Dynastic Hero

[Black Tiger]

I agree with a lot on that page. Namely:

Outfitted in what I can only guess is a suit of beetle-inspired armor; poor Dyna looks pretty dumb compared to the blue-haired Shion. The helmet is what does him in.

Well put! I couldn't have said it better! ...

That's why I linked to that page -- I knew you felt the same way!

Anyway, VESTCOAT, check out sega16.com. They've done a bunch of TG16 vs. Sega comparisons (Dungeon Explorer... ummm, Devil's Crush.... ok, maybe not too many!). I agree, though, it would be fun to have some comparisons across platforms, if only to inform folks of similarities / differences (as opposed to arguing that one version is better than another).

Anyway, I think sega16.com is a great site

I was gonna say something else...

OH YEAH. Seldane, the reason why I like the PCE version is because it is different. If the Genny and PCE version were identical, then there would be very little incentive to play them both. Personally, I like to play all the titles in my favorite series (franchises?)... but even I'll admit that it gets boring when two games are essentially straight ports. It's much more fun when there are some differences, even if these differences are slight (nuanced).

So, I'm totally happy that PCE is unorthodox in the Wonderboy canon.

But the Genny version rules. So we're on the same page, really!

I love differents ports good or bad.

Its coolest though when two versions are both awesome(but unique), as in this case, or when one version is so bad(in general or certain aspects) its unbelievable, like Golden Axe PCE, DOOM 3DO, or Mortal Kombat 3(?) GBA.

One series which I can never get enough ports of is Ys I - III.

[ParanoiaDragon]

First of all, being the music man that I am, Dynastic Hero's music absolutly KILLS the Gen version in every way, shape, & form.  It's the same guy(Nick Wood) that did the music for Gate of Thunder.....though, to me, I don't hear any similarities, so I know the guy is talented!  I mean, I love EVERY song in Dynastic Hero litterally.  I always have!  The Gen's music is quite a let down to be honest, then again, it doesn't help that I never liked the Gen's sound chip.  There are very few who were ever truly able to manipulate the Gen's sound chip to make it un-annoying.  I can't think of one song that sucks in Dynastic Hero......& I just plain can't think of one song in Wonderboy 5

And to me, all the bug people totally fit in, I've never thought otherwise, & I've always known, before the game even came out, that they redrew the characters, & them not fitting never once came to mind.

Now with all that said, I don't think the Genesis versions sucks, hell, I love the SMS version too!  But this is just my own personal opinion

[Keranu]

Exactly! Dyna does not fit in the game, and the one who drew it obviously lacks the talent of drawing sprites. I mean .... look at it!

I'm sorry, but that is rather rude to say. I personally thought Dyna fit in great with the other characters, though that's just my opinion. He has a very unique look and I thought creativity IS part of what makes an artist talented? Also don't blame the sprite artist on Dyna's design, he probably didn't even design the new characters.

The bees in the village look pretty much like faeries with hats that have bee eyes on them.

Seldane: Again. Incoooompetent.  

I can't see how this is incompetent. The person redesigned the whole village! Ripping graphics is what would be incompetent but the artist actually redesigned everything!

And I definitely agree with Steve on this one. It's a GOOD thing they redesigned stuff in Dynastic Hero. Having new and fresh ideas for a port is what makes the different versions worth playing.

[Black Tiger]

Having new and fresh ideas for a port is what makes the different versions worth playing.

Even little things like remaking Lion-Man into Tiger-Man with WBIII SMS to Adventure Island/Dragon's Curse is cool.

As for the Dynastic Hero characters, they look like direct descendants of the 'real' Wonderboy III... -Monster Lair.

And as much as I can appreciate the Takahashi Menjin(or whatever)/Adv Island series, the Dynastic Hero alterations fit the game much better than a cap wearing Hawaiian tossing homemade hatchets.

Not that a bush boy on a skateboard makes much more sense.

[GUTS]

Man the Genesis sound chip rocked your socks, hook that f*cker up to a real sterio and blast something like Bloodlines or Streets of Rage and see how it smashes the shit out of the SNES's synthy crap.  Genesis soundtracks were made for rockin!  I do love the Turbo's sound chip also for the same reason (it sounds AWESOME through a nice stereo setup), I think the Genesis & the Turbo had the coolest music of the 8-16 bit era.

Personally I prefer well done chip music over CD music just because it fits old school video games better.  There are a few exceptions of course, but for the most part I'd rather listen to Parasol Stars or Streets of Rage than any CD game soundtrack.

[Keranu]

I usually cannot stand the Genesis sound chip for the most part, but when you have someone really talented messing with it (Yuzo Koshiro ), you can totally surprse the person, so Streets of Rage sounds absolutely stunning and the Sonic games were quite well done too. The unfortunately there is the typical American-made game that has sound that just makes your ears bleed; Chakan is a great example.

I love SNES' sound, it really is some amazing stuff. But then there is the occasional game that just really sounds crappy like it's really trying to use the potential of the sound chip but just fails badly. I can't think of a good way to describe this, but a game like Mohawk and Headphone Jack shows this.

TG16 has awesome sound as well, it really sounds like a NES that has opened up a can of whoop ass , and NES sound was awesome enough already.

[esteban]

... I think the Genesis & the Turbo had the coolest music of the 8-16 bit era.

Personally I prefer well done chip music over CD music just because it fits old school video games better.  There are a few exceptions of course, but for the most part I'd rather listen to Parasol Stars or Streets of Rage than any CD game soundtrack.

Yes! In general, I'm not a big fan of CD music and I'll take a rockin' GB, NES, SMS, Genny, SNES, TG16 etc. tune over a CD soundtrack most days of the week.

SNES music, unfortunately, is often too well-polished for its own good... but I can dig it .

Hmmmmm, I like what some folks might describe as "rough/raw" chip tunes -- but this is not a bad thing, IMO. Genny tunes are not as bad as folks make them out to be! Genny rocked!

Let's all hug one another and celebrate all the awesome music, godammit!

Of course, it's fun to give Seldane and GUTS a hard time .

[PC Gaijin]

I was going to comment on the Genesis' sound chip in the Raiden thread, since I've been playing the SNES and Genesis Raiden for comparison....anyway. There were some good soundtracks in Genesis games, but the Genesis sound chip...gawd, what a piece of doo-doo. Distinctive sound for sure, just not one that I cared for. It did work for certain composers though (thinking of "Bo" here).

I too have a soft spot in my heart for chip sound going all the way back to Atari's POKEY. I also prefer Turbo sound over the Genesis, especially since I've started to listening to lots of HES rips. And I'm talking about the way the chips sound, not the composition of the soundtracks since there's a ton of Genesis soundtracks that I like. I also love SNES music, although sometimes it can be a little bit too clean. Kind of midway between 16-bit and 32-bit sound.

[ParanoiaDragon]

I generally like the SNES chip better then the Gen, but, alot of games sound MAD generic.  Games on SNES that stand out to me, are Actraiser, Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, Shadowrun, that's all I can think of right now.  The Gen had the first 2 Streets of Rage games(the 3rd one is a little rough on the ears).......that's the only ones I can think of offhand

[Keranu]

Generic! That's a good word to use for it . We'll have to come up with a list of SNES games that have really generic-sounding sound.  

[malducci]

PCE chip music for the most part is just to 'tinny' sounding for me. It's not bad on the ears, but I couldn't jam to it.

 Don't get me wrong, there are some memorable chip musics and I do love Aldynes music as well, but they just weren't in the same league as MegaDrive and SF. There was a lot of generic sounding SF/SNES music and a good number of harsh static-y sounding Genesis music as well, but neither were 'tinny' or sounded 8bit like most turbo chip music.

Memorable musics on the Genesis - Musha, Target Earth, Thunder Force 3, GunStar Heroes, Sonic 1 & 2, AeroFlash(first level), GAIARES(one of my favorite shooters), Phantasy Star 2(drools), ESWAT(frist level boss - ), Ex-Ranza, Streets of Rage 1, Vapor Trail (I could listen for hours - track 3...simulated twin guitar!!).

 Genesis/MD just had really good bass and strong & pronounced bass guitar (better than SF/SNES soft fingered bass guitar) and the drums were usually decent in comparison. Did I mention the bass? Oh yeah, then there's the bass. I really loved the "duoooaaaaooohhwww" sound effect/instrument the genesis used - see Thunder Force 3. And don't forget the bass

[FM-77]

PCE chip music for the most part is just to 'tinny' sounding for me. It's not bad on the ears, but I couldn't jam to it.

 Don't get me wrong, there are some memorable chip musics and I do love Aldynes music as well, but they just weren't in the same league as MegaDrive and SF. There was a lot of generic sounding SF/SNES music and a good number of harsh static-y sounding Genesis music as well, but neither were 'tinny' or sounded 8bit like most turbo chip music.

Memorable musics on the Genesis - Musha, Target Earth, Thunder Force 3, GunStar Heroes, Sonic 1 & 2, AeroFlash(first level), GAIARES(one of my favorite shooters), Phantasy Star 2(drools), ESWAT(frist level boss - ), Ex-Ranza, Streets of Rage 1, Vapor Trail (I could listen for hours - track 3...simulated twin guitar!!).

 Genesis/MD just had really good bass and strong & pronounced bass guitar (better than SF/SNES soft fingered bass guitar) and the drums were usually decent in comparison. Did I mention the bass? Oh yeah, then there's the bass. I really loved the "duoooaaaaooohhwww" sound effect/instrument the genesis used - see Thunder Force 3. And don't forget the bass

Wow! Right on! I agree with every single word!  

I can't say I don't like the PCE's sound chip, but it does sound "tinny", I absolutely love the Mega Drive's sound. It is simply amazing.

SNES music? Allow me.... to vomit.  

Yuzo Koshiro did some awesome music for Streets of Rage, but the music in Thor (aka Beyond Oasis) is the worst music I have ever heard in a game. Honestly. It is just terrible!

I am not a big fan of CDDA music in the old games such as the Mega-CD and PC Engine CD-ROM, because it usually sounds lame. Crappy synth music that actually sounds WORSE than the actual sound chip. Dynastic Hero is a great example of this.

[nodtveidt]

Everyone has different likes and dislikes. Also, there are good examples and bad examples of synth, chip, and redbook music out there.

For the Genesis, I absolutely love the soundtracks in Sonic 1 and 2, as well as Streets Of Rage 1, Golden Axe, and Jewel Master. Also, the Columns music is pretty good.
For the Sega CD, my faves include the soundtracks for Sonic CD and Eternal Champions II, as well as many from Vay and Lunar: The Silver Star.
For the SNES, the soundtracks from Final Fantasy 3, Plok, Super Turrican, Biometal (US version), Phalanx, and Super Mario World are great. Plok in particular has an amazing soundtrack...you'd swear there was a $3000 synth in that machine.
For the Turbo, Cadash, Neutopia I and II, and Ninja Spirit are my faves.
For the TGCD/Duo, my faves are Ys I & II, Lords Of Thunder, Gate Of Thunder, Exile I and II, Shadow Of The Beast, Dracula X...the list goes on and on and on...also, a couple tracks from Camp California are really inspiring, even if the game itself somewhat blows.

[Keranu]

Yuck, Thunder Force III sound! Am I the only person in the world who thinks Techno Soft did a absolute shitty job on sound for Genesis? People seem to love it, but their games to me are great examples of why the Genesis sound chip sucks, haha. Streets of Rage 1 and 2 and Sonic are where it's at . Oh I forgot to mention, that my other favorite game soundtracks for Genesis were Insector X and Shadow Blasters, those games ruled! Quackshot was great too, it actually sounded smooth like PCE/SNES sound.

[malducci]

Yuck, Thunder Force III sound!

Funny! But you might like the redone sound track that came with the special edition saturn version. I'll post some mp3's if you want to check it out.

 I'm not trying to play devils advocate, but 9.8 times out of 10 I did prefer the red book/CD audio to SF/MD/PCE - hehe.

other favorite game soundtracks for Genesis were Insector X

OMG - Insector X had mean 'ole porn music

I admit that I do love Tricky Kicks chip music. We used play that game into the early hours of the morning tweak'd on soda, sugar, and caffeine - making up lyrics for each levels music track