exciting. This longplay of the Mega Drive / Genesis version of RoboCop Versus The Terminator takes place with the violence mode cheat code activated - this optional input introduces extra enemies to the game, including Terminator dogs in the future and female criminals in the present; RoboCop can also catch on fire, forcing the player to either shoot a fire hydrant or hunt down an automatic sprinkler system. That's not all though, the player behind the run, Jarl HL 3.0, makes a bee line for the game's many hidden stages, reminding me of a long-held query of my own. When you finish RoboCop Versus The Terminator, the closing credits ask you if you are sure you have found all the game's secret levels. This pointed needling always made me wonder if there was an alternative credit sequence that would then congratulate the player for finding all of the game's concealed areas? 

Since I was 12 when the game came out, I had more than enough time to play then replay this game, pushing RoboCop up against every wall and surface to see if they could be passed through. Make it into one of these offscreen spaces and (sometimes) a secret stage could be accessed by pressing up on the d-pad. Happily Jarl, on this impressively thorough run, doesn't discover any more areas than I had done myself. The hidden OCP office packed with Terminator found in the second stage or the Secret Remote Base - complete with background tile designs shamelessly cribbed from the industrial landscapes seen in Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira - were, I think, relatively well known but Jarl even hits areas I remember thinking were particularly obscure, such as the Secret Streets Exit found in the OCP building or the olive coloured, alternative version of Delta City. Watching today, these secret stages offer a slightly more experimental approach to the game, usually by packing the area with enough enemies to simulate a sort of bullet hell but also, in the case of an unfinished, palette swapped city, by focusing the level around a trepidatious, vertical, progression. 

Tee Lopes - Corrupted Dreams // Aerial Justice // AI Supply // Spotlight Summersault // Primal Pummel // Sulfur Empire // Zero Pressure // Wings of Fury // Stainless Kill // Blood for Glory // Ritual of Battle // Hell on Earth // Encore

Savaged Regime - Underground Zone (Remix)

Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare - SMS

Finally a release date for Streets of Rage 4's Mr. X Nightmare DLC! Due the 15th of this month, turns out the big boss' bad dreams are full of sandbox survival modes that mix and remix assets pulled from as far back as the Master System / Game Gear ports of the original games. Wonderful stuff. 

Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown - MODEL 1

The obvious highlight (to me at least) of this instant DLC for the newly released Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown is the Model 1 era costume models. Available for every character, even those that did not appear in Yu Suzuki's ground-breaking arcade hit, the outfits swap out the new, Dragon Engine enhanced, fighter drafts for some lower polygon count figures and beautifully simple block colouring.  

Streets of Rage 4 - SWORDFISH

Streets of Rage 4's Mr X Nightmare DLC adds three new playable characters and a survival mode to one of last year's very best games. This paid update releases alongside a patch with some quality of life tweaks as well as a new difficulty mode and alternative colours for each of the playable Ragers. Perhaps we'll get the strange, Turbo-style colours seen in the western releases of Streets of Rage 3? Axel always looked pretty cool in a yellow T and black jeans. Officer Estel, a boss in the initial release of this sequel, is the first of the revealed fighters, while the shapes of the two remaining silhouettes would seem to suggest another two end-of-level challengers, the brainwashed Max and Mr X's right-hand man, Shiva? 

Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi - BIG FIRE WHEEL

I had thought that the bouncing, burning wheel - seen here at 14:15 - was the last boss in Mega Drive exclusive Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, likely because it was as far as I ever got. Turns out there are several stages afterwards; remix encounters that take a short, basic, layout from the second level of the Shinobi coin-op then stuffs it with a barracks worth of enemies. Limp through these ambushes to face a seated final boss who summons even more minions. No idea why I had trouble with the orbiting fire hazard either. Looking at it with 2021 eyes, the pattern looks pretty straightforward, even if the windows for damage are pretty narrow. Probably, my pre-teen brain couldn't handle the idea that the tumbling rock arena didn't mean that the fight was on the clock, requiring a quick resolution. 

Mega Drive - ZPF

Coming soon to Sega's 16-bit home system! ZPF, an absolutely gorgeous arcade shooter (that looks like Gynoug by way of Mega Turrican) from Gryzor, jgvex and Tanzer vet Mikael Tillander. 

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk - YOU BETTER WATCH THAT COMING AT CHA

Since Sega are completely unwilling to bless us with the further adventures of the Jet Set Radio gang (Smilebit - gone but not forgotten), indie devs Team Reptile - previously responsible for the well-received Lethal League Blaze - have taken up the baton, recruiting the series' original bassline hummer, composer Hideki Naganuma, in the process. Expect Bomb Rush Cyberfunk sometime in 2021.

Keisuke Tsukahara - Ulcer / Cybernate Q

DF Retro - Final Fight

The Digital Foundry gang take a look at Capcom's iconic brawler Final Fight, detailing the tech behind the original coin-op as well as the many ports and sequels that followed. Of particular note is the news that, for their Mega CD conversion, Sega slowed down each of the playable characters, clipping the overall movement and attack speed of the nimble selections. A similar sort of averaging out plagued the Mega Drive version of Golden Axe - specifically the hit box of the playable character's weapons. Tyris Flare's short sword and Gilius Thunderhead's massive broadaxe both hit with the same medium range assigned to Ax Battler's middle-of-the-road sword.

Norio Hanzawa - Runner (AD 2025) / Sidelimits

Game Gear Micro - PORTABLE VIDEO GAME SYSTEM

Sega celebrates their 60th anniversary with a borrower sized re-release of their battery guzzling hand-held, the Game Gear. Issued in a variety of flavours, each Game Gear Micro system has four unique games for modern players to peer at. Going by the lists in this ad, Sega have (mercifully) skipped over their well-received -at-the-time 8-bit version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a game made significantly more difficult by the pocket system's narrow display dimensions.

Streets of Rage 4 - SPINNING MACHINE

Streets of Rage 4 - BEAT AMBIENCE

Streets of Rage 4's final character has been revealed, the looming silhouette seen on previous disclosures is neither Streets of Rage 2's pro-wrestler Max Hatchett nor Streets of Rage 3's cyborg shock master Dr Zan. 4 instead ships with a new rager named Floyd Iraia, a mechanised bruiser who looks to combine key elements of those previously mentioned one-and-done fighters, as well as a couple of straight lifts from Mortal Kombat's Jax. Fingers crossed that kickboxing kangaroo Roo and series mainstay Skate are unlockable (or more likely available for additional purchase) somewhere along the way.

Streets of Rage 4 - BLACK OUTLINE

The Streets of Rage 4 staff talk us through the art end of game development. Despite its brevity, this clip covers a lot of conceptual ground - from how the developers have implemented unrealised graphical flourishes from old, dusty Sega design documents to the importance of a nice, solid, black outline on key character art. If all that wasn't encouraging enough, the glimpse of Akira Toriyama's The World sitting on an artist's desk pretty much seals the deal.