What If the USSR Built Terminators? SovietBorgs Answers That ~ Ten Minute Taster Quick Look 🚩🤖 #IndieGame #GameDev @RetroSumus

Rich takes a look at a brutal alt-history where Cold War paranoia meets cyberpunk mayhem. In this Quick Look, we dive into SovietBorgs, a gritty side-scrolling action game where Soviet-era tech fuses with biomechanical terror.

Sovietborgs for Sega Genesis, Neo Geo & more! | Indiegogo

The Secret of the Four Winds SEGA Mega Drive Review 8.5/10 “One of the Most Technically impressive Mega Drive Games Ever Released” 💨 @Kai_MSX #IndieGame #GameDev

Kai Magazine Software seemed to burst from the ground with the sole mission of pushing the Mega Drive beyond its known boundaries and limits. I’ve been lucky enough to cover all of their MD releases over the last five years or so, and each one has breathed new life into Sega’s much-loved 16-bit console, and given thousands of retro gamers worldwide reason to boot up the black Sega classic.

From the tongue-in-cheek MERCS-esque Metal Dragon through the Metroidvanian Life On Mars to the run-n-gun ‘tastic Life On Earth: Reimagined, Kai Magazine Software push the hardware in different directions, through differing genres – but none have felt quite so special as The Secret of the Four Winds.

Beginning with Inspector Henge in pursuit of a suspect – a suspect running on foot as Henge chases in his cop car!- resulting in them both entering an abandoned warehouse, where the suspect disappears and Henge watches a man die, stealing his gun to discover it’s a supernatural weapon that kills ghosts, it’s safe to say that The Secret of the Four Winds has one of – if not, THE – best kick-off to a Mega Drive game, helped immensely by the anime-style cut scenes, and – I will be talking about this a lot – the incredible, INCREDIBLE music.

Honestly, when the game first booted up and I could select between between the enhanced or standard music, I sat bolt upright the moment the energetic, sax and guitar laden soundtrack kicked in during the intro chase, it was a clarity – and style – of audio that I had simply never heard come from my Mega Drive in the thirty-five years I’ve spent with the console, and on the strength of that aspect alone, my genuine, reflexive initial response was “well, this game is getting 10/10 as far as I’m concerned”.

Even more impressive was the fact that, when I switched the audio to ‘FM’ style, there was still a gorgeous swing to everything, that called to mind the saucy soundtrack of Side Pocket (which is yearning for a vinyl release).

Moving away from the soundtrack though, the visuals are tasty, and depict a top-down world in which the characters that you control – an eventual choice of three in total  - move through with quite a unique control scheme. One button runs – and drains stamina – whilst the others act as aim and shoot. It initially feels very esoteric, but quickly becomes second nature as you make your way through the mostly night-time locations that the game takes you through.

Whilst some stages require simple detective work and puzzle solving, the vast majority of The Secret of the Four Winds involves making your way through the waves of enemies – most of which are weak to light and strongest in darkness – as you hold down the aim/shoot buttons, taking them out before they can get anywhere near you.

Whilst there are three characters to – eventually – choose from, and there are RPG aspects of the game that level up stats such as accuracy, health points, and power etc. this is the part of the game that starts off positively, but becomes a crutch relatively quickly.

Look, I love this game, and I’ll reiterate that the retro Japanese style of visuals, incredible music, beautiful physical presentation, nuanced and bold control scheme, as well as the mood and narrative of the game is fantastic...but my word, does the core gameplay result in a bone-crushing grind. Not just a grind of the type you’d see in most modern games, where you hit a rut and go off exploring, giving at least a little variety in the proceedings, this is a game in which you hit various points that result in you incrementally making your way forwards through areas that are just designed to kill you over and over until the numbers in your stats are high enough for you to make progress.

Thus making what is initially a thrill in how it blends action and RPG (and that world-beating music), and the heart of the enjoyment of the game itself an eventual brick-sieving, repetitive sludge-fest of progress. I promise you that there will never be a speed run of this game, the grind is too built-in to ignore.

SUMMARY

Kai Magazine Software are one of the most exciting developers around for the Mega Drive, and The Secret of the Four Winds is a game that deserves to grace a lot of shelves, pushing the Mega Drive not only through its saucy music, but also in blending genres, visuals and creating a mood in general that seems genetically designed to please me on a cellular level.

That said, the incessant grind and repetition that kicks in after a couple of hours can’t be be ignored, and perhaps leans too heavily on retro-Japanese design philosophies to connect with me, personally. That said. The music? Play it again, Sam.

Purchase Link

We’d like to introduce you to Sovietborgs, a top-down 16-bit run ’n' gun shooter on the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis 🎮 #Retrogaming

We’d like to introduce you to Sovietborgs, a top-down 16-bit run’n' gun shooter set in an alternate timeline where the Soviet Empire rules supreme, created by Retro Sumus, the studio behind Xenocider for the Dreamcast.

In this brutal retro-futuristic world, you control a squad of cybernetic warriors—the Sovietborgs—on a mission to crush monsters and rebel scum, one explosion at a time. 

The game will support classic platforms such as Mega Drive/Genesis, Dreamcast, NeoGeo, and MS-DOS.Sovietborgs will launch a campaign on IndieGoGo in June 25. 
In Sovietborgs, you’ll dive into:🎮

• Old-school top-down gameplay inspired by The Chaos Engine and Gauntlet
• Pre-rendered visuals crafted with techniques used in Donkey Kong Country
• A killer soundtrack with vibes from Red Alert and Urban Strike
• Shmup-style bonus stages and massive, grotesque boss fight

🔗Sovietborgs: Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, NeoGeo & more | Indiegogo 🔗

Britt’s Mega Drive Odyssey Part 6 – Gun Slugs SEGA Mega Drive Review 🔫🐛 @megacatstudios #IndieGame #GameDev #Retrogaming

Firstly, a huge thanks to Retro Room Games for kindly allowing us to cover a handful of their releases! The first of these…Gunslugs.

Originally developed and released back in 2013, Gunslugs is the result of the hard work at OrangePixel.

Since that time, it has been released across a myriad of platforms, and eventually made its way to Mega Drive - in both digital and physical formats – courtesy of Space Pants Games who designed this MD port from the ground up. A 2D action-platformer, Gunslugs puts you in the role of a special agent charged with taking down the Black Duck Army.

Mega Cat Studios: Britt’s Mega Drive Odyssey Part 5 – Rocket Panda SEGA Mega Drive Review 🐼 @megacatstudios #IndieGame #GameDev #Retrogaming

As someone who has played games for almost forty years, as much as I love heavy-duty RPGs, horror titles, and a good story – there’s always a part of me that lights up when a game is outright charming, and a celebration of gaming at its most wholesome, it almost feels like gaming at its most pure and innocent.

Cue Rocket Panda, a game developed by Space Pants Games, in which you – as the titular Rocket Panda – must save Biscuit Land from the clutches of the evil Biscuit Head, saving your caged badger friends as you do so.

Mega Cat Studios: Britt’s Mega Drive Odyssey Part 4: Yazzie ⬜ @megacatstudios #IndieGame #GameDev #Retrogaming

It’s been a little while, but once again it’s time to spend some time with my favourite console, and take a look at another title from Mega Cat Studios ever-expanding repertoire of video games released on classic systems. I’m also planning a sort of sister article to this series focusing on upcoming Mega Drive games in 2025 – exciting stuff!

Anyway, on to the wonderful Yazzie!

Developed by Retro Souls – the brains behind the addictive Old Towers -  the titular Yazzie is a gold digger that must traverse myriad single-screen puzzles, collecting all of the gold in each area, whilst avoiding the zombies, ghosts and hazards that act as obstacles between Yazzie and riches! 

Life On Earth: Reimagined SEGA Mega Drive Review 8/10 "Boobs, bullets and a bloody serious challenge" 🌎 @Kai_MSX #Retrogaming #IndieGame #GameDev

I previously covered KAI Magazine Software’s Metal Dragon and Life on Mars: Genesis, thoroughly enjoying both. Life on Earth: Reimagined is set in the same universe as Life on Mars, and casts you in the role of the extremely buxom and impractically dressed Zhira, who is on a mission to halt the progress of a Mars-based lifeform that was brought to Earth for study and has - naturally - broken free of its restraints, and is quite frankly – causing ructions.

First impressions are fantastic, the action is quick and precise, with the gameplay being reminiscent of titles such as Rolling Thunder 2, or Sunset Riders as Zhira combats spawning enemies from all sides as she makes her way through the stages. Oscar Albero’s graphics are genuinely stunning in some areas, as cherry blossom trees and cityscapes at night rush past in a whirlwind of cyberpunk. Zhira’s arsenal consists of a melee attack and well as standard, triple, auto, and explosive shots to take down the myriad enemies that come at her in waves. There’s also other vehicular sections to add variety to the gameplay, not to mention multi-section bosses to take down in pitched battles scattered throughout.

I also have to mention the incredible music in Life on Earth: Reimagined, as the composer Savaged Regime has created something glorious here, it’s one of the most ‘Mega Drive’ scores I’ve ever heard and pulls out all the stops in creating an audio environment for the game that absolutely rocks, fantastic stuff! They also have more music available so please check out the incredible talents of Savaged Regime.

So, there’s a lot to love about Life On Earth: Reimagined, with solid mechanics, tasty gameplay, incredible audio….but it’s also worth mentioning the difficulty, as this is a game that is not shy. In the tougher stages, enemy respawns can be problematic and pretty consistent, alongside a chase stage in which Zhira is pegging it away from an encroaching explosion that will really test your patience and get your MD controller creaking. That said, if you like a challenge in your games, that will very much be of appeal, as – although you can lower the difficulty, completing the game on easy mode doesn’t show you the full game, so you’ll need to up the challenge to see the true end of Zhira’s adventure.

In terms of the physical release, the clamshell box is solid and features a reversible cover that alternates between the early and later styles of releases on the MD, inside are some art cards featuring Zhira, as well as a multi-language full colour booklet that is packed with information about the game. 

SUMMARY

As usual – KAI Magazine Software have released a top quality modern MD game that feels right at home on the system, with the music especially feeling like it’s showing SEGA’s 16-bit console at its best. A great run n’ gun title that doesn’t take any prisoners when it comes to challenge!

8/10

🆒COOL🆒

🔗Purchase Link: 

Life on Earth: Reimagined for the Sega Genesis (European classic cover)

The Cursed Legacy SEGA Mega Drive Review 8/10 "Run n’ Gun? Metroidvania? Mini-games? The Cursed Legacy has you covered!" 💥 @Goodgamestudios @Broke_Studio #IndieGame #GameDev

The last game I played from GGS Studio was The Cursed Knight back in 2022, an awesome title that was also distributed through broke Studio. The Cursed Legacy is again a Mega Drive release that continues the high quality production values laid down by Broke Studio, as well as classic retro gameplay from GGS, and again continues their quirk of mixing up genres, in this instance those genres being run n’ gun, metroidvania, and riffs on classic mini-games.

Mega Cat Studios: - Britt’s Mega Drive Odyssey Part 3: Old Towers 🏰 @RetroSouls @megacatstudios #IndieGame #IndieGameDev

Retrosouls’ Old Towers is next up in my Mega Drive Odyssey, and it’s one that my three-year old gravitated to as I was playing through each game, showing that awesome puzzle titles are ageless!

As with Mega Cat Studios other titles, the Mega Drive case is branded with their logo which really is a nice touch as it makes them stand out and feel that little bit extra special. The cover image is of the main character moving at speed towards a golden coin, as if he’s hurtling out of the image itself, with the background featuring heavy motion blur to give that sense of pace. The spine is also uniform and matches up perfectly with other MCS releases whilst the rear sums up the gameplay in a succinct paragraph as some additional quotes hammer home that this is an addictive puzzle-based title, along with some screenshots.

Mega Cat Studios: ‘Britt’s Mega Drive Odyssey Part 1: Coffee Crisis’ ☕️ @megacatstudios #IndieGame #IndieGameDev #GameDev #RetroGaming #SEGAGenesis

Since joining GF back in 2016, one of the pleasures of my life has been discovering new titles for one of my favourite consoles – the Mega Drive. There are several companies out there that are doing the Lord’s work in bringing out new games out for SEGA’s saucy black box, but Mega Cat Studios were the first I was made aware off, when I covered Paulo Andres de Matos Villalva’s secretly wonderful ‘Devwill Too’ back in 2020*, and so I’ve always associated them with developing and publishing new MD titles, breathing life back into the system and hopefully getting players worldwide to dust off those creaky controllers!

This is the first in a series that will see us covering a large portion of the Mega Cat Studios Mega Drive-related output, with the end result being an interview and deep dive into the studio itself.

Rocket Panda, will launch for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive on September 16, 2024. 🐼 #Retrogaming #SegaGenesis

The confectionary connoisseurs at Mega Cat Studios, Space Pants Games, and Video Game Sage are excited to announce that their upcoming jet-powered adventure, Rocket Panda, will launch for the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive on September 16, 2024. 

Get ready to soar in a scrumptious adventure where collecting treats and battling ferocious enemies is the name of the game! In Rocket Panda, players join our heroic panda as he sets out on a delicious quest to gather goodies, rescue badgers, and thwart the nefarious Biscuit Head. With more than 60 maze-like levels to navigate and cookie-crumbling action, this retro gem promises to be a treat for fans of classic 16-bit gaming.

SEGA Mega Drive Game Preview – The Viking & the Ninja 📯🥷 @DelayedAgainAB #IndieGame #GameDev

The Viking & The Ninja is an action RPG similar to the Dungeon Explorer series, set in an anachronistic fantasy setting with a lot of humour. The main theme and gameplay centres around cooperation between the two playable characters, but to succeed you also need to explore, fight bravely, and talk to other characters with important information.

Astebros SEGA Mega Drive Review 9.5/10 "The Pinnacle of Mega Drive Gaming" ⚔️ @DAsteborg #IndieGames #GameDev

Back in 2021, I was lucky enough to cover Demons of Asteborg, Neofid Studios’ first release on the Mega Drive. At the time I hailed it as a modern Mega Drive classic, I was really taken by the almost perfect action-platformer, which was up until that point the best game that I had covered on the Mega Drive as it was not only a great game to play, but was also a marvel in terms of the technical design.

In the space of only two years since that release, Neofid Studios have returned to the world of Asteborg and doubled down on what made the preceding title so great, this time upping the ante with local co-op and rogue-lite aspects that exist to add longevity to the game, making it the absolute cream of the Mega Drive crop.

Life on Mars: Genesis Kai Magazine Software SEGA Mega Drive Review 8.5/10 "There’s life in the Mega Drive, as well!" 🌕 #SEGA #SegaGenesis #IndieGames #GameDev

When Life on Mars: Genesis was announced, I was excited due to the fact that there were so few (if any) Metroidvania titles on the Mega Drive. I’m a fan of the genre, especially the shorter, snappier releases such as Shadow Complex. 

I find that a sub-12-hour blast keeps things spicy and fresh, and Life on Mars: Genesis falls into that camp, feeling like a novice entry in the genre, which fits in well with the fact that it is effectively an entry to the genre as a whole on the Mega Drive.

💥 Life on Mars - Genesis | "It takes us into a realm on the Sega Mega Drive that gets my blood pumping" 💥

Life On Mars: Genesis is the next game from Kai Magazine Software, the company that brought us Metal Dragon. Whereas that game was a humorous run ‘n gun title, Life On Mars: Genesis takes us into a realm on the Sega Mega Drive that gets my blood pumping almost as much as RPGs on the system, Metroidvania. The Mega Drive was starved of several genres – and true sequels to Landstalker… - and the Metroidvania genre was certainly one of those.

🎃👻The Curse of Illmoore Bay Mega Drive Review 8/10 "16-bit Halloween Magic" 🎃👻 @alteredimension #Retrogaming #RetroGames

Purchase link -

https://www.second-dimension.com/catalog/the-curse-of-illmoore-bay

Developer – Second Dimension R&T, LLC

New Mega Drive games always feel special, whether they push the little black box to the edge of its capabilities or perhaps capture an earlier period of its shelf life. The Curse of Illmoore Bay is a title that feels like it captures the essence of Sega in 1993/4 with its platforming action, visual style and kiddy-creepy approach.

🦔... Why I Love Sonic The Hedgehog ...🦔 @pixeladdict_mag #Retrogaming

Exciting News From GF Deep Freeze HQ!

Rich has been published in PIXEL Addict Magazine Issue 3 and we're all really excited to see Rich's words in print.

Therefore, here are some pics from the magazine and also here's the full transcript from the magazine article.

Head here to get yourself a copy or nip into WH SMITH and see if you can grab a copy!

🤖 The Cursed Knight Mega Drive Review 8.5/10 "A curse for the knight, a blessing for your Mega Drive" 🤖 @TKthegame #IndieGame #GameDev

Funded in just seven hours on Kickstarter, it’s clear that there was a lot of interest and high hopes for GGS Studio’ creation. And rightly so.

Sometimes referred to as T.C.K, The Cursed Knight is set in the year 3122 - long after the fall of civilisation – and casts the player as Kalder, a knight who is in love with his king’s daughter and must set out to rescue her when she is kidnapped by nefarious forces just as the king bestows his blessing on their relationship.

🐲 Metal Dragon | Mega Drive | Review | "There will be bullets" 🐲 #IndieGames #GameDev #Homebrew #SEGAGenesis

Known mostly for their MSX releases, Spanish developers Kai Magazine are now branching out into the Mega Drive world with this, their first release on the platform - a run ‘n gun shooter that is presented with tongue firmly in cheek.

“Kill everyone, destroy everything, save the girl… just because you can” – great tagline.

Set in a parodic version of the ‘80s, Metal Dragon comes boxed with a reversible cover – representative of the grid / blue box art versions of Mega Drive games that changed over time.

I kept with the earlier ‘grid’ style as Metal Dragon feels like a game from the early ‘90s. The cover of each features our hero standing heroically atop a tank as a massive explosion looms behind – as does other, general carnage– as he holds his machine gun aloft, with the President’s daughter at his arm, scantily clad – natch.

⚔️ Demons of Asteborg | SEGA Mega Drive | Review | 9.5/10 | "A Modern Mega Drive Classic" ⚔️ @DAsteborg #Retrogaming #IndieGames #GameDev

The Mega Drive is very much a console that I hold in high regard. As someone who has played, loved and collected for the system for decades, it’s very clear to me, if Demons of Asteborg was a Mega Drive game released in the mid-'90s - it would be regarded as a classic, ‘must have’ title. 

Released in 2021 on the Mega Drive, however…. it’s still a classic, ‘must have’ title.