Mini-Gaming #010 - Granada (Genesis 2)

The Sega Genesis Mini 2 was quite a surprise when it was announced and released in 2022. The mini-console fad had run its course, and Sega already made a successful entry with its original Genesis Mini. It looked and ran great with a solid game lineup. It was surprising Sega released an in-house console at all, as hardware was no longer its focus for the last 20 years. Yet the Mini 2 made a subdued launch with an all-new lineup of Genesis (and Sega CD!) games, as well as games that were unreleased, out of region, and even completely new. It’s probably the most intriguing of the mainline minis.

As 40 go-to Genesis games were already out on the Mini 1, the Mini 2 pulled from deeper in the library, focusing on more second-string and uncommon releases. Despite the negative connotations, these are far from low-quality games. These are cult classics at best and quirky oddities at worst. Echoing my Sonic 1 story in the last post, many of these games had single production runs and/or modest sales. Once they sold, they sold, and stores quickly cleared them out to make room for the next wave. Especially for a later Genesis gamer, there were scores of games you’d either see at a friend’s house, on the rental shelves, or tucked in a magazine or catalog. And if you still didn’t see them, you’d never know they existed. Granada is a fine example of this.

Granada is one of the many earlier-wave Genesis releases that pulled from a Japanese computer called the Sharp X68000. This general-use PC never made its way to the US and was revered for its surprisingly strong lineup of game software. These games ported well to Sega’s console and were a welcome third-party fill-in. Many of them share a similar kind of vibe: high-tech, hardcore, and ‘crunchy’ for lack of a better term. A lot of them are space shmups, but Granada is a bit different, taking place on dystopian Earth as a free-roam top-down shooter.

As I played Granada it reminded me of a cross between Soul Blazer and Rally-X. Levels take place on vast areas as you hunt down marked enemies on a radar map. Marks are either enemy generators or major cannons. After destroying every mark, the boss mark activates with a battle in either a fixed arena or in the open field. You get a generous amount of time to clear each level, though a Time Over just kills your ship and respawns you immediately with a fresh clock. Granada is odd with its hit points: you’re given a large shield bar that ticks down with each hit. There are no health pickups. Losing a ship respawns you on the spot, and losing all ships Game Overs immediately. Back at the title screen you’re given a chance to continue at the stage you ended at, up to 3 times. Especially in a genre that’s usually punishing, it’s an oddly generous system that trivializes lives—it’s tantamount to having one life with 50+ hit points and no way to replenish them. Again, it’s nice but just a little odd.

There are 9 stages, each one completely different from the last. Some stages are wide open, while others are tight corridors. Every stage has a maze-like feel to it, but never so much you feel lost. You’re given infinite ammo for a weak rapid shot and a strong blast shot (16x stronger according to the manual) at the cost of a significant recoil. Each stage also features a unique option weapon (remember that term from Last Resort?) that will help out and is optimized for the stage they are in. The variety in stages and firepower make for a game that’s always throwing a new surprise your way, with little repetition outside of the main objective. The variety extends to the bosses, with some stalking you around the map, some acting like a traditional vertical shooter boss, or even one that requires bank shots to hit. Some of them can be a little cryptic though, as they could’ve been more obvious when a weak point (or any hit point) is struck. A good old-fashioned health bar wouldn’t have hurt, either.

Granada is one of those games that simultaneously has a deep (if nonsensical) story most likely caught up in its own translation, while also featuring barely any of it within the game itself. This is an unfortunate product of its era, where English translations/Western localizations were given very little care and attention, either overwriting old stories completely (with something worse) or translating them so phonetically they almost make no sense. Even after reading the game’s manual, screen text, and online webpages, I still have no idea where the name comes from or what exactly is going on. It seems they tried to make the story overly wordy to come off as sophisticated; all it did was make me ignore it even more. Luckily this game puts its gameplay before anything else and is all the better for it.

Granada is a solid, arcade-inspired game that thankfully stands out with its gameplay and approachability. I’m sure it certainly had its fans, especially with enthusiasts of the X68000 ports, and in later years probably made for a solid B-tier rental. It took me a few sessions to finally clear the game on Easy. At my peak I managed to reach stage 7 reliably on one credit, with 8 eventually following and savestating my way through 9. With such a large shield bar, the game expects you to take hits (and oh, you will) but the last stage is utterly ridiculous, especially with recoils pushing you into bottomless pits that shave off your shield in one go. The game’s high time limit encourages you to be strategic with your approaches, taking it slow and angling your shots to avoid return fire. But so many enemies take pot shots at you constantly, and I always found a way to get hit by them. After a while you get numb to them, until you remember there is no way at all to recover health!

This is a game I would have never given a chance, either on a rental shelf or in my ROM library. It’s just too out of my comfort zone, with not enough of a pedigree for me to bother trying. But having it in the Mini 2, staring me in the face forced me to give it a real go, and I’m really glad it did! Thank you, Mini-Gaming, for giving me a wholly new retro experience. Granada was a fresh diversion in this list, and now I see first-hand why so many gamers, then and now, swear by the X68000 ports the Genesis had to offer.

Mini-Gaming #009 - Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)

Sonic 1… what can I say that hasn’t already been said? The icon, the legend, and my childhood hero made his debut with this game 35 years ago. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was the secret weapon Sega banked its future on, and it threw the established gaming order on its head. Fun fact: did you know Sonic 1 predates the US launch of the Super Nintendo? Yep, Sonic is older here than the SNES by a few months, and although the SNES was created to keep up with the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16, the shattering launch of Sonic forced Nintendo to pull out every stop they had for the next several years. Sonic gave Sega a fighting chance for the 90s, and set them up as best as he possibly could.

Today, Sonic has dozens of friends, adversaries, plot lines, and abilities, but in the beginning it was just him, Dr Robotnik (Eggman), and a Zone of Green Hills. Robotnik is kidnapping small animals and using them to power his robots, and it’s up to Sonic to free them and stop the doctor’s dastardly deeds. He’ll go through six zones of three acts each, collecting rings, defeating enemies, and knocking Robotnik out of the sky at the end of each zone. There’s lush forestry, volcanic ruins, flooded temples and shimmering cities to explore, as well as a mysterious realm containing gems of unspeakable power…

It’s a simple, run-to-the-right affair. But never before were gamers blessed with a platformer of such speed, physics, and quality. Platformers before Sonic were rigid and grid-based, but Sonic offered curvature and momentum, complete with a rolling jump that turned him almost into a pinball. Even the stages' undulating ground was not something seen in other games. He may not have had familiar moves like the spin dash or homing attack yet, but his spinning jump and forward rolls gave him utility that allowed players to tackle the game with fluidity, grace, and freedom. Competitors like Super Mario looked downright stodgy in comparison.

Sonic the Hedgehog is renowned for his Special Stages—courses that feature a completely different gameplay style and showcase major technical trickery. The prizes of these stages are the Chaos Emeralds, and no Sonic game is fully beaten without obtaining all of them. This tradition began immediately in his first game with bonus stages dubbed Secret Zones. Finishing an act with over 50 rings places a giant ring at the act’s endpoint to jump inside. Unlike later games which usually featured pseudo-3D, Sonic 1’s stages are top-down 2D mazes that continuously rotate. Sonic is permanently spinning and must jump off walls and obstacles toward the flickering emerald. There are six unique stages of increasing complexity for each color emerald, and although collecting every emerald would open up major perks in later games, in this first game they merely unlock a more festive ending cutscene.

Now how about some story time! I received my Genesis in 1994 with Sonic 2 as the pack-in title, and went on to play and own the further games in the series. Gifts and Blockbuster rentals would be of the hedgehog’s future adventures, but the original Sonic 1 was never to be found. This was back when e-commerce was nonexistent, and you were limited to whatever your local stores stocked. (Catalog and phone orders were also common, but not to my child self.) Sonic 1 was, at the time, out of print and out of reach. I only knew it existed through logic (surely if I have 2 there must be a 1), a one-off quarter on a random MegaPlay machine (Sega’s arcade-ified Genesis that played time-limited cartridges), and a classmate that let me borrow his cartridge for one glorious week. I all but gave up on ever owning the mythical game until one day, Toys R Us happened to stock the ‘Sega Classic’ re-issue of Sonic the Hedgehog! And there was only one copy left!! My mother, who knew how badly I yearned for Sonic 1, was almost as happy to see it as I was… and purchased it for me on the spot. My 6-year-old self was in shock the whole time we brought the last paper tag from its cubby to the counter for purchase. Getting a new game for no reason?! It was something she never did before and would never do again. Finally Sonic 1 joined my modest collection with its distinctive Sega Classic branding setting it apart, and this story of its arrival remains with me as a beloved childhood memory.

For my Mini-Gaming playthrough, it was only fitting for me to do a perfect run with all Chaos Emeralds and no deaths. Though I know the game like the back of my hand, it had still been years since I intentionally sat down and played it. This was my secondary goal in this blog challenge: not just playing new (old) games for the first time but play familiar games in a refreshed context. Sitting down, Genesis controller in hand, glow of the TV screen reflected in my retinas. It's the difference between scarfing McDonald's in the car and indulging in a chef's tasting menu: it's both food but it hits differently. Sonic 1 has aged like the fine wine it is, and the levels complement Sonic’s limited move set so well that his future abilities aren’t missed. 

Speaking of those levels, it’s interesting to realize only half of them focus on speed. The zones alternate between breezy and precise, and although today’s gamers criticize Sonic 1 for this, I disagree. If every stage was speedy, the game would get samey and boring quickly. You need a break from the pace in order to appreciate the freedom when it comes. The slower stages also demonstrate the precision control Sonic offers, remember that platformers at this time rarely allowed the level of finesse seen here. Also back in 1991, the ‘slow stages’ weren’t seen as slow, but standard. Platformers were not a fast-paced genre until now—Sonic’s high-octane adventure was truly a revolution. I mean think about it, even when you are running in Mario games, how fast are you really going?

Replaying the Secret Zones for the first time in years was also a treat. Even to this day they are disorienting, and there’s palpable tension trying to get Sonic where you want him to go. There’s a downward gravity at play, and each rotation puts Sonic in a new angle you must adjust for. The rotation is jerky but consistent (re-releases of the game would rotate smoothly), and I almost prefer the jerkiness. I found it helped with lining up and timing my jumps, even if half of them would fling me in the wrong direction. An odd bounce would set me right on course with a dreaded level exit, with my thumb crammed away on the D-Pad in a desperate nod to lean away from it, and another jump would set me on a speed-up panel, making the maze spin faster, now I hit a reverse panel and we’re going in the opposite direction… it’s a lot! Almost too much for today’s impatient and inflexible player, but for me a healthy dose of difficulty and excitement. Every emerald felt earned, even for a veteran player such as myself.

It almost felt silly to play Sonic 1 when I have hundreds of other games to explore, but this session felt like meeting up with an old friend. We’ve known each other since childhood, and things around us have changed a lot. But the spark is still there, as we laugh at old stories as if we’ve never heard them before. And we made plans to definitely hang out again, even if it won’t be for several years.