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Post by Weasel on Dec 4, 2008 1:53:03 GMT -5
In browsing through a mega-torrent of every US-released Sega CD game ever, I found a little gem of a platform action game that seems to have gone unnoticed (despite heavy platform coverage): Wolfchild. Developed by CORE Design (also responsible for Tomb Raider and numerous Amiga games like Heimdall), Wolfchild was originally an Amiga game as well. Basically it's a sci-fi variant on Altered Beast except with more jumping. So the story goes, your father was doing some research and got killed, so you pick up where your father left off and transform yourself into a werewolf so you can avenge his death.
So essentially the game involves you running and jumping through a bunch of sci-fi levels, punching soldiers in the face until you pick up a powerup that changes you into your wolf form. While you are a wolf, you get an additional energy shot with your punch attack that allows you to attack from a distance, and this shot can be upgraded by picking up more powerups. Get hit too many times, though, and you revert back to human form and eventually die.
The game's been available on all kinds of platforms. Amiga, Atari ST, Genesis, SNES, Master System(!), Game Gear(!!), and Sega CD. The music in the Sega CD version isn't bad at all, though I wonder how it stacks up to the original Amiga version. The CD version also gets an animated intro, though I am not sure if that's in the other versions or not.
Basically, if you're looking for a neat little action game to waste time on, this one's pretty decent and kind of reminds me of Shatterhand.
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Post by Justinzero on Dec 4, 2008 2:06:21 GMT -5
Hmmm, new Sega CD game with platforming elements, and comes with a high recommendation? Great news if you ask me.
Ill check the game out for sure, and hopefully it doesn't fetch much of a price on Ebay.
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Post by Weasel on Dec 4, 2008 2:41:53 GMT -5
Yeah, SNES version's fetching all of $4 on eBay, found several Sega CD versions (including one JP import) all around $15. The only listing I saw that seemed really extravagant was the lone Genesis version for $25.
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Post by Malroth on Dec 4, 2008 3:14:40 GMT -5
Hmm, sounds a bit like Altered Beast. Neat.
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Post by Allie on Dec 4, 2008 3:20:48 GMT -5
It pretty much seemed like a typical Amiga game to me. Shiny, metallic look to it, slow, distinctively european mechanics to them.
The Genesis got an ass-ton of Amiga ports thanks to having a 68000-based processor. (Chuck Rock, Fatal Rewind, Speedball 2, Xenon 2, Soldiers of Fortune, Shadow of the Beast, Gods, and at least 15 others.)
It probably sounds Xenophobic, but most Amiga ports to the ol' Genesis felt extremely similar to me.
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Post by Weasel on Dec 4, 2008 4:07:07 GMT -5
Well, thankfully, this one's at least a cut above your usual Amiga-port - it at least controls better than Shadow of the Beast did.
[edit] Shadow of the Beat? Sounds like a pretty awesome rhythm game...
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Post by steven on Dec 4, 2008 6:31:27 GMT -5
I *ALWAYS* wanted to play this game back in the day (I was/am such a sucker for these 'obscure' offbeat action titles... remember Werewolf for NES? Suckered me in). Wolfchild was deemed middle of the road though by all publications I can remember. One day I'll get around to playing it and see for myself. One of the greatest things about this hobby and being older  |
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Post by kimimi on Dec 4, 2008 9:28:47 GMT -5
I had this on the Amiga at the time. It was alright, but it didn't really stick. Anyone play Superfrog? Now *that* was a classic Amiga platformer! <3
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Post by Neo Rasa on Dec 4, 2008 9:52:53 GMT -5
To me the SNES version is the best of them. It doesn't have the intro from the Amiga or SegaCD but it has a few graphical details that aren't present in the other versions. It's a matter of preference but I like the music on the SNES version the most as well, plus no loading.
Don't let the terrible third level fool you, the game picks up again with the final stages. You get more and more weapons at a time and it slowly becomes a bit more like the old Duke Nukem than a one punch brawler.
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Post by shion on Dec 4, 2008 13:18:56 GMT -5
It pretty much seemed like a typical Amiga game to me. Shiny, metallic look to it, slow, distinctively european mechanics to them. The Genesis got an ass-ton of Amiga ports thanks to having a 68000-based processor. (Chuck Rock, Fatal Rewind, Speedball 2, Xenon 2, Soldiers of Fortune, Shadow of the Beast, Gods, and at least 15 others.) It probably sounds Xenophobic, but most Amiga ports to the ol' Genesis felt extremely similar to me. Yep, this is exactly my take on it--minus the xenophobic part--and I bought Wolfchild when it was brand new (iirc, the end of Nov/beginning of Dec after the first few weeks of the Sega CD's US release). I'd also strongly suggest that if you must play this game, play it on SNES where it's actually far superior in every way (up to and lincluding scaling effects which the supposedly super-charged bi-axial scaling and rotatino beast that is the Sega CD lacked!) short of music but, even then, it's still pretty banal and forgetable--a charge that applies equally to the vast majority of Core Design's pre-Soul Star Sega CD output (with only the marginally-entertaining Wonder Dog being of any real value). |
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Post by shelverton on Dec 4, 2008 14:20:05 GMT -5
I'd like to see an article on this game or something, sounds like it belongs here |
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Post by aggroger on Dec 4, 2008 16:52:52 GMT -5
I liked this game back then,I still like it now.
And personally I rate it as one of the best platformers on the Amiga;it's very short (only five levels) but the intensity made up for it.
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 4, 2008 17:33:59 GMT -5
I think I bought this for like $2 a few years back but never tried. I should give it a go!
I too kinda share the prejudice against a lot of European Amiga conversions...I like their visuals and music a lot, but something about their controls always just felt off.
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Post by shion on Dec 4, 2008 17:45:45 GMT -5
I think I bought this for like $2 a few years back but never tried. I should give it a go! I too kinda share the prejudice against a lot of European Amiga conversions...I like their visuals and music a lot, but something about their controls always just felt off.If I had to guess, that'd be the lack of more than a single usable joystick button which basically doomed the jump function (in most cases) to pushing up on the stick which never, ever felt right to anyone that spent a considerable amount of time in the world of NES; it was just impossible to go back to one-button input after graduating from the dark ages of Atari et al. (Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy a fair few Amiga games, but anything that was an Amiga-to-Genesis--or vice-versa in rare cases--port was almost always more fun on the graphically-inferior Genesis down to this.) Also, it's not just some of us on this thread with such a 'prejudice' (which strikes me as a bit of a loaded term that has little bearing on what we're actually discussing) against, for the most part, Euro-developed Amiga fare. I seem to recall Chris Roberts (the man that created Wing Commander amongst others) once, many years ago, making a comment during the heyday of the Amiga that European gamers preferred games that were 'all sizzle and no meat' (I might be mis-quoting him, but that's the gist of it) which meant that they valued graphics over gameplay which is certainly something you could generalize to Amiga titles in general (some of them were absolutely beautiful and never had peers on the Sega or Nintendo 16-bit machines until the very, very end of their lives after the Amiga had been effectively dead for a few years but they were also, again generalizing, a bit deficient/simplistic in comparison to their Japanese-developed peers which at least in part was explained by the acute limitations of the input method. After all, it's kinda hard to get terribly complex when all you have to work with is an 8-way joystick and a single action button (no, the kb doesn't count)). |
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Post by steven on Dec 4, 2008 21:01:42 GMT -5
I think I bought this for like $2 a few years back but never tried. I should give it a go! I too kinda share the prejudice against a lot of European Amiga conversions...I like their visuals and music a lot, but something about their controls always just felt off. Yeah, those European Amiga conversions always felt like their control was a bit stilted, to say the least. And like you, I bought WC cheap two years ago, but have yet to play it. Thanks to this topic, I finally busted it out. Ironically, it had been bugging me in the back of my mind for the past several months; I always wanted to play it when I first saw the cool ads in EGM 15 years ago. Pretty solid game. Unremarkable, but playable and enjoyable. I beat all 5 levels and it took me about 1 hour, 40 minutes. I had a ball... it's been a while since I broke out a game I never played before and just beat it in one sitting. Something very satisfying about that. The control is slightly off in WC (I played the SNES version BTW) but thankfully, it doesn't adversely affect the gameplay much. There was never a time where I felt "damnit, the control cost me." 15 years ago I thought, just my gut feeling, that this would be a decent game. Always fun to discover your gut failed you not |
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