Jeremy Parish
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Segaiden #022: Championship Lode Runner / H.E.R.O. / Champion Ice Hockey
🕑 Added 2021-12-08 13:43:36 +0000 UTCWe have officially reached the SG-1000's salad days. From this point on, the remainder of the system's library is largely good to great. Yeah, there'll be a few duds, but I managed to get about a month ahead on my production schedule over the weekend, and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by all the SG-1000 has going on.
This episode is a great example of that promise: Once we soldier through another Lode Runner game, we have a great adaptation of the excellent Atari 2600 classic H.E.R.O., which is still loads of fun. And then there's the hands-down best sports game on SG-1000, Champion Ice Hockey, whose only real downside is that it makes you wish all the SG-1000's Champion games had been this lively and fun.
We'll have seen the back side of SG-1000 by the end of January, but what a lovely backside it is. Wait, that sounded weird. Scratch that.
Comments
Vinushika
I really wonder how the heck Sega ended up licensing Activision games in 1984 of all times. It seems like one of those amazing game history footnotes that probably only exists in the mind of some exec who was around at the time. I'm also surprised at how good Champion Ice Hockey ended up being. I feel that a comment I heard once about the early pop'n music charts (1998-2006 or so) applies here - Champion Ice Hockey is a dumb joke and everyone is in on it. Excellent as always, I never had any kind of investment in the SG-1000 before seeing it on Segaiden and I've been pleasantly surprised by how much wonder there is to be found inside it. It's pretty neat how far devs managed to stretch such a limited system by 1985.
Kyle Olson
Champion Lode Runner reminds me of absurd Mario Maker levels that are more about showing how clever the creators are than creating good gameplay. There's something amusing about seeing H.E.R.O. ported to a system other than the 2600 but still retaining the symmetrical room requirements of the old system. Obviously that's the way to literally port the game, but it's still wacky.
