I'd have to say that Final Soldier is my all-time favorite U.S. Turbochip

[Joe Redifer]

Black Tiger, what is the 5th Sonic game on the Genesis?  I only count four proper ones:
Sonic
Sonic 2
Sonic 3
Sonic & Knuckles

I think people say there are many because they all look almost 100% identical in motion.  A friend sent recently sent me a DVD that was called "Legends of Game Music" or something like that which had videos.  I had an extremely hard time telling the difference between Soldier Blade and Final Blade and Blazing Soldier and all of those.  They all seem to meld into one game.  All you do is shoot squares on the ground, collect orbs, attack a few airborne enemies and an occasional boss.  Basically, it's like the 89 different versions of Street Fighter 2.

[Keranu]

Oh yeah, and then there is also Soldier Blade.  WTF?  All these games look the same to me:  Fly up and shoot shitloads of squares on the ground and collect orbs.  When the timer reaches 5 minutes, it's game over.

I think people say there are many because they all look almost 100% identical in motion.  A friend sent recently sent me a DVD that was called "Legends of Game Music" or something like that which had videos.  I had an extremely hard time telling the difference between Soldier Blade and Final Blade and Blazing Soldier and all of those.  They all seem to meld into one game.  All you do is shoot squares on the ground, collect orbs, attack a few airborne enemies and an occasional boss.  Basically, it's like the 89 different versions of Street Fighter 2.

You seem to be referring to the time trial mode/versions of these games since that's all you do in time/caravan modes of those games and some others. The normal games are a bit different, especially Soldier Blade.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah, caravan.  I don't even pretend to know what "caravan" is all about, but it is an odd term for a shooter.  Those damn Japanese.  Hudson is weird.  Gate of Thunder is better than all of these shooters we're discussing combined.

[Keranu]

Agreed 100%.

[nat]

No way. Gunhed f*cking rules, it's only slightly less cool than Gate of Thunder.

[ccovell]

By the way, Toho developed Gunhed. I suppose some other company made the "Soldier" games, right?

Hudson Soft is credited as having worked on all of the Soldier games, including Gunhed. How big a part they played in the development of each is unknown to me. So Hudson is credited on all four, and the following other companies were credited as well:

Gunhed: Toho/Compile/Sunrise
Super Star Soldier: Kaneko Co. Ltd.
Final Soldier: <none>
Soldier Blade: <none>

Toho is a movie production and publishing company.  I believe they -- along with Sunrise -- merely own the rights to the Gunhed movie/franchise, (and handled some of Compile's game publication, like Godzilla on the NES, and Space Megaforce on the SNES.)  I bet that Compile did all of the work on Gunhed, AKA PCE Aleste .  The title music even sounds like the well-known Aleste theme.

It should also be noted that several of the PCE's earlier releases were well-known franchises on other systems, with a lame license tagged on.  (ie: Bikkuriman World, Gunhed, Doraemon, (Kato & Ken...))

[Joe Redifer]

Nat, Blazing Lazers is decent, but there is so much empty space in the game (figuratively) that it kind of makes me not want to play it very often.

[Turbo D]

the fifth sonic game on genesis is the forgetable sonic blast. Ya, I didn't even know it was a genesis game for the longest time. I had the superior 3d saturn version, haha.

[sunteam_paul]

Gunhed is good, but Joe is right that it feels kind of 'empty'. I don't like the music that much either, although the samples are great, the tunes just aren't up to the standard of SSS or FS.

[Turbo D]

i don't really like the scrolling background to much in gunhed. Kinda gets me dizzy and then I get hit by some sort of shrapnel 

[FM-77]

I think Gunhed is really strange. It doesn't feel like a game. I cannot quite describe it. Perhaps it's that emptiness mentioned earlier. I prefer all the other Aleste games to Gunhed.

[esteban]

Gunhed is good, but Joe is right that it feels kind of 'empty'. I don't like the music that much either, although the samples are great, the tunes just aren't up to the standard of SSS or FS.

Blasphemy! The tunes in BL / GunHed kick ass!

Plus, GunHed is a kick-ass game, it just has a really, really weak second stage (plus, it lasts for too long). Otherwise, it has a few dead spots, but so do all of the games in the Star Soldier series!

If you ask me, GunHed has gone over the speed limit! I speak the Truth.

[Black Tiger]

Black Tiger, what is the 5th Sonic game on the Genesis?  I only count four proper ones:
Sonic
Sonic 2
Sonic 3
Sonic & Knuckles

I think people say there are many because they all look almost 100% identical in motion.  A friend sent recently sent me a DVD that was called "Legends of Game Music" or something like that which had videos.  I had an extremely hard time telling the difference between Soldier Blade and Final Blade and Blazing Soldier and all of those.  They all seem to meld into one game.  All you do is shoot squares on the ground, collect orbs, attack a few airborne enemies and an occasional boss.  Basically, it's like the 89 different versions of Street Fighter 2.

Sonic CD

I find many other street fighter-type games than the Street Fighter II series look the same, same with Final Fight-type games, many vertical & horizontal shooters in general, RPGs, Genesis platformers, sports... games in general really. But these are games are all part of a series, even if Gunhed technically is only spiritually. They look as different as installments of the Thunder Force series.

I think that just because most players nowadays aren't used to shooters in general, let alone vertical ones that the Turbo/PCE gets a rep for being flooded with them. Its fine for anyone to not be into them, but its really lame for professional reviewers to trash them because there are now three of them on TG-16 VC.

No way. Gunhed f*cking rules, it's only slightly less cool than Gate of Thunder.

Gunhed doesn't even compare to Gate of Thunder. Gate of Thunder has the arcade feel.

That doesn't mean that Gunhed sux, but Gate of Thunder is at least as good of a game by most people's standards with aesthetics that are worlds apart.

[FM-77]

I haven't heard anything good about that Soldier game from people on other forums that downloaded it on VC, actually. It's gotten quite a lot of criticism.

[Keranu]

I love Blazing Lazers. I really think people are exagerrating about the "dead space" in it because the only part with dead space I can think of is level 2. It is, however, a very long game and I think people might be confusing it's length with dead space. It's a really amazing game.