The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and 130 games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.
The third in our series focuses on Sega’s Mega Drive (Genesis in the US).
Let’s continue with the letter “F”.
Fatal Fury
A less-heralded fighting game on this system, Fatal Fury was still enjoyable thanks to its revenge storyline (two brothers and their friend take on local crime boss to avenge the brothers’ dead father), and its two-tiered fighting arenas. It’s basic, and certainly not in the same league as Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, but it was still fun with friends.
FIFA Soccer 95
This was the best soccer game of the Sega Mega Drive era, and the one I played the most. Fifa ’95 had some nice animations, and at the time introduced the most realistic gameplay in the franchise. It was pretty easy to score a goal though: usually by running down the right wing, cutting inside as you reached the penalty box and launching an angled shot into the top corner. Worked every time. Goooooaaaaaaal!
Flashback: The Quest for Identity
The player starts out in control of a central character who appears to have been stranded on an unknown planet, with no idea who he is or how he wound up in such a predicament. What follows is an action-oriented platform game in the vein of Prince of Persia. There’s puzzles, traps and lots of jumping, and a pretty interesting plot to follow.
Flicky
Flicky’s premise is as basic as they come – the player controls a bird, must navigate around the level picking up little chicks as they go, before making for the nearest exit whilst avoiding enemy cats. While this game’s presentation was almost endearingly poor, the simple yet addictive gameplay more than made up for its backwards look.
Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.
YouTube Credits:
Rage Quitter 87
World of Longplays
retrosoccer
